Swalecliffe and Beltinge.

Regarding the mud cliffes at Swalecliffe, I spent many happy hours climbing and playing on those cliffs in the late forties early fifties, to us then, it was a magical place that had no rival in Whitstable, on one occasion Dave Stroud and I decided to take a trip to the mud cliffs in search of dinosaur bones which were a common find, it had rained a lot in the last week or so it was early summer and hot, we set off equipped with a bottle of Bing ( Red Lemonade, a local brew) jam sandwiches a piece of rope and a penknife, we arrived and began skimming flat stones across the water, the tide was in, bored with that we decided to climb the cliff face, but first we had to walk over a four foot thick, and getting thicker, clay slurry, but being June and very hot the sun had baked a hard crust which we tested with sticks and decided all would be well, I went first, mounting what can only be described as pudding with not such a hard crust when stood on, it gave way, and I was up to my short trouser bottoms in liquid mud, I did manage to retrieve myself from this situation with the help of Dave and a passerby, the cleanup meant a good swim leaving my clothes to dry on me. It could be very dangerous playing in that area but boys being boy’s, do not see danger.
I would also make mention of Bishopstone Glen, which is in fact Beltinge, I had a friend when living at Swalecliffe in the sixties, we were both keen photographers and he suggested a trip to “The Glen” as he called it, being a local, where he said could be seen relics from millions of years past, sceptical, I went along with it and he took me to a particular part of the Glen and quite high up, he beckoned, here it is! And pointed, all I could see was a vein or seam of silver sand, I enquired, where are the relics, he pointed, in there! I put my finger into this seam, raked around, something pricked my finger I carried on then pulled the loosened sand to the front and into my hand, Trevor retorted “there you are sharks teeth, I told you so” looking closer at the contents of my palm it revealed three delicate, but perfectly formed sharks teeth all about a centimetre in length, this he said is proof enough that this layer of silver sand was once the sea bed, I had no choice but to concur. To this day I still possess these finds.
I last visited this place eight years ago on a birding trip, and you could still access this vein of silver sand with its treasures still intact. Why not, if you are reasonably local take a trip to the site and grab some shark teeth.