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Margate, Kent

Margate meaning a pool gate or gap in a cliff where pools of water are found was known as Meregate (in 1254) or Margate (in 1293).

Now a medium sized coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in north east Kent Margate has performed its duties as a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque ports with distinction.

Like its neighbour Ramsgate, the town has been a traditional holiday destination for Londoners owing to its sandy beaches, in recent times it has had higher unemployment rates than much of South east England, as tourists travel further afield. It is bordered by Broadstairs and Westgate. Like Brighton it was infamous for gang violence between Mods and Rockers in the 1960s.

Margate is a pleasant resort facing major structural redevelopments, its well known Dreamland Amusement Park (featured in the equally famous film of the Only Fools and Horses TV Series) is threatened with imminent closure, and in 2003 saw a major fire destroy much of its seafront building frontage. This fire conveniently occurred during plans to close the park, owned by the same company that has similar redevelopment plans for the Folkestone Rotunda Amusement Park.

With the UK's oldest wooden roller coaster, (a listed structure?) Dreamland, has some need for protection, its Big Wheel, once a landmark visible for miles around has been sold to a park in Mexico.

A controversial Turner gallery has been proposed, as some kind of alternative for the tourist trade at Margate, and if built would form part of the Harbour itself. (details when available). Regrettably the danger of placing so much of Britain's national art treasure on an extension to Margate Harbour, which is subject to heavy weather conditions, and exposed to the full fury of the North Sea, has not occurred to the designers, and would in all probability have Turner spinning in his grave.

The town's history is closely tied to the sea and it boasts a proud maritime tradition. The record of the vessel, Friend to all Nations, and the Margate Surfboat disaster of 1897 are noteworthy events in Margate's past.

In about 1816 ?The Times? reported that the introduction of steamboats has given the whole coast of Kent (and) the Isle of Thanet in particular, a prodigious lift?. Sir Rowland Hill (founder of the 1840 Penny Post), whilst in Thanet during 1815 however, remarked; ?It is surprising to see how most people are prejudiced against this packet?.

In 1820 it was said that ?the inhabitants of Margate ought to eulogize the name of Watt, as the founder of their good fortune; and Steam vessels as the harbingers of their prosperity? It is curious however to find that a popular reluctance was to be found apparent in passengers in traveling beyond Margate, for fear of coming to grief upon the dangerous North Foreland shoreline.

So popular were the steam boat excursions that in 1841 there were six different companies competing for the Margate passenger traffic. It remains a remarkable tribute to the popularity of this pioneering service that even with the advent of the South Eastern Railway in 1846 the steamboats continued in service until their final demise in 1967.

Margate during the Second World War.

It was on September the 3rd, 1940 that pilot officer Richard Hillary was shot down during combat against three messershmitts into the sea near the north foreland, but had the good fortune to be rescued by the margate lifeboat. His spitfire had burst into flames and he was badly burnt, but later wrote the book 'the last enemy.' Hillary the grandson of the founder of the lifeboat service (Sir William Hillary d1852) recovered from his ordeal, but was killed in a training flight accident in 1943, aged 24.

Howard Primrose Knight, Cox'n of the Ramsgate lifeboat 'Prudential', and Edward Drake Parker Cox'n of the Margate lifeboat 'Lord Southborough' were both awarded the distinguished service medal for recognition of their 'gallantry and determination when ferrying troops from the beaches of Dunkirk' during the evacuation in 1940.

The lifeboats had assisted in retrieving at least 2800 men, by towing eight wherries, during a continuous service lasting 40 hours. Following this achievement the Margate boat returned to Dunkirk to rescue between 5-600 French soldiers from the beach.

In a letter to the RNLI, the Commander of HMS Icarus stated 'The manner in which the Margate lifeboat crew brought off load after load of soldiers under continuous shelling, bombing and aerial machine gun fire, will be an inspiration to us all as long as we live.'

Between 1890-1939 about pleasure 30 boats operated from Margate beach. The main builder of Thanet wherries was Brockman of Margate, who turned them out in large numbers before the Great War. Their developed two distinct types of these Thanet beach boats, the Wherry, with its high sides and the Wherry punt, with low side. The hulls were traditionally varnished, a practice found employed by boatmen from Thanet to Devon. Some boatmen would construct a wider beam into the design to assist in the practice of fishing.

Although employing a clinker built hull the shape was similar to the Deal galley and the Thames waterman's Skiff. The last Wherry in service at Margate was operated by a Dusty Miller of Westgate, and built by an apprentice of Brockman's of Margate in 1939 "She was only about 12 ft long and being small was sometimes called a skiff."