Through Time
3 total works
Besides having a fascinating geology, the North Kent Coast bears the marks of most periods of our history. The Romans built their fort at Reculver, and the abbey that later occupied that site had direct links with Canterbury Cathedral. The Dutch raided Queenborough and Sheerness in 1667; there was the famous Mutiny at the Nore in 1797; and prisoners were kept in wooden hulks at Sheerness from various other conflicts after that. The offshore waters were known to almost every sailor in the maritime hall of fame.
Sir Francis Drake, Sebastian Cabot, Lord Nelson, Sir John Franklin and others all sailed from London or Chatham. Commencing at Gravesend, this book makes a journey, sometimes over water, but also across the marshes and through the harbours, villages and industrial estates that constitute maritime Kent, to eventually arrive at Margate, reflecting on the many changes that have occurred over the last hundred years.
Sir Francis Drake, Sebastian Cabot, Lord Nelson, Sir John Franklin and others all sailed from London or Chatham. Commencing at Gravesend, this book makes a journey, sometimes over water, but also across the marshes and through the harbours, villages and industrial estates that constitute maritime Kent, to eventually arrive at Margate, reflecting on the many changes that have occurred over the last hundred years.
Dependent originally on fishing and farming, Margate and Ramsgate benefited as limbs of the Cinque Ports during the Middle Ages, shipping grain to London and elsewhere. Growth was, however, slow until an interest in sea-bathing arose in the eighteenth century, when, to Margate's great benefit, Benjamin Beale invented the first bathing machine with a modesty hood. After that, hoys, paddle steamers and railways brought a stream of visitors that rapidly became a torrent. After the last war, easier foreign travel allowed people to bathe elsewhere, causing Margate to lose many hotels and other amenities. Mods and rockers did not reverse that trend and Manston aerodrome enjoyed some notoriety with the USAF in residence. Successes included the Hovercraft service to Calais and the enlargement of Ramsgate harbour. Thanet's cliffs, beaches and sea air remain attractive today, though. This delightful book shows some of the changes.
Commencing at the Nore, Thames-side Kent follows the course of a ship inward bound, presenting a nostalgic study of the southern bank of the River Thames as far as the county of Kent extends, the mouth of the River Darenth, also known as Dartford Creek. Countless vessels of all sizes have travelled along these thirty-one miles of water over the centuries, some to one of the many wharves that lined the river but the majority to the earlier vast expanse of the London Docks. In spite of a massive expansion of population, the Kent riverside still has remote places and large areas of salt marsh. In contrast, above Gravesend, there has been, and still is, major development through Northfleet to Greenhithe and Dartford, with Bluewater shopping centre and Ebbsfleet station catering for a multitude of shoppers and high-speed rail travellers. Hence the Dartford Bridge and tunnels remain heavily congested but the river above Purfleet stays largely empty of traffic.