Ramsgate Maritime Museum, what’s gone wrong?

Up until this morning I had assumed that the future of our maritime museum was secured, however just now things don’t look so good.

My vague enquiries recently suggested that the amount of people visiting the museum has been much more than was expected and that there were even hopes for the museum staying open for the winter.

The museum’s largest project is the restoration of the steam tug “Cervia” something I have been watching progress on a daily basis, for some time now the Cervia has been open to the public offering a unique chance to see a major steam restoration project in action.

This coming Monday was to have been the day that the Cervia should have been pulled up onto the slipway to have the urgently needed work on her hull plating done but nothing appears to have happened.

There is a coaster on the slipway with work going on that looks like it wont be finished by the end of Monday and none of the pontoons have been moved that would let the Cervia get out from her mooring.

Click on the link for the pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts10/id9.htm

The publicity surrounding the reopening of the museum said that this was all to be a joint project between Preston Steam Trust and Thanet District Council and since the Cervia and the museum have been swarming with people from the steam trust and volunteers for months now and the council don’t seem to have had much to say about the museum I find my alarm bells are ringing.

I have always had my suspicions that the council isn’t to keen on Ramsgate having a museum or any other tourist attractions for that matter, most likely they have got the clock house earmarked for some bizarre project.

Please place suggestions as to what you think our own dear council would like the building for, I shall start the ball rolling with an outlandish one of my own, after a very pleasant and somewhat liquid lunch, here goes:

Meregate town council having been told of a new round of government cuts leaked by national government officers decided to sell their most saleable asset Remisgate, Remisgate being a rather large asset the officers decided to split it up into bite sized chunks.

They started by selling off what they thought was Remisgate’s main leisure site for a huge development with plans that contravened environment agency safety advice, working on the principle that this would give Meregate’s leisure industry a great boost.

This however they soon realised was just small fry and they had really missed the towns main leisure site Remisgate port and harbour and they devised a plan to get vacant position of all the buildings they leased out in the harbour and to get rid of all the staff to make the whole complex more desirable to a potential new owner.

George Martin Hinds Ramsgate Cartographer.

I have just received the following information by email:

“George Martin Hinds was almost certainly the man who drew up 'The Hinds Map'; he was also my great-great grandfather.

He was born in Ramsgate in 1802 and became an Architect & Surveyor, joining the Ramsgate firm of the architect Collard. He married the boss's daughter, always a good career move, in 1829 and eventually took over the firm. He had several sons, one of whom, Brook Hinds, also became an architect, and another, Henry Hinds (1834-1924), who was my great-grandfather, became a surveyor. My grandfather, H.G.R.Hinds (1866-1956) was also a surveyor. The office of the family business was established at 57 Queen Street and remained there until the 1950s; the business records of the family firm from 1817-1950s are deposited in the East Kent Archive Office.

George Martin Hinds was a complex character; he was responsible for many buildings within Ramsgate, several of which are still present today, including the synagogue, which has been mentioned recently in the blogs; he was also involved in matters of the town, overseeing works for the poor. In addition he was much interested in maritime matters, as well as being chapel preacher, learning Hebrew so that he could understand the bible more thoroughly. The last member of the Hinds family to live in Ramsgate was my aunt, Mary Hinds, who died in the 1990s.

Alison Hinds”

Ed, I am in the middle of a difficult period at the moment and am just catching up on some of the correspondence I have had recently. One of the things I have been working on is a reprint of my 1849 map of Ramsgate, still not finished to my satifaction.

Below my reply to Alison Hinds.

Hi Alison this is very interesting indeed, I have often thought that Hinds’s 1849 map of Ramsgate was just too good to be a crib of Collard and Hurst’s 1822 map with revisions.

I am pretty much convinced by the similarity of style that they were both drawn by the same hand and as Hinds was working for Collard’s I think it fairly safe to assume that Hinds drew both maps.

The only surviving copy of the 1822 map that I know of was destroyed in Ramsgate library fire, various black and white copies of Hind’s 1849 map survive however I have the only known coloured one. These maps were coloured then cut into sections and mounted on linen, the quality of the colouring is such that I think it likely that it was done by Hinds.

If you didn’t find it this link will take you to a copy of the map http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/map1849/

My understanding was that the synagogue was designed by David Mocatta, a pupil of Sir John Soane and architect for railway stations on the Brighton Line, so I would be very interested in more information on Hinds involvement.

My 1849 directory lists George Martin Hinds as architect, surveyor, auctioneer, appraiser and agent to the Kent Mutual Fire Office, his address at that time being 37 Queen St. The numbering of Queen St was different at that time so it would be difficult to identify the actual building if it still exists today.

With his map of Thanet see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2008/01/map-madness.html I am fairly certain it was drawn in 1819 or earlier suggesting he was 17 or younger, this is consistent with its more primitive style.

It is interesting that three important Ramsgate history books date it as 1871 and the map they show includes additions made in 1895 when Hinds would have been 93 were he alive.

SHADOW UPDATE 17/09/09

Labour Shadow Team comments on Thursday evenings TDC Cabinet meeting.


Introduction

TDC Labour Group Leader Cllr. Clive Hart said "several items discussed on Thursday evening will kick-start start public consultations that will prove extremely interesting over the next few months. Labour councillors believe in open and comprehensive engagement with residents and we will be monitoring all consultations very closely indeed".

Cllr. Clive Hart - Phone: 01843 298770

Item 4 Budget Monitoring Report

Shadow Cabinet Member Cllr. Peter Campbell raised concern that the council was to repay £58.6K of ERDF grant which was due to recipients failing to meet their grant conditions.

Cllr. Peter Campbell - Phone: 01843 585738

Shadow Cabinet Member Cllr. Iris Johnston also raised the following issues from the report:
9.1 Concerns that there was £32k underspend on the HRA account through savings on supervision at a time she was raising concerns with officers on the performance of one particular contractor. She emphasised the need for even more monitoring not less.
9.2 Cllr. Johnston welcomed the Cabinet member’s agreed reduction of Council tenant’s rent increases be limited to 3.1% in line with the Labour Government’s recommendations. She had highlighted this need at Full Council as a necessity last Spring. (The Labour Government had insisted all councils must keep any increases to a minimum and Cllr. Johnston ensured TDC passed on this information to tenants at the earliest opportunity thus cutting the increase by almost half.)
9.3. Cllr. Johnston asked if officers had started the consultation process which ends on 27th October which changes original systems of redistributing revenue. A council officer admitted that TDC had a better than most arrangements at present and that work was commencing.
Page 18 Cllr Johnston asked if the 76k referred to in the report for Margate Connections and apparently earmarked for even more works outside the cafe G was remainder money from the original European funding for the Turner Way or TDC’s own money. She expressed concern that so much had been spent on the project which had had significant problems. Cllr. Ezekiel was unable to answer and asked his officer to advise.
Cllr Johnston also referred to the failed expensive purchase of the old Marks and Spencer site and the TDC land beside the Hairdressers which is now derelict She questioned if the 812.190K listed was SEEDa money which the officer confirmed was the case.( None of the promises made by the Conservatives on a major retail development with 86 flats and offices has been met and the 4.9 million expenditure appears as Labour suspected to have been a very foolish venture for TDC).
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
Item 7 Corporate Performance Pack
Margate renewal: Cllr. Johnston expressed grave concern that herself and Cllr. John Watkins who constantly are the first to raise issues in their Margate central Ward are not represented at Margate Renewal Partnership meetings. She referred to a specific meeting last week with the Chamber of Commerce.
Councillor Ezekiel was dismissive of her role as an elected representative and said as he was the Vice Chair of the Margate Renewal Partnership he saw no need for her involvement.
Cllr. Johnston, who has been a councillor since 1995 said when Labour Controlled TDC they always involved ward councillors and that she wanted a presentation on how monies were being spent in the ward.
( Councillor Johnston has specifically asked for Scrutiny to look at all grants handed out by the Margate Renewal Partnership but Conservative Chairman Bob Bayford has yet to confirm when this is likely to happen An Overview and Scrutiny meeting for 1st September was cancelled through lack of business)
Transport Links. Cllr. Johnston asked that any plans to develop transport links must include requests made in petitions with thousands of signatures on improved bus services which should include Sunday and other services. She referred to the latest petition due to be presented on 15th October and her disappointment that the Joint Transportation meeting due this month had been cancelled citing ‘lack of business’
Page 55. Cllr. Johnston raised issues on the absence of officers at a recent Margate Central PACT meeting. She said it was essential suitably qualified officers were in attendance.
P57. Cllr. Johnston said the 32% reduction in available man hours was evident in the poor state of some parts of Thanet. Lack of watering of gardens and street cleaning as well as the shelter at Primark proved the failures She had no answer to her request as to when the Schmit cleaner was to be repaired to clean the streets..
Page 61 Cllr. Johnston suggested the Council’s promise of ‘delivering a quality service as landlord to council tenants ‘ was not met in the production of a leaflet to Council tenants in East Kent which Thanet representatives had objected to at draft stage. Mr Brendan Ryan Housing officer dismissed her concerns by saying that it would nbe impossible to produce a leaflet and incorporate the tenants reprentative views. Councillor Johnston had no response to her question ‘Was the leaflet already printed when tenants said last week met with Mr Ryan and discussed their concerns?’
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207

Item 8 Preferred Options for Local Development Framework Core Strategy

Speaking for the Labour Group Cllr. Clive Hart said "I have to say we do have some concerns with this document - mainly around the change of use of land at Eurokent Westwood where it is suggested employment land is given over to housing. The previous Labour administration at TDC had to fight long and hard to get this land designated for employment and following a group meeting on Tuesday that remains our position.

However, we firmly believe in engaging with local people to hear their views so we welcome a formal public consultation providing it is genuinely open and comprehensive. Employment must remain a firm priority for the council!

Now - speaking as a local councillor in Margate & Cliftonville - I also have concerns about suggestions to shorten Margate High Street as a shopping centre and the proposal to encourage businesses away from the top end is very questionable indeed - the natural free-market that exists at present is producing exactly the opposite effect with the lower half where the retail core is proposed in this document, is suffering badly".

Cllr. Clive Hart - Phone: 01843 298770

Cllr. Peter Campbell then asked about safeguarding and increasing the proportion of housing stock in Thanet as opposed to flats and a council officer assured him that the proposed core strategy would help in this regard. Indeed if the proposed policy was adopted there would be a clear emphasis on houses instead of flats on future developments sites. Cllr. Campbell also asked that all Planning Members be fully briefed on any changes to policy if and when they were adopted.

Cllr. Peter Campbell - Phone: 01843 585738

Item 13 Potential Asset Disposals 2010 - 2011

Cllr. Clive Hart raised concerns about land in Cliftonville that was on the schedule of TDC assets for potential disposal - the front strip of land at Palm Bay Recreation Ground that lies adjacent to Palm Bay School in Palm Bay Avenue.

Cllr. Hart told Cabinet "I'm informed by residents that details of a covenant should be in the Council's records, as years ago, when it was decided that the recreation site could not be developed, there had to be special permission sought to use a piece of the land for the school playing field. Indeed, I seem to recollect there was strong local opposition to Palm Bay school, especially from residents living in the close vicinity at the time".

In response Cllr. Ezekiel explained that he had indeed Chaired a residents 'Action Group' meeting at the time the school was being planned where objections were raised.

Cllr. Clive Hart - Phone: 01843 298770

Cllr. Johnston raised the issues of covenants on land at Hartsdown Park.
Councillor Ezekiel confirmed he had chaired meetings in the past on possible building on open space in Palm Bay and the officer said the legal department were looking in to covenants. Councillor Johnston said the old lavatory block in Westbrook had been part of a planning discussion with the owners of the Sea Bathing at the original Planning stage. She had had a commitment for their reopening using planning gain funds. KCC had also promised to repair the retaining wall since at least 2001 but had not done so despite her many requests.
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207

A process of engagement and public consultation should now take place on potential asset disposal sites.

Published by Thanet Labour Group Press Office - 44 Northdown Road, Margate, CT9 2RW.

Thanet Vision 2030

I just spotted this on the TDC website feed click on the link to read

http://www.thanet.gov.uk/council__democracy/thanet_vision.aspx?lang=en-gb

It’s an interesting insight into how our local government hopes to direct the future of this area.

The Bells the Bells, Health and Safety? Gone Mad in Birchington.

There is a long history of bells and bell ringing in Birchington going back well over 500 years, the earliest recorded mention of them in the parish records is in 1532.

Item ij new belroyps on to the grett bell and other to the small bell xviiid (1/6 in old money 7 ½ p in new money about £40 at today’s value)

Click here for more details from the book “A History of the Ville of Birchington 1893 by J P Barrett I produce a cheap reprint of this book from the best edition (1908 reprint with additional annals) click here should you wish to buy it.

Although the only connection with TV series and Waterloo tower that I know of is that it appeared in a 1978 Blakes7 episode, on arrival at Quex Park I was greeted by the device in the picture above, click on it to enlarge and was immediately reminded of the TV series The Prisoner.

I am ever mindful that Thanet is an island and with the steady increase of denizens combined with the advances in technology, every time I leave it I check that the exit road hasn’t turned into the entrance road and all escapes have been closed.

Anyway back to the surveillance point or whatever it is, looking at this thing, first impressions suggested that all would not be well with this visit and that the nasty modern world had invaded Amicus Kentis.

Last time I visited the bell tower there, an open day probably about 15 years ago, the most pleasant part of the visit was the viewing gallery, situated in the metal spire 77 feet above Quex Park the views are quite remarkable.

Now the only part of going up the tower (not the viewing gallery I could understand members of the public not being allowed up there) that could by any stretch of the imagination be considered dangerous is ascending the narrow spiral staircases inside one of the turrets.

On yesterdays visit I was told that now heath and safety regulations meant that one could only go up the tower as far as the first floor (nothing much there and you can’t see out of the windows), no one there seemed to know quite why this was the case, the spiral staircase between the other floors is just the same, equally safe or dangerous however you like to see it, all the bells were down, so no danger there.

So no photographs of either the bells or the view only, the only person I knew connected with Quex, who I am sure would have been quite happy to let me all the way up the tower, was Christopher Powell Cotton unfortunately he died in 2006.

Click here for the pictures I did take, I got a bit diverted into photographing various cracks that have appeared in the tower, these don’t seem to be consistent with stresses caused by ringing the bells and interested me.

Some notes on the tower, sources “The Waterloo Tower at Quex Park” by Hazel Basford (8 pages A5 50p published by The Quex park Society of Change ringers) and http://www.quexringers.org/pages/change-ringers.htm but mostly from my own researches.

Information about why John Powell Powell the local squire decided to build his own bell tower is scant.

Tradition has it that he offered various bells and to build a bell tower at the west end of Birchington church, there is no information now as to why his offers were spurned the Powle family have been at Quex since 1673 (vide Hasted vol X 1800), I am assuming the family is the same and the spelling only has changed.

John Powell Powell also built a second tower on his estate for another of his pleasures, the discharging of cannon (vide Ireland vol I 1828 who also points out that nearby is Plum-pudding island, a resort for pugilists exempt from the intrusion of constables &c.) so perhaps he didn’t need a reason.

I digress back to the bells, when completed in 1819 it was the first bell tower in Kent to have a ring of 12 bells the next to this being Canterbury cathedral having only 10 bells at that time.

The tenor bell is inscribed "This peal of bells was cast for John Powell Powell of Quex House, Isle of Thanet, by Thos. Mears of Whitechapel, London, for the amusement of himself and his friends". A truly secular peal!

The architect was William Fuller Pocock the cost of the tower was about £9,000 a considerable sum at that time. The height of the top of the metal spire is 124 ft the top of the brick tower being 60 ft 6 ins above ground.

Originally the bells were hung in two tiers on an oak frame, the bells were cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundry and various recastings have been done by them over the years (people that build bell towers for their own amusement don’t expect to go back to the shop for repairs after a mere 200 years and find they no longer have the spare parts) the last being in 1989 the result of a freak accident when the wooden stopper became detached and jammed bringing the 9th bell to a dead stop and severely cracking it. This bell weighing I believe about 9cwt was then smashed up in the tower and thrown over the side of the tower, the shards being collected up for recasting on the floor of the ringing room. The recast bell was the hoisted up the tower with considerable difficulty and rehung without removing any of the other bells, an operation not without risk.

I should note here that there is an iron grating in the middle of the ringing room, on the ground floor of the tower, under this is a shallow well with short passages leading from it, they don’t go anywhere and are not worth ruining a perfectly good pair of trousers over.

The boards in the ringing room record various feats of campanology, the rules here are always the same, one band of ringers for the duration, no one is allowed a rest or to let go of their rope. If anything goes wrong the peal is considered lost and the ringing stops. As an example of what I mean, the boards record that in 1959 a long length of the Cambridge Surprise Major was rung 13,280 changes taking 8 hours 12 minutes.

Quex bell tower and Pugin’s Grange open today.

Just in case you were wondering what to do today a couple of local buildings that are normally closed are open to the public, as far as I know entry is free.

This is part of The 2009 Heritage Open Days see http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/laa/Thanet/

The Grange is well worth a look at click on the links for pictures (not very good) of previous open days
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/grange/index.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/grange2008/

you may also find these pictures of the collapse of Pugin’s gallery in 1947 interesting.
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/collapse/

It is some time since I went up the bell tower at Quex Park and if I have any pictures I can’t find them

Kent International Airport Night Flights and the Margate colour bar

The arguments over airport expansion seem to have split into two main arguments one being night flights and the other all of the rest.

I have made no secret of the fact that my main concerns over airport expansion relate to the water drainage and pollution issues. I believe that securing a safe and sustainable future for our water supply and agriculture see far overrides any noise considerations, I am not saying that the noise isn’t an issue, we are all pretty blurry today after being woken at 3am by noisy drunks arguing outside. I don’t know if to blame the crazy national government that introduced 24 hour drinking or the crazy local government that suddenly let the takeaways here open to 4am without any local consultation for that one.

Back to the aircraft noise issue, as an historian I should say that the first reference I can find to this was before commercial flights started at Manston, back in 1958 when the American flying officers found the aircraft noise too trying to live with and elected to live on the north side of the island.

My understanding is that they lived Mostly in the Margate area and the U.S.A.F authorities operated a form of apartheid banning "coloured American" airmen from the Margate area.

They considered Ramsgate with the aircraft noise only suitable for “coloured Americans” who they obviously considered to be second-class citizens.

You may well think I have lost the plot here with a black American president and a black chairman of the Ramsgate Society, if so click on the link the link to read the newspaper article http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts2/id71.htm

The question begged here is, do our councillors and council officers consider the people of Ramsgate to be second-class citizens now?

There has been some debate over what it is that KIA are asking for, reading the documentation it would appear they would like an unspecified amount of night flights, I would appreciate it if anyone refuting this could show their references, here are mine.

http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Published/C00000144/M00001793/AI00003333/$AirportWorkingParty17September2009Draftconsultationpla.doc.htm

http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Published/C00000144/M00001793/AI00003333/$Annex1DraftConsultationPlan_v1.doc.htm

http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Published/C00000144/M00001793/AI00003332/$AirportWorkingParty17Septembnighttimeflyingpolicyappl.doc.htm

http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Published/C00000144/M00001779/AI00003163/$AirportWorkingPartyMinutes19May2009.doc.htm


http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Published/C00000144/M00001779/AI00003165/$19Aug09NighttimeflyingTDCNewsRelease_v1.doc.htm


http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Published/C00000144/M00001779/AI00003165/$AirportWorkingParty26August2009NightTimeFlying.doc.htm

Airport Working PartyThursday, 17th September, 2009 5.00 pm
See http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=1793
As this information is published by our own dear council it neither tells us where the meeting is, who will be able to attend or if members of the public are allowed to speak.

I expect all of the usual contenders will be involved in both meetings and I expect a great deal of money will be expended however as the government have just announced that £16m was spent by them to find out that the Phoenix Four, had it away with £42 million this will be comparatively insignificant.

Picture from shows 109s at Manston.

The East Kent Critic September 1969

Back to Thanet forty years ago and more of this magazine for those of you that are interested, click on the link to read the whole issue http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/EastKentCritic/id5.htm

Reading through this edition I find it equates much more with my memory of the period than present day perceptions of the swinging 60s.