If you happened to be wandering up the High Street towards the end of November you may have noticed the installation of, what is now, the 30th Ramsgate Society Blue Plaque. You may be surprised there are so many, and that the list keeps growing! They are very tangible evidence of the depth of heritage connections here in Ramsgate and it is important that we keep this awareness live and a source of local pride.

Each new plaque starts with a recommendation.  A few months ago Robert Milton Wallace of the Ramsgate Historic Quarter reminded us of the link between the English novelist Mary Shelley, and the boarding school in Ramsgate that she attended in 1811.

Mary Woollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft.

For six months in 1811, she attended a boarding school at 92 High Street in Ramsgate. Her mother had died soon after her birth and Ramsgate was chosen as a boarding school so she could continue salt water treatment for what we would now probably describe as eczema.

Her father described her at age 15 as “singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind. Her desire for knowledge is great, and her perseverance in everything she undertakes is almost invincible.”

The committee of the Ramsgate Society agreed that this connection with Ramsgate should be marked with a blue plaque and with help from the Ramsgate Town Council Technicians the plaque was put in place at 92 High Street, which is now The Wooden Box Gallery, on Monday 24th November.