The lookers and their huts
The flat landscape of Romney Marsh is dotted with a number of small buildings that most of us would hardly give a second glance. Tiny, brick-built, with a pitched roof and a chimney at one end, these are the lookers’ huts that provided shelter for those who looked after sheep on the marsh and who needed to be near their flocks for weeks on end – especially during the lambing season. Although they’re not elaborate pieces of architecture, these huts are important because they were a vital part in the lives of ordinary people for many generations over a period of around 200 years.
Once there were hundreds of lookers’ huts, but now only 12 survive intact. Changes in farming and lifestyle have meant that many have disappeared and, because most of them were in isolated positions they often found no new use. As a result they were seen as superfluous and many were knocked down; others succumbed to time or vandals.
If the remaining lookers’ huts are not to go the way of the rest, wiping out a unique piece of history, they need advocates, and they have a powerful one in Mark Duncan, who has made it his mission to photograph all the remaining huts. Now there is an exhibition of some of his photographs of the huts, highlighting those that are most at risk. I for one hope that Duncan’s exhibition succeeds in its aim to raise awareness of these very special structures and their role in the lives of generations of lookers who worked beneath the endless open skies of Romney Marsh.
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Giving Up The Ghost, an exhibition of photographs by Mark Duncan, is at the Romney Marsh Visitor Centre, Dymchurch Road, New Romney, Kent, from 28 August to 25 October. There is more about it, with examples of Mark Duncan’s photographs, here.
The photograph above is by Mark Duncan.
8 comments:
Didn't the director Derek Jarman live in a place like this with a garden of 'found' objects. Or am I confused (again!).
Jarman's house is at Dungeness, not far from this place. I did a post on it, but it was quite a while back, here. One of my pictures shows the garden, though not the found objects.
What an interesting piece of social and architectural history. The aloneness of this place makes one understand why Kipling chose it as the last leaving-place of the English fairies in his great story The Dymchurch Flit. One wonders if any of the lookers saw them go.
Absolutely fantastic. I don't suppose you've read Terry Pratchett's book 'A Hatful of Sky' (the missus probably has though). In it the grandmother lived in a lookers' hut up on The Downs. It, and she, were deemed to be 'magical' or wise in a very practical sense because of their importance to the community and also because of their connection with the land. The isolation gave them time to think and to be a part of the living landscape.
Neil and WH: Thank you both for these literary informations. I am sadly ignorant of much of Kipling and Pratchett but I can understand how the atmosphere of the marsh must have got under their skins.
Hi, just to let you know that the exhibition has been extended until 25 October. Full details are on my website. Thanks again for your support.
Thanks, Mark. Sounds as if it has been a success! I've altered the post accordingly.
Sadly have to report that this hut has now been destroyed.
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