Isle Of Thanet

Product Description

Dependent originally on fishing & farming Margate & Ramsgate benefited as limbs of the Cinque Ports during the Middle Ages shipping grain to London & elsewhere. Growth was however slow until an interest in sea-bathing arose in the eighteenth century when to Margate's great benefit Benjamin Beale invented the first bathing machine with a modesty hood. After that hoys paddle steamers & railways brought a stream of visitors that rapidly became a torrent. After the last war easier foreign travel allowed people to bathe elsewhere causing Margate to lose many hotels & other amenities. Mods & rockers did not reverse that trend & Manston aerodrome enjoyed some notoriety with the USAF in residence. Successes included the Hovercraft service to Calais & the enlargement of Ramsgate harbour. Thanet's cliffs beaches & sea air remain attractive today though. This delightful book shows some of the changes.