Canterbury City Council

Reculver Country Park, Kent, UK

Reculver Country Park is situated in south-east England on the north Kent coast between the towns of Herne Bay and Margate.  It’s easy to reach with good connections from the M2 and the A299 Thanet Way. 

Reculver Country Park is a unique place, combining undeveloped coast, historic buildings and wildlife interest.  An imposing landmark, the twin 12th-century towers of a ruined church stand amid the remains of an important Roman 'Saxon Shore' fort and a Saxon monastery from where 180˚ views along the coastline and across the Wantsum Channel (a route for ships until 1672) are afforded. 

Reculver is internationally important wildlife site used each winter by thousands of rare migratory birds.  The rare north facing soft sandstone coastline is geologically important and the clifftop grassland is very important for insects as well as providing a food source for various birds, including skylarks, meadow pipits, corn bunting and sandmartins, which nest in holes in the cliffside from June. 

Reculver Country Park has won a Green Flag Award since 2002, which recognises high standards of management in green spaces.  The Reculver Centre for renewable energy and interpretation opened in 2009, winning a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Downland Prize in the same year. 

The Reculver Centre has a focus on renewable energy and includes a log burner, which will be fuelled with logs from The Blean woodland throughout the winter months. The Centre is also powered with photo voltaic panels (which convert sunlight to electricity) and solar panels (which use sunlight to heat water). The centre is clad in sustainably sourced local chestnut, and features two large skylights which maximise natural light levels inside the building.

The HMS Maritime project has funded the interpretation of the educational space and upgrading of facilities within the Reculver Centre:

• The local historic environment has been interpreted within the Centre with interactive features, new painted wall murals and dual-language information boards (French and English).  
• New information boards incorporate explanations of the sites historic landscape value, from prehistoric times through the Roman period and up to the present day, with an emphasis on the sustainable use of materials in the present day landscape (Reculver is the location for a nationally important wind farm and the Centre features various renewable energy systems), encouraging sustainable visitor activity, and use of renewable energies present at the Reculver location (in keeping with the cross cutting principle of Environmental Sustainability).
• The refurbished Centre has been popular and met with extremely positive feedback from activity beneficiaries including the local and regional residents and businesses who will become more aware of their history, traditions and culture. They will also profit from the enhancements to the Centre in the context of the Regeneration Scheme for the area, catalysing positive economic impact in terms of higher visitor levels and expenditure.
• Tourists to the Reculver Maritime destination have remarked that the Centre has provided them with interesting new information. Employment of staff in the Reculver Centre has lead to opportunity to engage with visitors, for example as part of Heritage Open Days. We are producing new Heritage Boards to display within the Centre, to describe the relatively recent history (1781-1933) of the Reculver Towers Ancient Monument for Heritage Open Days 08 – 11 September 2011.

Kent Wildlife Trust work in partnership with Canterbury City Council to manage the Centre (which is open on weekends throughout the year from 11am till 4pm, and on additional weekdays in the summer months).  The Wildlife Trust provides an education service for a wide range of students, particularly in relation to history, ecology, geology and coastal erosion.  The Centre may be contacted on +44 (0) 1227 740676.

The Oyster Bay Trail, a coastal cycle route, exists throughout the Country Park and connects with Herne Bay and Minnis Bay.

Reculver is the centre of a regeneration project supported by Canterbury City Council.

Reculver’s location on the north Kent coast strongly links it to the maritime heritage of the nearby fishing towns of Whitstable and Herne Bay. The clips below give an insight into the lives of two people involved in the whelk and oyster fishing industry:

Jean West - clip 01 - The Summer Catch
Jean West - clip 02 - Selling the Fish Locally
Jean West - clip 03 - Preparing the Whelks
Jean West - clip 04 - The Whelking Shift
Jean West - clip 05 - The Last Traditional Whelking Boat
Bill Coleman - clip 01 - Working for the Whitstable Oyster Company
Bill Coleman - clip 02 - The Flatsmen
Bill Coleman - clip 03 - Trade to Shore
Bill Coleman - clip 04 - Shrimping
Bill Coleman - clip 05 - The Gentleman of Fishing