Washed away

Click in the map to enlarge it

Back in either the 14 or 1500s I will look it up exactly the monks and other farmers reclaimed the land between Chislet and St Nicolas with the winds and therefore the stormy seas in this area coming predominately from the North and West this quite quickly lead to the land shaded grey on the map being reclaimed.

Now I have just read in the Isle of Thanet Gazette that in these times of rising sea levels and increased storm activity Thanet District Council has agreed to remove the sea defences between Minnis Bay and Reculver Towers.

As the designers of the first attempt at the Turner Centre learnt to their cost, you don’t mess with the sea on the North Thanet coast, the great sigh of relief after the 1953 surge storm was that this wall held.

Only 307 people lost their lives in the UK in this storm, in the Netherlands where the sea defences were breached 1,800 people drowned.

I beggars belief these people admit that the Thanet Way will have to go onto a bridge and so will the North coast railway line.

Click here to read the article

More Pictures of Ramsgate

Some more old postcards of Ramsgate click here to look at them I have just got the first of a series of new books of them out. The picture above shows the marina Bathing Station, later the marina Pool was built on this site, now unfortunately a car park like so many of our leisure facilities.

Sackett’s Stone Masons

This is a rather unusual photograph of Sackett’s Stone Masons in Church Hill Ramsgate that some of you may not have seen before, one wonders what a health and safety inspector would have to say about it nowadays.

Pictures of the Wellington Crescent area

I have put up some old pictures of the Eastcliff including the one above that shows a previous temporary fence, in those days one you could see over the top of click here to view them and a few recent ones Click here to view them

BUILDING THE RAILWAY VIADUCT OVER MARGATE ROAD

I am still working on David Richards new book “Ramsgate All Change” about the railways in Ramsgate, I hope to have it out next week, what I lack however is any pictures of the construction of the main line railway tunnel to Ramsgate Sands Station, or any contemporary newspaper articles about it, any help with this would be much appreciated. Anyway here is another snippet from the book to share with you all.

BUILDING THE RAILWAY VIADUCT OVER MARGATE ROAD

In sinking the foundations of the piers of the viaduct across the Margate Road, in four out of the five, the engineers discovered after they had commenced that they were faced with problems. In the case of the first pier, they had not gone down far when to their amazement they discovered a disused chalk pit, which at some remote date had been loosely filled with ashes and rubbish and forgotten. That had to be cleared out and properly filled. On the next pier they discovered a relic of the First World War, a huge dug-out. That had to be explored and filled. Next, an old sewer, which they had to bridge, and when they imagined their difficulties overcome, they dug down to a water main, which also had to be bridged.

KNOW YOUR BACKSIDE FROM YOUR FAKIE

Reading through the latest batch of Thanet Times articles on the internet I came across rather a cryptic one click here to view it I have since had a translation from someone young enough to understand it but it certainly gives new meaning to cub reporting.

More postcards of old Ramsgate.

I have published another one of my web pages with a lot of old pictures of Ramsgate

Click here to see them

his one is interesting as it shows the final stages of the demolition of Ramsgate pier.


In this one you can see the temporary rail track for the construction of the Marina pool

Fredrick Rogers Ramsgate 1913

I received rather a charming letter today containing the picture above, usually there are plenty of unusual postcards of old Ramsgate but scant explanation of what they are of so this one makes a pleasant change.

Runner number 37 is Fredrick Rogers pictured here in 1913 he spent his working life in Ramsgate police force. Click here to read the letter.