View this email in your browser

Dear *|FNAME1|*,

Aiming for Normality

At last, there is growing confidence about carefully returning to face-to-face meetings and events. Out in the open air we have been litter picking, renovating the shelters and enjoying first the Ramsgate Festival of Sound and then the Royal Harbour 200 Year celebration. The last two events have also included restricted-capacity talks, both organized by the Society and featuring Society committee members. In this newsletter we look back at some of this activity and chart the way forward for a full return to the talks programme.

Terry Prue
Ramsgate Society Communications Lead

Restarting the Talks Programme

We are delighted to be able to announce we shall be returning to the Royal Temple Yacht Club with a programme of bi-monthly talks, starting on November 19th. Please note that this and subsequent talks will now be on Friday evenings at 7pm.

The November 19th talk will be led by Joanna Thomson of the Goodwin Sands Preservation Trust. She will be sharing with us some of the most interesting and salient points about the Sands that have paid such an influential role in the development of Ramsgate and our Royal Harbour. This will include:

• How the Goodwins were formed and how they got their name

• Their geographical makeup and how they move – or not!

• Their influence on the growth of coastal towns like Deal and Ramsgate

• Their notoriety as ‘the shippe swallower’

• The early lifeboatmen – with a bit of smuggling thrown in

• Significant events & famous visitors

• Official protection for the marine environment, wildlife and maritime heritage

• The threat from marine aggregate extraction

• The Goodwins today

• What the Trust is doing to protect the Sands

• How the Ramsgate Society can help – responding to public consultations

We will be back to full occupancy of the room but this event is sure to be very popular and booking is essential. Doors will open at 6:30 and non-bookers will only be admitted if there are ‘no shows’ by 7pm.

Attendees are welcome to visit the RTYC bar after the event to continue a discussion about the talk.

Terry Prue

Update on the West Cliff Shelter Renovation

Thanks to a passer-by for taking this photograph

In the last newsletter we reported that the Nelson Crescent Residents Assn. requested volunteer support to renovate the shelters on Nelson Crescent and The Paragon. The start date was to be Monday 27th September but that was always to be weather dependent.

In the end we decided to start work on the shelters on 30th September, after the visitors had left and the 200th Harbour celebrations had finished. We managed a couple of days washing and preparing and then the weather changed!! Rain! Wind! and it was certainly not the best conditions for painting or anything else – one couple, however, Gareth & Carol, did do some prepping inside the shelters on the Paragon! Admirable!

Josy Alves sanded down and oiled two of the benches, also admirable, as I stayed in doors!!!! The weather has now taken a turn for the better but 3 of the team are on holiday so we will restart very soon and sincerely hope that the weather holds! We also have some serious wood replacement to do but we need our carpenter friend, Tony Smith, to do that.

We have nearly finished the painting on one shelter and the prepping has nearly all been done on the other three, so we need to get on with the painting next week.

The helpers so far have been Tony Smith, Gareth & Carol Cox, Josy Alves, Roger Mellor, Becky Wing, Anne Peers and of course Raushan turned up on Thursday and helped us to put the masking tape around the windows. If you can lend a hand to volunteer do email me and I can tell you when we are able to be on site.

Davena Green
Ramsgate Society Vice President

The Chine to Chine Litter Pick

Photograph by John Walker

The Ramsgate Society’s October Chine to Chine Litter Pick took place on Sunday 10th October 2021. Our final litter pick of the year was organised in collaboration with the Ramsgate Litter Forum and was part of a series of Thanet-wide clean-up activities taking place this month. It was the fourth litter pick undertaken by the Society this year, following from the Pegwell Bay Beach Clean in April, Jackey Baker field litter pick in May and the Chine-to-Chine Litter Pick in June.

We are grateful for the volunteers who joined us and went across the East and West Cliffs and inside the town centre collecting litter. Despite the event having been widely publicised, the turnout was not as high as the previous three litter picks, possibly due to a high number of events taking place across Thanet following the lifting of covid-related restrictions. The next year’s strategy for the litter picks may include looking at changing the time to a slightly later start or moving one of the events to a Saturday to encourage participation from groups who may be unable to join on Sundays such as the local church groups.

We are grateful to the TDC’s Coast and Beach team for the loan of the litter picking equipment and also to the Ramsgate Town Council for their support and equipment.

Meher Basit
Ramsgate Society Executive Committee Member

A Call for Photographs

Photograph by Terry Prue

Ramsgate is photogenic and who can resist those skies? We use photographs in the Ramsgate Society for our newsletters, our magazine and on our web site. If you have favourite images of Ramsgate architecture which you are happy for us to use as required – properly credited of course – please send up to three of your favourites.

Contact the Ramsgate Society

If you have any queries about or for the Society please get in touch N.B. 2021 membership is now due – if you have any membership queries also use this link to ask about it.

Members with events, workshops or news that you would like the Society to consider featuring in its newsletter please contact: news@ramsgate-society.org.uk