A Watercolour Sketch of Minster Abbey in Thanet

This Watercolour Sketch of Minster Abbey took me about an hour and a half today, while my children did something unsecular in St Mildred’s Priory.

Here are the rest of the photos, from memory I believe it is one the oldest inhabited buildings, about a thousand years, not the chapel though which is more modern.

25 ton fire engine on unsupported chalk cliff.

Over the last few years I have had various promises from the council’s engineer that heavy vehicles will be prevented from going onto the footpath above what they agree is an unsupported chalk cliff in poor condition.

I guess this old newspaper article says it all.  

 
I guess this old newspaper article says it all.  

Report from The East Kent Times
January 11th 1936.







Two more rides wrecked at
"Merrie England."







With a crack like the report of a
cannon, another huge fall of cliff occured in the neighbourhood of "Merrie
England," Ramsgate yesterday (Friday 10th) afternoon. The huge thrill ride
the "Coaster" has been wrecked, and part of the
"Brooklands" miniature motor racing track is buried under several
feet of chalk. This is the second big cliff fall at the same place within ten
days, and over a thousand tons have fallen on the fun city, wrecking first the
"Ghost Train."







Miraculously enough no one was
hurt. The top part of the Promenade, which has a concrete retaining wall
remained intact, but underneath the fall has cut into the cliff face to a depth
of several feet. The fall occurred only twenty yards from the spot where a gang
of men were working, clearing away the debris from the fall on December 31st.
The management of "Merrie England" were advised last Tuesday that it
might be well to dismantle the "Coaster" ride to avoid possible
future falls, but the inclement weather made this impossible at the time. To
dismantle the "Coaster" takes some ten - twelve days, and if the men
had been working on the ride on Friday afternoon they must surely have been
buried beneath this latest fall of cliff.






Mr F. Price the Manager of "Merrie
England" who was walking past the "Coaster" at the time, said he
heard a sharp report like that of a cannon, followed by an ear-splitting rumble
as ton upon ton of chalk fell upon the ride. The "Coaster" was flung
sideways and the whole structure trembled violently and you can see where the
retaining blocks have been forced out. These rides are balanced perfectly; now
that the ride has been knocked sideways like this, a strong wind may well bring
it down into the roadway. We had been advised that this piece of cliff would be
the next to go and intended to dismantle the "Coaster" but the
weather has been too bad. It takes some considerable time to take down a
structure like this and if we had gone ahead with the work about a dozen men
would have been working right where you see that chalk.

 They should expand if clicked on

I have added a picture of firemen digging out to see if anyone was buried after one of the 1967 collapses, as it would seem the 1936 article was insufficient to convince some people that it is pretty stupid to let a 25 ton fire engine up there.

Pencil sketch of Ramsgate from outside the Belgian Café

I didn't count the arches or buildings so there are probably errors

0.5mm propelling pencil B grade, 150gsm paper the £2.99 Boldmere

field sketch book, from The Works [Ramsgate Garden Centre] 

Ramble Around Ramsgate and some Art

 Ramsgate’s old and new Mayors

 On to York Street gallery

 Terry Thompson's exhibition is well worth a look if you are in Ramsgate before Wednesday

On to Gerry's in Charlotte Court also well worth a look at

 It is good to see Gerry recovered after his recent illness

I may Ramble on here

The History Man Gets Lunch, a ramble

As a shop assistant my lunch is an economic and short business, an hour and that’s it.

The business with checking history book prices against the internet has been interesting, I have just finished British history where prices for the books covering the period after 1485 and the beginning of the Tudor period have slumped considerably and am now doing the history of other countries. Books covering the ancient Greeks and Romans, for the most part are much more expensive online than they are in my shop already, so not so many reductions here. 

I digress, back to the economy lunch, a beef salad baguette from Rooks £1.99 which I ate walking down to Ramsgate Sands where I bought a mug of tea for 60p and enjoyed the view.   

A couple of observations on the way around.

The Royal Sands Cliff façade is looking pretty bad in places at the moment, water seems to be getting behind parts of it in the way it shouldn’t be.

The arcade machines are appearing in Ramsgate Boulevard, but they have a very 1980s look to them, possibly this is to be a retro arcade although I would have expected something more 60s if this was the case. More likely though I think these are the machines from the arcade in Margate, recently the subject of the Dreamland cpo.    

As the day progresses and the madness of looking up too many books on the internet, one comes across unusual listings; see the following as an example.

Bookseller Image

What wood is that? A manual of wood identification

Herbert L Edlin

Bookseller: Andy Hussey

(IPSWICH, SFK, United Kingdom)

Bookseller Rating:

Quantity Available: 1

Price: £ 12.50

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Shipping: £ 2.50

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Destination, Rates & Speeds

Book Description: Corgi books, London, 1962. Paperback. Book Condition: Average/Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No DJ. 18x11. A true stor of a woman who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Book. Bookseller Inventory # CTTH49