Maria Donovan

The last photo for May is of the River Brit. A place full of memories, but always changing.

The Last on the Card photo challenge is easy, inclusive and often surprising! Have a look at our host Bushboy’s post here for the rules. In short, just find the last photo(s) you took in May, unedited, and link to his post.

31st May: a chilly wind blowing in West Bay. This is taken from the bridge over the sluice gates that divide the River Brit and its pool from the harbour. On the left, the Salt House. On the right, Rise café (for years before this known as ‘the Riverside’). Ahead is the blue cabin that became David Tennant’s ‘home’ (as DI Andy Hardy) in the second series of ‘Broadchurch‘. The link takes you to a page about the Dorset locations for the three TV series, which writer Chris Chibnall called ‘a love letter to the Jurassic Coast’. The actual location for the town of ‘Broadchurch’ as shown in the series, is Clevedon, many miles away, in North Somerset.

The series was filmed again for the US market as ‘Gracepoint’. This TV mini-series also starred David Tennant, this time as Detective Emmett Carver. Critics who didn’t like him switching to an American accent had probably forgotten that he’s a Scot, and that he’s acting when he puts on an English accent.

But back to the photo: from here, you can take a boat upstream through meadows and under the bypass bridge to Palmer’s brewery, where the water runs shallow. Above this is a weir (featured in my novel, The Chicken Soup Murder). The weir marks the confluence of two rivers: the Brit and the Asker, which pass either side of the oldest part of Bridport.

I often take a picture of this view: it’s hard to resist, even on a grey day. It holds for me a host of memories and associations – and a sense of the past far beyond memory, when Viking raiders came up-river between the whispering reeds.

Thanks as always to Brian for hosting the Last on the Card photo challenge! I love to see what people are posting from all over the world.

Words are not necessary, but I can’t resist.