Ramsgate

For other uses, see Ramsgate (disambiguation).

Ramsgate
The Royal Harbour
Ramsgate  Ramsgate shown within Kent
Population	39,639 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	TR382648
Civil parish	Ramsgate
District	Thanet
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	RAMSGATE
Postcode district	CT11 & CT12
Dialling code	01843
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	South Thanet
List of places UK England Kent

Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate’s main attraction is its coastline and its main industries are tourism and fishing. The town has one of the largest marinas on the English south coast and Port of Ramsgate has provided cross channel ferries for many years.

History

Main article: History of Ramsgate

Ramsgate Sands in 1854

Photochrom of The sands, 1899

Ramsgate began as a fishing and farming hamlet. The town’s earliest reference is in the Kent Hundred Rolls of 1274-5 both as Remmesgate (in the local personal name of ‘Christina de Remmesgate’) and ‘Remisgat’ (with reference to the town). The names ‘Ramisgate’ and ‘Raunsgate’ appear in the parish of Saint Laurence records circa 1290. These are all derived from Late Anglo-Saxon ‘Hremmes’ from earlier ‘Hræfnes’ (raven’s) and ‘geat’ (gate), with reference to the gap in the cliffs. In 1357 the area became known as ‘Ramesgate’.

The legendary mercenaries Hengest and Horsa landed in the 5th century to herald the pagan Anglo-Saxon age in England. The Christian missionary St. Augustine landed in Ramsgate in 597 which re-established the link between England and the Christian church in Rome.

Ramsgate's harbour is a defining characteristic of the town. Ramsgate was a member of the Confederation of Cinque Ports, under the 'Limb' of Sandwich, Kent. The construction of Ramsgate Harbour began in 1749 and was completed in about 1850. The harbour has the unique distinction of being the only Royal Harbour in the United Kingdom. Because of its proximity to mainland Europe, Ramsgate was a chief embarkation point both during the Napoleonic Wars and for the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.

In 1901, the Isle of Thanet saw the introduction of an electric tram service which was one of the few inter-urban tramways in Britain. The towns of Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs were linked by 11 miles of track.

In 1915-1916 early aircraft began to use the open farmlands at Manston as a site for emergency landings. The location near the Kent coast gave Manston some advantages over the other previously established aerodromes. During the first World War, Ramsgate was the target of bombing raids by Zeppelin airships. By 1917 the Royal Flying Corps was well established and taking an active part in the defence of Britain. As RAF Manston, the aerodrome played an important role in the second World War and is now called Kent International Airport.

In October 1939, the Royal Navy established a Coastal Forces base at Ramsgate called HMS Fervent, which operated Motor Torpedo Boats, Motor Gun Boats and Motor Launches until September 1945. From 27 May 1940, Ramsgate harbour was the main assembly point for the build up of small craft needed for Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. Once the evacuation was under way, Ramsgate became the second busiest port after Dover, and just under 43,000 men passed through the port, transported onwards by 82 special trains.

Geography

A map of Ramsgate from 1945

Ramsgate is located 78 miles from central London in an east south-easterly direction at one of the most easterly points of the United Kingdom (the furthest point east is Lowestoft in Suffolk). Ramsgate has its own meridian line and Mean Time which is 5 minutes 41 seconds ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

The town is now the amalgamation of two settlements: a fishing community based on the coast in the shallow valley between two chalk cliffs, and a farming community inland that is now the Parish of St. Lawrence. The cliffs are now known as the East Cliff and the West Cliff and are predominantly residential areas. There are promenades along both cliff tops with parks at either end and sandy beaches on the coast.

Climate

Ramsgate experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) as is typical in the United Kingdom; the nearest Met Office weather station for which data is available is Manston airport, about 2 miles west of the town centre.

The absolute maximum temperature attained is 34.6c(94.3f) set in August 2003, though typically the warmest day of the year averages out at 28.5c(83.3f) and 8.8 days will record a temperature of 25.1c(77.2f) or above.

The absolute minimum temperature stands at -14.5c(5.9f), set in February 1986, though typically the coldest night of the year averages -6.2c(20.8f). A total of 28.9 days of the year should record an air frost.

Rainfall averages around 550mm per year, a level similar to the driest parts of England. Over 1mm of rain can be expected on 102.9 days. All averages refer to the 1971-00 period.

Being close to the coast, and in Southern England, sunshine compares favourably with most of the United Kingdom, at over 1700 hours a year. Only the Sussex coast tends to be notably sunnier, although much of the remainder of the south coast receives a similar amount of sunshine as Ramsgate.

Climate data for Manston, elevation 49m, 1971-2000, extremes 1960-
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	16.4 (61.5)	16.8 (62.2)	20.2 (68.4)	25.0 (77)	29.6 (85.3)	31.2 (88.2)	31.4 (88.5)	34.6 (94.3)	29.6 (85.3)	24.9 (76.8)	18.0 (64.4)	15.9 (60.6)	34.6 (94.3)
Average high °C (°F)	7.1 (44.8)	7.2 (45)	9.8 (49.6)	11.8 (53.2)	15.5 (59.9)	18.5 (65.3)	21.1 (70)	21.5 (70.7)	18.6 (65.5)	14.6 (58.3)	10.4 (50.7)	8.2 (46.8)	13.69 (56.65)
Average low °C (°F)	1.9 (35.4)	1.7 (35.1)	3.3 (37.9)	4.9 (40.8)	8.0 (46.4)	10.7 (51.3)	13.2 (55.8)	13.4 (56.1)	11.3 (52.3)	8.4 (47.1)	4.7 (40.5)	3.1 (37.6)	7.05 (44.69)
Record low °C (°F)	−12 (10)	−14.5 (5.9)	−6 (21)	−3.7 (25.3)	−1.1 (30)	0.9 (33.6)	6.4 (43.5)	5.4 (41.7)	2.2 (36)	−3.1 (26.4)	−6 (21)	−8.8 (16.2)	−14.5 (5.9)
Precipitation mm (inches)	45.32 (1.7843)	30.95 (1.2185)	37.90 (1.4921)	41.04 (1.6157)	39.85 (1.5689)	46.65 (1.8366)	39.34 (1.5488)	39.54 (1.5567)	59.27 (2.3335)	64.76 (2.5496)	59.08 (2.326)	51.00 (2.0079)	554.72 (21.8394)
Mean monthly sunshine hours	62.55	80.33	118.96	171.51	222.17	216.47	222.08	226.80	157.88	119.06	75.01	52.6	1,722.02
Source #1: YR.NO
Source #2: KNMI

Governance

Ramsgate is in the parliamentary constituency of Thanet South, which is represented by Conservative MP Laura Sandys who won the seat in the 2010 general election.

Before 6 May 2010, the MP for Ramsgate was Stephen Ladyman, a senior Labour minister; he was preceded by Jonathan Aitken.

Ramsgate was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1884. This was abolished in 1974, since which Ramsgate has been within the Thanet local government district. The town is made up of seven electoral wards: Central Harbour, Cliffsend and Pegwell, Eastcliff, Nethercourt, Newington, Northwood, and Sir Moses Montefiore. These wards have seventeen of the fifty-six seats on the Thanet District Council; since the 2011 fifteen of those seats have been held by Labour and two by the Conservative Party

Following a successful campaign by local activist Gerry O'Donnell, a town council was established for Ramsgate in June 2009.^{[citation needed]} The Town Mayor of Ramsgate is currently Councillor David Green.

Economy

Ramsgate marina, location of many popular bars and pubs

Ramsgate's main industries are tourism and fishing. The town has a thriving marina with over 800 moorings and a range of marine-related businesses that operate in the renovated arches under Royal Parade. The town caters for students of English as a foreign language at its colleges.

Although Ramsgate has the most valuable fish landings in Kent (~£700,000 in 2003), the fishing industry is in decline.

Port of Ramsgate has provided cross channel ferries for many years. Previously Sally Ferries UK provided a passenger and car ferry service to Dunkirk. Currently, Transeuropa Ferries operate a freight and car ferry between Ramsgate and Oostende.

Unemployment in Thanet stands at 4.1%; this is higher than the national average (2.5%).

There is some light industry in the town. An emerging industry is power generation, with 800 jobs expected to be created by the Thanet offshore wind project, a wind farm just off the coast.

Ramsgate market is held in High Street, King Street and Queen Street every Friday and Saturday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Demographics

Ramsgate Compared
2001 UK Census	Ramsgate	Thanet District	England
Total population	39,639	126,702	49,138,831
Foreign born	4.4%	5.1%	9.2%
White	98%	98%	91%
Asian	0.7%	0.6%	4.6%
Black	0.3%	0.3%	2.3%
Christian	72%	74%	72%
Muslim	0.3%	0.5%	3.1%
Hindu	0.1%	0.2%	1.1%
No religion	18%	16%	15%
Over 65 years old	18%	22%	16%

According to the 2001 UK census, Ramsgate has a population of 39,639.

The ethnicity of the town was 98.0% white, 0.8% mixed race, 0.3% black, 0.3% Chinese, 0.4% other Asian and 0.1% other ethnicity.

The place of birth of residents was 95.6% United Kingdom, 0.7% Republic of Ireland, 0.6% Germany, 0.6% other Western Europe countries, 0.3% Eastern Europe, 0.6% Far East, 0.5% Africa, 0.3% North America, 0.3% South Asia, 0.2% Middle East, 0.2% Oceania and 0.1% South America

Religion was recorded as 71.6% Christian, 0.3% Muslim, 0.1% Hindu, 0.3% Buddhist, 0.1% Sikh and 0.1% Jewish. 17.9% were recorded as having no religion, 0.3% had an alternative religion and 7.1% didn't state their religion.

For every 100 women, there were 91.2 men. The age distribution was 6% aged 0–4 years, 16% aged 5–15 years, 5% aged 16–19 years, 31% aged 20–44 years, 24% aged 45–64 years and 18% aged 65 years and over.

Culture

Tourism

Ramsgate Main Sands

Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline, particularly Ramsgate Main Sands, which was awarded a Blue Flag in 2012.

The local council publishes a website specifically aimed at tourists visiting Ramsgate and neighbouring towns.

The previous seafront site occupied by Ramsgate pleasure park is currently undergoing major redevelopment.

Ramsgate has developed a continental café style culture with bars and restaurants on its seafront parade.^{[citation needed]}

There is an annual Powerboat Grand Prix event based out of Ramsgate harbour during the summer. Ramsgate carnival is an annual parade, and is also held during the summer. Other events include the annual Addington Street Fair and the French Market.^{[citation needed]}

The Ramsgate Beach Cross takes place annually; it last took place on 20 and 21 October 2012 with quad and solo MX riders from the UK and Europe racing on Ramsgate sands.

Sports

Ramsgate’s main football club, Ramsgate FC, plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The main local rivals of the club are Margate FC who are situated 4 miles away. When the two teams meet, it is known as the Thanet derby. Ramsgate have achieved The FA’s Charter Standard "Development" award. Ramsgate also run a reserves team, which plays in the Kent Football League Second Division, and a women’s team, which plays in the South East Counties Women’s League Kent County Division. Ramsgate FC also run five main youth teams; their under-13 to under-18 teams feature in the Valley Express Kent Youth League and the club also runs Ramsgate Youth U7 to U16, which play in The Molten East Kent Youth League. Two other popular youth teams that are based in Ramsgate are Trinity, and Hugin Vikings; both also play in The Molten East Kent Youth League.

Thanet Wanderers is the island’s only rugby team, which has enjoyed recent success at London Division 1 level and achieved its best result when it defeated Doncaster at Twickenham in the final of the intermediate cup in 1997. The club runs five senior sides and many junior teams, all of which play at St Peters.

Cliftonville Hockey Club play their home matches at St Lawrence College and have a clubhouse that they share with Broadstairs Cricket Club.

Thanet Galaxy is a Pan Disability Football Club that provides structured coaching for male and female footballers of all ages who qualify within the nationally and internationally recognised Pan Disability categories. The club trains at Chatham House Grammar School and plays in Kent Disability Football League in three age bands: U-11, U-16, 16+. In their first season (2008/2009) the adult A team won the Kent Disability League Adult Championship.

Ramsgate’s sports facilities include a public swimming pool, a fitness centre with a gym and sports hall. Tennis clubs can be found at Spencer Square and St Laurence. Ramsgate has three golf clubs: St Augustines, Stonelees, and Manston. Being a harbour town, there is also a sailing club - The Royal Temple Yacht Club. The Royal Temple Yacht Club is steeped in yacht racing history, and hosts racing throughout the year for a variety of historic trophies. The highlight of the season is the annual international sailing regatta - 'Ramsgate Week', which is usually held in August.

Arts and local media

Ramsgate Maritime Museum

The Gallery IOTA (Isle Of Thanet Arts) was based on the towns west cliff but is now on the harbour front. Ramsgate Maritime Museum near the harbour quayside has exhibits showing the evolution of Ramsgate Harbour and east Kent maritime history. One of Ramsgate's cinemas and theatres is the Granville Cinema, situated on Victoria Parade, in the town's Eastcliff area. The Kings Theatre is situated near the town centre and offers shows, community events and holds a seniors' club every Monday. Talks on Ramsgate's history are frequently held there.

Ramsgate has two paid for newspapers, the Isle of Thanet Gazette and Thanet Times, both of which are owned by Northcliffe Media. Free newspapers covering the town include the Thanet Extra, part of the KM Group; and yourthanet, belonging to KOS Media.

The local radio stations are KMFM Thanet, owned by the KM Group, community radio station Academy FM (Thanet); and the county-wide stations Heart Kent, Gold and BBC Radio Kent. Thanet Community Radio (TCR offer an online arts and features based service for Thanet District and the surrounding area where people can listen to podcasts of local interest. The service works closely with Dover-based Dover Community Radio.

Landmarks

The Hugin Viking longship in Pegwell.

The Hugin is a reconstructed Viking longship located at Pegwell Bay in Ramsgate. It was a gift from the Danish government in commemoration of the 1500th anniversary of the arrival of Hengist and Horsa to England in the year 449.

Architecture

Main article: Historic Buildings in Ramsgate

Many buildings in Ramsgate are of Regency and Victorian architecture. There are 900 listed buildings in the town with more than 200 surrounding the Marina. One of the town's most notable buildings is the 18th century Townley House designed by Mary Townley.

The town has three notable churches. The first building used for worship in the Thanet parish of 'St Lawrence' was at St Laurence-in-Thanet; it was built in 1062 and rebuilt during the following centuries with the most significant changes made in the 16th century. Note the difference in spelling between the village of St Lawrence and its church, which is dedicated to the Roman Martyr, Laurence.

The second notable church is St Augustine's, which is situated on the town's Westcliff. Considered one of the most august and distinct surviving churches it was designed by Augustus Pugin in 1847 in the neo-Gothic style. Its dedication commemorates Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, who landed at Ramsgate in AD 597 bringing Christianity to Britain. In March 2012 the church was designated a shrine to St Augustine of Canterbury; this ended a five-century absence of a shrine to St Augustine as the original (at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury) had been destroyed during the Reformation.

Thirdly, the town's parish church of St George is situated just off the High Street. Its lantern tower was added at the request of Trinity House as a navigational aid to passing ships and looks over the town. The ground was consecrated on 23 October 1827.

St Augustine's is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark, whilst St Laurence and St George are both Church of England, and serve the Anglican community as part of the Diocese of Canterbury. Christ Church [1], built in 1847, also serves the Anglican community.

Ramsgate library was originally built and paid for by Andrew Carnegie in 1904. On the evening of Friday 13 August 2004, it was destroyed by fire just two months short of its 100th anniversary. Though suspicions were raised about the causes of the fire due to a similarly timed fire at the town's registry office, an investigation was unable to pinpoint how the fire had started due to the fire's intensity.

Shortly after the blaze, planning permission was granted for a new library. The library has now been fully restored, and was officially re-opened on 20 February 2009. [2]

Transport

By sea

Main article: Port of Ramsgate

The Port of Ramsgate has a 700 berth marina, Royal Harbour Marina, and a ferry terminal built on reclaimed land. The harbour provides shelter from the effect of storms. The Goodwin Sands are nearby. In 2005, the marina had 12,000 visiting boats.^{[citation needed]} Transeuropa Ferries passenger (with vehicle only) and freight ferries now sail to the Port of Ostend in Ostend, Belgium. The Port of Ramsgate has its own road access tunnel from outside of the town, avoiding town centre congestion. The RNLI Ramsgate Lifeboat Station is based in Ramsgate Harbour.

By road

Ramsgate is connected to the national road network primarily through the A299 Thanet Way which continues onto the M2/A2 for the M25 (approx 1 hour) and London. The A256 provides a link to Dover and onwards onto the A20 for the Channel Tunnel. Bus services are provided by Stagecoach East Kent and also serve Broadstairs, Canterbury, Dover, Margate and Manston Airport, Kent's International Airport.

By rail

Main article: Ramsgate railway station

Ramsgate railway station is situated at the top of the town near the parish of St Lawrence.

A new high-speed service to London started in December 2009, running on High Speed 1 (HS1), the UK’s first high speed rail line, between London’s St. Pancras station and Kent. The journey time from Ramsgate to the new St. Pancras terminal, with excellent transport links, is 1 hour and 16 minutes.

Other trains run from Ramsgate to London Charing Cross and London Victoria. Commuting time to the capital on these lines is approximately 1 hour 50 minutes.

Trains from Ramsgate pass via Margate, Chatham and Bromley South, or via Canterbury West or Dover Priory and Ashford International. Ramsgate railway station is operated by Southeastern.

By air

Main article: Ramsgate Airport

A municipal airport was opened on 1 July 1935, operating until the Second World War broke out in 1939. Following a short spell as a satellite of RAF Manston, it closed in 1940. The airport was re-opened in 1952 and operated until closure in 1968.

Main article: Kent International Airport

The town is situated directly under the flight path of Kent International Airport at Manston. From September 2004 to August 2005 a low-cost airline EUjet operated frequent flights to many European destinations, replacing a large freight operator. However, flights were suspended after the collapse of its parent company, PlaneStation Group plc.

Manston was sold to Infratil (owner of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport) on 26 August 2005. As of 2013, Flybe operates flights from the airport to Edinburgh and Belfast and is regularly used by freight operators such as Cargolux and Meridian.

Education

St Lawrence College private school in Ramsgate

Infant schools

• Dame Janet Infant School
• Ellington Infants School
• Priory Infants School

Junior schools

• Christ Church C Of E Junior School
• Dame Janet Junior School
• St Ethelbert's R C Junior Mixed & Infants School
• St Laurence-in-Thanet CE Junior School

Primary schools

• Newington Community Primary School.
• Newlands Primary School
• Chilton County Primary School

Secondary schools

• Chatham House Grammar School
• Clarendon House Grammar School
• Ellington High School
• The Marlowe Academy
• St Lawrence College

The Marlowe academy failed the 30% GCSE target.

Colleges and further education

• Ramsgate's nearest college is East Kent College. This is situated in the nearby town of Broadstairs. There is also a campus for Canterbury Christ Church University which is situated in Broadstairs which is within very easy reach of Ramsgate.

Affiliations

Twin cities/towns:

• - Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, France
• - Chimay, Belgium
• - Frederikssund, Denmark

See also

These are internal links associated with Ramsgate

• History of Ramsgate

• Historic buildings in Ramsgate

• The Grange, Ramsgate Home of the Victorian architect and designer August Pugin.
• Montefiore Synagogue Private synagogue of Sir Moses Montefiore.
• Townley House Queen Victoria used to stay here on summer holidays as a child.
• Chatham House Grammar School Founded in 1797 as a boarding school by William Humble

• Port of Ramsgate

• Ramsgate Maritime Museum Situated in the Clock House in Ramsgate harbour.

• ST Cervia (1946 Tugboat) The Steam Tug (ST) Cervia was originally named Empire Raymond.
• Sundowner (yacht) Motor yacht owned by Charles Lightoller, 2nd Officer of RMS Titanic.

• Ramsgate lifeboat station Provides an inshore boat and an offshore boat.

• Ramsgate railway station

• Ramsgate Harbour railway station
• Ramsgate Town railway station
• Ramsgate Cliff Railway

• Ramsgate F.C. Football team based in Ramsgate.
• List of people from Thanet#Ramsgate

Bibliography

• Martin Easdown, A Fateful Finger of Iron: The Story of the Ill-fated Ramsgate Promenade Pier Within a Resort History of the Town, Michaels Bookshop (Jul 2006), ISBN 1-905477-65-1
• Bob Simmonds, Ramsgate From the Ground: An Alternative Look at the Town and Its History, Michaels Bookshop (April 2006), ISBN 1-905477-47-3

External links

• Ramsgate Town Council
• Open Directory Project