Stones from the old London Bridge were carried to Beaumont in the mid nineteenth century, in order to build the quay side. You can see them in the photo, beyond the grass. Soon afterwards the lime kiln was built. There would have been other wooden buildings built along the quay at the time.
A landscape that looks timeless to us today may not be as old as we realise. You have to peel away layers of history to find what you are looking for. It has only recently come to my notice that the Cut (the long channel that ran to our present quay), was created after Kitty's time. So my calling it the Cut is, in fact, wrong. However, visually I pared it back, removing the stones and the kiln, to become the creek inlet that I breifly describe in the book. I added a wooded area because so much of our land was more heavily wooded then, and it served a helpful purpose for the narative.
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am not an historian, I am a story teller. Although the facts are sometimes fascinating, it is the experience of being in the land that I draw inspiration from. Beaumont Quay today is a hidden little creek where families swim and paddle in the summer. It is like a secret place where magic happens.