News, Local history and Thanet issues from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate see www.michaelsbookshop.com I publish over 200 books about the history of this area click here to look at them.
Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.
Hooray!!!!.
ReplyDeleteWill never be late for a train now.
Following a recent announcement that the Ramsgate - London train journeys will be reduced to 60 minutes, does this mean it will now be 54 minutes 19 seconds?
ReplyDeleteWill the Ramsgate meridian line be reinstated in front of the Clock House?
I assumed it was somewhere under the cobbles, unless it got nicked
DeleteI think it was made of brass and as you say "got nicked" along with the band on the bandless-stand. I think any replacement should be brass tinted glass fibre or concrete.
ReplyDeleteinside the clockhouse i think.
ReplyDeleteWell, Ramsgate always did seem out of time with the rest of the world. Now we know why.
ReplyDeleteBut won't this cloick setting confuse the hell out of visitors?
Perhaps that is the idea ... like those who bought apartments in Royal Sands off plan all those years ago.
Dipstick
The line was only ever inside the building and was indeed made from brass. It was stolen in the 1970s but accurate measurements had been taken, so it would possible to recreate it. The comments about Ramsgate's own time and people missing trains are history repeating themselves - we never seem to learn!
ReplyDeleteThe signs advising people on the difference between RMT and GMT were originally put up in 1848 to avoid confusion when Ramsgate adopted GMT. The Trustees of the Harbour were threatened with at least one law suit from a gentleman who claimed he had missed his train by relying on the Harbour Clock, which no longer told the 'correct' time.
This is just one story that the museum can tell - we are looking forward to being able to share them with residents and visitors again.
The museum will need volunteers to help bring it back to life - all those interested can come for a look round and an informal chat this weekend. Come at Ramsgate Time, or your own good time - everyone welcome!
Just ask for Michael (there are several!) - one of us will be there to help.
Mac this is a story of two lines.
ReplyDeleteOne on the inside an advanced sundial, called a meridian dial this consists of fine line, usually on floor and a shutter by a window with a small aperture in it. The line was orientated to point due south and the aperture positioned such that at local solar noon, the small patch of sunlight passing through it would cross the line.
The other used to be on the ground outside the Clock House and showed the Ramsgate meridian
I think it is a great idea to show Ramsgate Mean Time, after all a museum is all about history and RMT is part of it. What does it matter if you are 5 minutes early and as for confusing visitors,it may just make them notice the museum more.
ReplyDeleteDidn't all ports have their own time in the dim distant past, I seem to remember Bristol time being behind. London time.
ReplyDelete