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Lively and vibrant, Ramsgate has a veritable feast of attractions for residents and visitors alike. The stunning Royal Harbour, with its cosmopolitan feel, was awarded its title in 1820 when King George IV embarked with the Royal Squadron at Ramsgate on his way to Hanover. In appreciation of the hospitality given to him on his return he decreed that Ramsgate Harbour should have the right to add 'Royal' to its name in statute, which is unique in mainland Britain.
Situated close to Ramsgate town centre, the harbour offers a fine selection of restaurants, and pubs, many with tables and chairs outside so drinkers and diners can sit and watch the world go by, while taking in the fresh sea air and admiring the glorious sea views. In fact, there are numerous things to do around the harbour including pleasure-boat trips, self-guided town trails, open-top bus rides and tours of Ramsgate Brewery, to name a few. Ramsgate's award-winning beach has recently scooped a Seaside Award in the Resort Beach category. In order to be awarded such an accolade the resort beaches have to meet a series of 29 different criteria including cleanliness, safety and the display of up-to-date information for the public.
The annual Power Boat Grand Prix has become an exciting event in the town. calendar. One of the biggest events in the South East, the competition line-up includes many of the sport's top international stars and more than 60 racing boats, many of which are capable of reaching 100mph. Other attractions around the town include the Maritime Museum, which is housed in the early 19th century Grade-II listed Clock House at the harbour. It depicts various aspects of maritime heritage and the seafaring life of Thanet and East Kent.
Ramsgate Motor Museum, situated at The Paragon, houses one of the finest collections of Edwardian vintage and classic cars in the South East. The Viking ship Hugin sits on the clifftops at Cliffsend and is a full size replica of a Viking ship. It sailed from Denmark to Thanet in 1949 to celebrate the 1,500th anniversary of the invasion of Britain.
St Augustine's Cross marks the spot where St Augustine and 40 monks landed at Ebbsfleet on the Isle of Thanet in AD 597, returning Christianity to England. Later that year, St Augustine was enthroned as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The cross was erected at Cliffsend in 1884 to commemorate the site where St Augustine was said to have celebrated hid first mass. The St Augustine's Trail can be enjoyed on foot, cycle or by car and leads you through picturesque scenery, attractive small villages, past old churches and oasthouses and includes two different seascapes - from the English Channel at Pegwell Bay to the North Kent coast at Reculver.
Ramsgate's Model Village, situated on the promenade, is a reproduction of some of England's most charming country villages in miniature, and is certain to delight both adults and children. Ramsgate not only boasts a rich history but also has links to some of the world's best known artists and literary figures.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the brilliant Victorian architect settled in the town where he acquired some land in Westcliff on which he built himself a house and a church, St Augustine's Abbey. Pugin is perhaps best known for his collaboration with Sir Charles Barry in the design for the Houses of Parliament. Pugin's son, Edward, completed his father's work on St Augustine church and designed the Granville Hotel.
Hans Christian Andersen visited Ramsgate and Broadstairs in the late 1840s in the company of Charles Dickens. As the English translation of his fairy stories were first published in 1846, it is possible that the visit was in connection with this. Vincent Van Gogh taught languages at a private school in Ramsgate. He is know to have drawn pen and ink sketches of the view from his window in Royal Road.
A website displaying images from Ramsgate past and present can be found at Old Ramsgate
Reculver, 1 mile E of Herne Bay, just off the A299 Thanet Way, was once Kent's most north-easterly point - when Romans built a fort here in AD 43 the sea was nearly a mile away. By 1809 the cliff was so close that the villagers panicked and moved over a mile inland, building a new church there. The two 12th century towers at Reculver are the remains of the original church. When the villagers too were forced to leave by the approaching sea, they left the two towers as landmarks for shipping.
The Isle of Thanet was once separated from Reculver on the mainland by a tidal channel, Wantsum Channel, a third of a mile wide. For centuries most crossings were made to the south where the Roman road ran to the sea opposite Sarre. By 1500 a programme of drainage, together with natural silting, had prevented shipping from using the channel, which has now shrunk to a drainage dyke.
The Romans founded Rochester where Watling Street, their great road from the Channel ports to London, bridged the tidal River Medway. Historically the road has brought travellers to the city, including medieval Canterbury pilgrims and stagecoach passengers.
The Saxons founded the cathedral, consecrated in AD 604, the second oldest in England. The Normans rebuilt it from 1077, including the spectacular west doorway. Additions were made in the 12th and 14th centuries, with rebuilding after Civil War damage. The magnificent nave has a superb oak roof supported by carved angels. The close is informal and intimate, and the nearby monastic ruins are set in gardens. The park, The Vines, was probably a monastic vineyard.
The Normans saw the city's strategic value and built a castle. The present castle, which dominates the hill behind the cathedral, dates from 1130. Within the walls are gardens and the massive 36m high keep with walls 4m thick.
Charles Dickens knew Rochester well, and it appears in many of his books, notably Great Expectations. There is a Charles Dickens Centre and a Dickens' Festival in May/June. Other festivals include the Chimney Sweeps in May and the Carnival and Regatta in July. Rochester has craft and antique shops, sports and leisure facilities and riverside gardens.
More historical facts can be found from the following City of Rochester link.
Rolvenden, 2 miles SW of Tenterden on the A28, has a wide main street lined with weather-boarded cottages. Its church was built by monks from Canterbury in around 1220 and has remained largely unchanged since 1480. The village, which has more than once been declared 'the best kept' in Kent. Rolvenden also has a small motor museum.
When fire swept through Rolvenden in 1665, the population moved to Rolvenden Layne to start a second village. Already here was the Tudor house where John Wesley preached in the late 18th century. Frances Hodgson Burnett rented Great Maytham in 1898 and a blocked-up door in the old walled garden inspired her to write The Secret Garden. After her departure in 1907 the mansion was rebuilt by Edwin Lutyens.
Although quite a small village, Rolvenden has several claims to fame. Lady Jane Grey, who was queen of England for nine days in 1554, until Queen Mary ended her rein by chopping off her head before the crown could be placed upon it, lived at nearby Halden Place. She would have known the Rev John Frankish of Rolvenden, who became one of the Kentish Marian martyrs when he was burned at the stake at Canterbury in 1555.
Hole Park was where Edward Gibbons lived, He became famous as the author of the monumental Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which was published between 1776 and 1788.
Rolvenden's restored postmill, rare in Kent, is now probably the best surviving example in the county. Its restoration was carried out in 1956 as a memorial to John Nicholas Barham who, according to the inscription, 'lived his short life within sight of it' and died in August 1955, just before his eighteenth birthday. The mill, which is privately owned, stands on a little hill and was featured in the Tommy Steele film Half a Sixpence.
Before that, during the depression of the 1930s, the voluntary restoration of the mill was one of the projects offered to unemployed men who came to the Cambridge University Council for Unemployed Camps centre at Rolvenden. Most of them came from the hard-hit Medway and other North Kent towns, and by working on the mill they could earn a certificate which they could then take to an employer who might accept it as evidence that they were worthy candidates for any vacancies they had - not unlike the work experience schemes of today. There has been a mill on the site since 1596 at least, but none has done the work for which it was built since about 1882.
A more recent industry based in Rolvenden is Jim Hoad's Korker sausage factory. That began as a little village butcher's shop and grew very quickly into a factory employing sixteen people and producing 50,000 lbs of sausages a week.
Although part of Aylesford parish, the village deserves a mention of its own. Founded on Preston Hall Hospital, it grew out of the efforts of the British Legion (before it was distinguished with the Royal prefix) to provide for ex-servicemen needing continuing support during and after convalescence.
The present house, despite its Jacobean style, was built in the 1850s and was part of an extensive manor that dated back to the 12th century when the Colepeper family held it during the rein of King John. Much later, the estate came into the ownership of Edward Ladd Betts, a railway engineer who built the present Preston Hall before he was ruined by financial speculation. As a result, the property passed to the Brassey family.
Later still, another owner, Madame Sauber, let the Hall for use as a Red Cross Convalescent Home during WW1 and when the war was over it became a hospital for ex-servicemen.
The village was built around it, providing homes and workshops for the families of patients at the hospital until the men could return to work themselves. The author George Orwell was one of those who received treatment for tuberculosis at Preston Hall. It was taken over by the National Health Service in 1948 as a chest hospital and later became a general hospital until the Maidstone General Hospital in Hermitage Lane opened in 1984. Today, Preston Hall houses the headquarters of the West Kent Health Authority and is also the site of the Heart of Kent Hospice, which was opened in 1992 by Diana, Princess of Wales.
British Legion Industries still provide work for ex-servicemen in the village. Most of the original houses have now been replaced, although the distinctive Preston Hall Colony bungalows are still in use on the opposite side of the A20, alongside Hermitage Lane.
Ruckinge is one of a series of villages that overlook the Royal Military Canal from the lower slopes of the old Romney Marsh shoreline, strung out along the B2067 from Lympne westwards to Ham Street, where the two features part company.
It is not a big village. and it might well have avoided notice altogether but for a few notable residents. Some of them were more notorious than notable, including several members of the Ransley family. The family name was linked, during the 18th and 19th centuries, with the infamous Hawkhurst Gang and later, the Aldington Gang of smugglers, both of which featured in nefarious exploits throughout Kent.
Two Ransley brothers who were hanged in 1800 on Penenden Heath at Maidstone for highway robbery lie buried in Ruckinge churchyard and George Ransley became the leader of the notorious Aldington Gang, known as the Blues, in the 1820s. George was born in 1782 and was a ploughman and a carter before his big break came when he found a smugglers' cache of sprits which he sold for enough money to enable his to build his own house, the Bourne Tap, at Aldington. When the gang was broken up finally in 1827, he escaped the death sentence and was instead transported to Tasmania, where he seems to have lived out his life as a law-abiding farmer.
More recently, Ruckinge was the home to Thomas Aveling, pioneer of the steam traction engine - that is featured on the village sign, out side Ruckinge village hall.
St Mary Magdalene's church is of Norman - perhaps even Saxon - origins, with a startlingly massive low tower capped with an odd-looking spire that looks like an inverted funnel. Only devoted locals could call it an attractive building and inside it is almost entirely devoid of any kind of architectural or even memorial features. It is much bigger than the size of the present village, even with its modern additions, warrants and must once have catered for the spiritual needs of a much larger community.
Ryarsh is not a particularly distinguished little village, a mile or two north of West Malling, but it deserves a mention if only because its Victorian vicar for 38 years, the Rev Lambert Blackerell Larking, became the first secretary of the Kent Archaeological Society and launched the record of his activities, Archaeologia Cantiana, which is still going strong. He wrote more than 200 paged of the first volume. He was an authority on Saxon and other ancient manuscripts and made a translation of the Domesday Book which was published after his death.
Today, Ryarsh is the workplace of Birling parish, and bricks from Ryarsh Brick Co have protected Middle Easterners from the heat of the sun and scientists at King Edward Point from the freezing temperatures of the Antarctic, not to mention lions in the lion house at London Zoo from the vagaries of the English climate.
In 1998, plans were put forward to turn the local sewage works, for long an eyesore, into public gardens which, if the scheme went ahead, would make a significant improvement to the village generally.