Last week, we had another small return to normality. We planned a day out at a local beach. There’s been a lot of debate during lockdown over the definition of ‘local’, and there were stories of people being fined for travelling seven miles from their homes for a walk in woods, of London residents caught 100 miles from home and insisting that they had a second home a short distance away… The rules were so vague that you could be left unchallenged or fined, depending on which police officer spotted you.
Our nearest beach is about 35 miles away, but we could be there and home within two hours. It was a place my husband and his family visited often, as his grandfather owned a beach hut along the front. Mersea wasn’t posh then and I doubt it’s secretly posh these days, either, but I’m willing to bet that the huts here still sell for thousands. Can’t help wondering why?
I looked into a beach hut as a cheap(ish) option when I was working a long way from home, and was told that they are rarely up for sale, they go for the price of a small flat in our local town and you aren’t allowed to sleep in them. Plus, they are heavily taxed, and some places will send the council in if you don’t maintain it to “pretty tourist attraction” standard. Being made of wood, very old and unguarded at night, they can also be burnt to stubs before anyone notices. I wouldn’t like to guess how much good insurance cover costs.
On our visit to Mersea, the food shops and newsagents were open and happy to take our money; the toilets were open (not a classy place to change into or out of swimming gear, but hey, they are called ‘conveniences’) and we carried everything we needed in one small backpack. The idea of buying a not-very-secure wooden hut to leave towels and tea-making gear to gather dust in frankly baffles me.
Then again, I don’t understand the advantages of buying your knick-knacks or groceries at five times the price of a supermarket, but the doors of Harrods and Fortnum & Mason are still open – unlike those of Debenhams. The rich really are different.
Julia Chalkley 