"Hythe - is the Cinque Port sinking in... " a Hythe Travel Page by St_Vincent

Hythe is a small seaside town on England's South East coast, just a few miles from Folkestone where the Channel Tunnel starts. It is one of the five original Cinque Ports - pronounced "sink" in the Norman way as opposed to "sank" like the French.

My association with Hythe is a nostalgic one as it is where we used to go on Summer holidays when I was a child. Each year we would pack ourselves into my Father's car, often with the dog, and head down to the coast. I had an Aunt who lived there and for two weeks every year we would stay with her and bring chaos to her serene existence in this idyllic little seaside town. In recent years I've had a desire to rediscover Hythe, and possibly my youth, and see how the place might have changed in the 30 plus years since my childhood visits.

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The Royal Military Canal

Historic Hythe

Hythe has a long and interesting history and due to its location most of it is maritime and military based. It is one of the original Cinque Ports which during Norman times were charged with providing ships and men to help defend the coastline from invasion. The other Cinque Ports were Hastings, Romney, Dover and Sandwich. The ports were required to provide 57 ships each with 22 crew to defend the coast and in return were given freedom from taxes, the right to hold their own courts, and strangely the right to run an annual herring fair in Yarmouth.

Another important period was during the Napoleonic Wars. Hythe was seen as a vulnerable place for a possible invasion by Napoleon who, seemingly bored with waging war against most of mainland Europe, decided to have a go at England. To counter this threat two large building projects started in 1805, the first being the building of the Royal Military Canal as both a defence and a means of transporting supplies. The other project was the building of 74 bastion-like towers, called the Martello Towers, stretching from just along the coast at Folkestone to Seaford near Eastbourne.

You can’t go far in Hythe without being reminded of its history, and the perfect place to find out more is in the History Room which is part of the public library in Oaklands Gardens. It holds old seals, coins and documents plus displays relating to the famous Hythe School of Musketry opened in 1853 and used for weaponry training right up until 1968 when it closed down.

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Boys doing what boys do at the seaside

Final Thoughts

So after more than 30 years did Hythe live up to my earlier memories? Well, some new buildings had appeared along the seafront, the putting green where my brother and I used to play had gone and the pub garden where I sat looking after my sister with a bottle of coke and a bag of crisps is now a restaurant.

Other than that it's much the same, apart from the fact that everything looked smaller….and sort of normal. But I guess that has more to do with perception. As we grow older we seem to see things as we expect them to be, to look without seeing, to accept things without question. We often lose that unbridled excitement of seeing something new, exercising our childish imagination and seeing things the way we'd like them to be. The crashing waves that chase us along the beach, the swooping gulls circling like kites on a windy day, the bells and sirens of the funfair drawing us in with promises of endless fun. That's what being at the seaside is all about as a child……….but sadly no more.