Dunkirk evacuation model tug display at Ramsgate maritime Museum

One of the high points of Saturday and Sunday’s events at Ramsgate Harbour was the display of models of some of the tugs that were at Operation Dynamo.

The models were made by members of the Chantry Model Club that meets at Bluewater (lake 7). Contact details George Boyd (Chairman) 01474 323398 Paul Smith (Secretary) 01474 351361. if they have a website I can’t find it.

Click on the link for pictures of the model tugs http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id13.htm

Ramsgate Maritime Museum pictures and reflections.

As I promised I spent a couple of hours yesterday photographing the maritime museum and the Cervia. The first batch of pictures are of the Maritime Museum, considerable problems with reflection as like most museums a lot of the exhibits are behind glass, anyway I did my best to record the museum as it is now.

As far as I can see things with the museum could go one of two ways. Either the council will fail to grant the museum sufficient security of tenure to obtain grant funding and it will close. Or the museum will be granted a lease on The Clock House and the first thing they will do will be to expand the museum into the parts of the building that are not used for anything much, so either way I won’t be the same again.

Anyway here are the pictures, taken yesterday.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id9.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id10.htm

We had a very similar situation with Ramsgate Motor Museum, the council made promises of support and then broke them, I think the final straw there was the council moving the bucket and spade run to Margate, of course now the museum has closed they have moved it back to Ramsgate. The owners then removed all of the exhibits and since then a large council owned building has remained empty. Before the Motor Museum closed I wrote their website for the museum, I am afraid at the time digital cameras were not what they are today so the pictures of the exhibits are rather small, click on the link to see what we lost http://www.thanetonline.com/RamsgateMotorMuseum

There is a ghastly irony here that the council are spending £2m on a heritage project in Margate, when people of Ramsgate are asking to be allowed to keep their last remaining museum.

It would seem from experience that the council’s most likely agenda here, is to have another iconic Ramsgate building empty for years, progressively becoming more derelict.

This link takes you to a few pictures round Ramsgate taken yesterday and this morning, they got a bit muddled up but the point here is how busy Ramsgate is in the area around the museum, and how much having it open with events on there enhances the town’s economy http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id11.htm

The Steam Tug Cervia Progress.

As I pointed out yesterday both Ramsgate Maritime Museum and the last remaining ocean going steam tug are open to the public in Ramsgate harbour today and well worth a visit, entrance is free.

This link takes you to a few pictures of her that I took late yesterday afternoon http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id8.htm as you see a tremendous amount of work has been done since I last took pictures of her in July of last year, click on the link for the pictures of her then http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/cervia/

Ramsgate Maritime Museum and Steam Tug Cervia open today and tomorrow, free entry

My understanding is that a group made up of the museums volunteers, from when the museum was open, have taken matters into their own hands and opened the museum without getting permission from Thanet district Council.

There is something of an Ealing film atmosphere, reminiscent of “The Titfield Thunderbolt” to the occasion. Very much a sense of the museum belongs to the town of Ramsgate.

Many the people engaged in this act of civil disobedience are local old age pensioners, this is what it has come to here in Ramsgate where the Dunkirk spirit is still alive.

There even appears to be a Dunkirk exhibition, there is also an historic lifeboat on the slipway, various Little Ships to look at and of course the sea and the sand.

I will endeavour to take more pictures tomorrow when I hope to have more time here are the ones of my lunch time walk http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id7.htm they include several of the harbour event.