When Maxie Lea, who is featured in the picture, told me that it was taken at Herne Bay, I knew that one day I must go and seek this location for myself. Set back fifty yards from the shingle beach, sits a magnificent line of grand hotels and seafront villas. The outskirts of Herne Bay present a curious mixture of dereliction and some cherished Regency villas, culminating in Marckari’s ice cream parlour where I had my first taste of an authentic Turkish delight ice cream. Nine miles to the east of Herne Bay, I arrived at Birchington – a suburban resort with art deco villas, some dignified austere brick farmhouses and an unexpected half-timbered medieval cottage. Herne Bay pier was once the second longest in BritainBow-fronted Georgian terrace on the seafrontRegency villas in a side streetThe path to ReculverAt ReculverHarry Tichner’s photograph of Maxie Lea (standing right) at Herne Bay in 19381685 Map of the lost village of ReculverAt Minnis BayCottage at Birchington-on-Sea