Click to expand, 150 Pictures of Paddle Steamers that visited Ramsgate and Margate

I have been having a lot of difficulty posting links to Facebook groups recently, I tried to link this lot the other day and it failed.

So here we go again. The first paddle steamer got from London to Margate either in 1815 or 1816, depending on which local history books you read.

During Victorian times it was usual for reasonably wealthy families to rent a house by the seaside for the whole of the summer season, moving ones servants, horses, carriage etc too. The man of the family would take the "Husband Boat" to London every week to continue earning the money, service his mistress and stay at his club.

The best personal account of the early steamboats is in the book "Fragments of History - Ramsgate" by CT Richardson. We publish a cheap reprint of this book here is the link we also often have original copies in stock for about £100 if it is in nice condition and has its scarce frontispiece. I would recommend coming here to Michaels Bookshop in Ramsgate and giving it a thorough browse,  

Here is what CT Richardson writing in 1885 has to say.

Next follows some pictures, from the Mick Twyman collection and my collection, of  steamers that visited Thanet 

London Boat at Ramsgate

Ramble

A beautiful summers day here in Ramsgate, I am at work a Michaels Bookshop which is busy, mostly summer reading and local history. Quite a lot of people using the local history section to work out who lived in their house when.  

This time the links to this blog post from the Facebook groups has worked, I think that Facebook has some sort of system in place to stop links that take people somewhere bad and somehow I got caught up in that.

Next some pictures of today's Ghostbusters event in the old fire station here in Ramsgate. Click to expand.