February 10 years ago in Thanet and some thoughts on historic buildings.

Do you recognise what's going on in this Ramsgate photo?

Here is the link to the rest of the pictures of this event http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/cafe/index.htm

Of course now the building has been rebuilt so it basically looks the same, it looks like it was built in the 1870s but in fact it wasn't. Does this make any difference?

One small part of Marina Esplanade frontage tht looks the same as it did 100 years ago

I suppose the biggest change is Olympia aka Merrie England aka Pleasurama

Progress is a peculiar thing

 You wouldn't catch me in one of those new fangled swimming costumes, give me a bathing machine any day.

 I posted this picture 10 years ago, but does anyone read the accompanying text?  Here it is

Grange Road Mill An early mill stood at Ramsgate in 1719. Then, in 1819-43, as evidenced by the early Ordnance Map, there were two standing. One of them must have disappeared many years ago, for the 1858-72 map does not show it and there was no sign of it in 1905 although remaining mill was still there, by 1930 the body of the remaining mill was completely gone and the wreckage of the base alone remained. This base was then being used as a motor garage. Its “black-timbered walls are smothered with advertisement posters. Grimy mechanics grapple with cars in its bowels.” To quote William Coles Finch the notable antiquary and mill historian.

One of the more complex local history books I was working on then was Ramsgate All Change the one about Ramsgate railways

The most serious mishap which occurred on the railway at Ramsgate for over twenty years took place at the Ramsgate Town Station on a Tuesday afternoon, when an approaching train dashed into a stationary brake van standing at the end of one of the platforms precipitating the van across the platform and through the main entrance to the station premises.

As a direct result of the accident a portion of the station premises was wrecked, and ten persons complained of having received injuries. The Ramsgate Town Station (as was also the case at the Harbour Station) is a terminus, and the pull-up of trains had to be gauged within a few yards by the drivers of trains.The train which caused the trouble was the London train, which left Margate at 1.55 and was due at Ramsgate at 2.09. It was stated that the driver became acquainted with the fact that there was something wrong with the brake before the train arrived at the station, but he was quite unable to bring up, and the consequences were serious. When the engine drawing the train arrived at Ramsgate there was an empty brake van standing at the end of the platform and just inside the station doors. Buffers of a very heavy type were at the end of the line. The engine plunged into the van with a terrible crash, sending the van forward against the buffers, which were carried away like matchwood, and the van itself was hurled through the doorway of the station buildings. Brickwork and woodwork were sent flying, and the force of the impact caused a cloud of dust to rise from the debris for a few moments obscuring the whole of the surroundings. It was not known for a few moments how many people were under the broken woodwork and ironwork. A railway employee residing a mile away from the scene heard the noise of the crash and thought it came from vessels firing near Margate.

The star photo of hat month though was this one 

 Because of the accompanying text about the photo, here is the link to it http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/FredrickRogers/

Or perhaps these

  It says back then

I am still working on David Richards new book “Ramsgate All Change” about the railways in Ramsgate, I hope to have it out next week, what I lack however is any pictures of the construction of the main line railway tunnel to Ramsgate Sands Station, or any contemporary newspaper articles about it, any help with this would be much appreciated. Anyway here is another snippet from the book to share with you all.

BUILDING THE RAILWAY VIADUCT OVER MARGATE ROAD

In sinking the foundations of the piers of the viaduct across the Margate Road, in four out of the five, the engineers discovered after they had commenced that they were faced with problems. In the case of the first pier, they had not gone down far when to their amazement they discovered a disused chalk pit, which at some remote date had been loosely filled with ashes and rubbish and forgotten. That had to be cleared out and properly filled. On the next pier they discovered a relic of the First World War, a huge dug-out. That had to be explored and filled. Next, an old sewer, which they had to bridge, and when they imagined their difficulties overcome, they dug down to a water main, which also had to be bridged.

Or it could be This is a rather unusual photograph of Sackett’s Stone Masons in Church Hill Ramsgate that some of you may not have seen before, one wonders what a health and safety inspector would have to say about it nowadays.

A quiet day in the bookshop today, so here is the link to the work the books that went out that is http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-dark-knight-in-bookshop.html

Finally some pictures of the snow in Ellington Park in 1971