Remembering Michael Kennedy and his unusual fitness regime on Hunstanton beach
In his weekly Turnstone column, John Maiden looks back to a time when Hunstanton made the national news...
This used to be called the silly season because news was in short supply with so many ‘decision makers’ away on holiday. Of course, there are usually plenty of sensible stories out there, at any time of the year, if you look hard enough for them.
Michael Kennedy found himself in the news on several occasions because of his unusual fitness regime, which consisted of throwing lumps of rock from the beach towards the base of the cliffs. If this sounds unusual, it was not as strange as the thing that gave him the idea for his one-man sea defence works.
Towards the end of the 20th century, West Norfolk Council embarked on a scheme intended to clear stones and litter from the so-called ‘resort beach’ and dump each load as close to the base of the cliffs as it was possible to get a tractor, towing a device known as a Barber surf rake.
While Michael was busy sorting through this smelly rubbish searching for rocks to throw onto his colourful piles of red and white chalk, the media became interested - largely because the driver of the tractor was a Mr C Shell.
Meanwhile, just as one would expect from a beachcombing Turnstone, I was becoming interested in some of the less obvious contents of the piles of rock and rubbish. It was there, and elsewhere along the route followed by C Shell, that I came across sprung tines, which had been snapped off the surf rake by rocks that were clearly unsuitable for removal by such a method.
Needless to say, the failure of council decision-makers served as a warning for what was to follow, but I am very pleased to have discovered a good news story with which to bring smiles to the faces of anyone still reading today’s Turnstone.
In July David Jones made an appearance in Aeroplane magazine, a fact that was much appreciated by Alan Mudge on the Lynn News letters page. Now I have learned that local artist and well-known vegan runner. Kate Dunbar is featured in the latest edition of ‘Viva!Life’ magazine, which has an expert team of journalists, nutritionists, health professionals, campaigners, recipe gurus, etc. Now, Kate’s amazing journey back to health is covered, in which, after trying everything else, “she discovered vegan power!”
I might return to this topic at a later date, but in the meantime I welcome the decision by Roger Partridge and others, to engage Kate in encouraging participants of all ages to transform humble beach pebbles into miniature works of art.
