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Ramsgate EMU depot, Kent, 4 September 2020. The depot was built by the Southern Railway in 1926 as a shed for steam engines but on completion of the Kent Coast Electrification Scheme Phase 1 in 1959 was converted to an emu depot..
Eastonways ex L/T Leyland National ,ex Warrens of Ticehurst ,on a courtesy bus from the port to the Railway Station at Ramsgate.27th April 1994.
37 number 884 GROG RAMGTEMUD 895Q571R07 E * WMBLYNYR1 N 9H A
According to Realtime Trains the route and timings were;
Ramsgate E.M.U.D. ...............1550...............1513.................37E
RmMiExtDept Minster End...1552 1/2.........1515................37E
Minster East Junction ...........1557................1520...............37E
Minster [MSR] 2.......................1558 1/2.........1521 1/4..........37E
Canterbury West 1..................1614.................1537 1/2.........36E
Wye [WYE]................................1627 1/2..........1603...............24E
Ashford International ............1633 1/2.........1613 1/2...........19E
Ashford International T.........1637................1613.................24E
Headcorn [HCN] UM.............1652 1/2.........1627................25E
Paddock Wood UM...............1707 1/2..........1646 1/4..........21E
Tonbridge [TON] UF..............1835................1834..................RT
Sevenoaks [SEV] 1..................1847................1847 1/2...........RT
Chelsfield [CLD]......................1854 1/2.........1853 3/4..........RT
Orpington [ORP] 2..................1856................1856 1/4...........RT
Petts Wood Junction.............1901 1/2..........1859 1/2.............1E
Bickley Junction[XLY]...........1903 1/2.........1902 3/4..........RT
Bromley South [BMS]............1907 1/2.........1908.................RT
Shortlands [SRT].....................1909 1/2.........1910 3/4.............1L
Shortlands Junction...............1911/1915 1/2..NoRep/1912.....3E
Bellingham [BGM]...................1919 1/2..........1914 3/4............4E
Nunhead [NHD] 1....................1923 1/2.........1922 1/2...........RT
Peckham Rye [PMR] 3...........1927................1924 3/4...........2E
Crofton Road Junction..........1928 1/2.........1926 3/4............1E
Denmark Hill [DMK] 1.............1929 1/2.........1926 1/2............3E
Voltaire Road Junction.........1933................1931....................2E
Wandsworth Road ................1934 1/2.........1932 1/2.............1E
Clapham Junction 5..............1941.................1940 1/4...........RT
Wandsworth Town 2.............1942 1/2.........1942.................RT
Putney [PUT] 3........................1945................1943 1/2.............1E
Barnes [BNS] 3........................1947 1/2..........1946...................1E
Barnes Bridge [BNI] 2............1949................1947 3/4...........RT
Chiswick [CHK] 2....................1950 1/2.........1949...................1E
New Kew Junction.................1952 1/2.........1951 1/4..............1E
Kew East Junction..................1955 1/2.........1952 1/2............2E
Acton Central [ACC]..............1959................1955 1/2............3E
Acton Wells Junction............2001 1/2.........1957 3/4...........3E
This has a nautical connection, rather than a being naughty one.
The building in Ramsgate once gave shelter to the boys who were apprenticed on the fishing smacks that sailed from the town. It seems that this idea was not taken up by other British ports, being the idea of Canon Brenan, Vicar of Christ Church, Ramsgate.
Ramsgate, Kent
26th November 2017
20171126 IMG_8564a
The good news was that the weather was due to be better on Sunday, so for the morning I planned a trip to Ramsgate to snap a blue plaque where Vincent van Gogh once taught and lived.
We got up very late due to the heavy meal and booze from Saturday night, had coffee, croissants and more coffee before driving to Thanet.
I worked in Ramsgate pretty much every weekday from 2010 to 2014, and so I got used to walking round the harbour. But it has been several years since we were last here, maybe five or six years, so about time for a return.
And the reason for going was to check out where Vincent van Gogh worked in the town for a few weeks as a teacher in a boy's school, but for a combination reason, he only lasted a month.
But he did draw the view from his bedroom window, which is recognisable today as the view past the Churchill pub overlooking the harbour.
Once we found where the school was, and also found where he lodged too, both had a blue plaque. Then we went for a walk round the harbour, to take in the air and for me to take nearly 400 shots in the glorious winter light.
Upper Ramsgate, the part that overlooks the harbour and the streets behind, at Georgian glorious. I mean row up on row, street after street of wonderful stylish houses, and once you have no trouble imagining Vincent living in.
My wife is a Lady of Kent, and she thought she knew Kent, and had rather a low opinion of Ramsgate, and she was blown away by how wonderful the area still is. Some streets open into fine green squares, others have tennis courts. I mean, who wouldn't want to live in that kind of place?
The only downside I can see is the piss poor parking on the streets, and moor signage meant I did, at one point, drove the wrong way down a one way street. Nothing was coming the other way, and I don't think anyone saw me.
But easy to do.
On the wide sloping road that leads to the harbour, another famous man once lived, Charles Darwin, or at least another fine Georgian house has a blue plaque dedicated to him.
We walked down the stops leading to the harbour, past the Sailor's church, then along the road along which freight for the port used to travel along. Not any more, the port has closed, just as the link road was completed from Thanet Way.
I meet a group of technicians from the windfarm, they are no longer employed by Vestas, but two remember me and we swap news and how our lives have gone. They had been to a café for a "fat boy's breakfast" before sailing out to the windfarm. Nice day for it.
We walk round the harbour, past the row of restaurants and bars so I could snap the Edward VIII post box, very rare, and then an amble back, via the fish quay, then back along the harbour and up the steps beside the harbour road.
There's worse places to live.
On the way back to the car, we stopped at a café under the Yacht Club for a coffee and to look at the view. It was warm enough, just, to sit outside.
Back to the car for a quick drive home, by which time it was lunchtime.
Victorian Terrace, Ramsgate, Kent, 5 September 2020. Elaborate Victorian Gothic, note oriel window on corner of end house.
These days, St Laurence sits beside a busy double mini roundabout, surrounded by shots and take aways, it is a place you could easily miss.
I have had my eye on htis for some time, but there is always elsewhere to go to on Heritage weekend, so a second weekend of that this year meant that on the second Saturday we were parking the car outside.
The church is pretty enough from the outside, but the windows have wire mesh to protect them, but we received a warm welcome as we entered the porch.
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Very much a village church, set back from the road in the heart of this former agricultural settlement. Now a suburb of Ramsgate it is the original parish church for the later resort. Norman in date, with a fine crossing tower, it is well worth a visit if only for its monuments which record many military men (who passed through the parish during the Napoleonic Wars) and the wealthy eighteenth century visitors who came to Ramsgate for their health and died there. There is a fine Royal Arms of George II over the south door, whilst a twentieth century rood beam emphasises the height of the Norman crossing arch. The chancel is pleasantly empty, with a noble nineteenth century reredos of blank arcading. The south chapel contains an unusual memorial to Sarah Spencer who died in 1745. This poor lady has had so many later members of her family commemorated on her tablet, that there is no room left. Every flat surface has been utilised! Opposite is a little-known but eminently beautiful relief of Henrietta Ashley who died in 1874 carved by the Royal Academician Thomas Woolner. The collection of stained glass has recently been enriched by a window in the north aisle by the Cathedral Studios (1998) which depicts the nearby St Augustine's Cross. It is a simple, dignified and moving attempt to record the 1400th anniversary of the landing of St Augustine which occurred just a couple of miles away. Other stained glass can best be described as curious. The east window was erected as a memorial to Queen Victoria who, we are told, `worshipped in this church` when staying in the area. At the base is a series of panels recording the arrival of St Augustine. One shows the baptism of King Ethelbert in the font of St Martin's Church, Canterbury - a font which wasn't carved until 400 years later! The artist, Alfred Hemming, obviously felt that a font of authentic design would not have been worthy of the subject! The bizarre east window in the south chapel (1902) shows some very sleepy dead being woken at the Last Trump whilst St Peter swings his key impatiently at the gates of Heaven! Not to be missed!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=St+Lawrence
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ST. LAURENCE.
THE PARISH OF ST. LAURENCE lies the next southward from that of St. Peter last described, taking its name from the saint to which the church is dedicated. The ville Ramsgate, within this parish, is within the liberty of the cinque ports; but the rest of the parish is within the hundred of Ringslow and jurisdiction of the justices of the county.
The VILLAGE OF ST. LAURENCE, having the church on an hill on the west side of it, is neat and small, being pleasantly situated in the south-east part of this parish, and commands one of the most extensive prospects in this island, as well towards the sea as the neighbouring parts of the county. This parish is about three miles from east to west, and two miles from north to south. The lands in it are more enclosed than the more northern parishes before-described. It is very populous, and has in it several small hamlets, or knots of houses, besides those particularly mentioned before; among which, in the western part of it, are Manston-green, and Spratingstreet; (fn. 1) on the northern, Hains, and Lymington; on the eastern, Hallicandane, and Herson; and towards the south, Great and Little Cliffsend, Chilson, Courtstairs; and adjoining to the sea, Pegwell, alias Courtis a small manor, usually stiled Pegwell, alias Courtstairs, and is an appendage to that of Sheriffs court, in Minster, as has been taken notice of before, in the description of that estate.
Adjoining is Courtstairs, alias Pegwell bay, where the inhabitants catch shrimps, lobsters, soles, mullets, &c. and a delicious flat-fish, called a prill, much sought after. At Pegwell there is a neat villa, lately erected by William Garrow, esq. for his occasional residence, and between this place and Ramsgate is another, called Belmont, an elegant building in the gothic taste, late the residence of Joseph Ruse, esq.
¶From this bay to a place called Cliffs-end, instead of chalk, the ground next the sea is a sort of blueish earth, somewhat like Fuller's earth; it is about sixteen feet above the sand, and in it are seen strata of culver and other fish shells, lying in a confused manner, one on the top of the other. This earth has been carried away frequently by people, as Fuller's earth, in great quantities, to dispose of as such; but on a trial it was found very deficient, and not partaking of any quality belonging to it.
By the return made by archbishop Parker, in 1563, to the privy council, it appears that there were then here ninety-eight housholds; but this place, owing to the prosperity of Ramsgate, has greatly increased for many years past, insomuch that in 1773, here were in this parish, including Ramsgate, which contains more than two thirds of the houses and inhabitants of the whole parish, 699 houses, and 2726 inhabitants; and in 1792 there were found 825 houses and 3601 inhabitants; which is a great increase for so short a space as nineteen years. (fn. 2) A fair is held here yearly, on August 10, for toys, pedlary, &c.
In this parish lived one Joy, who in king William's reign had such a reputation for very extraordinary strength of body, that he was called the English Sampson, and the strong man of Kent, and was taken notice of by the king, royal family, and the nobility, before whom he performed his feats. In 1699 his picture was engraved, and round it several representations of his performances, as pulling against an extraordinary strong horse, breaking a rope, which would bear thirty-five hundred weight, and lifting a weight of 2240lb. He was drowned in 1734.
In the month of March, 1764, between Ramsgate and Pegwell in this parish, a part of the cliff, seventy feet high, on the surface of which was a corn field, gave way for about twenty yards in length, and five yards in breadth, and fell into the sea.
The VILLE AND TOWN OF RAMSGATE, so called from the way here which leads to the sea, through the chalk cliff; the inhabitants, of which like those of other places, are fond of having it famous for its antiquity, and have fancied the name of it to have been derived from Romans gate, that is, from its being used as a port, or landing place, by the Romans; but besides, that its name was never so written in antient writings, it may well be doubted, whether during the time of the Romans frequenting this island, there was here any way or gate at all to the sea; and it seems plain, that it was dug first through the cliff, as the rest of the sea gates were in this little island, for the conveniency of the fishery, no Roman coins, &c. have been known ever to have been found here, as they have at Bradstow, where the Romans, if they had any at all, might have a station in this island.
The PARISH OF ST. LAURENCE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Laurence, consists of three isles and three chancels, having a tower steeple in the middle of it, standing on four pillars, the capitals of which display the rude conceits of the artist. This tower, on the outside, is encircled with a string of very plain octagonal small pillars and semicircular arches, in the true Saxon taste. There are five bells in it. The church itself is a handsome building, of field stones, rough casted over, as the rest of the churches in this island are, and seems to have been built at several times; of the two side chancels the north one is said to have been built by the Manstons, of Manston-court, many of whom lie buried in it, though most of their monumental inscriptions are perished through length of time. Weever has however preserved two of them, being those of Roger Manston, and Julian his wife, and of Thomas St. Nicholas, who married Joane Manston, and had by her Thomas, entombed here likewise. There was likewise here a brass plate, having the effigies of a man, and these arms, quarterly, first and fourth, A fess, ermine, between three mullets; second and third, On a cross, engrailed, a cinquefoil, and underneath an inscription for Nicholas Manston, esq. obt. 1444. A brass plate, now torn off, for. . . Sayen Nicholas, esq. and Johane his wife; she died 1499; and just by, on a flat stone a brass with the effigies of a woman, and these arms, Ermine, a chief, quarterly; the inscription gone. A monument fixed against the north wall, for Frances, wife of Thomas Coppin, of Westminster, and daughter of Robert Brooke, esq. of Nacton, in Suffolk, who died during her stay here at Manston, in 1677; arms, Parted per pale, azure and gules, three boars heads, couped, or, a chief of the last. On a stone near this monument, and adjoining to that of Nicholas Sprackling, are four shields of arms, first, A cross engrailed, a rose in the centre; second, A cross engrailed; third, A fess, between three mullets, impaling the first coat; fourth, As the third, quartering the first. Part of this chancel is now made into a very handsome vestry. In the high chancel are several memorials in brass, with figures and inscriptions, for the family of Sprakeling. Below these is one having the figure scratched in the marble, of a man lying, with a pen in his hand, writing, Garde promesse fidelement; arms, Sable, a saltier, between four leopards faces, or, impaling or, a chevron, gules, between three bulls passant, sable. In this church is an antient grave-stone of one Umfry, but the arms are gone as well as the inscription, if it ever had any. In the body of the church there have been built several galleries, (which make a most unsightly appearance) to make as much room as possible for the numerous inhabitants of this parish, who had increased to four times the number that they were sixty or seventy years ago; but the inhabitants of Ramsgate are now accommodated with a chapel of of ease, lately built in that ville, as has been already noticed. Besides the above there are numerous monuments and memorials, of a more modern date, and among them, in the south chancel, a mural monument for Sarah, wife of Mr. Adam Spencer, obt. 1745, who with her three children were deposited in a vault near it; she had nine children, of whom four only survived; also for the aforesaid Mr. Adam Spencer, merchant, obt. 1757, who lies in the same vault with Sarah his wife, on it are these arms, Quarterly, first and fourth, Argent; second and third, Gules, a fret, or, over all, on a bend, sable, three escallops of the first, impaling barry of six, azure and gules, a chief, ermine. A mural monument for Capt. Martin Read, obt. 1792, and for Margaret his wife; arms, Gules, a saltier, or, between four leopards faces, proper. A mural monument for Capt. Martin Long, obt. 1751; for Elizabeth his sister, and for his sister Catharine, widow of Mr. William Abbott, arms, Sable, a lion rampant, argent.
In the south isle, among many others, a white tablet for Martha, widow of Darell Shorte, jun. esq. of Wadhurst, in Suffex, and daughter of Sir Robert Kemp, bart. late of Appeston, in Suffolk, obt. 1789; another for Dorothy, wife of Mr. William Abbott; she died 1728, and two of their daughters both named Dorothy, and their son Adam, obt. 1735, also the above mentioned Mr. William Abbott, obt. 1755, and for Dorothy his wife, and their children; and for the Holman's. In the great chancel, a memorial for Ann, relict of Capt. William Bookey, of the East-India Company's service, obt. 1770. In the vestry a black tablet for the Rev. Robert Tyler, A. M. twenty-six years vicar, obt. June 10, 1766.—In the north isle a white tablet to the memory of several of the Tomsons. A mural monument for the Tickners. A memorial for Peter Johnson, A. M. son of Henry Johnson, gent. and fellow of Corpus Christi college, Oxford, vicar of this church, obt. April 18, 1704; arms, Parted per fess, dancette, a vulture. On a plain stone, Capt. John Pettit, died; the rest is covered by the pews; arms, On a chevron, gules, three bezants, between three griffins heads, sable, crowned, or. A tablet in the south cross for Anna-Eliza, eldest daughter of the Rev. William-Worcester Wilson, D. D. obt. 1792. A memorial for the Rev. Peter James, M. A. late of Greenwich, and rector of Ight ham, obt. 1791. The following are plain slabs, mostly at the east end of the church; for Mrs. Elizabeth Kelly, daughter of Dr. Kelly, of Winchester, and sister of Dr. Kelly, regius professor, of Oxford; also Martha Kelly, sister to Elizabeth, wife of Lieutenant Charles Kelly, of the royal navy, obt. 1788; arms, A castle, between two lions rampant; for Matthew Brooke, A. M. fellow of king's college, and rector of Walton, in Hertfordshire, and vicar of this parish, obt. 1739; arms, On a fess, three martlets, a bordure engrailed, impaling a chevron, between three covered cups; for Matthew Bookey, son of M. and A. Bookey, obt. 1747. Memorials for several of the Gillows, Tomsons, Abbotts, Pamfleets, Harnets, Law, Joad, Moses, Parkers, Quince, Carraways, Redwood, Evers, Curling, Whites, Napletons, and Hoopers; for George Garrett, esq. obt. 1775. A mural monument, with inscription, that in a vault hereto adjoining, lie several of the family of Abbott, and their relatives; arms, A chevron, between three pears, impaling, on a pile, three griffins heads, erased.
In the church-yard are several monuments for the Stocks, Austens and Coxens; for Brotherly and Quince; for the Maxteds and Holmans; for Lithered and Joad. Two mural monuments, one for the Garretts, Casbys, and Browns, and their relatives; arms, Garrett, on a fess, a lion passant; the other for Mark Seller Garrett, obt. 1779. There are principal monuments and gravestones in this church and church-yard, the whole of which are by far too numerous to insert here.
Besides the high altar in this church, there were formerly others dedicated to St. James, St. Catherine, St. Thomas, and the Holy Trinity; besides which there were kept wax-lights, the expence of which was maintained by voluntary gifts and legacies. In the west window of the church were formerly painted the arms of Criol, who owned Upper-court, being Or, two chevrons, and a canton, gules. Septvans, Azure, three wheat skreens, or, an annulet for difference; the latter dwelt in this parish, and lies buried under a monument in Ash church. Of St. Nicholas, who married Jane Manstone, Ermine, a chief quarterly, or, and gules; in the first quarter, an annulet for difference Of Chiche, Azure, three lions rampant, argent, a bordure of the second; and of Manston, Gules, a fess, ermine, between three mullets.
At a small distance from the church to the eastward, are the remains of a small chapel, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, now converted into a cottage.—There was a chantry founded in it, for the support of which several lands hereabouts were given, which at the suppression of these chapels in king Edward VI.'s reign, came into the hands of the crown, and became a lay fee.
This church was one of the three chapels belonging to the church of Minster, and was very probably made parochial sometime after the year 1200, after that church, with its appendages, had been appropriated in 1128, to the monastery of St. Augustine; it was at the same time assigned with the three chapels, and all rents, tithes, and other things belonging to them, to the sacristy of the monastery; and it was further granted, that the abbot and convent should present to the archbishop, in the above-mentioned chapels, fit perpetual chaplains to the altarages of them; but that the vicar of the mother church should take and receive in right of his vicarage, the tenths of small tithes, of lambs and pigs, and all obventions arising from marriages and churchings which were forbid at the chapels, and were solemnized, &c. at the mother church only. (fn. 12)
In the year 1275, archbishop Robert consecrated the cemetery of this church, and granted it the right of sepulture, with the restrictions, that the tenants or occupiers of land, who were parishioners of this chapel, should be buried at their mother church of Minster, as the parishioners of this chapel had heretofore been; and that none of them should be buried here, without the express leave of the vicar of Minster, notwithstanding they, by their wills, or by any other means, ordered their burial to be in the burying-place of the chapel; but that children and poor people, who were parishioners of it, and not tenants or occupiers of land, might be buried here, with this proviso, that all obventions, oblations, or legacies arising, on account of such sepulture, in the yard of this chapel, should wholly be divided between the vicars of Minster and this chapel of St. Laurence; that no prejudice might be done to the mother church of Minster, as to marriages and churchings, which should be done for the future at the mother church, as they had been before.
These obventions, oblations and legacies, arising from funerals, were to be faithfully laid up and kept by the vicar of this chapel and his chaplains, till they should be equally divided between him and the vicar of Minster, which was to be done every month, unless they should be required of the vicar of Minster, or his chaplain or proctor, oftener. But a composition, we are told, was made between the patrons and several incumbents, which was confirmed by the archbishop, which was, that the incumbents of these chapels or dependant churches should pay only the tenth part of all their real profits to the incumbent of the mother church; which composition was, it is said, duly observed about the year 1370. (fn. 13)
Although the chaplains of these chapels were to receive no more than ten marcs of these altarages, yet they were not excluded the enjoyment of the manses and glebes given to these chapels when they were first consecrated, which made some addition to their income, and enabled them to keep a deacon to assist them. On the great and principal festivals, the inhabitants of the three chapelries, preceded by their priests, were accustomed to go in procession to Minster, in token of their subjection to their parochial or mother church.
In 1301, the abbot of St. Augustine ordained several new deanries, one of which, named the deanry of Minster, in which this church of St. Laurence was included; but this raising great contests between the abbot and the archbishop, and the pope deciding in favour of the latter, these new deanries were entirely dissolved. (fn. 14)
After this, the appropriation of the church of Minster, with its appendant chapels and the advowsons of the vicarages of them, continued with the abbot and convent till the dissolution of the monastery in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when they were surrendered, together with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands.
¶After the dissolution of the monastery, and the change in the service of churches wrought by the reformation, this parochial chapel of St. Laurence became entirely separated from the mother church of Minster, the vicar of this parish having no further subjection to it in any shape whatever; but by the same change he was likewise deprived of several of those emoluments he had before enjoyed in the right of his vicarage; and all the tithes of corn and grain within this parish, being appropriated to the two granges, or parsonages of Newland and Ozingell, and the small tithes of it to that of Salmestone, as has been already mentioned before. The endowment of this vicarage consisted only of the yearly stipends of six pounds paid out of Newland grange, and of ten pounds paid out of Ozingell grange, a vicaragehouse, barn, and two acres of glebe. But this income, by reason of the increase of every necessary article of life, falling far short of a reasonable maintenance, archbishop Juxon, in conformity to the king's letters mandatory, in 1660, augmented this vicarage with the addition of 40l. to be paid yearly out of Newland grange. (fn. 15)
This vicarage is valued in the king's books at seven pounds, and the yearly tenths at fourteen shillings. In 1588 here were communicants six hundred and fifty-six, and it was valued at only twenty pounds. In 1640 here were six hundred and fifty communicants.
The advowson of this vicarage coming into the hands of the crown, on the dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, continued there till Edward VI. in the first year of his reign, granted the advowson of the vicarage of Minster, with the three chapels appendant to it, one of which was this church of St. Laurence, among other premises, to the archbishop, since which this advowson has continued parcel of the possessious of that see, the archbishop being the present patron of it.
Aselection of service vehicles at Ramsgate EMU depot,L-R Two water tankers ,MLV 931095,in jaffa cake livery ,hauled De Icing coach 977364 and MLV 931092in Network south east livery.27th April 1994.
Unknown class 73 at Ramsgate on the 0525 from Faversham.
The moves for today, the last day of the 1987/88 timetable and the last day of too many loco hauled workings were;
73002 0409 London Bridge - Ramsgate, London Bridge to Ramsgate
73118 0930 London Waterloo - Weymouth, London Waterloo - Southampton
33019 1012 Brighton - Westbury, Southampton - Salisbury
33028 1247 Westbury - Portsmouth Hbr, Salisbury - Cosham
33021 1415 Portsmouth Hbr - Cardiff Central, Cosham to Bristol Temple Meads
33011 and 33039, 1700 Cardiff Central - Brighton, Bristol Temple Meads to Brighton
THE END
Right next to the famous sands is the Harbour - and in the corner, next to the beach is, amazingly, a ship repair yard!
Royal Victoria Pavilion, Ramsgate, 5 September 2020. Built in 1903-4 as a theatre/concert hall/assembly rooms/cafe. It was designed by Stanley Davenport Adshead in the style of a Robert Adam French Classical Revival Orangery with the interior based on the Queen's Theatre in Versailles (yes, really). Adshead drew up the plans in a week and won Ramsgate Corporations competition to build it, his first major architectural work. A good example of Edwardian seaside architecture. It became a casino in 1970 which closed in 2008 and it fell into a very dilapidated state. However, in 2017-18 it was restored by Wetherspoons and became the largest 'spoons pub in the world! Although it has to be said that Wetherspoons only have pubs in the UK and Ireland. Nonetheless, it also has to be said that Wetherspoons has done a truly excellent job of restoration and having a 'full English' breakfast on the veranda on a sunny English Summer's morning was a delight. Pictured is the eastern sub-pavilion which originally formed the main entrance. Note the two classical reclining figures each side of the dome.
Hoverlloyd commenced operations from Ramsgate Harbour to Calais Harbour on 6 April 1966 using small, passenger only SR.N6 hovercraft.
When the much larger SR.N4 craft, capable of carrying 30 vehicles and 254 passengers, were delivered in 1969, Hoverlloyd moved operations to a purpose built ‘hoverport’ in Pegwell Bay, near Ramsgate.
A similar facility was provided north of Calais harbour and was shared with Seaspeed (who operated into Dover on the UK side of the English Channel). Crossing ('flight') times were typically 40 minutes between Ramsgate and Calais, which compared favourably with crossing times of 90 to 100 minutes for the traditional ferries on similar routes.
It remains the case that the hovercraft were the fastest crossing of the channel and have never been bettered. Hovercraft operations were prone to disruption and cancellation during bad weather, although this was eased over time by various modifications to the craft, a typical problem being damage to the rubber 'skirt'. Also, the hovercraft had an unmatched turnround time, with the ability to disembark/embark cars at both ends of the craft, whilst simultaneously dealing with foot passengers from two main exits on the port and starboard cabins.
Hoverlloyd operated a successful express coach/hovercraft/coach service from London to a number of near European cities with fares which were considerably cheaper than the air fares available at the time.
The most frequent service was London - Paris with London - Brussels with fewer departures. In 1978 these were the only two destinations. In 1979 Amsterdam was added.
On the UK side the coaches were operated with Hoverlloyd liveried coaches provided by Evan Evans Ltd - at that time a subsidiary of Wallace Arnold Tours of Leeds. Coaches did not cross the channel - though the Hovercraft could take standard height coaches with luggage space at the rear. Film footage of operations is included in the 1974 spy film "The Black Windmill" with Michael Caine. Film footage also appeared in the 1980 film "Hopscotch" with Walter Matthau.
By 1980, it was obvious that cross Channel hovercraft operation could only continue economically if the two operating companies merged, with consequent rationalisation. Therefore, Hoverlloyd and Seaspeed merged in 1981, to create Hoverspeed.
The former Hoverlloyd services from Ramsgate were subsequently withdrawn after the 1982 season and the four ex-Hoverlloyd craft were thereafter based at Dover until their withdrawal from service between 1983 and 1993.
All four ex-Hoverlloyd craft were eventually broken up and none remains extant
The hoverport at Pegwell Bay was used as an engineering and administrative base by Hoverspeed for a few years after passenger services ceased but the site was eventually closed and all buildings completely demolished. Nonetheless, the hovercraft pad, car marshalling area and approach road are all still clearly identifiable.
Hoverspeed continued cross Channel hovercraft operation until October 2000, when the last two craft were retired and the era of ‘hovering across the Channel’ came to an end.
The Royal Victoria Pavilion. Built as a concert hall and assembly room and designed by the architect Stanley Davenport Adshead, it is now a Wetherspoon pub.
73005 arrived at Ramsgate on the 0409 from London Bridge.
This days moves were;
73005 0409 London Bridge - Ramsgate, London Bridge to Ramsgate
33114 1049 Barnham - Westbury, Southampton to Salisbury
33012 1247 Westbury - Portsmouth Harbour, Salisbury to Cosham
33209 1415 Portsmouth Harbour - Cardiff Central, Cosham to Bath Spa
33013 and 33027 1600 Cardiff Central - Portsmouth Harbour, Bath Spa to Salisbury
33111 1820 Salisbury - London Waterloo, Salisbury to Waterloo