Dear <<First Name>>,

Welcome to our October newsletter and we start with three new activities planned for November – two from the Ramsgate Society and another, though not ours, that might interest many of you.

Upcoming Society Events 1

FREE walking tour this half term with the Pegwell Bay Wardens and Bird Wise East Kent

November 4th 10am till Noon

Last July we were delighted to host a talk by a Protected Area Warden on the extraordinary variety of wildlife and the work that goes on to support the natural gem that is at Pegwell Bay. We now invite members and friends to join a free guided walk to explore the fascinating natural history of the area and see some of the many rare migratory birds that spend their winter resting and feeding along our coastline. This is a great opportunity to find out more about how they manage the diverse array of habitats at this internationally important site and what you can do to help protect our most vulnerable species including our local seal colony.

Sue Gyde will be the Ramsgate Society contact and the walk will be led by the Pegwell Bay Wardens and Bird Wise East Kent.

We will meet near by the Salty Seal Café, KCC Pegwell Country Park Car Park.  A256 Sandwich Rd, Cliffsend, Ramsgate CT12 5JB (Shown on Google as the former Walkers Rest Café). Parking is available there, but there is a charge.

There are 17 places available.

Should you find all places are already reserved do send us an email with a phone number as we often receive last minute cancellations and will contact the reserve list in strict order of emails received.

Some of you might also be interested in Wilder Coast Volunteer ambassadors for Sandwich & Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve. The role involves raising awareness about how and where people can share the bay responsibly with its wildlife. You can find out more about what it takes to be a volunteer here:

Wilder Coast Volunteer – Sandwich & Pegwell Bay Area | Kent Wildlife Trust

Sue Gyde

Upcoming Society Events 2:

Our next Society Talk ‘Researching Ramsgate’ by Geraint Franklin

Thursday November 17th 7pm to 8pm

Photo: John Fielding from Norwich, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Following our October talk, when Ivan del Renzio presented his architect’s view of how the future of Ramsgate could look, we welcome Geraint Franklin from Historic England to give more context to the historic development of our town.

Autumn 2022 marks the publication of Historic England’s Ramsgate Historic Area Assessment (HAA), the final research outcome of the Ramsgate Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) initiative. The report charts the historical development of the town and profiles its character and significance. In this talk Geraint provides an introduction to the HAA, including both insights and opportunities for further research.

Originally a fishing community in the parish of St Lawrence, Ramsgate assumed greater importance on becoming a limb of the Cinque Port of Sandwich. The commencement of a ‘harbour of refuge’ in 1750 coincided with Ramsgate’s growing popularity as a sea bathing resort. Improvements in passenger boats and the arrival of the railway opened up the resort to an increasingly broad social spectrum of visitors, resulting in investment in bathing facilities, entertainment venues and civic infrastructure. Ramsgate also attracted minority faith communities, represented by the Montefiore Synagogue and A. W. N. Pugin’s Roman Catholic church of St Augustine.

Geraint’s talk will explore the historical development of the town and profile the character and significance of its built heritage, providing an evidence base for sustainable regeneration. The Historic Area Assessment is intended to assist stakeholders, the local community and others in showing how Ramsgate has assumed its present form, in identifying a range of building and landscape types and relating them to wider historical contexts.

The talk is free for Ramsgate Society members. Non-members are welcome but are asked to consider a voluntary donation of £3. Doors open at 6:30pm for the talk from 7pm to 8pm. As always, places must be booked in advance.

Terry Prue

Upcoming Event 3:

20mph Speed Limits in Ramsgate?

Photo: Isle of Thanet News

We can see both safety and environmental merit in Ramsgate following other Kent towns and introducing some 20mph speed limit roads. If you agree, or simply want to know more be aware that a ‘20’s Plenty’ meeting on the subject will take place on Wednesday, November 9, at the Comfort Inn, Victoria Parade, Ramsgate from 7pm – 8.30pm.

As we understand it from the press report, a traffic order has now been made changing 10 Ramsgate roads to 20mph zones.

The roads covered by the new speed limit:

• ALBERT COURT, CHARLOTTE COURT, HARBOUR STREET and YORK STREET– For their entire length.
• HARBOUR PARADE – From its junction with Military Road to its junction with Marine Esplanade.
• HIGH STREET – From its junction with Harbour Street to its junction with Hardres Street.
• KING STREET – From its junction with High Street to its junction with Broad Street.
• MADERIA WALK – From its junction with Harbour Parade to its junction with Albion Place.
• QUEEN STREET – From its junction with High Street to its junction with Leopold Street.
• ROYAL PARADE – From its junction with Harbour Parade for a distance of 33 metres in a westerly direction.

A petition is also running by Ramsgate resident Emma Lloyd asking for the 20mph limit to be made throughout the town centre.

Terry Prue

Plans for the East Cliff Bandstand

Photo: Terry Prue

The Bandstand and the surrounding ‘outdoor dancefloor’ are looking much better after an impressive clean up by volunteers, including a team from Saga on their volunteering day. The Ramsgate Society has been involved too as Ramsgate Town Council, who are very supportive of bringing the bandstand back into community use, approached John Walker to submit an application from us to have the bandstand and surrounds listed as an ‘Asset of Community Value’. This was done some two months ago and we are due to have a decision from TDC before the end of the month.

Terry Prue

East Cliff Shelters: Work Has Started

Photos: John Walker

One of our priorities post-Covid is to get the seafront shelters back into good condition. They suffered badly from vandalism over the period of the pandemic and their exposed seafront location has caused a great deal of rust to the metal frames.

We decided to get a specialist in to do the preparatory work including scraping the rust back to the metal and treating it with a powerful rust inhibitor- see attached photos for a before and after example. Quite a lot of the special decorative softwood timber mouldings are rotten due to water penetration and these are being replaced to match the existing original design.

There’s a lot of preparation to do before we can ask for volunteers to help us with the repainting works, so if you are interested in volunteering watch this space!

John Walker

Changes to the Ramsgate Executive Committee

We are sad to announce that Meher Basit is stepping down from the Committee in order to concentrate on her PhD and her full time job at the University of Kent as well as other responsibilities. Meher has been a member of the executive committee for over 6 years and took on the planning and organisation of the Society’s many litter picks which have helped to make the town a much more pleasant place to live. She was also a lead player in the Society’s working group that organised the Thanet Heritage Open Days – an annual series of events which have gone from strength to strength and are now led by Sue Gyde.

Meher will be remembered for her unfailing kindness, good humour, generosity and her calm demeanour when the rest of us were getting into a flap! Thank you, Meher for everything you have done for the Ramsgate Society and for the town in which you’ve chosen to live.

John Walker

Contact the Ramsgate Society

If you have any queries about or for the Society please get in touch

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