Fascinating place.Everyone who's ever invaded has passed through here,and it was the jumping off point for Royalty when we ruled half of France at once,hence Kingsferry and Queenborough.( Emma Hamilton picked up Nelsons body from Queenborough after Trafalgar )Also the cradle of British Aviation.Eastchurch was the scene of the first ever flight on British soil,Leysdown the first ever air crash.

In the grounds of the house next to The Minster is a sacred well,now dedicated to St Sexburga.Its' waters are still drunk by ladies having difficulty conceiving.There is also a crude wooden trough of an appropriate height for their menfolk to dip a certain part of their anatomy in the freshly drawn,freezing,water.I think the mediaeval nuns came up with that one.The spring was excavated some years ago,and it is claimed that a 'goddess' figurine was retrieved during the dig,though opinions vary as to its provenance.I have also heard it described by one of the few to see it as 'the rusty end of a Fleur de Lys door hinge'.

The water is from the spring soft, unlike the rest of the island.It comes in a band of rock running under The North Sea from Holland,surfacing in two springs at the two highest points on Sheppey,The Minster and Standford Hill,within the grounds of the open prison there.