CLIFFSEND & PEGWELL BAY

 Cliffsend is an unremarkable hamlet on the coast road between Sandwich and Ramsgate. However, the coastline across the road is remarkable. This is Pegwell Bay, home to a complex mosaic of habitats of international importance for its' bird population.  I remember in the 70s going there to watch a pair of nesting flamingos!

It is also home to the Viking Long Ship 'Hugin'. This  was a gift from the Danish government in commemoration of the 1500th anniversary of the A.D. 449 migration from Jutland (modern Denmark) to Kent of Hengist and Horsa, Jutes who became leaders of the Anglo-Saxon invasion. The ship is a replica of the much later ca. 890 Gokstad ship. Horsa was killed in battle, but Hengist later became the first King of Kent. 

The boat was built in Denmark from where it was sailed by 53 Danes to England in 1949. The ship landed at Viking Bay in Kent, before being moved to its current site. In 2005 the ship underwent repairs.

Pegwell Bay is surrounded by gentle chalk and flint cliffs. Until the building of the Hoverport in the late 60s, it remained very little changed for centuries. Thus it looked very much the same as it was when William Dyce painted it in 1858

Just a little inland, behind all the new houses that have been built at Cliffsend, you will come upon St. Augustine's Cross. I can remember when it stood at the junction of all the main roads onto the Isle of Thanet. Now, with the advent of new road systems and the new Thanet Parkway railway station, it stands peacefully in the corner of a field, sheltered from the traffic noise and pollution on the new road.

This 19th century cross of Saxon design marks what is traditionally thought to have been the site of St Augustine's landing on the shores of England in AD 597. Accompanied by 30 followers, Augustine is said to have held a mass here before moving on. It is also where an important meeting between St Augustine and King Æthelberht of Kent is said to have taken place nearly 1,500 years ago.

*not to be confused with Ebbsfleet in Medway

The cross was commissioned in 1884 by Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, at the time Minister for Foreign Affairs and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
He was inspired to erect it after hearing the story of a massive oak tree felled within living memory and known as the Augustine Oak, one of a group of trees fringing a field which he owned.

According to local legend, under this oak in AD 597 the first meeting was held between King Æthelberht and the monk Augustine, newly arrived from Rome.
Augustine had recently landed on the Isle of Thanet, having been sent by Pope Gregory to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity and thereby re-establish the faith in a country in which it had faded with the fall of the Roman Empire.
Not far to the south-east was the stream in which, the legend tells us, Augustine baptised his first convert and which subsequently became known as St Augustine’s Well.
Tradition holds that Æthelberht was converted to Christianity and Augustine baptised him on Whit Sunday in AD 597. On Christmas Day of that year, according to a papal letter of AD 598, more than 10,000 baptisms were carried out.

Standing over 7 metres tall, the cross carries carvings illustrating the Christian story on its west side: the Annunciation, the Virgin and Child, the Crucifixion and the Transfiguration. On the north side are the 12 apostles, on the south side 14 early Christian martyrs. The east side has runic ornamentation which continues nearly halfway down the shaft, the design then breaking into panels showing St Alban, St Augustine and Æthelberht.
A Latin inscription commemorating the meeting of Æthelberht and Augustine, composed by Dr Liddell, Dean of Christchurch, is carved into the base of the cross.