Background
Martello Tower C is one of 103 Martello towers constructed along the south and east coast line from 1803—1812 in response to the threat of a Napoleonic invasion in the early nineteenth century. The towers are constructed from extremely thick brickwork, over two metres thick, with a slightly battered profile and they were consequently very effective in resisting cannon balls.
The towers never saw any action in the Napoleonic war and soon became obsolete because developments in heavy artillery, for example exploding shells, meant that they were easily penetrable. Many of the towers including tower C were used during the two World Wars as lookout points or gun emplacements and many were heavily adapted for the purpose.
Since the re-opening of Jaywick Martello Tower in 2005, a series of community led arts projects have inspired recent developments. The new vision of the Tower is to incorporate themes most relevant to the area's assets: community, heritage and environment. This has led to the introduction of Arcadia Revisited a partnership funded programme of work which is a creative-led process by artists Alex Murdin and David Cotterrell that explores the notions of arcadia in relation to coastal leisure and tourism to help capture the genius loci, spirit of place.
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“Jaywick is a place with a unique history and heritage that deserves to be better known, a place where the community has created a DIY holiday resort of immense character. I'm hoping that any work we do at Jaywick will support this community of residents and visitors alike to sustain a relationship with the stark beauty of the marshes and the ever changing seascape as the environment and society changes in the future.”
Alex Murdin
“Despite the established consultation processes within planning, there still remains a perceptual divide between external consultants and ‘local residents’ understanding of place, value and community. This project will not resolve this issue, but it may serve to create prototype mechanisms to re-evaluate the existing hierarchies of information and raise questions about the historic weaknesses in transparent communication between those who are designing landscape and those who live within it.”
David Cotterrell
