| Thanet |
Website Links For Isle |
Information AboutThanet |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ISLE OF THANET | |
| former islands | |
| thanet | |
| islands of england | |
| north sea | |
| geography of kent | |
| history of kent | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
The Isle of Thanet is an area of northeast Kent , England . The name Thanet is very old, as the following extract from the '' Historia Britonum '' 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 until the deposition of silt from the River Stour and the build up of shingle which was occurring along the coast have now practically joined the Isle to the mainland. THE WANTSUM CHANNEL 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 (the site is still called Stourmouth). At the eastern end, the Romans built a port protected by Richborough Castle ; Reculver fort was at the western end. In the 8th century it was reported that the Channel was now three Furlong s 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 is 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 HISTORY Because of its proximity to France and therefore to mainland Europe , Thanet received the first of the Roman Invaders in 55 BC . 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 subsequently built. As such it provided the formal entrance to the Roman road network and Watling Street and is situated to the north of the present Pfizer complex near Sandwich, Kent . The Romans crossed the Channel from Boulogne and Legion s 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 both 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 Anglo-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 to Hampshire 's Isle Of Wight . St. Augustine is said by the Honourable Bede to have landed with 40 men at Ebbsfleet, north of Sandwich , before founding Britain's first Christian monastery in Canterbury . The , Birchington , St John's, Margate , St Peter's , Woodchurch and Ramsgate . By 1334-1335 Thanet had the highest population density in Kent on the basis of Edward III's lay subsidy rolls. It acted as a granary for Calais and historic 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: Margate has its roots in a name that "Has been variously spelt as Margat, Meregate and in the 13th Century, 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. Ymar could have become Margate in time. Tradition insists that an old stone coffin lid at the church was his." LOCAL GOVERNMENT
NOTES & REFERENCES References
Notes
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
|