RAMSGATE

 A 'gate' as in Ramsgate, and Margate, is a gap in the cliffs. In this case, the gap is named for some ancient person, whose name I can't translate into readable modern English)

Today, after I had completed a tour of the old part of Margate, and because I had to pass Ramsgate on my way home, I popped down to the Royal Harbour, because there were a couple of unusual vessels in. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get close to them.

The first one is the Dutch owned 'Morgenster'. She calls in at either Dover or Ramsgate almost annually. The Morgenster (Morning Star in Dutch) is a sail training ship based in the Netherlands. She was built, as a herring lugger under the name 'De Vrouw Maria', in 1919. In 1927, she was lengthened by 7 metres (23 ft) and converted into a motor fishing vessel. She was renamed Morgenster in 1959 and continued to be used as a fishing vessel until 1970. After a period of use for sport fishing and in the pirate radio business, she was acquired by her current owners for conversion back to a sailing vessel in 1983. She made her maiden voyage as a sail training ship in 2008, having been refitted as a brig.

El Galeón Andalucía is a replica of the type of vessel used by the Spanish Crown for maritime expeditions from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Built in 2009, El Galeón is a tall ship unlike any other – a floating museum with over 3,400 square feet of deck space filled with exhibits for visitors to explore.  Galleons were intended to discover and then establish trade routes between Spain, America and the Philippines islands, and formed the then called Fleet of the Indies.
With an innovative design at the time, galleons were armed merchant vessels with tonnages ranging from 500 to 1,200, whereas their lengths-over-all would range from 130 to 200 feet. They were designed to cross the largest oceans as efficiently as possible. For three centuries, these Spanish galleons crossed the Atlantic Ocean back and forth, sailed around the Caribbean Sea and the American coasts, and covered the Pacific route as well. They carried plenty of seamen, merchant traders and settlers, while their holds bore the fabulous loads resulting from American and Asian trade.

As well as these two guests, Ramsgate has its' own showpiece. The ST Cervia is currently undergoing restoration as a steam museum. She was built in 1946 as a seagoing tug for use as a fleet auxiliary by Alexandra Hall & Company Ltd of Aberdeen, Scotland.

As Ramsgate has the only Royal harbour in Great Britain, let's start here: 

Ramsgate’s Royal Harbour has been designated as a national Heritage Harbour, only one of 14 locations across the United Kingdom to receive this important designation.

Heritage Harbours is a joint initiative between local groups and Historic England, the Maritime Heritage Trust and National Historic Ships. Its aims include: protecting heritage assets at risk; attracting investment and heritage funding.

Heritage Harbours supports the safeguarding and conservation of the UK’s most historic coastal and waterway locations, along with the buildings, quays, shipyards, and environments that make them special.

the Grade II* Royal Harbour’s new status, was awarded in July, 2024

Below is the time ball pole. The ball is hoisted up to the top and dropped at precisely 1 o'clock, to give the ships out at sea a way to accurately set their chronometers.

The board here is to remind sailors of the difference in time between Greenwich and Ramsgate. Before Greenwich Mean Time was established as a reliable measure of time, if you were a sailor on England's south coast you set your chronometer by the clock atop Ramsgate's Old Clock House tower. Ramsgate Mean Time was a commonly used reference for south coast captains prior to Greenwich becoming a new standard in the 1840s.

Although Ramsgate Mean Time is no longer observed, the clock still shows its face to the world, and to the myriad of ships and pleasure craft that crowd the harbour. 

The Clock House is now a maritime museum, bursting with memorabilia of Ramsgate's seafaring heritage. Outside the museum is a moving memorial to the pilots who perished during Operation Fuller, 'The Channel Dash', a vain attempt to stop German boats leaving Brest harbour during World War II.

There is a very similar memorial to Operation Fuller on the seafront in Dover

You know, charities, organisations, even councils, spend a lot of money of these bespoke monuments, and then just leave them to deteriorate until they become largely unreadable, It feels almost like an insult to those that they represent. Maybe there should be some sort of national monument cleaning operation

In WWII, Ramsgate acted as the main port for the rescue of soldiers from Dunkirk. The harbour was the main assembly point for the build-up of 'little ships' needed for Operation Dynamo. Once the evacuation was underway, 4,200 ships sailed from the harbour to rescue the troops. 80,000 men were brought back to safety in Ramsgate, and a further 46,722 were landed in Margate.

The Royal Sailors' Rest Hotel

The mariners' pub has a row of ships' propellers all round it

The lovely brick arches which were home to ship's chandlers, but now are mostly cafes and bars, are interspersed with these medallions. Some show the Invicta horse of Kent, and others bear the Cinque Port arms

With Ramsgate being home to some of the 'Little Ships' that sailed to Dunkirk, part of the Royal Harbour has been set aside for Historic Vessels. This is 'Starbuck', which was armed with machine guns during WWII and escorted convoys to Egypt

Tucked away next to the 'Jacob's Ladder' stairway from the town down to the harbour, is the Sailor's church. It originally provided accommodation for sailors as well as being a place of worship

This is the harbour-side home for 'smack boys'. Smack Boys were sort of apprentices on the fishing boats.

The sailor's home could do with a little TLC, I think.

A memorial plaque on the wall of the sailor's church.

And finally............an old picture from the 1980s of the entrance to the Royal Harbour

And so to the rest of the town..............

The Obelisk stands in the middle of the pedestrianised area at one end of the harbour. It was erected to commemorate King George IV sailing to Hanover from there, and returning to the same place.

This is the Royal Victoria Pavilion, now a Wetherspoon's pub.

The steps above were designed by Augustus Pugin, and no two of the tiled risers are the same (before you ask, there's 31 of the b*ggers!)

The domed building is the disused lift down to the beach. Not sure what the chimney stacks serve.

That Marx man again. I've lost count of how many times we've come across him in different towns. He seemed unable to settle anywhere. This time, however, he had cause, as his daughter Jenny lived there.

When we were younger, these gardens were full of flowers, with little pools of trickling water and small waterfalls. It's so sad to see them now neglected

World War I memorial

This hill is Madeira Drive, and in 1905, a tram was making its' usual run down the hill, when it slipped off the line, crashed through the railings and dropped over the 30ft. cliff edge. Amazingly, there were no serious injuries

These gates close off the High Street to traffic

The Kent Invicta horse is found all over Ramsgate

The Littlers were big time impressarios in the theatre in the first half of the 20th. century

The Crown has been a pub since 1853. It is now a community-run pub, and still very popular, I believe.

Ramsgate seems to have more than its' fair share of blue plaques, but looking at the houses, they once used to be quite upmarket, and Queen Victoria came to stay!

Sambourne was illustrator for Punch magazine for over 40 years

William Wilkie Collins  was an English novelist and playwright known especially for The Woman in White (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for The Moonstone (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre.

I hadn't realised until today, that Van Gogh lived and worked in Kent. He lived in a house fronting onto lovely gardens, and worked in a house on the other side of the square. So where better to place his statue than in the middle?

This one caught my eye, for one thing it was in a window, not a plaque affixed to  wall, and for another, it's not so much for a person of fame, but rather for a local person who did good works. There are tunnels under the cliffs at the far end of Ramsgate, that were originally constructed for a railway to travel between the harbour and the mainline station. 

On 24 August 1940, 500 German bombs were dropped on Ramsgate in just five minutes. Despite the heavy bombardment, the deep shelters saved lives and as a consequence only 29 civilians and two soldiers were lost. The bombardment on 24 August 1940 destroyed roughly 1,200 homes and, as a result of homelessness, roughly 300 families took to living in the tunnels on a permanent basis.
The tunnels became a subterranean town with shops, barbers, canteens, concerts and even an underground hospital. 

Obviously Marjorie Moses was a stalwart worker i the canteen, feeding all those needy people

In this part of the town, the most striking buildings are those designed by Pugin, who was also renowned for the Gothic architecture of the tower that holds Big Ben, amongst other edifices.

Here, he built his own house - 'The Grange', St. Augustine's Benedictine Abbey, and the church wherein resides the Shrine of Saint Augustine, and his own tomb.

The Benedictine Abbey and Monastery. 

On the left, the Stations Of The Cross. The tiles on the floor are by Minton. This is the only church that Pugin designed and paid for himself. That meant that he could carry out his designs as he thought they should be done, rather than having a patron request particular features. 

These are three Saxon Queens, who were also Christians. They wear the black of the Benedictine Order. The one on the right is Saint Mildred, but I'm not sure who the other two are.

It proved to be very difficult to photograph anything glass-fronted, when you have limited equipment, and cannot use flash. However, this is the reliquary of three notable saints. In the middle is Saint Augustine, to the left is Saint Gregory, and on the right is Saint Lawrence. Augustine is revered as the man who brought Christianity to these islands and who became the first archbishop of Canterbury. Gregory was the pope who sent Augustine here, and later, sent Lawrence here to become the second Archbishop of Canterbury 

Don't think I need to explain who Darwin was, do I?