Burnham-on-Sea

Since returning from travelling we have lived here in Burnham-on-Sea  (technically we are in Highbridge, but Burnham-on-Sea is the larger town and the two tend to blend into each other) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham-on-Sea. Burnham-on-sea sits facing west at the most Eastern end of the Bristol Channel, south of Weston-Super-Mare. To the north across Brigdwater Bay lies Wales, and to the Southwest extending west is the north Somerset coast 51°14'19.03"N, 2°59'52.08"W. We have been here since May the 1^st 2014.

Burnham-on-Sea is an odd place in the 21^st Century. It hasn’t been commercialised even though it is a seaside town and attracts hordes of tourists in the summer. As a Londoner I am often saddened by the indigenous populations attitude to the place, however, I guess if you have never lived elsewhere it can seem a little dull. But if you come from a vast conurbation like London or Birmingham, then a place like Burnham really can feel like heaven on Earth.

Let’s concentrate on geography for a moment. Looking south past the worlds shortest pier, we see the Quantocks, the gateway to Exmoor and the highest point on Exmoor: Dunkery Beacon. Looking out to sea we have Hinckley’s A and B, and the emerging Hinckley C nuclear power stations, then looking north along the vast stretch of sand past the lighthouse we see Wales. Out of view behind me are the Somerset Levels and the Mendip hills.

Now maybe the reason I say it is a little piece of heaven becomes more apparent. From this tiny spec of a town you can drop onto the M5 motorway or the A38, and reach some of the UK’s great natural destinations in a matter of minutes (or at the least in under an hour). As for the town itself, you couldn’t want for more in terms of facilities and utility. It has its own privately owned Sports and Swim Academy, a cinema, its own High street and access to seven miles of uninterrupted sands. Two of the largest supermarket brands are represented (Tesco and Asda), as are the two main discounters (Aldi and Lidl). These seem like mundanity in the grand scheme of things but they are worth a mention just to give a sense of the completeness of the package that is Burnham-on-Sea.

Of all the places I have lived, Burnham-on-Sea is where I feel most at home. I have only been back to London once since we arrived in Somerset and that was on the day that my dad and all the other people whose family member had donated their bodies to medical research were commemorated at Southwark cathedral. I said a couple of weeks ago that when Covid has passed and we can travel again, I’d like to spend a few days in London to see what has changed around the City of London,  to visit Tate Modern and a couple of the big museums... and maybe spend some time on the Thames waterfront. But my heart now belongs to the West Country, I think it has, ever since I dived along the South Coast of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall in my early twenties… it just took a couple of decades to get myself in a position whereby I could make the move. And I guess that somehow, if destiny is a thing, then it was my destiny to meet Amanda and eventually move here to her place of birth (Somerset).