Martello Tower, Jaywick

Client: Part of the Walls and Gardens project – a five-year European Union-funded Project, which has seen 22 partners from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK work together to preserve fortified towns and sites as well as their surrounding landscapes. Their mission was to preserve and promote the region’s fortified heritage sites. An INTERREG IVA 2 Mers Seas Zeeën Cross-border Cooperation Programme.
Poet: Julia Bird
Location and Date: Jaywick, Essex.

During the summer of 2013, poet Julia Bird worked with Tower staff, Jaywick residents and visitors to create a poem to be installed at the Tower in September 2014.

The Project was developed with the staff and Friends of Jaywick Martello Tower in connection with the recent improvements to the tower, further enhanced through the incorporation of an interpretive text created with the community of Jaywick.

During the project Julia wrote poems inspired by her day spent at the Tower during the annual Clacton airshow. The poem can be seen on the windows of the roof room on the Tower.