Everything about The Isle Of Thanet totally explained
The
Isle of Thanet is an area at the most easterly point of
Kent,
England. The name Thanet is very old, as the following extract from the
Historia Britonum (first written sometime shortly after AD 833) testifies:
» Then came three keels, driven into exile from Germany. In them were the brothers
Horsa and
Hengest... Vortigern welcomed them, and handed over to them the island that in their language is called Thanet, in British Ruoihm.
It was one of the islands of
chalk left when the sea broke through to form the
English Channel in
6500 BC: the others are now beneath the sea. It was left separated from the mainland by what became known as the
Wantsum Channel, until the deposition of silt from the
River Stour along the coast joined the Isle to the mainland. Today Thanet consists of 26 miles of golden sandy beaches and grade A1 farmland, set on quick-draining chalk sub-soil.
Two thousand years ago Thanet was cut off from the mainland by the
Wantsum Channel, which in some places was a mile or two in width. Two branches of the
Stour flowed into the
Wantsum, at
Plucks Gutter near to
Stourmouth. At the eastern end, the
Romans built a port protected by
Richborough Castle;
Reculver fort was at the western end.
In the eighth century it was reported that the Channel was now three
furlongs wide (660 yards, 600 m), and a map of 1414 showed a ferry crossing at
Sarre. The first bridge over the channel was built there in
1485. Until the mid 18th century there was a ferry between
Sandwich and the island; a wooden drawbridge was built, and the ferry was closed.
The combination of those factors meant that from the
15th century there are only marshes and mudbanks through which the
Stour meanders, finally reaching the sea at Sandwich. The Wantsum valley is still liable to flooding, since it's only a few feet above sea level. During the 1953 floods Thanet was cut off for a few days, but the sea defences have been strengthened since then.
¹
"... a garden indeed, a county of corn but the labourers' houses all along, beggarly in the extreme. The people dirty, poor-looking, but particularly dirty."
— William Cobbett in 1823 when he rode to the Island
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History
Because of its proximity to
France and mainland
Europe, Thanet received the first of the
Roman invaders in
55 BC. The name 'Thanet' is corruption of the Celtic
tan-arth "high fire", suggesting that there may have been a lighthouse or beacon on the island.
Thanet is notable as the place where the Romans in the time of the Emperor Claudius decided to invade in order to deliver the new Emperor a military success. Richborough at the southern end of the Wantsum Channel was where the fleet landed and where one of the largest triumphal arches in the empire was built. It provided the formal entrance to the Roman road network and
Watling Street, and was situated to the north of the present Pfizer complex near
Sandwich, Kent.
The Romans crossed the Channel from Boulogne, and
legions with some support from elephants were sent to conquer different parts of Southern Britain, meeting stiff resistance from tribes under Caractacus and having to fight two major battles to cross the Medway near Rochester and the Thames, possibly near where the QEII bridge is today.
Following the departure of the Romans, it was in Thanet that
Vortigern formed an uneasy alliance with
Hengest and
Horsa, by tradition chieftains of the
Jutes, who led the
Saxon invasion in AD
449. By the end of the fifth century, Thanet had become part of the Jutish kingdom in Kent. In this way, Thanet is a mirror of
Hampshire's
Isle of Wight.
St Augustine is said by the Venerable
Bede to have landed with 40 men at Ebbsfleet, north of Sandwich, before founding Britain's first
Christian monastery, in
Canterbury.
The
Vikings wintered on Thanet twice in the
ninth century, in
851 and
864. The importance of Sandwich as one of the
Cinque Ports in medieval times meant that no fewer than seven places on the Isle were part of the Confederation:
Sarre,
Birchington, St John's,
Margate,
St Peter's, Woodchurch and
Ramsgate.
By 1334-1335 Thanet had the highest population density in Kent according to Edward III's lay subsidy rolls. It acted as a granary for Calais and documents towards the end of that century refer to turreted walls beneath the cliffs needing maintenance. Coastal erosion has long since destroyed these structures.
As the popularity of the
seaside resort grew, so did that of the Isle of Thanet. At first the holidaymakers came by boat from London; after the coming of the railways in the mid 1840s, that became the preferred mode of transport. The population grew, as the following figures show:
| Place |
Population in 1801 |
Population in 1861 |
| Ramsgate & St Lawrence |
4,200 |
15,100 |
| Margate |
4,800 |
10,000 |
| Broadstairs & St Peter's |
1,600 |
2,900 |
Margate has its roots in a name that "Has been variously spelt as Margat, Meregate and in the 13th cCentury, de Mergate. Indeed 'maris', 'mare' in Latin means, 'sea' and "gate", a way in or out of the country. Perhaps the Brooks, now the site of Dreamland, low-lying and fed by springs, did become a lake (sometimes freezing, to give the locals some skating). For another possibility, a monk of
Reculver,
Ymar by name, had a dying wish to be buried in St Johns Parish Church. The name "Ymar" could have become
Margate in time. Tradition insists that an old stone coffin lid at the church was his.
Broadstairs is a Thanet town in East Kent, England, with a population of about 22,000. Situated between Margate and Ramsgate, it's one of the seaside resorts on the Isle of Thanet, often known as the "Jewel in Thanet's crown". Broadstairs derives its name from the Anglo-Saxon word Bradstow(e).
The Reverend Evelyn Levett Sutton, a graduate of Cambridge University, was the vicar of St. Peter's Church in the Isle of Thanet. Sutton was a prebendary of Westminster Cathedral, one of the six preachers of Canterbury Cathedral, and chaplain to the House of Commons. Sutton collapsed while reading the ninth commandment in Westminster Abbey the day before his death Jan. 26, 1835.
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Local government
Climate
Thanet has a mild maritime climate with the surrounding sea providing a source of warmth during the winter months.
Thanet generally enjoys temperatures higher than the national average.
Demographic
From the United Nations Statistics Division, a survey conducted in 1996 gives the population as 125,543, made up of 59,567 males and 65,976 females.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Isle Of Thanet'.
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