U3A walk at Reach today with lunch at the Dyke’s End. In 1997 the then owner of the pub applied for permission to change use to residential. The community prepared a viable case for keeping pub open and ECDC refused planning permission. Community acquired the pub, got it back on its feet, sold it on to the present owner and it’s very successful. The owner is a descendant of Julia Margaret Cameron; six of her pictures are on the walls – Sir John Herschel, 1867, Charles Darwin, 1868, Sir Henry Taylor, 1867, The Kiss of Peace, 1869, Julia Jackson, 1867, and Mary Princep, 1866.
Photo: Mary Princep as Beatrice Cenci (also called the Kissed Mouth), 1866 – Cenci an Italian noble woman, 1577-1599, who was executed for her part in the murder of her abusive father.