King Street Ramsgate in 1970 and the usual day off ramble

This time it’s King Street in Ramsgate from the 1971 street directory, reprinted with kind permission of Kelly’s Directories as part of my local history publishing project. For the very keen here is the link to the buy it now button http://michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/ramsgate_street_directory_1971.htm

The alternative is to come into the bookshop here in Ramsgate and have a browse of the inside of the directories, this kind of very dense information is usually easiest to digest from paper rather than the screen.

The picture at the top is 67 to 75  in 1903 which by 1971 was the Co Op, the pictures in the post should expand if clicked on.

Just remembered and added this picture from 1968

Folkestone for me today where I bought a few books for the bookshop, a few for myself, sat outside Chocolate Café did a bit of watercolour sketching and various bits of shopping that can no longer be done in the Thanet towns was done.

On the way we stopped of at the The Women's Land Army Museum at Little Farthingloe Farm, (Folkestone Rd, Dover, CT15 7AA) this is a small free museum next to the farm café and restaurant. This is a useful stop off if you have children with you, play ground, woodland trail, decent pot of tea.

Folkestone like Margate is being regenerated with art as a central theme to the regeneration however the big difference is that while Margate has lost its conventional town centre based around chain shops Folkestone hasn’t.

Here are a few phone photos from the day. 

 I seem to have got a bit carried away with Trevor the Tractor

Back to work in the bookshop tomorrow so this is the link to the pictures of the books that went out on the shelves yesterday 

A couple of empty Ramsgate shops have just gone on the market, to be quite honest I never really know what to make of Ramsgate town centre now, in one sense it looks pretty bad, while the café culture on Harbour Parade seems to be doing OK.

Obviously I have a bookshop in King Street and this is a fairly busy shop as bookshops go.  

Ramsgate High Street in 1970

A shopping trip in Ramsgate High Street in 1971, sorry if you are too young for this, up one side from No.1 Midland Bank, or up the other from The Wimpy Bar, its up to you.

As you probably know I produce reprints of directories for the Thanet towns covering various years from 1849 to 1971. The main idea here is checking up on where granny lived or the identity of ghost that keeps leaving the red stain on the floor of your house. 

The pictures above are pages from the 1971 directory covering Ramsgate High Street, I will probably do some other streets. The photo at the top is last year. 

There are two sorts of directory, one sort where the names of the people and businesses are arranged in alphabetical order and the other sort where the streets are arranged in alphabetical order.

Of course in recent years high streets have mostly not done too well (I think the picture sums up the problem) and those with out of town shopping centres nearby have done particularly badly.

For anyone who has got a bit carried away with this one here is the link to the buy it now buttons http://michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/an_isle_of_thanet_directory_1849.htm

It's Thursday tomorrow so my bookshop is closed as it is on Sundays and bank holidays, on other days you can of course come into the bookshop here in Ramsgate and browse away inside the directories. 

Before the High Street in Ramsgate was called High Street it was called West End and I assume before Ramsgate was Ramsgate it was the track to the sea from the village of St Lawrence.

Back in around 1400 when this map was drawn Ramsgate didn't feature on it at all.

A quick watercolour sketch of Ramsgate lift from the Pavilion, photo of a couple of fishing smacks on the crosswall and out and about photos

I skived off late this afternoon to the Pav for a bit of sketching

Here is a photo for any aspiring art critics, at the moment having somewhere with the sun mostly behind me and a reasonably comfortable chair within a short walk from the bookshop is a temptation I can't resist. Come the winter I don't think there is anywhere really practicable, so less sketching.

I would guess this picture of Ramsgate fishing smacks tied up at the crosswall dates from around 1900.

The post Pav perambulation was fairly brief

 as you see the light was going

  Worth it however to see this James Handyvan that dates from around 1930

Work wise this is the link to the books that went out in the bookshop today

Ramsgate Tugs Aid One, Two and Three etc. and There’s a hole in my photobucket a hole.

This is a picture of various work-boats in Ramsgate Harbour, I think the one with its funnel closest to the lighthouse it the bucket dredger Hope and assume that the one next to it with the number 2 on it is a barge for carrying away the dredger spoil. Identifying the one in the foreground is beyond me, maybe for laying buoys or maybe a tug being used for that.

as a follow on from yesterday's post a bit of research about the Ramsgate tugs called Aid, not sure all of the info is correct particularity on Aid 2 which I couldn't find more than one online source for and nothing in books. I am fairly sure of the rest of it. 

The three Ramsgate Tugboats all called Aid, actually I think tugboat may be an Americanism, but then tugs at Ramsgate is easily confused with the Dickensian Tuggs at Ramsgate.

This is Ramsgate tug Aid 1 1865-1891

Aid [1] Built 1855 by Money Wigram & Sons, Blackwall.  Wood paddle tug. L89.2'. B18'. D8.9'. 112grt. 50nhp 2cyl compound steam engine by  John Stewart, Blackwall. ON24691.

1855 Delivered to The Royal Harbour of Ramsgate Trust, London. 1865 Owners The Board of Trade, London. 1890 Sold to John W Spicer & others, Wapping, London. 1891 Sold to James T Morgan & others, London. 1899 Owners The Shipowners' Tug Co Ltd, London. 1900 Sold to Dutch owners.

This is Ramsgate tug Aid 2, not the tall ship but the tug with two funnels, possibly 1890-1914 

Aid [2] Built by W. Allsup & sons of Preston she arrived at Ramsgate in 1890 and was a 120 h.p. twin-funnelled paddle tug of 194 tons, 

She worked from Ramsgate until July 1914; was put up for sale, eventually being bought by the Admiralty in July 1915 and transferred to Dover. She was sold by the Navy in 1919 in Constantinople ??

This is Ramsgate tug Aid 3, she seems to be towing Ramsgate tug Doria 

Aid, [3] built 1914 by Bow, McLachlan and Co., Paisley.  Yard number 313.
90ftx18ftx9ft, 500 hp.
September 1914 delivered to Ramsgate Harbour Trustees.
1921, owners Ministry of transport, London.
1934, owners Borough of Ramsgate.
1937, owners Risdon Beazley.
28.8.1939, requisitioned by Royal Navy.
June 1940, at Dunkirk.

29.11.1940, sunk by German destroyer 7 miles off Start Point, 5 crew lost.

another of Aid 2

and another

This one Vulcan, note before the tower on the Granville was lowered in 1900

This would have been a better post, but much of the internet part of the research was on online forums and these have been decimated by Photobucket suddenly charging for third party image hosting.   

This means that the majority of the pictures on the history forums have gone and been replaced by a message from Photobucket telling the the person who put the image there they have to pay money to Photobucket.

The main thing Ramsgate tugs are noted for, depicted in this painting by Frederick Tudgay, is towing the Ramsgate lifeboat out to rescues. mostly this involves towing to upwind of the wreck on the Goodwin Sands, letting the rowed lifeboat go across the shallow water ans steaming around to the deep water on the other side to pick up survivors.

Here are the photos of the books that went out in the bookshop today http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/pigeon-wars-in-bookshop.html