THE ART OF THE SHIPPE SWALLOWER
A new exhibition celebrates the dangerous Goodwin Sands and their delicate ecological balanceJust four miles off the coast of Deal lies a place of treachery – amythical place with a dark and stormy history that has claimed countless lives and inspired myriad stories. This place, the Goodwin Sands, is a huge, ever-shifting sandbank hidden just below breaking waves at high tide. It has become, over the centuries, the final watery resting place of some 2,000 ships and 50,000 unfortunate souls.This autumn, Taylor-Jones & Son has teamed up with the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust to launch an exhibition, Dark and Stormy, dedicated to these infamous sands, their wrecks, wildlife and heritage. Launching on Saturday 22 October, the exhibition explores the reality of the Sands, named after Godwin, 11thcentury Earl of Wessex, and also takes a brand new look at them through the eyes of the gallery artists.In the gallery’s Georgian wine vaults beneath the high street, visitors can take a trip back in time. With a Tudor iron swivel gun eroded by sand and sea, cannon balls and East India Company tokens and so much more, the exhibition will reveal a wealth of artefacts hidden beneath the sea for centuries.The Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust was created in 2018 to “conserve and protect the natural and historical environment of the Goodwin Sands”. The charity works tirelessly to raise public awareness of the importance of the Sands, not only as part of our national maritime heritage and marine environment but also as a natural sea defence for this stretch of coast. They are also campaigning to introduce effective legislation that will protect this unique area, which is under threat from dredging and aggregate extraction.Jo Thomson of the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust says, “Teaming up with Taylor-Jones & Son is the perfect opportunity to show the town’s visitors and residents the wealth of history the Sands offer alongside their impact on the local environment and culture.”Following in the tradition of the Goodwin Sands as a muse for artists, nine of the artists represented by the gallery have created work inspired by the Sands. The intrepid painters and photographers explored the Goodwins by helicopter and boat, soaking up their ambience both visually and atmospherically to make brand new pieces especially for the exhibition. For Richard Taylor-Jones, the helicopter trip over the Sands was a real adventure. With the doors open and wind buffeting him at 500 feet above ground, the shoot was exhilarating and ever so slightly nerve-wracking. “I’ve been fascinated by the Goodwin Sands for as long as I can remember,” he explains. “As a child I used to see the masts of wrecks as I played on the beach. I first visited them when I was making a BBC film about the seal colony on the Sands, but this time, getting to them by both helicopter and boat has given me the chance to look at them from an artistic, rather than an informative perspective.” Richard’s photography created for the exhibition is a mix of aerial shots taken on the helicopter expedition and something new and exciting he will unveil on the opening night.Two other photographers, Rachael Talibart and Michele Turriani, have created work in their own inimitable style for the exhibition. Rachael, a world-renowned ocean photographer, has focused on the Sands themselves, while Michele has photographed his signature gloriously blowsy blooms arranged in a vessel rescued from the Goodwins.Richard Whadcock, Christine Hodson and Richard Friend have painted their own interpretations of the Sands. Christine is known for her paintings of the white cliffs and Richard Friend for his forest and street scenes, so the Goodwins were a new departure for both of them. Richard Whadcock’s atmospheric landscape style lends itself perfectly to summing up the eerie reputation of the treacherous sandbank. His painting will let viewers interpret the content in their own way, picking out new details each time they look at the canvas.Legend has it that the Lady Lovibond, a schooner wrecked in 1748, appears in chilling spectral form every fifty years. Loren Beven has created a screen print, complete with glow-inthe-dark rigging, of this apparition (see above), along with a series of imagined portraits of ship’s captains from the wrecks that now languish on the Sands. The undulating ripples in the sand fascinated David Hunt on his trip, this multidisciplinary artist has made an oak carving of these patterns alongside an oil seascape. The Goodwin Sands are also home to a thriving seal, colony and sculptor Adam Binder has cast a seal in bronze for the gallery in their honour. All these works will be on display for the very first time at the launch of the exhibition and a percentage of the proceeds of sales on the opening night will be donated to the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust.
Images courtesy ofTaylor Jones & Son
Looking out to sea from Deal Beach, many will see white horses breaking over the Goodwin Sands but be unaware of what lies beneath the waves. Melding the history and present day life of the Goodwins with contemporary art to reveal its secrets makes for a fascinating exhibition for anyone with a passing interest in what the sea is hiding just off our coast.Dark and Stormy 22 October to 19 November, Taylor-Jones & Son, is open from 10am to 5pm, Wednesday to Saturday. For more info visit the website taylorjonesandson.co.ukThe murder of Mary Bax
It’s the time of year for spooky stories – and this one is local and legendary. But what really happened?Words & imagery courtesy of Sharon Powell
The modern road just off the ancient highwayAs winter looms, the nights draw in and the traditions of Halloween begin, our thoughts turn to stories of the dark. The tale of a local woman attacked on a lonely road at the end of the 18th century by a wayward sailor is one that has been retold many times on a cold, dark night in front of a blazing fire.The name Mary Bax is recognised by the many people in Deal who have stumbled across her memorial stone on the ancient highway towards Sandwich. And the crime has been written about many times, often with conflicting details. Some of these versions are more like works of fiction – all Victorian melodrama blended with local folklore. But, of course, there is a true story to be found among the differing versions, although it’s now impossible to prove definitively what that was.When Victorian culture was at its height and the likes of Wilkie Collins published popular novels such as The Moonstone and The Woman in White, to sit alongside Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, the old tale of the murder of a young woman by a penniless sailor on a desolate highway must have really got the creative juices flowing. The story was already passing out of living memory, and so it began to transition from true crime to work of fiction.The author Michael Ballantyne in his 1864 novel The Lifeboat has a murder taking place on “the bleak Sandhills” one evening, with Mary being accosted and then murdered by a “brutal foreign seaman” who had deserted his post. A similar work of fiction, Mary Bax: A Tale Founded on Fact, was written by Thomas Mills and published in 1850 by the Penny Illustrated News. It tells a similar tale, reminiscent of a torrid Victorian love story involving Mary and some hopeful young man hoping to win her hand.Clement William Scott also wrote about Mary’s death in his 1874 book Round About the Islands, or Sunny Spots Near Home in a piece dripping with exaggeration. But moving away from Victorian melodrama, embellishment and darkness, we have a parallel, believable story reported in the Illustrated Police News of 18 November 1882, almost a century after the murder. The article also carries a confession from the murderer.From this, we can deduce that the day she was murdered – 25 August 1793 – Mary, who was 23 years old from a “respectable” home, was walking from Deal to Sandwich along the ancient highway. Today this road runs parallel with, and close to, the coastline between Deal and Sandwich, passing between farmland and Royal Cinque Ports Golf course. In the late 1700s it was known as the Sandhills and was rough and desolate, a mixture of pasture land and boggy marshes with streams and muddy dykes.Mary’s brutal murder was witnessed by a shepherd’s son named Rogers, who was around eleven or twelve years old. There is an old picture showing a cottage in the area (see over) which had some foundations going back to the 17th century, so it’s possible that this could have been the cottage from where the young lad witnessed Mary’s murder.As a witness in court, Rogers stated that Mary walked past him carrying a bundle or package and she had just passed the Halfway House (now known as the Chequers) when a man who was about 27 years of age, dressed in a white waistcoat and long stockings and carrying his boots under his arm, approached her and engaged her in conversation. This man was Martin Laas, who was born at Bergen, in Norway. He was a sea-faring man and came to England as a boy on a Danish trading ship. From there he joined the British fleet, and had served as an able seaman for several years.
Mary Bax’s “murder stone” on the site she was killed
Alater illustration of Mary’s murdererIn his later confession, Martin admitted to asking Mary for money and, when she didn’t give him as much as he wanted, he asked for her clothes. He then tried to strangle her but changed his mind, threw her into the nearby dyke and stood on her until she was dead. Wet and muddy, he made off across the marshes. The boy Rogers ran into Deal town and raised the alarm but, sadly, it was too late to save Mary and they focused their attention on finding her murderer. Having a good idea that he had gone in the direction of Dover, they put a watch on the town and soon found a man matching the description in a public house and arrested him. The report states that his conduct was “violent and rough in the extreme and he showed no compunction”.He was taken away and committed to St Dunstan’s Gaol in Canterbury to await his trial at the next Maidstone Assizes. It appears Martin’s behaviour didn’t improve during his confinement and, at his trial on 20 March 1784, records show he seemed cheerful, mocked the court and insulted the witnesses.In his own defence, Martin Laas could only say, “I was destined to commit the murder and I was told I should do it by an old Spanish sailor who foretold my destiny. I was destined to do it and was impelled to do it; therefore, I should not be hung.” This didn’t hold much sway with the judge and, when he announced the guilty verdict, Martin – undeterred – gave three loud cheers. On sentencing him to death by hanging, the judge ordered that, as his behaviour was so defiant, he should be chained to the floor in his cell.It is reported that at his execution on Gallows Hill, Penenden Heath, just outside of Maidstone, he arrived, “quite willing to die and quickly mounted the ladder and in another moment or two paid the penalty for his crime”.So what of poor Mary Bax? It is said that her friends and family raised the money for the memorial stone that stands where her murder took place and she is buried in a now unmarked grave in St Peter’s Churchyard, Sandwich. Herein lies yet another contradiction in this story, as the burial register shows the entry as 1783 but the stone and plaque say 1782.It would be safer to go with the church burial record and the contemporary reports to ascertain the correct date, but this goes to show how, through the passage of time, local folklore, mistakes in documenting and works of fiction blending with fact, the truth behind the brutal murder of Mary Bax will always be clouded in mystery.
The old house near what is now the Chequers
