Greatstone is a beach-side town, the third town up from the "point" of the

Romney Marsh Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about . The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the ...

area of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It is situated near the largest town there,

New Romney New Romney is a market town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to silt up. New Romney, one of the original Cinque Ports, was once a sea port, w ...

, England. Although permission was given for a company to construct large numbers of homes and facilities in the 1920s, only a small number were actually built. There was widespread development in the 1960s and 1970s, however, leading to a sizable community. The church of St Peter's, built in the 1960s, is a daughter church of All Saints, Lydd, in which parish half of Greatstone is situated. It is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Lydd Lydd is a town and electoral ward in Kent, England, lying on Romney Marsh. It is one of the larger settlements on the marsh, and the most southerly town in Kent. Lydd reached the height of its prosperity during the 13th century, when it was a co ...

. There is a small group of shops at one end of the town, and the other end simply melds into

Lydd-on-Sea Lydd-on-Sea is a modern village, mostly built after World War II, which consists mainly of bungalows built along the Dungeness coastal road south of Greatstone, Kent, England. The Southern Railway opened a railway station here in 1937 but was c ...

. The local school is the Greatstone Primary School, from which most students either go on to The Marsh Academy, the

Folkestone School for Girls The Folkestone School for Girls (FSG) is an all-girls grammar school with academy status in Folkestone, Kent, England, next to Sandgate Primary School on Coolinge Lane. The school, in its current form, on its current site and under its curre ...

or the

Harvey Grammar School The Harvey Grammar School is located in Folkestone, Kent, England. It is a grammar school with academy status founded by the family of William Harvey in 1674. Admissions A selective school for boys only, the school has around 900 on its roll. ...

Sound Mirrors

Facing Greatstone Lakes from

RAF Denge Denge is a former Royal Air Force site near Dungeness, in Kent, England. It is best known for the early experimental acoustic mirrors which remain there. The acoustic mirrors, known colloquially as 'listening ears', at Denge are located between ...

, on the north east edge of Dungeness Nature Reserve, are a bizarre series of concrete dishes built as

Sound Mirrors An acoustic mirror is a passive device used to reflect and focus (concentrate) sound waves. Parabolic acoustic mirrors are widely used in parabolic microphones to pick up sound from great distances, employed in surveillance and reporting of o ...

. They used curved surfaces to focus the faint sound waves of incoming enemy aircraft onto single point where an expert listener with a stethoscope would be trained to decipher the planes' direction and speed of approach by comparison with similar listenings at nearby sound mirrors of which there were three different design-sizes. The mirrors became obsolete with the coming of radar and were abandoned.

Transport

Greatstone has two main roads from two locations. One way to

Lydd Airport London Ashford Airport is east of the town of Lydd and south of Ashford in the district of Folkestone and Hythe, in Kent, England. Originally named Lydd Ferryfield, it is now also known as London Ashford Airport, despite being from Lon ...

and

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

or another to

and the rest of

. The

Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) is a gauge light railway in Kent, England, operating steam and internal combustion locomotives. The line runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St. Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romney ...

runs through the village from New Romney to

and

Dungeness Dungeness () is a headland on the coast of Kent, England, formed largely of a shingle beach in the form of a cuspate foreland. It shelters a large area of low-lying land, Romney Marsh. Dungeness spans Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, the hamlet ...

or to

Dymchurch Dymchurch is a village and civil parish in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. The village is located on the coast five miles (8 km) south-west of Hythe, and on the Romney Marsh. History The history of Dymchurch began with ...

and

Hythe Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to: Places Australia * Hythe, Tasmania Canada *Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada England * T ...

. There is a station in the Romney Sands Holiday Park: Romney Sands.

Stagecoach in East Kent Stagecoach South East is the trading name of East Kent Road Car Company Limited, a bus operator based in Canterbury providing services in Kent and East Sussex in the south east of England. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach Group. History Stagec ...

runs local buses to other towns. From 1937 until 1967 the town was connected to the national railway system, on the New Romney branch operated by the Southern Railway and subsequently British Railways, with its own station Greatstone-on-Sea Halt.

In the media

The beach features on ''

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on th ...

'' on BBC, Series 1: 11. Windy Day, Dec 14, 2015.

References

External links

Villages in Kent Populated coastal places in Kent Seaside resorts in England Beaches of Kent {{kent-geo-stub

Sound Mirrors

Transport

In the media

See also

References

External links