Northfleet
It’s a grey and rainy morning as I drive into Northfleet to meet Mandi Knight, Creative Community Development Manager of Big Local. To an outsider it’s difficult to get my bearings about where the houses are Gravesend and where they become Northfleet. I wonder about these invisible boundaries that mean so much, I know from my husband’s family who live in almost joined up villages in Staffordshire that getting the location right is important. It’s a connection to identity. I remember hearing an anthropologist on a TV programme saying something along the lines of, isolationism and purity of identity based on geography is always dangerous but vigour in place based identity is vital to retain a sense of belonging and culture.
I don’t really know what to expect from Northfleet but after 90 mins with Mandi, seeing this place through her eyes I’m fascinated. I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere that is on the brink of so much radical change. It’s unexpected and fascinating with a particular, flinty beauty.
I meet Mandi, wearing her bright blue Big Local jacket, in the lych gate of the church on The Hill. The day before she’s emailed to ask if she can get me a coffee, and what I’d like. I come to realise this sums up Mandi – she’s thoughtful and deeply concerned with the wellbeing of others. It’s very powerful to be in the presence of someone who has a clear purpose, and although I don’t ask this question outright I feel like Mandi’s is to making people in Northfleet’s lives a little easier, more comfortable and richer.
Big Local was a nationwide project set up after the economic crash of 2008, to supporting 150 communities experiencing disadvantage. Each places was given £1million to spend over ten years, to develop projects led by, and for, local people. It’s both a lot, and not a lot of money . Mandi started out by attending some meetings, events, and doing some volunteering. Her passion for Northfleet, her adopted home of 20+ years, eventually let her to get more involved in Big Local until she ended up as the Creative Community Development Manager.
I get the impression that Mandi leads from the back, providing strong shoulders for her community to stand on. It’s a two person organisation so the title maybe grand but there’s a lot of hard graft on practical matters, as well as her clear vision for the place she loves.
We begin our walk around peeping through the gates of a community garden project. Created on a piece of waste ground, it brings together the community, creating opportunities for ex-offenders and people recovering from addiction to grow food and get their hands in the soil. In more usual times there are monthly BBQs and community parties, so well attended that they started to spill out of the main garden space. There’s real care and pride in this place, I really enjoy the Greek style statue of a woman. Most things in the garden are recycled and re-purposed, a DIY aesthetic – part necessity, part choice. The attention to creating beauty for its own sake touches me.
Mandi leads me through the churchyard, we see the foodbank volunteers loading food into a hall next to the church. They used to share a space with Big Local who recently lost their base – an old Methodist Hall that has been sold. Mandi is stoic but it’s clear that this loss of space is a concern, especially as things start to open up and people will be able to meet again. Where will they gather.
In the churchyard we meet a representative of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, he works in community development. He’s trying to get the word out about a residents survey and taps into Mandi’s knowledge of what is open and how to reach people. Mandi introduces me and we three chat for a few minutes about what the EDC is doing in and around Northfleet. I notice the different languages of community development being spoken, how this reveals the different value systems. Mandi shares with him some residents concern about access to a playpark that is about to be built, and to get assurances that it will be available to everyone. I think back to tension over playparks that Rev Penny mentioned. Residents on the new Ebbsfleet estates pay an estate fee for services, and there was tension that families from other areas were then using playparks. In lots of my work I keep coming back to this – who owns the land, who can access it and how. It’s an ongoing pressing concern. It’s interesting and he’s friendly and says I’m welcome to get in touch to chat.
After we’ve said goodbye I ask Mandi if he lives locally, I’m not surprised to discover he doesn’t. Not that this is, of itself a bad thing, but I wonder if being paid to develop a community you are not part of or intimately connected to can ever meaningfully work. There’s also just the issue of developing a community – whose community, how and what does developing mean? Whose version of development? I value experts and expertise but I sometimes wonder if our definitions of these things are very limiting.
We wonder alongside the flinty parish church that is undergoing renovation and into another garden area. There’s a simple stage and seating space, with benches with wooden quotes carved into them. A decked walking area with benches and planting. It’s a lovely space – welcoming and accessible. In less restricted times there are events and performances and outdoor exercise classes here. Perched at either end of the bench I chat to Mandi (to be fair it was more of a barrage of questions that she very kindly answered) I learn more about the loss of the Methodist church, that has been sold. Nobody knows who to, or what this community resources will become. I remember seeing some dismay about this on a Facebook group, with someone sharing memories of meeting their wife there. It was where the office, meeting and making spaces of Big Local were. At the moment nothing can happen in real life so it’s not limiting their work. Very soon there will be challenges about where people can meet. Not as much is currently happening online, people are a bit fatigued.
One of the most popular Big Local activities that Mandi set up is the Active Threads group, a blend of creativity and friendship – this hugely popular group is developing to become a Community Interest Company so it will live on after Big Local ends. Everything is about connection and kindness, with a rich vein of creativity.
Mandi takes me on a walk around Northfleet, we take in the Sir Giles Scott church, opposite the listed red phone box that he also designed. Mandi is pushing for the rather neglected phone box to be given some care, she has one of the glass panels that fell out in safekeeping – hoping it will be restored. Northfleet has known wealth – there are some grand buildings that hint at more comfortable times. Before we leave the little high street Mandi show’s me the conversation bench. Built by the men’s shed project this sturdy, ribbon like bench is a place to sit if you want a chat. It’s a way to combat loneliness – it’s so simple, it also relies on people joining in. I love it. It's nestled under one of the last remaining cherry trees from the orchards that use to be here.
We head down a pathway and it’s then that my view of Northfleet shifts wildly. The town is perched on 80 foot chalk cliffs. Where once the land would have sloped gently down from the church to the river, now there is a dramatic drop. The chalk pits were cut out to support the cement industry. It makes me think of the end of the children’s book, Fantastic Mr Fox, where the farmers are trying to dig out Mr Fox and in doing destroy the land. Here the cement industry bought great wealth to the place (and a lot of dust by all accounts) The cement factories have all closed. One paper factory remains, Kimberley Clarkson, the makers of the paper towels you find in toilets.
The base of the chalk pits have been cleared of most of the old factories. Boarded up tunnels that go back into the cliffs and under the town, concrete bases and lots of windblown litter are all that is here. We weave through the remains of an old factory, cement lorries queuing by the old Blue Circle Cement offices. A brutalist office block showcasing the possibilities of cement with it’s rippled surfaces. I don’t quite understand why the lorries are here – I think collecting deliveries that have arrived by river to go to building Ebbsfleet? It’s a disorientating place.
We stop so I can photograph the listed lighthouse – a splash of colour in this landscape of greys and whites.
Mandi has bought me to her favourite place in Northfleet. A first world war memorial made of fine white concrete. Britannia, seated in a chair, looking out over this carved out landscape. Honouring and holding the names of the men who had worked here and lost their lives in the Great War. She’s beautiful. And powerful. Mandi draws my attention to her feet, they are slightly too big. Out of proportion for the rest of her body. But Mandi loves them. I love that Mandi has noticed this detail – this determined, proud woman with fierce, flinty beauty and strong feet planted firmly in Northfleet.
We walk on to Northfleet harbour, silted up and cut off from the Thames by a sea wall. Mandi was part of the team that, by hand, dug out what must have been tons of silt. Wavy lines painted on the harbour wall mark what would be the water line. We talk about how opening it up could bring opportunity. There’s something symbolic about reconnecting Northfleet to the river – that in the past bought opportunity and enabled commerce. It doesn’t look likely to happen, and from a long term resilience perspective it may make more sense as we face rising water levels. At the same time I imagine how access to the water would enhance people’s lives, there’s lots of research to suggest that being, and living near water lowers stress and anxiety.
We look back across the mainly empty chalk pits, and the small industrial units of local businesses whose days are numbered in this place. At the moment all of Big Locals resources are stored in two white containers on an empty unit. All this will have residential housing built on it as part of the Ebbsfleet Garden City development. It’s mind boggling. Thousands of houses over the next few years. Mandi senses lots of possibility – Northfleet has a real lack of green spaces and playing spaces. The new development will bring these. The real challenge is that all these houses are being built by different developers for profit – because that’s how housing works. The needs and desires of the community already present, who won’t be contributing to that profit, are very easy to ignore.
I ask Mandi what she would give to her community if she had a magic wand. Her instant answer is dignity. She senses that this would fuel pride and energy that could enable transformation. I think about how broken our national safety net is, how undignified it is. How economic disadvantage, and the political and media conversations around need diminish people’s dignity. How the pandemic has pushed so many more people into dire need. I sometimes struggle to justify spending on arts and culture when there are hungry people. I remind myself that there’s enough money to ensure that no-one is hungry or homeless. It’s a political choice that people live in need. How connection and creativity are tools that build people’s individual and community dignity, and how this provides a stronger, renewable base to demand our human rights from. It’s still quite complicated for me.
We walk back to the hill and Mandi shows me the boundaries of the new garden city, which will surround Northfleet on all sides. We walk alongside the flinty walls of Huggins College, Mandi pointing out with dismay the poor quality repairs. She resolves to come and litter pick this road soon, references the streets that have started regular litter picking. How these small acts of care build pride in place. The walls are protected heritage but sections have already been demolished to allow access for builders. We wonder if this is legal. It’s done now. An older resident has collected the flint that was knocked down to keep safe for hopeful restoration. We walk past where Mandi lives, I learn of a balcony disco the summer before. A hello to older residents in the almshouses – and a promise to drop off the shrimp embroidery kits that I have in car (more on that later)
We head back towards the start of the walk, pausing at the old Big Local building. Mandi points the original Victorian gas street lights. In need of a little tender loving care Mandi hopes they will be restored to the original colours, not Gravesham Borough Council colour scheme.
I’ve missed so much from this account of my walk, have I mentioned that Mandi knew almost everyone we walked past and offered a hello and a catch up. That her knowledge of the history of this place is encyclopaedic? Of the amazing old, empty properties that could be used by the community? About the Hive and the fountain and the tile wall project? That Mandi is struggling to make the flower chandeliers of community made flowers because she no longer has anywhere to hang the hoops? That I didn’t even make it to the Rosherville end of Northfleet? That there’s a completely terrifying pedestrian footbridge crossing a deep chalk pit connecting one of the first housing estates to the hill?
We get back to the car just as it starts to rain. I sit for a moment before I drive away. About the extraordinary energy and grit and sheer bloody hard work that Mandi has gifted to Northfleet. How this springs from a deep well of care and knowledge. I feel fairly sure that Mandi would make a tough adversary, it’s the very thing that makes her such a powerful advocate for this community about to experience so much change.
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