Click to enlarge, Thanet and the big changes from 1815

 Two major things happened for Thanet in 1815, one was the Napoleonic wars ended and the other was the first paddle steamers started a regular service from London to Margate.

Ramsgate

Ramsgate in 1817 by Henry Moses

Apart from the two Henry Moses pictures that I have labelled all the rest and the pages of text come from the book  Delineations Historical and Topographical of the Isle of Thanet 1817 by Edward Brayley and were drawn by William Deeble.

So here is what this book has to say about paddle steamers 

Ramsgate in 1817 by Henry Moses

The picture above is a composite made of two of Moses's engravings and joined together by me so they show what is now Harbour Parade. 

Margate

Broadstairs

As far as I can tell the paddle steamers didn't brave going around North Foreland to Ramsgate until a few years later, I imagine there would have been too many cancelations due to rough weather.

These early paddle steamers where to some extent experimental vessels with passengers taking something of a risk.

Out of this developed a relable four hour paddle steamer service making Thanet much easier to get to than Brighton and the other south coast towns, until the coming of the railways.

Here at Michaels Bookshop in Ramsgate we are starting to see summer local history customers who come from other parts of the world, but have Thanet connection. We have bought a new and better definition printer which has improved the image quality in the local books. 

On the rest of the books, mostly secondhand and cheaper than you can buy a similar copy online  here is the link the latest books we have had come in 

Pictures of Paddle Steamers Click to Enlarge

 I think all of the photos should expand to a decent size with a bit of clicking, tapping or wosisname.

 Royal Sovereign at Margate Jetty 1928

 Queen of Thanet

 Queen of Kent

 Essex Queen

 Southern Belle

 Cynthia

 Talisman

 Royal Sovereign

 Conqueror 1897

This map which should also expand to big enough to read with a bit of clicking, dates from before the arrival of railway trans here in Thanet. Stage coaches travelled at about 5mph and were expensive.

The paddle steamer provided a reliable and fast, about four hours service from London Bridge, back in the day before the train, making Thanet one of the few viable and affordable journeys for most Londoners  

This is a piece from my copy of Richardson's book, Fragments of the History of Ville and Liberty of Ramsgate, about the local paddle steamers.

On to today's pictures

 I am still using the Nikon P610 which I bought secondhand in November

 these first three shots all being taken from Harbour Street

 The camera having put up with being carted around in my pocket for four months. They cost around £150 secondhand.

 As you can see from this series of shots the zoom is pretty good

 Considering the shots are all hand held, that is just holding the camera up to my eye and not using anything to steady it, the image stabilisation is pretty good.

 Of course later on when the Ship had got further away from Wetherspoons here in Ramsgate the distortion caused by moisture in the air becomes a factor.

 Another thing is that a brighter day can give a sharper image.

 The strange orangey red line at the top of the hills on the other side of Pegwell bay was really there, mid afternoon, not a sunset so probably due to air pollution or atmospheric conditions, I tried verious camera settings.

 Light setting wise, you can't reabrightnesslly win all the time with camera's, in this one my watercolour paining is about the right

and this one the view is nearly in the right brightness ballpark.