*UPDATE* The Kentish Express Folkestone has an excellent full page article on the Sandcastle Competition, we scanned it in at a nice big size, see it here*

Sandcastle Competition “Bigger & Better” as S&G Triumph!

On Sunday, the 4th Annual Sandcastle Competition, in aid of the Church Street Project, took place on Folkestone’s Sunny Sands.

Still recovering from Saturday’s carousing, we dragged ourselves down for the 10 am start, in order to take part. We had no idea, at that stage, that we would go on to be crowned this year’s champions, with our ‘Gary the Grotesque Gargoyle’ entry.

This year saw a record-breaking 45 teams taking part, and there was no shortage of imaginative ideas and inventive techniques on display, as you can see in our gallery below.

The S&G team, Prince Vince and Man-Sam, joined forces with our partners Nature-Sam and Gully Mulley, and entered as ‘The Grotesques’, which is not a reflection on our partners, but a reference to the gargoyle-type creature we had chosen to build. Not expecting to win, but determined to put up a good show, we went so far as to make a clay model/maquette, in advance, so that we would all have the same image to work from.

All around, though competition was stiff, the atmosphere was as jovial and as friendly, as the sky was blue, and the sun was bright.

When it was announced that our team had won, we could not contain our delight and excitement.

The judge (looking to camera) was cross channel swimmer Peter Jurzynski, who will be attempting to swim the channel for the 15th time in the next month or so.

The main organisers of the event are Shane Record, along with Vicky Regan, therapist with the Church Street project.

Here, a proud and gleefull team receive our just rewards: a medal each, a golden spade, a gleaming trophy and a day-trip to France!

The victorious Grotesques.

Here are some more photos from the event:

Back with a bang!

Spacious and Gracious are out of hibernation, and what better way to kick off our summer season, than to bring you action from this year’s Charivari parade. Praise be to Strange Cargo Arts Co, for all their continued efforts to bring this noisy, colourful event to our town. This year’s theme was, ‘A Night at the Opera’, and as usual, the procession wound its way from the harbour area, up the Old High Street, through the precinct, and up onto the Leas. The quality of the costumes and bands was as high as ever, as was the obvious commitment from all involved.

We, at S&G, watched in admiration from the precinct, then dashed up Sandgate road, to experience it all again, against the more picturesque backdrop of the sea and the sky.

Then, along with countless happy, fellow revellers, we stayed to relax with a light picnic, and to enjoy more performances from the bandstand.






and here are some photos from the event : (click a thumbnail to see a larger version)

Incidentally, the enigmatic, abandoned Pilot’s Tower is rumoured to suffer from concrete cancer, and is likely to be demolished when work on the areas redevelopment gets underway. We at S&G will miss this landmark building.

(The best thing about commuting to London, was the chance to try out the new high-speed service to St Pancras, which is a real treat, compared to the standard train journey. Folkestone is fortunate to be less than an hour away from London).

I thought I’d take my camcorder into the town centre, and, with the possible exception of the footage of the gargoyles on the church tower, film some of the urban backend of Folkestone, and put together a montage, with soundscape.

If you are planning to film from the top of the Asda car park, as I did, you may wish to know that it is necessary to get the permission of the landowner, first, as I didn’t. I was put right by someone from centre security.

There were displays and suppliers of trains, kits, miniature trees, people, buildings, factories, diodes, cogs, motors… Anything – as long as it was tiny.If you ever want to be truly fascinated by the world we live in, do not miss the next Model Railway Exhibition – undoubtedly to grace Folkestone’s Leas Cliff Hall again next autumn.

I had to rid myself of the notion that hobbies were light-hearted, solitary undertakings and enter the world of the obsessive miniature train society. Attention to detail was perhaps the biggest understatement you could make…


Some photos from the exhibition:

Six men – from the same model railway club judging by their uniform – pointing out that one of the lesser known 1993 locos had a largely gun grey undercarriage rather than black (I paraphrase).

It was impossible to deny the sense of pride felt by the exhibitors, who clearly spend many-a-day in custom built model train dens or attics.

Playing God? Perhaps part of the enjoyment is being in control.

One of the reasons why a model railway is exhibited is so that the exhibitor can pass on his knowledge to – and perhaps be admired by – aspiring model train enthusiasts. Here, possibly more important than the train itself was the realism of the lake. And below, how the lake was made.

The whole venue was packed with nervous excitement. This man had to frantically dive into his bag for his camera before the train detached its carriage.

and even a video :

Some displays were extraordinary. Despite inconsistencies of scale and era, if ever there was a professional display, it must look something like this. Even the music was rapturous!


Yes, obsessive geeks to many, but it was easy to see that with a little childlike fascination a normally sane person could easily get sucked in. I found myself picking up a few business cards before I left and hoping that one day I might have a son…

The course began and ended on the Leas, outside the Grand. We went along to witness the spectacle, and show our support to the runners, and, in particular, to cheer on Shane Record.

Despite the large queues for last minute loo visits, the race got underway promptly at 10am.

After making the loop round the top of the Leas, Michael Coleman established a clear early lead.

Localised support for Old High Street artist, Shane Record.

Once the bulk of the runners had done the loop round the top of the leas, we headed down through the coastal park to the promenade to watch them as they headed for Hythe. There was a colourful mix of entrants of varying levels of ability and fitness, including three men walking the course, carrying huge back-packs.

Shane with chef, Martin.

It wasn’t long after the last runners had passed by, before the lead runner came powering back in the opposite direction, having obviously kept up a blistering pace, (see video). We stayed a while longer to cheer on more competitors…

…before climbing back up to the Leas to watch a steady stream of runners cross the finishing line.

We were too late to witness 2nd time winner, Michael Coleman, come in at 1:10:09, almost a minute faster than his own record time (2007). But for the ‘Record’, Shane finished in a commendable 1:44:13, 185th out of 576 finishers.

Record, well and trully finished!

Video highlights of the race:

Mr Record sprinting for the line:

I took the following footage on a single stroll round Folkestone on Tuesday.

The following video is not for arachnophobes perhaps, although it could provide some un-regulated aversion therapy! We say,’enjoy the wildlife!’

Music is ‘Vent’, by Tricky.

One of us being a West Ham fan, and the other, a Liverpool supporter, we chose “The Frenchman”, (no longer ‘happy’), as the venue in which to enjoy/suffer the match on Saturday.

The pub exterior

There were not too many people in the pub, when we arrived, so the choice of seating position was ours, but the lay-out of the 6 screens in relation to comfortable seating areas, had us indecisive for a while. (There is a large screen, but we found it lacking in clarity, compared to the smaller screens, but this was probably due to the bright sunlight coming through the windows, it being a glorious late summer afternoon).

The view from our seats.

The pool table to our right, with a super polished floor beneath.

We found the atmosphere to be welcoming and unintimidating. The interior was well lit, clean and freshly and subtley decorated. The 2 areas of wooden floors were the shiniest examples either of us can remember seeing. There is also a newly established outside seating area.

Our screen for the match, and the pub dartboard.

Being ale drinkers, we can’t score the pub highly for its range of beer, as there was only one (Shephard Neame) ale available on the day, but had we been lager drinkers, we would have been well served.

Overall rating : Pretty good.

Only the females can sting, and then only weakly. The true purpose of all the activity can be seen in the following video. Contains mild bee sex.