£2.00 where sold

About SUMMER 2015

RAMSGATEThe Society’s quarterly magazine of news, views and heritage information

The Little Ships set sail again: Ramsgate celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Evacuation

Beyond the View Another World Capt Abbott’s House Seaside snaps in How the Napoleonic Wars Tracing the map of Victorian Ramsgate brought change to the town the early 18th century CONTENTS SUMMER 2015 Another World 4 Terry Prue considers the changes brought to Ramsgate by the Napoleonic Wars Chairman’s Report

am sad to tell you that, as I stepped down as A Ramsgate Reincarnation 7 Chairman at the last AGM, after ten years in post, Stephen Davies visits The Falstaff Inn Ithis will be my last Chairman’s Letter. During those as it is brought back to life. ten years I have seen The Society grow in stature and ambition, and increase its membership. Its status Thanet Sprint Revival 8 and the work it does has been acknowledged by the community, the local Councils and organisations such as Thrills (without spills) in store above Heritage Lottery Fund, Civic Society, Community First, and below Western Undercliff and even the office of the Lord Lieutenant. I hope that The Society will continue its brilliant work, and that its Captain Abbott’s Ramsgate 9 contribution to the community will continue to grow. Benedict Kelly reveals an imposing I am also sorry to record that the editors of About house once on the High Street Ramsgate have decided to step down after more than two years of dedicated and inspired work. It was a lucky day when Stephen Davies and Veronica Pratt agreed to The Little Ships 10-11 take over the running of the magazine. Both are Life Pictures of the 75th Anniversary of Members of The Society, and publishing professionals Operation Dynamo with long and distinguished careers, with experience in major publishing houses including Penguin/Viking, Beyond the View 12 the BBC and Reader’s Digest. Together they undertook a major redesign of the appearance and content of Dr Karen Shepherdson looks back at the magazine, and I am sure everyone will agree that Ramsgate’s Victorian seaside snappers the new-look magazine is stylish, informative and entertaining, and enhances the prestige of The Society. David Rumsey 16 Due to an oversight we neglected to acknowledge their A tribute to a sadly missed contribution and their legacy at the AGM in May, but Committee member I’m sure members will join me in thanking Stephen and Veronica for their hard work over the last two years, and for providing us with a magazine to be proud of. Who Am I? 6 A new team headed by Brian Daubney, another Life Book Reviews 15 Member, will produce the magazine in future, starting Diary 18 with the autumn issue. We are very grateful to Brian for agreeing to take on this task, and wish him luck. In my last letter I said how well the shop in FRONT COVER PHOTO by Stephen Davies Harbour Street was doing, so I am sorry to say that at the moment it is closed, due to the extensive Waving off the Little Ships as they depart refurbishments being undertaken by the owners. the Royal Harbour for Dunkirk on the 75th The owner has offered a new five years’ lease but Anniversary of Operation Dynamo unfortunately it is far too expensive for us. The Society has been asked to come back with an offer. We have The Society’s Aims and Objectives been looking around to see if there are any other suitable premises available, but properties in the centre To encourage high standards of architecture and town planning, of Ramsgate are extremely costly. The Harbour Street to stimulate public interest in, and to care for, the beauty, shop has been a great focus for The Society. I was history and character of the town and its surrounds, and to surprised how many people didn’t know The Society encourage the preservation and improvement of features of existed, but were happy to see its presence in the public amenity or historic interest in Ramsgate. centre of town. It would be a shame if The Society were unable to re-establish its presence within the town. We The Ramsgate Society is a Founder Member of Civic Voice and is were fortunate that, due to well-wishers and generous affiliated to the Federation of Amenity Societies and to contributors, we were able to afford seven months’ the Kent History Federation. The Ramsgate Society rent (we also had three months rent-free). If such is a Registered Charity - number 1138809 premises are obtained in future The Society hopes that members will consider contributing to what has proved Continuing on the subject of Ramsgate Harbour, a worthwhile enterprise: either by volunteering their we have been approached by Nick Dermott of Thanet time, or making a financial donation. District Council, who has been instructed to put in The Pleasurama site has been sold to Cardy by an application to HLF for funds for improvements to TDC. We hope the £3 million proceeds from the sale the listed structures in the harbour. He has asked The will be invested in Ramsgate. For example, the Westcliff Society for support. As you know the harbour has Promenade above the former Motor Museum is several Grade 1 and Grade 2* listed buildings within its collapsing, and we hope that some of those funds could boundary, and also includes some Monument structures, be directed to repairing the promenade. So far there is including Smeaton’s Crosswall and the slipways. The no sign of activity at the site, but we hope that work Society is happy to support this great project. will start soon to remove this visual blight from our A team headed by John Walker has submitted a bid seafront. for HLF funds for Ellington Park and we hope for good With reference to the Royal Pavilion there is more news in due course. delay to the application, while the Council seeks further Project Motorhouse is still going ahead, despite detailed drawings. The first stage of the listed building the recent news in the paper that it may have to be consents has been approved. Yet again watch this space. demolished. The plan is to rebuild it, like for like. The You’ll have heard about the proposed O’Regan group is still seeking funding and The Society continues development in the . No application to give Janet Fielding its full support. As you know it has actually been put in so far. I attended a pre-petition is not a listed building and is not included in a local list, meeting with would-be election candidates called by and The Society would like to see it reinstated, due to Friends of Ramsgate Seafront and other groups. The its historical importance. purpose was to send a petition asking My best wishes to the new Chairman, John Walker. Council not to entertain an application for industrial I hope The Society will continue to prosper. development on the Port of Ramsgate. The Society has been asked for its support. We feel that, due to the Jocelyn McCarthy environmental impact, a development like this should not take place.

Welcoming The Society’s New Chairman, John Walker

ohn is the Deputy Chairman of Civic Voice, from 1974 to 1994 and a Director of the national organisation for civic societies Bovis Homes, followed by 15 years as a Jin and Chairman of The Kent private residential developer specialising Federation of Amenity Societies, one of the in high quality award-winning residential largest regional groupings of civic societies development. in England. He is also a founder member and Apart from his involvement with the Vice Chairman of The Society and civic society movement, John is also Vice Chairman of The Ramsgate Society. Chairman of The Music Society, Until recently a Board member of CPRE (Kent), he one of the most vibrant and successful chamber music was formerly a Trustee of The Kent People’s Trust and societies in the country. of The Museum of Kent Life. John moved to Ramsgate in 2011 and immediately John has a business background, with over 35 years joined the Ramsgate Society. He was asked by Jocelyn experience as a residential and commercial property McCarthy to join the committee and was appointed Vice developer. He was a Director of Ward Holdings PLC Chairman in 2012.

Welcome to our new members Subscriptions From Ramsgate Single Membership £8; Joint Membership £12; Mrs Julie Atkins, Miss Emma Braid-Taylor, Mr Tony Overseas £20. Standing-order mandates can be Child, Frank & Pat Ferrett, Mr & Mrs S Gibson, Mrs downloaded from www.ramsgate-society.org.uk or Julie Graham, Mr Michael Hart, Ms Sarah Hart, Mr & are available from the Secretary: Mrs C Hawkes, Miss P. Hilton-Jones, Mrs M Moscoso, [email protected] Ms V Moss-Jones, Mr & Mrs R Peete, Ms Beverley Perkins, Mr & Mrs A Sarafoglou, Miss Sarah Turner From Further Afield Contacts Mr & Mrs Copeland (), Philip Evans Postal: The Editor, 12 West Cliff Rd, CT11 9JW (Dagenham, Essex), Mr William Meades (Bucks), Email: [email protected] Mrs V Standing (Hove, Sussex), Frederic Stansfield If you would prefer to receive the Magazine by email, (Canterbury) please let us know. Another World by Terry Prue How Napoleon Helped Change Ramsgate

he Ramsgate Festival at the end of August The nature of employment in Ramsgate also will commemorate the 200th anniversary of changed. For centuries, Ramsgate had existed upon Tthe Battle of Waterloo, and it is instructive to a mixture of agriculture and fishing with a smattering consider how Ramsgate changed before and after this of overseas trade – with the last of these not always great event. Consider the pre-Napoleonic Wars map legal in nature. The topographical study ‘Britannia’ by below and you will see that our town is predominantly William Camden and originally written in Latin in 1586 ‘internal’ with very little development laterally along said this of the inhabitants of Ramsgate, Broadstairs and the cliffs. It is similar to most and villages at this : time in which the existence of a population where many ‘...they are exceedingly industrious, and are as it risked their lives working on the sea meant that they were amphibious creatures, and get their living both did not want also to have houses that looked over it! by sea and land; for they deal in both elements, and

Pre 1815 Map © Cassini Publishing Ltd are both fishers and ploughmen; for the same hand When the British declared war with France on May that holds the plough, steers the ship likewise’.2 18th 1803, the only tentative move towards sea-view Whether it was literally true that the same men development had come with the buildings at Albion both ploughed and commanded boats is hard to say, Place (shown on the map above) and at Nelson Crescent but certainly there is evidence that farm labourers in (not yet included). At this time the town was still small slack times would also be fishing-crew members and and even including St Lawrence it had a population of (as covered in the last About Ramsgate) carry smuggled only 4,178 in 1801. Post- Napoleonic Wars the dramatic goods from shore to inland hiding places. Dependence growth began and forty years later it had tripled to on these core employment opportunities persisted 13,603 and by 1901, doubled again to 27,7331. for another two hundred years, with an even greater 1 Population figures taken from Extracts from the Economy of Kent 1640-1915, published for Kent County Council, 1995 2 Quoted from the English abridged version, published in 1701 growth in maritime pursuits after the harbour was built. The time of the Napoleonic Wars was a watershed in the development of Ramsgate. The embryonic growth of the town as a fashionable watering place was actually given a boost by the presence of the military and their activities on both cliffs. Although Napoleon started to plan an invasion of Britain in 1803 there seems little evidence that it struck great fear in the hearts of the civilian population. It did not stop Princess Victoria visiting East Cliff Lodge in the summer of 1803, or Sir William Curtis enlarging and improving Cliff House. The balls in the original Albion Hotel (where Pizza Express is now) were, if anything, enhanced by the war on the Continent, as this report from 1811 suggests:

‘On Monday night his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence gave a ball and supper at Bear’s Albion Hotel, Ramsgate, which in fashion, splendour and elegance exceed anything of the kind ever witnessed in that part of the Kingdom’.3 The War also marked the start of Ramsgate property development led by, but not limited to, the Townleys. Originally involved in the provision of officers’ housing, it was after the troops left in 1819, that they were at the forefront of the reclamation of land on both cliffs to meet the new need for accommodation with sought-after sea views. By 1851, the census showed that seaside resorts had expanded more rapidly than any other group of © The History Press Co Ltd © The History Press English towns, with Ramsgate as the fourth biggest, Modern reprint of Percy Maylam’s book with the ahead of Margate, and only exceeded by Brighton, Deal Hoodners of 1909 on the cover. Hastings and Scarborough.4 The new holiday trade totally dominated the describes his personal experience of as a Ramsgate economy from the 19th Century. It required continuing Eve custom in the farmhouses a huge labour force to house, feed and entertain the of Thanet, but it had already virtually died out in the visitors and people of all types would be letting rooms bigger Thanet towns, killed by the massive influx of for the ‘season’. Physically, the town added more and new residents and the swamping of agricultural heritage more shops, , concert halls and even churches to by the new tourism-based economy. a level which went way beyond what the local resident The earliest written record of hoodening in population could support. Ramsgate actually comes from a letter to a newspaper The old Ramsgate of a small population of farmers in 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. I’ll quote it in full, and fishermen was overwhelmed and with it went much but pre-warn you that I will return to share doubts of the old rural traditions. about the veracity of this report: One of these traditions was the arrival of the Hooden Horse on Christmas Eve in our lost rural ‘Also at Ramsgate, in Kent, I found they begin the communities. Now I know the Hooden Horse can still festivities of Christmas by a curious procession: a be found as the name of a new at Westwood, as the party of young people procure the head of a dead emblem of Broadstairs Folk Week, as folk band ‘The horse, which is affixed to a pole about four feet in Deal Hoodeners’ and as a prop for some Morris Dancers length; a string is affixed to the lower jaw; a horse- but these harkbacks are hardly the real thing. They cloth is also attached to the whole, under which have lost their Christmas (or perhaps pagan Saturnalia) one of the party gets, and by frequently pulling significance and the only benefit of their transfer to the the string, keeps up a loud snapping noise, and is summer season is that it makes it less of an anomaly for accompanied by the rest of the party, grotesquely me to write about them in the Summer About Ramsgate. habited, with hand bells; they thus proceed from The only truly authoritative study of the tradition of house to house, ringing their bells, and singing the Hooden Horse was published by Percy Maylem in carols and songs; they are commonly gratified 1909, and republished with additional material by The with beer and cake, or perhaps with money. This is History Press in 2009. In his opening chapter Maylem called, provincially, a Hodening, and the figure above described as a Hoden or Woden horse.’5 3 The London Globe, Thursday October 31st 1811 4 James Walvin, Beside the Seaside, 1978 5 A letter to the editor of the European Magazine, May 1807 5 One of the Broadstairs Hooden Horses © Broadstairs Folk Week

Although this passage is reprinted over and over leisure pursuits, but as you enjoy the Broadstairs again in subsequent newspaper articles and books on festivities or dance to the band from Deal do at , Maylam uses oral tradition to cast doubt on the least remember that we shared the tradition here in account of usage of a real horse skull, and also on the Ramsgate but it just could not survive the changes after realism of the rather grand description of a ‘procession’. the defeat of Napoleon. His view is that this was not written by a native of Kent nor actually based on current personal experience. It is perhaps rather in the way that those of us of mature years might reflect on the splendour of the ‘guys’ made Who am I? by children on ‘bonfire night’ and forget that the practice – and what’s my connection is actually, by now, largely dead in most towns. The likelihood is that the rural tradition of the with Ramsgate? by Stephen Davies hooden horse had already all but disappeared from the rapidly growing towns of Ramsgate and Margate. It ‘My own doctor... is of the opinion persisted for a while longer in the villages and in the that the West Cliff of Ramsgate is smaller, less developed seaside towns of Broadstairs unequalled as a recuperative resort. A and Deal but, even here, was under threat. This article friend of mine, after taking the waters about Christmas at Minster sixty years later both confirms both the continued presence of hoodening and at Marienbad, under Dr Ott, was also its increasing rarity: suddenly summoned back to England, and was thus prevented from ‘The hooden horse we thought, was as extinct as the completing the cure, as is usually megatharium, but there was one that came again to done, by visiting Engadine or some see how the world was jogging on.’6 other foreign place. Upon my friend Nowadays the hooden horse still reappears as a explaining the position to the German self-conscious reenactment of the past in the company doctor, the latter observed: of Mummers and Morris dancers. It is a reminder of an agricultural life that was common in Thanet before “Have you ever been to Ramsgate? the Napoleonic Wars but which could not survive the Go there, for in my opinion you tourism-led explosive growth that followed. Perhaps it is apt that the horse itself is now an adjunct to modern cannot do better.”’ For answer see page 19 6 Kentish Gazette, January 7th 1868 ? Ramsgate Reincarnations 5 by Stephen Davies The Falstaff Inn

he rise in the fortunes of Addington Street then became The Pin-Table Parlour, is about to re-open seems to be unstoppable. Was it only three years as – yes – another Antiques and Bygones emporium, Tago that the many shop windows along the street Paraphernalia. A lot seems to have happened in just two fronted hardly a single functioning business? or three years. Further back in time, many will remember when And one of those signal changes is happening at you could have found in the street an excellent butcher The Falstaff, so recently a rather sad and crumbling pub (Sanders, the name of the shop, survives on what is now opposite the junction with Townley Street. This July a residential arrangement of two flats), a chemist’s shop sees it open as a boutique bed and breakfast, following a (Skitts, which won an award for its excellent restoration, magnificent restoration, more than two and a half years but closed some years ago) and a very useful sub- in the gestation, which is truly a labour of love. It is this post office. Those with longer memories will recall a issue’s ‘Ramsgate Reincarnation’. ladies’ outfitters which seemed even thirty years ago Behind this endeavour is Peter Andon, who lives less like a going concern than some dingy museum of and sails in Ramsgate while operating a successful shopkeeping; a secondhand book shop (Mr Williams – family business in London, producing Powder Coatings. Williams the Book – had been a rep for several London He had been keeping the the former pub in view for publishers, and his stock consisted in large part of his some time, and two and a half years ago managed to file copies); even a Stationer’s, extraordinary as that buy it, with the vague idea of restoring it and running may seem today. I remember – with regret - a Japanese it in some hospitable capacity. After two years of work, (Yakety-Yak) as well as a Spanish restaurant; two under the watchful eye of his business partner Ashley different greengrocers at different periods and different Strain, the painstaking restoration is nearing an end, ends of the street; and the newsagents and general and the plan for the building has become clear. When it stores (Terry & Anita), which lives on as a Londis shop opens for business this summer, the Falstaff (they are on the corner of Townley Street. keeping the name and restoring the sign) will offer to Then, just as we were beginning to get used to the visitors eight beautiful and characteristic rooms, each idea that the street’s descent into seedy rentals and with a private bathroom. The inn was cobbled together neglect would be remorseless, look what is happening. out of two different houses some time around 1840, and A pioneer was Nigel Askew’s Queen Charlotte, which, the result has been some charming and characterful happily, continues to thrive. Then, on the corner of internal spaces, each different from the other, and each West Cliff Road, Paramor and Boorman are successfully with its own appeal. But that is only the beginning of pursuing a line in shabby chic. The little shop next door it. In the middle of the conversion the house next door has suddenly blossomed as Designs by Nadija, and the came up for sale, and Peter bought that as well. Its shop next door to that, which I remember fifteen years rear area becomes a fully-specified kitchen to serve ago as a rather failing greengrocers, has become the both the B&B next door, and a new cafe/bar which thriving Vinyl Head Café. Suzy Nina Interiors has given will open alongside it. The rest of this adjacent house a new lustre to the neglected former Skitts Pharmacy. is converted into two flats which will be available as What was Granny’s Attic (Antiques and Bygones), and holiday lets.

Below: The work in progress. Left, as it was until recently. Peter Andon commissioned the paintings in 2013 from Urban Art Studios of Margate, to cheer up the building’s exterior during the Addington Street Fair. The plan is to preserve these in the garden at the rear. Right: Almost there: the new Quatrefoils, commissioned from theatrical prop-makers Souvenir, are installed on the left side of the facade. Stephen Davies

7 Stephen Harris, courtesy of www. pubshistory.com Stephen Harris, courtesy of www. The restoration and the building work, which has been orchestrated by Ashley Strain and his brother Peter, is to a very high standard of both conception and finish. When the fascia above the pub’s ground-floor windows was stripped back, there were revealed some beautiful terra-cotta quatrefoils with Tudor Roses at their centre. But they only survived on the right-hand building. Nothing daunted, Peter Andon approached his friends in Souvenir Scenic Studios, specialists in Stephen Davies

resort, and its character as an historic building has not come to an end. Not an ale-house any longer, but a place to stay and to eat. It joins a select list of new (and newish) establishments offering superior accommodation – in this case, we believe, at an affordable price. So watch this space. The revived Falstaff Inn is set Stephen Davies to open this coming July. As the fat knight Sir John elaborate and painstaking props for stage, film and TV. Falstaff said: ‘I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly.’ (They have produced work for the Bond Films, both the London Opera Houses, and countless high-end fashion shows.) Souvenir took castings of the surviving quatrefoils and reproduced them faithfully. They are now installed, looking as though they had always been there. Inside the building, the quality of woodwork and fitting-out is exemplary – and in particular the challenge of repairing and reproducing some of the plasterwork in the large rear upstairs room which will be used as a function room, has been triumphantly met by a local craftsman, Tony Andreas. The Falstaff had a long history as a pub, enjoying some celebrity locally as well as some notoriety. It is

wonderful to know that its story as a place of public Stephen Davies

be run on August 15th-16th on the road at Western Thanet Sprint Revival Undercliff. Up above on Government Acre there will be stalls, a funfair, live music with sounds of the sixties, a vintage and classic bike show. To top it off, you can J T Cornwall visit (entrance fee) the spectacular Wall of Death! The of the Invicta Messham family, now in its fourth generation, have MCC on his been running the smallest and steepest racetrack in 998cc Vincent the world for over 80 years. With tricks and stunt at the Ramsgate riding, it’s Europe’s oldest motorcycle sport show. The Sprint, 29th proprietor and MC is James Messham, and his four sons September 1963

www.ramsgatehistory.com are the daredevil riders. Vrrroooom! Can you hear the noise of engines revving up for the Ramsgate Sprint Revival on Western Undercliff? From 1956 to 1968, the Ramsgate Sprint was one of Britain’s leading motorcycle events, playing host to the nation’s top riders. Riders were timed to see who was the fastest across a quarter-mile drag strip. It was organised by the Sunbeam Motor A young Phil Cycle Club, with assistance from Invicta MCC. This Spain, Invicta time Invicta has joined forces with the East Kent MCC member, Classic MCC. at Monkton The demonstration events for historic bikes will www.ramsgatehistory.com Chalk Pit 8 Captain Abbott’s Ramsgate by Benedict Kelly

efore 1800, there is very little historical the Abbott Mausoleum at St Laurence Churchyard, information about Ramsgate. Only a few buildings Ramsgate. Regrettably, the mausoleum was demolished Bsurvive from this era, in comparison to a town when Newington Road was widened. A limestone like Sandwich, which has retained its ancient narrow ledger from the mausoleum was later cemented into the streets. It is hard to imagine that many years ago churchyard wall near the Rectory gate, plot No989. Ramsgate would have resembled Sandwich. Therefore, In 1777, his old home was purchased by Henry the engraving shown here of a Ramsgate town house Conyngham (1st Earl Conyngham, 1705-1781). It is is of much interest. It dates from 1735 and depicts the doubtful that Earl Conyngham actually resided there. home of Captain Thomas Abbott. This elegant home It appears as Conyngham House on the 1872 map of once stood at the top end of Ramsgate High Street – Ramsgate. In the 1881 and 1891 census the house is the present-day site of the car park for Ramsgate’s listed as a school. It had a final use as a hospital in 1901 (St Catherine’s) and was pulled down in the mid-1920s.

Benedict Kelly and Gerald Tripp have been redrawing and updating the 1736 map mentioned above. They surveyed parts of the town on foot to verify the position of old buildings and swimming pool. His home is clearly marked on the 1736 boundaries. The full-colour map with annotations map of Ramsgate, which was dedicated to him and to is in A2 format and costs £5. It is available from Captain Adam Spencer. It was a substantial property Benedict at [email protected]. It is also that covered 1.4 acres, with a 500 ft rear garden. on sale at the Ramsgate Society shop, Michael’s Captain Abbott (1690-1750) was a wealthy mariner Bookshop, and the Hovelling Boat Inn, York and influential Ramsgate townsman. He owned a Street. (Detail below, showing the upper High number of houses in Ramsgate, a London home in Street. Captain Abbott’s house is indicated by the Aldgate and farms in Ash and St Peter’s, as well as number 3.) shares in ships and substantial holdings in the South Sea Company. When Ramsgate Harbour was surveyed in September 1755, Captain Abbott was among a group of Ramsgate sea captains who submitted evidence to a Parliamentary committee on the proposed plans to extend and enlarge the harbour. Thomas Abbott married Ann Halsey (1689-1728) on 4th May 1725, and they had two children before she sadly died. He married for the second time to Mary Long (1713-1793) on 20th September 1738. He had at least six children from these two marriages. Captain Abbott died on 7th November 1750, aged 60. He was survived by his second wife Mary, and their children Elizabeth and John. He was interred in

9 Ramsgate Celebrates the 75th Anniversary of Operation Dynamo

The Little Ships sail forth again

7.00 am on the morning of Thursday 21st May saw Ramsgate’s harbour and cliff tops crowded with spectators. They had come to see the Little Ships set out across the Channel to Dunkirk, in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the . It was a great event: over 60 Little Ships were in the harbour, including the Queen, which will be unable to make any crossing until her refit and restoration is complete. A Spitfire and Hurricane flew by (photo by Peter Woods), to mark the event, and for six days the town was en fête: 1940s open air Big Band Concerts, Tea Dances, a church service and a military parade.

These photographs show some of the scenes in and around the Royal Harbour as the Little Ships set sail. Photo: Stephen Davies

Photo: Stephen Davies Photo: Emma Irvine

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Photo: Stephen Davies Photo: Emma Irvine Photo: Stephen Davies

Photo: Emma Irvine Photo: Glyn Williams

11

Photo: Stephen Davies Beyond the View Reframing the early commercial seaside photograph

by Karen Shepherdson Principal Lecturer in Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University, and Director of the South East Archive of Seaside Photography.

s Magnum President photographer Martin Parr itinerant, held in low regard.. Evidence for this can be says, ‘It’s not surprising that there is a strong seen in the frequently applied monikers of ‘smudger’ or ABritish tradition of photography by the seaside. ‘bodger’. Moreover, these photographers were regarded In the , one is never more than as ‘pests’, ‘sandflies’, as ‘unwashed’ and ‘odorous’. In seventy-five miles away from the coast.’ the 1901 edition of Black’s Guide to Canterbury and The history of British photography shows a constant the Watering Places of East Kent, the description of fascination with the shoreline, coastal communities and Ramsgate is accompanied by a sketch of a well-dressed the capturing of seaside cultures by both photographic young woman being harassed by the down-at-heel artists and commercial photographers. When we think itinerant photographer (fig 1). Here the photographer of seaside snaps today, what spring to mind are happy as public nuisance is shown pushing himself and his family shots of carefree holiday moments, adults larking trade forward, stating that the act ‘Won’t take yer ‘arf a around and partially-clothed jolly japes – standard minute, lidy’. conventions from the early 1900s until commercial In 1882, in an attempt by local police to curb this seaside photography collapsed in the mid 1970s. trade, a Ramsgate beach photographer was arrested and In contrast, the first fifty years (1850-1900) of charged with nuisance behaviour. Found guilty, he was seaside portraiture have a different aesthetic, typically fined half a crown with ten shillings costs. In court, the signified through absence: the beach itself doesn’t arresting police officer estimated that some forty to fifty feature, there are no bathing costumes, and most photographers were working on the sands that day. notably there is an absence of smile. The Modernised means of travel, particularly through of Ramsgate can be used to ask: how did the early the railway (note the long curving roof of the terminus), Victorian ‘client’ seek to be represented? At what point encouraged day-trippers to the coast. Beach scenes did beach photographic portraiture evolve into ‘smiling from Ramsgate towards the latter part of the 19th snaps’ and what part did the photographer play? century illustrate the resort’s popularity. Fig 2 shows The Victorian seaside photographer was an Ramsgate Sands at an interesting point in the day.

2: Ramsgate’s Main Sands (author’s own collection)

The beach is south-east facing so the shadows tell us this is early morning with people beginning to arrive and set up for the day, and this inevitably includes the seaside photographers. They are clearly visible locating themselves right on the beach itself with their wheeled handcarts situated conveniently at the end of each of the 1: Sketch by Phil May in Black’s Guide to East Kent stone slipways. The closest handcart when magnified 12 of Ramsgate (fig 3): we have a tintype measuring 2¾ x 3½ inches. Subtle interchanges of glances are taking place between members of this anonymous grouping. This is a well-composed and exposed full-length group portrait, with an excellent tonal range. On magnification the detail in this portrait proves even more impressive. The tintype typically makes whites particularly difficult to achieve, but here in the image of the standing woman, the whites verge on true. This suggests that Price knew how to manipulate the exposure and development to achieve a successful outcome. There is a degree of softness in the focus, most noticeable on the baby’s face – the most difficult sitter to negotiate 3: Family Grouping circa 1875 tintype taken by two-second stillness. In addition, the contrast is high J. Price. Front/rear views of image shown (author’s – unsurprisingly for a tintype – which results in some own collection) loss of detail in both men’s suits and also the skirt of the reveals the trader’s name as J. Price. And Price, along seated woman. But beyond the blacks, striking detail with numerous other itinerant photographers, would remains. Most notably the pleating in the baby’s sun spend the day producing ‘while you wait’ seaside bonnet, the layering of lace on the standing women’s portraits (the process took approximately five minutes) own hat and the flesh tones of all the sitters are either as ambrotypes (a glass plate positive) or tintypes exceptional. The couples and families represented in (a direct positive image on enamelled iron – correctly these images, whilst at the seaside for amusement – a referred to as a ferrotype). The tintype portrait by Price shown above (fig 3) is of a family gathering of four adults and infant, posed in front of the sea wall. This tintype has a typical mount of a thin pressed brass matte and a wooden box frame, and whilst the maker’s stamp ‘J. PRICE, Photographers, SANDS. RAMSGATE’ locates it to the seaside, there is no hint of the beach. This image would have been produced and framed within J. Price’s wheeled darkbox, which not only held all the paraphernalia required to produce the image, but also acted as darkroom. On the side of each darkbox would be displays of previous portraits; thus these handcarts functioned as hybridised studios, darkboxes and galleries on wheels. A typical family tintype portrait (fig 4) c1890 notably includes the photographer’s handcart as a backdrop, with a ‘gallery’ of earlier portraits clearly displayed. More than one hundred years later many of these modest seaside portraits remain in circulation. Local collectors’ fairs and online auction sites provide numerous opportunities to purchase ambrotypes and tintypes, more often than not at affordable prices. The Victorian photographer did not archive images at the time of production, so that the portraits were far more 4: Family Grouping 1890 Tintype. akin to the Polaroid of the mid-twentieth century: a one- No photographer’s name (author’s own collection) off image with no negative record. The work produced by these itinerant practitioners day out – are nevertheless gathered together in social has been dismissed as inartistic and disposable – groups. Such events, whilst fun and enjoyable, can also cheap seaside ephemera. Such a view fails fully to be meaningful and memorable. To have, perhaps for the acknowledge the innovative experience of both making very first time, a likeness of yourself, your lover, your images plein-air and of having one’s image made child, your family photographed together can become within the public sphere. Though the motivation of the transformed into the genuinely meaningful. Rather than operators might have been monetary, there remains cheap seaside ephemera, a revised consideration might substantial evidence that many itinerant photographers, be offered, whereby these portraits become important despite working at pace, were producing images that affordable keepsakes, often in evidence within family stand close scrutiny and evaluation today. collections. To reconsider the photograph produced by J. Price When one studies large Victorian beach scenes, 13 6: Ramsgate Sands by W W Russell, from The Illustrated London News, August 4th,1894 it becomes clear that informal behaviour is also ‘Your picture while you wait’ will soon be a lost in evidence, but not intended for documenting on phrase at the seaside, where the antiquated ‘studios affordable commissioned seaside portraits. Such private on wheels’ are vanishing from sight. Most up-to- behaviour enacted within the public sphere of the beach date resorts are this year leasing exclusive beach suggests that the seaside outing provided a site for the photography rights to the modern ‘reflex’ man, carnivalesque, where certain of society’s norms could who has no use for mobile darkrooms... The ‘reflex’ be suspended. One needs to be careful not to over- man… doesn’t pose his customers, but wades into generalise, but visual accounts of this period including the water, snapshotting the bathers in perfectly popular graphic sketches such as those of Ramsgate natural attitudes… published in The Illustrated London News in 1894 (fig 6) The itinerant beach photographer as the first demonstrate how within the bustle of the seaside day mass-producer of plein-air portraits was thus replaced trip lovers could recline together on the sand. by a photographer who was regulated, bringing the There is no neat moment of shift between the connotation of respectability and competence. Yet this dignified and indecorous. Rather from the 1860s we isn’t to characterise by default the Victorian seaside can see multiple variations of the seaside photograph, photographic era as one of ‘bodging’ or ‘smudging’. ranging from the classic group portrait to those For such simplification when scrutinised through the reflecting in various degrees the joyful liberation felt remains of their trade – the seaside ambrotype and by a day spent at the coast. In addition to the smile, tintype – resolves into a more nuanced reading. And the documenting of playfulness becomes encouraged on its demise, the negative image of the smudgers was by many itinerant beach photographers with props transformed into a nostalgic longing for the ‘mysterious as a seaside novelty or gimmick. But even with their box on wheels’ and the ‘queer vinegary smell of the emergence, what still remained absent was the bathing tintypes’. As H G Stokes (The Very First History of the costume. Where 19th century examples do exist of English Seaside) reminds his reader, ‘He didn’t do such sitters wearing bathers, paradoxically they have not a bad job, did he?’ been taken at the seaside, but rather at high street portrait studios. It is not until the 1920s that visitors to the seaside would routinely be photographed dressed for the This article was adapted, with kind permission, from occasion. The British Journal of Photography as early as a forthcoming publication for . 1923 reports the transformation and regulation of this Karen Shepherdson gave a highly enjoyable talk on this practice, titled ‘Beach Photographer: New Style’: subject to the Society earlier this year. 14 Book Review Letters Cliffs End Farm We welcome your letters. Please send to [email protected] by Jacqueline I. or write to The Editor, 12 West Cliff McKinley, Matt Road, Ramsgate CT11 9JW Leivers, Jörn Schuster, Peter Marshall, Alistair Reader Kath Carr, after 40 years as a nurse ‘always in J. Barclay and Nick Kent’, as she insists, now lives in Ashford. Last issue’s Stoodley article on the Granville inspired her to remember a time when she was a teenager living in Ramsgate: Oxbow Books £35 I wondered if any of your readers remembered the Jazz Club which met in the cellars under the reviewed by Granville Hotel. I went there when I was an innocent Brian Daubney teenager in the late 50s. There was a live jazz band and the chap on the saxophone was amazing! Also there were French posters on the walls, and there were rough wooden tables and benches to perch on. first glance at the subtitle A mortuary and ritual site of the Bronze Age Iron Age and Anglo Saxon The atmosphere was thrilling and it all seemed a bit Aperiod might suggest a limited appeal for the strange, but it was great! general reader, but this recently published scientific survey of a twelve-month excavation by Wessex Have I jogged a few memories for other readers, Archaeology in 2004-5 is quite fascinating. who shared those days when Ramsgate summers were The burial ground (now built over with lively, and so were we? houses) was used over a thousand years BC, and then in Roman and Saxon times. Dental analysis reveals two Kath wishes us all well in our efforts for ‘dear old Rams- groups of immigrants among the remains. One came gate, my home town’. from north Eastern Europe and the other from the western Mediterranean or southern Iberian area. The findings provide an interesting perspective on current debates over our national identity as well as evidence on a history of trade and European integration. The report is very detailed, and although a reader may have to dig hard the results can be surprising. The amber that beachcombers seek and sometimes still find on the coast is stunningly illustrated by Saxon beads. Another find is the pivot of a portable chemical balance made from bone and probably used to weigh gold or precious metals. It is believed to be one of only four or five in existence and a first in England. The area in and around Ramsgate, as this magazine has said before, is outstandingly rich in archaeology. Without adequate developer funding and pressures to proceed quickly with building, books like this are rare. In this case Millwood Design Homes paid for excavation, analysis and a publication that is exceptional. Ramsgate Library has a reference copy. Some frustrated archaeologists argue Ramsgate should be researching the whereabouts of numerous items that once were recorded and dug up, but then went missing over the last two centuries. A virtual museum of Thanet Archaeology does exist online at http://www. thanetarch.co.uk and a real gallery in Quex Museum.

Brian Daubney is taking over as Editor of About Ramsgate, beginning with the Autumn 2015 issue. 15 Costumed Walks A great way to find out about Ramsgate’s history, buildings and famous inhabitants. These popular guided walks are back on the following dates: West Cliff Walk: July 7th at 7pm, August 4th at 2.30pm. Meet by the Lookout Café Royal Harbour Walk: July 14th at David Rumsey, 1937-2015 7pm, August 11th at 2.30pm. Meet at Harbour Clockhouse David was born in 1937 in Sutton, Surrey. He had a full, Town Centre Walk: July 21st at varied and interesting life and career. 7pm, August 18th at 2.30pm. Meet Before moving to Ramsgate in 1995, he had at Halifax Bank been an enthusiastic Boy Scout and rock climber, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum, and The Friends of St George done his National Service in the Royal Army Medical The annual Art Exhibition will be from 1st-12th Corps and the 16th Parachute Brigade. He then July, 11am-5pm Monday-Saturday, 12-5pm on worked as a United Nations Association volunteer in a Sundays. Admission is free but donations are refugee camp in Austria, a kitchen porter in Soho and appreciated. Kensington, a printer for the Ministry of Defence and On Saturday, August 22nd there is a Quiz a medical photographer at RAF Halton. There then Evening in St George’s Church Hall at 7.30pm. £5. followed a period as Head of Photography/graphics at To book, contact Janet Reid on 01843 580832. the University of Sussex, Director of the Educational Services Centre at the University of Sierra Leone and St Laurence Church a time as a freelance graphic designer. He had a lively The popular Churchyard Tours of Ramsgate’s and enquiring mind and a long history of involvement oldest church are on July 4th, August 1st and in campaigning for nuclear disarmament, working on September 5th at 10am. The St Laurence Fair, national and international projects as well as here in with stalls in the church and churchyard, cream Kent, where he was Secretary of Kent Area Campaign teas and games, is August 8th from 2-5pm. for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). On coming to Ramsgate he fell in love with the town and its architecture and really developed his interest in conservation, planning and civic pride. Always attracted by a big idea one of his favorite quotes was ‘Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible’ (Miguel de Unamuno). He first became actively involved with the Ramsgate Society when they launched the project to restore the seafront shelters to their former glory. David worked hard to raise a large chunk of the money the Society needed to complete the project. David served for several years on the Committee of the Ramsgate Society and was a familiar figure at the monthly meetings and on Ramsgate Society stalls at events in the town. He also made costumes for some of the Ramsgate Society Costumed Walk characters. He was also involved in the formation of the Ramsgate Montefiore Heritage, a longstanding member of the Ramsgate Conservation Area Advisory Group, a Coastal Warden for the Thanet Coast Project, and a volunteer for the annual Summer Squall festival. David was not an armchair member of the Ramsgate Society. He was a committed activist who contributed enormously to the work of the Society over a period of many years. He was highly principled and he brought these principles into all his activities. He is remembered with great affection by all who knew him and will be sadly missed. New Venue for The Society’s Shop The Society shop in Harbour street has been closed, as extensive renovations are taking place. You can now find us in ‘The Container’, at the western end of The Maritime Museum. We have tea towels, fridge magnets, Town Trails, jute bags with The Ramsgate Society logo, pens, slate images, and two different sorts of Teddies for sale. We have cards and postcards with Ramsgate images as well as commercially produced greeting cards. The Ramsgate Caught in Time book is Volunteers Barry Weight and Rosemary Kirk at also available, as are some other books. The Magazines the door of the relocated shop will also be there if you want to buy a copy for a friend, to show them the beauty of Ramsgate. Do come and see us, and tell your friends and We will be open from Tuesday through Saturday visitors about the shop, and the opportunity to buy from 10.30 till 4.30. You will need to come at the back varied goods with images of Ramsgate. of the Museum opposite the Cervia, rather than through And if you are able to offer a couple of hours through the Maritime Museum entrance. the summer, that would be most welcome. Rosemary Kirk: Tel: 01843 592102.

Saving a Century Ramsgate Society Outing The Victorian Society’s free travelling exhibition, On Wednesday, September 9th there is a trip to Saving a Century, will be at St Augustine’s Church Smallhythe Place (National Trust). A timber-framed from 1st to 31st August, open every day from 10am- house nestling in the Weald of Kent near , it 4pm. Using archive photographs and material from was once home to the famous Victorian actress Ellen over fifty years of the Victorian Society’s fight to Terry, and houses her theatrical collection. There’s a save historic buildings, the exhibition charts the garden and orchard, the Barn Theatre and an exhibition successes and defeats of the organisation that has of medieval ship building – Smallhythe was once a done so much to change public attitudes towards the thriving port. nineteenth century’s best architecture. Among the most £22 per person. Booking form with this issue. remarkable campaigns were those to save Liverpool’s Albert Dock, St Pancras station, the Foreign Office and the much-missed Euston Arch. The exhibition’s curator is leading architectural historian, Gavin Stamp. The Victorian Society (www.victoriansociety.org. uk) publishes an annual list of the ten most endangered Victorian or Edwardian buildings. In 2013, Ramsgate’s Royal Victoria Pavilion featured, and is still awaiting rescue. Do you know of any Ramsgate or Thanet buildings that should be nominated for 2015?

Liverpool Albert Dock: a subject of one of the Victorian Society’s successful campaigns

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17 Blue Plaque for Albion House mixologist Harriet Leigh, of Age & Sons fame, who As her final ‘official’ duty was over on a lightning visit from her present home in as our MP, Sydney, Australia. Her delicious concoction bears the unveiled the Ramsgate happy name of ‘The Ramsgate Sandys’. Society’s latest blue plaque at Albion House, The success of their new venture has given Emma and commemorating HRH Ben Irvine rather more to celebrate. After a terrific Princess Victoria’s stay over showing on Alex Polizzi’s TV programme The Hotel the winter of 1835-36 – one Inspector, their website www.albionhouseramsgate. of many visits the young Princess made to the town co.uk has been receiving 9,000 hits a day, which led to with her mother, the Duchess of Kent. To celebrate lots of bookings and more visitors who are discovering the occasion a special cocktail was created by demon the charms of our town.

Dates for Your Diary JULY 2015

4th/5th, all day Ramsgate Seaside Fair: Crafts, food and entertainment. Government Acre

5th, 12-5pm Teddy Bears’ Picnic, King George VI Park

10th-12th Seaside Shuffle Traditional Jazz Festival 01227 361238

11th, 10am-5pm Ramsgate Handmade & Vintage Fair. Harbour

11th/12th Thanet at War, vintage vehicles, entertainments. Government Acre

19th, Ramsgate Carnival Fair. Parade starts 4pm. Government Acre

AUGUST

15th/16th Ramsgate Sprint Revival and entertainments. Western Undercliff and Government Acre

19th-30th Lark in the Park. Government Acre

29th-31st The Sixth Summer Squall Festival, arts, activities and performance

SEPTEMBER

12th 10am-5pm Handmade and Vintage Fair. Harbour

13th Addington Street Historical Street Fair

13th Victorian Garden Party, Vale Square (from page 6) compiled by Who am I? Stephen Davies ontague Williams qc knew what he was talking about. His highly successful career Mat the Bar had been interrupted in 1885 by a Patron: Sir Terry Farrell serious affliction of the throat, which required surgery by a distinguished German doctor. His life had been President: despaired of, but he recovered. In search of a spot to Vice Presidents: Davena Green recuperate, Williams had bought a house in Chartham George Arnheim Terrace (‘Ellaray’, No 5), near to his school friend and sometime collaborator Francis Burnand, the well- Chairman: John Walker known editor of Punch. Vice Chairman: He was advised to give up the more strenuous Secretary: Rosemary Kirk practice of advocacy, and was offered in its place a Treasurer: Mark Robson position as Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate in some of the poorest parts of London. In the process he built Committee: Brian Daubney himself a new career and a new celebrity as ‘the poor Jan Holden man’s magistrate’. Gabriel Holland His life before he was called to the Bar had been Ken Jones adventurous. He had been an actor and playwright, Gerry O’Donnell and married an actress, before turning to the greater Nigel Phethean security and respectability of the Law. After his career Janet Reid change to Stipendiary Magistrate, he had considerable Jennifer Smith success with a series of books of anecdote and Minutes of the Society’s AGM are available reminiscence – and he had much to remember. He on the website: had engaged in some of the most sensational criminal www.ramsgate-society.org.uk cases of his day. Their resounding names summon up a luscious world of late-Victorian crime: The Hatton Garden Murder, The Clerkenwell Explosion, The Case The Committee extends its sincere of Mme Rachel, The Austrian-Tyrol Murder, The Penge condolences to the friends and family of Mystery... the following: David Rumsey, a well- Alas, health proved elusive, and Williams died respected and much-loved colleague, in December of 1892 in his house in Ramsgate. His who worked tirelessly on the Committee London funeral was attended by the great and good of (see obituary, p.16); Mrs Rita Gregory, a the legal and theatrical worlds. Members of the Town member for many years; Mr John Finn. Council travelled up on the funeral train. The Illustrated London News devoted its cover picture to his memory. Acknowledgements Photographic: credits on images where known. Thanks to Karen Shepherdson, Terry Prue, Benedict Kelly, Stephen Davies, Gerald Tripp, Phil Spain, Emma Irvine, Peter Woods, Wessex Archaeology.

Contributions and help: thanks to Karen Shepherdson, Brian Daubney, Terry Prue, Benedict Kelly, John Walker, Joe O’Donnell

This issue of About Ramsgate was the last to be produced by Veronica Pratt and Stephen Davies. Our thanks to all helpers and supporters: it has been an exciting and inspiring two years.

Our very best wishes go to the incoming Editor, Brian Daubney, whose first issue will be that of Autumn 2015. Illustrated London News, 31 December 1892 (cover illustration) Illustrated London 19