Welcome Back – Apologies- Thank You and a Warning

It has not gone unnoticed that the website has been ‘off air’ for a few months due to the nefarious individual entrusted to develop and ‘look after’ the website – at great expense I may add. So, to start with the warning to all those who are going to entrust another to develop a web site for you. Web design and all it entails is an unregulated practice which, hopefully in the not too distant future, will see some form of control. Get a good recommendation from another happy customer, ensure the domain name remains in your name and do not let someone take over the hosting in their name. This happened in my case and I lost total control over the site – and it was removed, intentionally, from the internet. All to do with greed – £150 ($180) for web hosting when the host company only charged $4.00 per month at the most (before discounts). Hopefully in the not too distant future the culprit will be appearing in court.

The Wayback Machine

Thank you for some individuals out there who, for whatever reason, ‘capture’ websites now and again and make them available on the internet – if you know where to look. In the case of Dungeness.org.uk the last capture was in March 2018 and for the most part it was all intact. The painstaking and costly task of recovering each page and putting together again is more or less complete and it is hoped, before too long, the site will gain its original position as number one on most search engines.
So, apologies for the absence and Welcome Back!

Here’s a link to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine

Some Updates

Since we have been ‘off air’, we have heard accusations of ‘peeping toms’ prowling the estate and peeping into bedroom windows (Not me – I gave it up years ago when the knees started playing up!), barricading driveways off to prevent neighbours getting access to their property, the fall and rise of the old Marconi site, the deaths of three local residents, at least a dozen ‘shouts’ for the Dungeness Lifeboat, immigrants being washed up in the area (and even more recently towards Dover). It all goes on here!

About the Author: Mike Golding

Born in Ashford a long time ago I have had a lifelong relationship with Dungeness having spent every year here for a fortnights holiday up to the age of 15. In those good old days there was no electricity and hence no radio, no running water and no adequate sewage solutions. Nothing to do other than enjoy the vast expanse of the Ness and all it offered for the young children of that era. Out after breakfast and back before nightfall. There were lakes to swim in. Same lakes to boat on (well old railway sleepers). A derelict school and long disused railway station in and on which to play. Gun emplacements, underground shelters. Sheer bliss. That all ended at 16 when I joined the RAF, finally purchasing a shack – as indeed it was then – in 1971 for the princely sum of £750.00. Only 15 years prior to that we could not afford the £150.00 asking price for what was then known as ‘Windwhistle’, reported to be one of Queen Victoria’s entourages carriages. Still there today, sold last year (2022) and still awaiting planning permission to re construct, but the original structure still concealed behind painted shiplap. Leaving the mob I travelled, retuning ‘home’ as oft I could, and realistically, only becoming a permanent fixture since 1977. In those days there was a vibrant community here with annual gatherings for the Mayday festival – spit roast and all and open days at the Lifeboat station – with bosuns chairs, zip wires to keep the kids happy. I think Health and Safety put paid to that and other activities, as did the moving away of many locals. The result of which , today there are probably less than 20 families residing here permanently, (I have been told not to use the word ‘shacks’ as now, at £650,000.00 plus they are 'desirable bungalows in a well sought after locale'. So ‘Shacks’ they are! End. P.S A few originals left to rent from £500 per week.