New Ramsgate street directory for 1971 published today.

This directory of Ramsgate streets is taken from the Kelly’s Thanet directory for 1971 so it would have been compiled in 1970, many thanks to Kelly’s Directories for giving me permission to reprint their old directories.  

The best way to use the directory to fit together a picture in your mind of Ramsgate at this time, which may include your own memory, is to walk the streets of Ramsgate with the directory as a guide.

The picture on the cover of the book was taken in about 1971 is of The Black Opal a sailing ship rigged as a three masted barquentine, not something you would think it would be easy to forget. She was moored in Ramsgate Harbour’s inner basin from around 1968 to around 1972.

She started life at some time in the first half of the 1900s as a three masted schooner called the Eouls, built as a costal trader with a large two cylinder diesel engine, the hull being one large hold for carrying goods, the sails adding to her speed and economy.

At some time her masts had been cut off at deck level and she arrived in Ramsgate with the timber to make new masts on her deck. During the time she was in Ramsgate she was fitted with a new engine, re-masted and rigged as a square rigger and her hull was fitted out with cabins.

After this she had a chequered history of bankruptcies and ship wrecks including being used in the movie Popeye. She is now high and dry in Malta and used as a restaurant called The Black Pearl. 

The earliest of the Ramsgate street directories I produce is for 1849 and these used in conjunction with the maps provide answers to many of the local and family history questions. Who lived where and the location of local businesses, which helps with dating old pictures of the area.

When using the directories it is important to remember that before 1900 in many cases the street numbers were changed by the rating officer as the town expanded, so it is important to compare the pre 1900 hundred directories with the 1900 directory to avoid mistakes about which building is which.

The original Kelly’s Directories have risen considerably in price since I produced my first directory reprint (Ramsgate 1900 Street Directory) about 10 years ago, then a 1971 Thanet directory sold for about £7 now the price would be between £20 and £30 depending on condition.

This price rise means that I intend to produce several more of the post war directories, making the information in them cheaply available to everyone.  

I have now produced about 150 booklets about the history of this area and have also produced three historic street maps of Ramsgate for 1822, 1849 and 1879 all of which are available from my bookshop in Ramsgate. The shop is open from 9.30 to 5.30 and closed on Mondays and Thursdays.         

If you want to buy the directory online click on this link http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/ramsgate_street_directory_1971.htm UK postage is free but you will have to use the dropdown to pay extra for postage overseas.

Our secondhand stock of out of print local books is fairly good at the moment, with many of the more difficult titles like The Ramsgate Millennium Book and The Book of Ramsgate I have copies in stock in different conditions at different prices.

I don’t sell the more difficult to find local books via the internet, as if I did we just wouldn’t have them for the customers who visit the bookshop.

Christmas shopping for grownups and local books and the Thanet bomb maps.

Secondhand bookshops don’t have that much to do with Christmas shopping on the whole, with the internet now being the major source for new books, I would guess it isn’t what it was in the few remaining new bookshops.

The exception here being local history books, I would guess most people who read this blog know I publish about 150 books about East Kent, especially The Isle of Thanet, all of this with a strong emphasis on books related to Ramsgate.

One way or another, having eliminated socks, quite a few local people will give other local people a local history book this Christmas. Christmas shopping for grownups becomes increasingly difficult every year. When I was a child virtually every grown up smoked and had a coal fire, so spills were a favourite, now most grownups spend much of their leisure using some piece of technology.

A big problem here is that as the technology becomes more advanced and more personalised, there is progressively less that you can give to people, that they could possibly enjoy.

A few years ago, apart from the inevitable items of clothing, most of which was unwearable, the smellies that did the rounds from one aunt to another and some of which had been presents on more than a dozen occasions, it was books and records in my family. Exchanges between thinking and reasonably educated people being like that.

Now we have a situation where what made and educated gift, a grown up toy, is mostly a non-transferable electronic download of some sort.

I do have some new local books that I don’t publish, these are mostly for sale at the published price and when they run out I have to reorder them from a number of different sources and that can take as long as a month.

Combined with this is the problem that I often find they have gone out of print and I just can’t get them again. The picture above is of a few of the new local books we have in stock at the moment. 

Then there are the out of print local books, although these are usually secondhand, they are often very desirable and more expensive than they would be were they available new.

It is the a very fortunate person who has friends that will give them desirable secondhand books as presents, the picture above is of some of the secondhand local books on the shelf in my bookshop today.

Anyway we now come to the panacea, personally I don’t like being advertised at, Christmas presents are necessary and somehow or another I have to try and make this work for people as best I can, when it comes to local history books and frankly I can’t do it as well as I would like if it all happens at the last minute.

So here are the Thanet bomb maps as promised, people often ask me for them. 

the maps will expand if clicked on and the expanded amp will expand if clicked on again

Westgate-on-Sea Guide

We have just finished this little Westgate-on-Sea Guide (circa 1923) it’s coming out of the printer now and should be ready on Monday.

The original is owned by Julian Smith and was scanned by James Brazier who then sent it to me as a computer file, for publication, many thanks to them for their kindness, enabling us all to have a copy.

As with many of these guides the advertisements, that funded the original publication, have now become important documents for those of interested in the history of the Isle of Thanet.

I am afraid due to my own incompetence I don’t have the contact details of Julian Smith and James Brazier, so I am unable to send them some free copies of the book.

So if either of you read this please email me

Click here for sample pages

Ramsgate a Complete Holiday Resort

Another of the old guides to Ramsgate that I reprint for you all today, although undated I think it’s about 1912 click here for some pages and pictures from the book

The New Ramsgate Guide for 1867

Some pages from this guide that I publish a reprint of to share with you all today.

These cheap Victorian guides to Ramsgate are incredibly difficult to obtain they are about as common as rocking horse droppings. One of the most interesting parts of them are the advertisements for local businesses of that time. The publisher of the guide would have used them to finance the printing. You will notice that a different typeface is used on nearly every line of them. I imagine that at a time when it was expensive to produce illustrations, the choice of type design was a major selling point to the proprietors of our local businesses.
I imagine that it was a successful venture as J Bear went on to produce a guide to the Isle of Thanet and one to Margate, that I know of, although I expect it will be difficult to get copies of them to reprint I will do my best

Click here for the pages from the guide

Keble's Penny Guide to Margate and the Isle of Thanet 1885

Another old Thanet Guide book that I publish a cheap reprint of for you all today, I have just put a fair amount of it up on the web, the pages are about the same size as the original.

Many thanks to Norman Munn, who is encouraging me to produce more Margate material, for lending me the original copy of this and other Margate publications to copy for publication.

Originals of Keble’s penny guides are very frail items just a careful read tends to make them fall to pieces, so it was with great pleasure that I was able to produce a more durable edition.

I hope the cover picture of Margate is about the right date frankly I am better at dating this sort of thing in Ramsgate.

It may be of some interest to know that the original copy was a printer’s proof this meant that all of the advertisements had been crossed through with pen. It was something of a labour of love to make them presentable for printing. The pencil notes showed the price of advertising in the original 30/- per page i.e. £1.50 straight conversion or about £30 at today’s value.

One further thought is that I am hoping to find a shop in the centre of Margate to sell my publications, especially the ones about Margate.

Click here to read some of this guide

Reflections from the book trade

I notice in this mornings news that publishers are starting to make whole books available online, as today’s news on the blogs is mostly about there being no news, with Thanet Life and Eastcliff Richard gone, if you have nothing to read I should point out that I jumped the gun on the big publishers.

So if you are finding like me that there is not much interesting local stuff to read this morning I hope this will fill the gap to some extent. Click on the links below for all or part of some of the books I publish.

All About Margate and Herne Bay

Occasional Ramsgate Writings

A Walk in and About the City of Canterbury

The Picturesque Pocket Companion To Margate Ramsgate Broadstairs & Parts Adjacent