Starlings form their murmuration across Graveney Marshes at dusk, where mudflat meets greyish blue sky. They gather on telegraph polls and rooftops until a critical mass is found. Walking along this stretch of the Kent coastline between Faversham and Whitstable, you can see the tidal channel of the Swale that separates the Isle of Sheppey from the mainland. Beyond that, lies the Thames Estuary and the Kentish Flats Array, a collection of 30 offshore wind turbines, each 115 metres tall. The electricity produced by other offshore wind turbines along this coastline, such as at the London Array further in the distance, makes landfall on these marshes, where it joins overhead lines and the national grid. Crossing underneath these lines, you can hear the crackle from the electricity running elsewhere.

The nearby town of Seasalter is mentioned in the Domesday Book, as owned by the kitchens of Canterbury Cathedral and home to 48 smallholders, two ‘ploughlands’, eight fisheries, areas of woodland and one church. Today, the landscape is populated by apple trees and polytunnels where strawberries and raspberries grow. In the distance, a spritsail barge works its way across the channel. Walkers, day-tripping from London, move past herds of sheep and the flash of yellow and green of greenfinches flitting through a young crop of wheat. Birdwatchers seek out great white egrets, marsh harriers, peregrines, or warblers. All stop to watch over the marshes. Nearby lies the site of the last ground battle on British soil – a skirmish fought between the crew of a downed German plane and a group of soldiers billeted at the nearby Sportsman pub in September 1940.

‘Project Fortress’, formerly known as the Cleve Hill Solar Park, will soon cover this land. The project, due to be the biggest in the UK, will be formed of 19 banks of solar panels that will generate enough electricity to power more than 91,000 homes and the battery storage needed to stockpile it (Cleve Hill Solar, nd). Due to its capacity exceeding 50 megawatts (MW) of energy generation, the Cleve Hill project is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. This means that final approval was given by the national government in February 2020 – rather than local authorities, as would usually be the case.