Broadstairs is a coastal town on the
Isle of Thanet
The Isle of Thanet () is a peninsula forming the easternmost part of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the Wantsum Channel, it is no longer an island.
Archaeological remains testify to its settlement in an ...
in the
Thanet Thanet may refer to:
*Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England
*Thanet District, a local government district containing the island
*Thanet College, former name of East Kent College
*Thanet Canal, ...
district of east
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England, about east of London. It is part of the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of
Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes
St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 of about 25,000. Situated between
Margate
Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook.
The town has been a significan ...
and
Ramsgate, Broadstairs is one of Thanet's
seaside resort
A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the Germ ...
s, known as the "jewel in Thanet's crown". The town's coat of arms's Latin motto is ''Stella Maris'' ("
Star of the Sea"). The name derives from a former flight of steps in the chalk cliff, which led from the sands up to the 11th-century
shrine of St Mary on the cliff's summit.
The town spreads from Haine Road in the west to
Kingsgate (named after the landing of
King Charles II in 1683), a hamlet in St Peter parish
in the north, and to Dumpton in the south (named after the yeoman Dudeman who farmed there in the 13th century). The hamlet of Reading (formerly ''Reden'' or ''Redyng'') Street was established by
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
refugees in the 17th century.
History
The inland village of
St Peter's was established after the building of a
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
in about 1080.
The coastal confederation of
Cinque Ports during its mediæval period consisted of a confederation of 42 towns and villages in all. This included St Peter's, as a 'limb' of
Dover.
On the nearby coast was a cliff-top shrine, the
Shrine of Our Lady, at what was then called ''Bradstow(e)'', meaning "broad place" (perhaps referring to the wide bay).
A fishing settlement developed in the vicinity of the shrine in the 14th century. This came to be called "Broadstairs", after a flight of steps which was made in the cliff to give access to the shrine from the bay. Older forms of the name include ''Brodsteyr Lynch'' (1434 & 1494 ), ''Brodestyr'' (1479), ''Broadstayer'' (1565) and ' (1610). Charles Culmer, son of Waldemar, is supposed to have reconstructed the stairs in 1350.
1400–1700
In 1440, an archway was built by George Culmer across a track leading down to the sea, where the first wooden pier or jetty was built in 1460. A more enduring structure was to replace this in 1538, when the road leading to the seafront, known as Harbour Street, was cut into the rough chalk ground on which Broadstairs is built, by another George Culmer. Going further in defence of the town, he built the York Gate in 1540, a portal that still spans Harbour Street and which then held two heavy wooden doors that could be closed in times of threat from the sea.
Richard Culmer
The Most Reverend Canon Richard Culmer of Canterbury (1597–1662)B.A M.A Ddiv was an English Puritan clergyman. iconoclast and Theologian. He is listed by the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' was the son of Sir Richard Culmer by his first wife and was born in 1640/41.
Richard was buried in the parish church of
Monkton, on the Isle of Thanet. Of his legacies was the
endowment on Broadstairs of an area of six
acres (24,000 m
2) of ground for the poor of the parish. The name survives to this day as "Culmer's Allotment" as does the allotment.
1700–1815
In 1823, Broadstairs had a population of about 300.
[History of Broadstairs](_blank)
at the Town Council website A brief outline of the history of Broadstairs
Pier
Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...
is given in ''Broadstairs, past and present'', which mentions a storm in 1767, during which Culmer's work was all but destroyed. At this time, it was of considerable importance to the fishing trade with catches as far afield as
Great Yarmouth,
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
,
Folkestone,
Dover and
Torbay
Torbay is a borough and unitary authority in Devon, south west England. It is governed by Torbay Council and consists of of land, including the resort towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, located on east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme ...
and elsewhere being landed. It had become so indispensable that the corporations of Yarmouth, Dover,
Hythe
Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to:
Places Australia
* Hythe, Tasmania
Canada
*Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada
England
* T ...
and
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
with assistance from the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
and
Trinity House
"Three In One"
, formation =
, founding_location = Deptford, London, England
, status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity
, purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons
, he ...
subscribed to its restoration with a payment of £2,000 in 1774.
By 1795, York Gate needed repair to repel any threat from the
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Prussia ...
. The subsequent renovation was undertaken by Lord Hanniker in the same year as the first
lightvessel
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship that acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction. Although some records exist of fire beacons being placed on ships in Roman times, t ...
was placed on the
Goodwin Sands
Goodwin Sands is a sandbank at the southern end of the North Sea lying off the Deal coast in Kent, England. The area consists of a layer of approximately depth of fine sand resting on an Upper Chalk platform belonging to the same geologi ...
.
On the occasion of the landing at Thanet of Major Henry Percy of the 14th Dragoon Guards, on 21 June 1815 with the captured French eagle standard taken at
Waterloo, a tunnel stairway from the beach to the fields on the cliff tops above was excavated, and christened "Waterloo Stairs" to commemorate the event. Broadstairs was supposedly the first town in England to learn of this historic victory, although there is no written evidence of this.
Smuggling was an important industry in the area, and the men of Broadstairs and St Peter's became very good at outwitting
customs agent
''Customs Agent'' is a 1950 American thriller film directed by Seymour Friedman and starring William Eythe, Marjorie Reynolds and Griff Barnett.Blottner p.263
Synopsis
In Shanghai an American customs agent tries to track down a drug-smuggling o ...
s. This was very profitable because of the very high
duty payable on tea, spirits and tobacco. There is a network of tunnels and caves strewn in the chalk strata which were used by
smuggler
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
s to hide their
contraband.
Development as a seaside resort
![Joss Bay, Broadstairs, England - Aug 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Joss_Bay%2C_Broadstairs%2C_England_-_Aug_2008.jpg)
By 1824
steamboats were becoming more common, having begun to make over from the hoys and sailing
packet
Packet may refer to:
* A small container or pouch
** Packet (container), a small single use container
** Cigarette packet
** Sugar packet
* Network packet, a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-mode computer network
* Packet radio, a fo ...
s about 1814. These made trade with London much faster. The familiar sailing hoys took anything up to 72 hours to reach
Margate
Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook.
The town has been a significan ...
from London, whereas the new
steamships were capable of making at least nine voyages in this time. Mixed feelings must have been strongly expressed by the Thanet boatmen in general, as the unrivalled speed of the
steam packet was outmanoeuvring all other classes of vessel, but it brought a new prosperity to Thanet.
The young
Princess Victoria and her mother,
the Duchess of Kent, were summer visitors 1826–1836, staying at Pierremont Hall (in present-day Pierremont Park). The house was built in 1785 by
Samuel Pepys Cockerell
Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1753–1827) was an English architect.
He was a son of John Cockerell, of Bishop's Hull, Somerset, and the elder brother of Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet, for whom he designed the house he is best known for, Sezinc ...
for
Thomas Douglas Forsyth
Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth (7 October 1827 – 17 December 1886) was an Anglo-Indian administrator and diplomat.
Early life
Forsyth was born in Birkenhead on 7 October 1827. He was the tenth child of Thomas Forsyth, a Liverpool merchant. His ...
, and later used as a school and an events venue.
In the middle of the 19th century, the professional classes began to move in. By 1850, the population had reached about 3,000, doubling over the previous 50 years. Due to the fresh
sea air
Sea air has traditionally been thought to offer health benefits associated with its unique odor, which Victorians attributed to ozone. More recently, it has been determined that the chemical responsible for much of the odor in air along certain se ...
, many convalescent homes for children opened towards the end of the 19th century.
Although numerous
holidaymakers were attracted to Broadstairs and to other
Thanet Thanet may refer to:
*Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England
*Thanet District, a local government district containing the island
*Thanet College, former name of East Kent College
*Thanet Canal, ...
seaside towns during the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
, it was not directly served by the railways until 1863. This was a time of great expansion for railways in the
South East
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
; in 1860
Victoria Station had been completed, followed by
Charing Cross and
Cannon Street
Cannon Street is a road in the City of London, the historic nucleus of London and its modern financial centre. It runs roughly parallel with the River Thames, about north of it, in the south of the City.
It is the site of the ancient London ...
. Rail access to Broadstairs had previously relied heavily upon coach links to other railway stations in the district or region; with firms such as ''Bradstowe Coachmasters'', operated by William Sackett and John Derby, principally involved. Their coaches connected Broadstairs to
Whitstable station where a railway service had begun as early as 1830 (one of the first in England, with its pioneering
Stephenson's engine
Invicta).
In 1841, 44
mariners were recorded as resident in Broadstairs; nine of these being specified as fishermen, and of course the residual
boat-building activity that remained after the Culmer White yard closed in 1824 (under pressure from the steamships), still continued (though there were only four
shipwrights recorded in the census: Solomon Holbourn and Joseph Jarman among them). Others may have been at sea on census day: Steamer Point, as the pier head at Broadstairs was then known, would have been fairly busy with shipping movements since
consignments of
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
and other produce would have been traded along the coast and there would have been regular work on the steam packet to and from
Ramsgate. By the 1840s, the smuggling had ceased.
![Stairs at Broadstairs Viking Bay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Stairs_at_Broadstairs_Viking_Bay.jpg)
By 1910, the population had reached about 10,000. A "
guide book
A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...
" of the 1930s by A.H. Simison (the photographic chemist) entitled ''Ramsgate (The Kent Coast at its best) Pictorially Presented'', describes Broadstairs town as having approached modernisation and urban development "always with a consistent policy of retaining those characteristics for which it has for so long been renowned". The town has retained many aspects of historical interest, besides its
maritime history. Amongst these is its notable
religious history, evoked by places such as the
Shrine of Our Lady, Bradstowe.
Governance
Broadstairs is within the Thanet
local government district
The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...
. The town contains the five electoral
wards of Bradstowe, St Peter's, Beacon Road, Viking and Kingsgate. These wards have eleven of the fifty six seats on the
Thanet District Council Thanet may refer to:
*Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England
*Thanet District, a local government district containing the island
*Thanet College, former name of East Kent College
* Thanet Cana ...
. At the
2007 local elections, all eleven of those seats were held by the Conservative Party. Broadstairs and St Peter's Town Council has 15 members, who are elected every four years, led by the mayor.
The
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
South Thanet is
Craig Mackinlay
Craig Mackinlay (born 7 October 1966) is a Conservative Party politician and businessman. Since May 2015, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet.
Initially a member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Mackinlay served a ...
of the
Conservative Party. He has been the constituency's MP since the
2015 general election.
Broadstairs and St Peter's have been twinned with
Wattignies
Wattignies (; nl, Wattenijs) is a commune in the Nord department of northern France. It lies in the south-western part of the Lille conurbation. It covers an area of , and as of 2019 its population was 15,075.
Neighboring communes
Lille, Fac ...
in northern France since the early 1980s.
Geography
![Kingsgate bay arch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Kingsgate_bay_arch.jpg)
The town lies above a harbour with cliffs on either side. It has seven bays of golden sand, which are (from south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and
Botany Bay
Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...
.
North Foreland rises between Stone Bay and Joss Bay.
On the cliffs above Kingsgate Bay is
Kingsgate Castle, formerly part of the estate of Lord Holland but now converted into private residences.
Broadstairs has a very mild
maritime climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...
.
Demography
At the
2001 UK census
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194.
The 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...
, the parish of
Broadstairs and St Peter's had 24,370 residents in 10,597 households. Of those households, 34.2% were married couples, 6.7% were
cohabiting
Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increas ...
couples and 8.3% were lone parents. 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.9% had someone living alone at pensionable age. 25.7% of households included children aged under 16, or a person aged 16 to 18 who was in full-time education.
The parish has a low proportion of non-white people compared with national figures; the ethnicity recorded in the 2001 census was 97.9% white, 0.7% mixed race, 0.3% Chinese, 0.7% other Asian, 0.2% black and 0.2% other.
The number of foreign-born residents is relatively low; the place of birth of residents in 2001 was 94.7% United Kingdom, 0.7% Republic of Ireland, 0.5% Germany, 0.9% other Western Europe countries, 0.3% Eastern Europe, 0.8% Africa, 0.6% South Asia, 0.5% Far East, 0.3% North America, 0.2% Middle East, 0.2% Oceania and 0.1% South America.
Religion was recorded as 75.3% Christian, 0.4% Muslim, 0.3% Hindu, 0.3% Buddhist and 0.3% Jewish. 14.3% were recorded as having no religion, 0.5% had an alternative religion and 8.6% did not state their religion.
The age distribution was 5% aged 0–4 years, 14% aged 5–15 years, 5% aged 16–19 years, 26% aged 20–44 years, 27% aged 45–64 years and 24% aged 65 years and over. There was a high percentage of residents over 65, compared with the national average of 16%, mainly due to seaside towns being popular retirement destinations. For every 100 females, there were 87.1 males.
Employment
At the 2001 census, the economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 34.1% in full-time employment, 12.8% in part-time employment, 10.0% self-employed, 2.9% unemployed, 2.3% students with jobs, 4.1% students without jobs, 20.0% retired, 6.5% looking after home or family, 4.9% permanently sick or disabled and 2.4% economically inactive for other reasons. The percentage of retired people was significantly higher than the national figure of 14%. The percentage of unemployed people was low compared with the national rate of 3.4% and the district rate of 4.4%. Only 12% of residents aged 16–74 had a
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...
qualification or the equivalent, compared with 20% nationwide. The
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for t ...
estimated that during the period of April 2001 to March 2002, the average gross weekly income of households was £522 (£27,219 per year).
The industry of employment of residents, at the 2001 census, was 15% retail, 14% health and social work, 13% manufacturing, 13% education, 10% real estate, 8% construction, 7% transport and communications, 6% public administration, 5% hotels and restaurants, 3% finance, 1% agriculture and 5% other community, social or personal services. Compared with national figures, there was a relatively high number of workers in the education and health/social care industries and a relatively low number in finance and real estate.
Many residents commute to work outside the town; at the 2001 census, the town had 9,842 employed residents, but there were only 9,049 jobs within the town.
Economy
As a seaside resort, the economy is mainly based around tourism; there are hotels and guest houses on and near the seafront to accommodate the influx of all-year-round visitors. Although the number of hotels in recent years has declined because of the high land redevelopment values, this has resulted in an improvement in quality of the existing premises. The High Street has a wide variety of independent shops and services and there are several factories, mainly situated on the small industrial estates on the town's borders. The above-average population age has led to many health- and social-care jobs at local care homes. At the 2001 UK census, 1.8% of the population resided in a medical or care establishment, which is more than double the national average of only 0.8%.
Many jobs in education are provided by the town's relatively high number of schools and colleges.
![Kingsgatecastle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Kingsgatecastle.JPG)
*Broadstairs' & St Peter's Chamber of Commerce has existed for over 100 years and has been instrumental in establishing links between traders and authority and raising money for projects including the town's CCTV scheme. It organises events and promotes tourism to benefit the town economy, the local customer and visitors.
*The largest of Broadstairs' industrial estates is at Pyson's Road.
*Residential building land is now scarce and property prices within Broadstairs tend to be higher than the rest of
Thanet Thanet may refer to:
*Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England
*Thanet District, a local government district containing the island
*Thanet College, former name of East Kent College
*Thanet Canal, ...
.
*Broadstairs has seen major development in its area recently with a large out-of-town shopping development at
Westwood called
Westwood Cross
Westwood Cross is a British, open, pedestrianised shopping centre at Westwood, Kent. It opened in 2005, and since 2008 has incorporated a casino, cinema and bingo hall.
History
Westwood Cross is situated on the former Haine Hospital site, whi ...
. This has attracted national retailers, a new
Travelodge
Travelodge (formerly TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. However, ma ...
hotel a bingo club, a casino, a
vue
Vue or VUE may refer to:
Places
* Vue, Loire-Atlantique, a commune in France
* The Vue, a skyscraper in Charlotte, North Carolina
Arts, entertainment and media
* Vue (band), a rock and roll band from San Francisco, California
* Vue Cinemas, a c ...
cinema, a new fitness centres, and an
Ask,
Nando's
Nando's (; ) is a South African multinational fast casual chain that specialises in flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken. Founded in Johannesburg in 1987, Nando's operates over 1,200 outlets in 30 countries. Their logo (also seen as a sort of ...
,
Frankie & Benny's
Frankie & Benny's (now trading as Frankie's) is a chain of Italian-American-themed restaurants in the United Kingdom run by The Restaurant Group. , it had 90 outlets nationwide.
History
In 1924, at the age of 10, Frankie Giuliani left Sicily wit ...
restaurants.
*Land is currently being redeveloped to extend the existing
Westwood Cross
Westwood Cross is a British, open, pedestrianised shopping centre at Westwood, Kent. It opened in 2005, and since 2008 has incorporated a casino, cinema and bingo hall.
History
Westwood Cross is situated on the former Haine Hospital site, whi ...
shopping centre.
*Within the Broadstairs boundary there are three large supermarkets:
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorks ...
,
Sainsbury's
J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales.
Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...
and a
Tesco Extra
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
, which, before redevelopment, was the home of a large
Co-op
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
store (one of the first
hypermarket
A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...
s built in the UK).
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
has a metro store in the town. Tesco also has a convenience store (
Tesco Express
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
) in the town and there is a small Co-op in St Peter's village.
*Motor and household insurance claims of
Saga Insurance Ltd. are managed in Broadstairs (as an extension of their main offices in Folkestone).
Culture and community
There is a small cinema, "
The Palace Cinema" (formerly known as The Windsor), in Harbour Street.
*The ''Broadstairs Dickens Festival'' is held annually in honour of the novelist
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
on or around the third week of June. The festival includes a production of one of Dickens' novels, with people about the town wearing Victorian dress. The festival first took place in 1937, when the then owner of Dickens House conceived the idea of commemorating the centenary of the author's first visit by putting on a production of ''David Copperfield'', a novel written in the town.
![Broadstairs Folk Week morris dancers at Broadstairs Kent England 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Broadstairs_Folk_Week_morris_dancers_at_Broadstairs_Kent_England_1.jpg)
*In the second week of August each year, the town holds Broadstairs Folk Week music festival. The main acts perform at the Concert Marquee in the town's main park (Pierremont Park), with smaller musical events held in public houses, restaurants, cafés, and at the town's bandstand. Itinerant musicians and
Morris dance
Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may ...
rs perform along the bay promenade. A school and playing field becomes an organization centre and campsite for entertainers. The town's population significantly increases with tourists, day-trippers and holiday makers.
*During the summer season, and on 5 November, there are firework displays every Wednesday evening on Viking Bay.
* In August the town holds an annual Water Gala. In the past this has included a visit by the
Red Arrows, a
hovercraft and lifeboats. Beach-based competitions and shows continue through the day. A funfair is on the cliff-top gardens, and a small air display takes place.
* In the village of St Peter's, tours are held throughout the summer.
More recently, a new event has been added to the mix – the Big Broadstairs Weekend. Starting the season in May, the event is themed, comprises a dance at the Pavilion on the Friday night, Film on the Beach on the Saturday night and a Guinness World Record Attempt on the Sunday. Broadstairs currently holds the record for biggest remote dance class.
Landmarks
![Botany-bay-kent-east](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Botany-bay-kent-east.jpg)
The beaches at
Botany Bay
Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...
and Joss Bay were awarded the
Blue flag rural beach award in 2005. Viking Bay beach, the main beach in Broadstairs, won the Blue Flag in 2006. In summer, this bay is often very busy with tourists enjoying cafes and ice-cream outlets. On Harbour Street, the Pavilion on the Sands hosts a summer show and all-year entertainment, with extensive views across the bay. Its location and facilities make the Pavilion a popular wedding venue.
The Dickens House Museum on the seafront, displays many artefacts relating to Charles Dickens and his life in Broadstairs. Crampton Tower by the railway station houses a museum containing
Thomas Russell Crampton
Thomas Russell Crampton, MICE, MIMechE (6 August 1816 – 19 April 1888) was an English engineer born at Broadstairs, Kent, and trained on Brunel's Great Western Railway.
He is best known for designing the Crampton locomotive but had many eng ...
's working drawings, models, graphics, patents, awards and artefacts connected to his life and works. Other galleries illustrate the history and development of the railways, the electric tramways, road transport and other aspects of local industry. The original Broadstairs stagecoach, built in 1860, is displayed alongside seven working model railways in gauges N, OO, O and Gauge One.
Transport
The town is situated from both
Dover and
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
, and about from the
M25, London's orbital motorway.
In 1851, the region's rail network was supplemented by the London to
south coast route, including the coastal link from
Chichester
Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...
to
Ramsgate, the
cross-country service between London and
Dover and the
Mid-Kent line
The Mid-Kent line (also referred to as the Hayes line by train operators, official bodies and the general public) is a British railway line running from Courthill Loop North junction (just south of Lewisham station) to Hayes railway station in t ...
that linked
Redhill,
Tonbridge
Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated populat ...
and
Ashford to London's first Eurostar terminal at
Waterloo (opened in 1848).
Broadstairs station (unlike neighbouring Margate) is a 10-minute walk from the beach. Although rebuilt in the 1920s, electricity was not installed at the station until well into the 1970s, and the buildings and platforms remained illuminated by
gaslight
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either direct ...
until then.
Since 2009
Southeastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
have been operating a
high speed train service between
London St Pancras
St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a London station group, central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Bor ...
and
Ashford International which runs on to Broadstairs cutting about 40 minutes from what was once a two-hour journey to other termini in London. It is unusual in that trains to London can run either way through the station.
Lifeboats
Lifeboat
Lifeboat may refer to:
Rescue vessels
* Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape
* Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues
* Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen
...
s arrived in Broadstairs in 1851. News of the loss of the Irish packet with 250 lives, on the sands off Margate on 6 April 1850, may have been the prompt that led old Thomas White to present one of his lifeboats to his home town of Broadstairs that summer. The lifeboat saw its first use on 6 March 1851, when the
brig ''Mary White'' became trapped on the
Goodwin Sands
Goodwin Sands is a sandbank at the southern end of the North Sea lying off the Deal coast in Kent, England. The area consists of a layer of approximately depth of fine sand resting on an Upper Chalk platform belonging to the same geologi ...
during a severe gale blowing from the north. A ballad was written to celebrate the occasion, "
Song of the Mary White".
Solomon Holbourn of Broadstairs,
coxswain
The coxswain ( , or ) is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from ''cock'', referring to the cockboat, a type of ship's boa ...
of the ''
Mary White'', had an aunt, Sophia, who married William Stevenson at
Folkestone in 1813. Their eldest son, also William, became a mariner and boatman and in 1839 married Elizabeth Wellard at St Peter's, Broadstairs. In 1848 they had a son, again named William, who in adult life was better known as Bill "Floaty" Stevenson, and became a member of the ''Frances Forbes Barton'' lifeboat crew. The "Frances Forbes Barton" was originally, in 1897, the legacy of a Miss Webster to the boatmen of Broadstairs. It is recorded as having remained at that station until 1912, when it was moved to
the Walmer station when the Broadstairs station closed. In its time at Broadstairs it had been launched 77 times and saved 115 lives, by far the most effective of the
RNLI craft stationed there.
Broadstairs' lifeboats were further supported by a fund established in the 1860s by
Sir Charles Reed FSA.
Education
State schools
Infant and Primary
*St Mildred's Infant School
*Upton Junior School
*St Peter in Thanet CE Junior School
*St Joseph's RC Primary School
*Bromstone County Primary School
Secondary Modern and Grammar
*
Dane Court Grammar School
Dane Court Grammar School is a coeducational grammar school with academy status in Broadstairs, Kent, UK with approximately 1,249 pupils.
History
The school was officially founded in 1957 and was, until 1980, designated as a selective Technica ...
*
St Georges C of E Foundation School
*
The Charles Dickens School
*
Chatham House Grammar School
(May Chatham House Flourish)
, established = 1797
, free_label_3 = Merged
, free_3 = 2011
, closed =
, type = Grammar schoolAcademy
, religious_affiliation =
, president =
, head_label =
, head ...
*
Clarendon House Grammar School
Clarendon may refer to:
Places Australia
*Clarendon, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* Clarendon, Queensland, a rural locality in the Somerset Region
*Clarendon, South Australia
* Clarendon, Victoria, in the Shire of Moorabool
*Clarendon Coun ...
Special schools
*Bradstow School
*Stone Bay School
Independent schools
Junior and Preparatory
*St Lawrence College, Junior School
*Haddon Dene School
*Wellesley House School
*
St Peter's Court (now demolished; merged with
Wellesley House School
Wellesley House School is an independent day and boarding preparatory school in the coastal town of Broadstairs in the English county of Kent. Founded in 1866, it educates boys and girls aged 3 to 13.
History
The history of Wellesley House Sch ...
in 1969)
Senior schools
*St Lawrence College
Colleges and universities
*
East Kent College
East Kent College is a further education college (although also provides higher education courses) located in Broadstairs, Kent on the southeast coast of the United Kingdom.
The main campus is located on Ramsgate Road, Broadstairs. In Septembe ...
*
Canterbury Christ Church University
Religious sites
The original
Shrine of Our Ladye Star of the Sea is believed to date back to at least the 11th century.
The chapel on what is now Albion St was destroyed by a storm in the 16th century but was restored in 1601. It gives its name to the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea in Broadstairs.
The Anglican parish church is Holy Trinity, dating from 1830, and which was described by Dickens as "a hideous temple of flint, like a petrified haystack".
The church of St. Peter-in-Thanet has one of the longest churchyards in England.
Sport
![Broadstairs Viking Bay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Broadstairs_Viking_Bay.jpg)
*
Thanet Wanderers Rugby Union Football Club is based in Broadstairs at St. Peter's Recreation Ground.
*Sandcastle building competition takes place annually.
*Broadstairs has a Green bowling club.
*Broadstairs & St Peter's Lawn Tennis Club
*Beach Volley Ball is held on the beach in the summer.
*Broadstairs is home to the
North Foreland Golf Club.
*Broadstairs Sailing Club in Harbour Street once had former prime minister
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...
as a member.
*Fishing competitions are regularly held in the Harbour.
Sea Swimming
Sea swimming is popular, especially on the beach at Viking Bay, which is patrolled by lifeguards during the summer. Dickens swam here and British comedian Frank Muir grew up as a 'Beach Boy' in the town, describing his experience in the sea and on 'the sands' in a chapter of his autobiography.
There are public toilets at the beach level in Viking Bay, but no changing facilities and one very basic freshwater shower (summer only). There is a freshwater tap at the bottom of the steps at the north end of the bay.
The bay is marked by striped posts on rocks at either end. The bay is alternately full of water at high tide or completely dry at low tide. At high tide, the beach shelf drops off quickly and a swimmer can be out of their depth within a few feet of the shore. At middle and low tides, the shelf is much more gently sloping and it is possible to play in the surf, and even swim, in water that is only waist high. At high tide and middle tide, swimmers that stay within the bay (within the posts) are completely sheltered from the tidal stream of the English Channel. At any tide, swimmers venturing out beyond the striped posts may encounter a strong tidal current running parallel to the coast, flowing either from south to north or north to south, depending on whether the tide is coming up the English Channel or draining out through it. ''Even strong experienced swimmers will find it difficult to make progress against this tidal stream at its greatest flow'', and swimmers in difficulty should swim directly towards the nearest part of the shore, rather than try to return to the point where they originally entered.
Stone Bay to the north of Viking Bay also has a lifeguard in summer and attracts swimmers at all times of the year.
Media
Broadstairs has only one paid-for newspaper, the ''Isle of Thanet Gazette''. Its sister publication, the ''Thanet Times'', closed in October 2012 after 116 years; both were owned by
Northcliffe Media. Free newspapers for the town include the ''Thanet Extra'', part of the
KM Group
KM Media Group is a multimedia company in the county of Kent, England which originated as the publisher of the Kent Messenger. The Group now produces local newspapers, radio stations and websites throughout the county. Iliffe Media acquired KM ...
; and ', part of
KOS Media
KOS Media was a multimedia company based in the county of Kent in South East England. The company operated local newspapers and internet sites throughout the county.
History
KOS Media's first newspaper, the '' Kent on Sunday'' was launched as a ...
. ''Isle'' magazine is published quarterly and includes listings of events as well as accommodation and tourist information.
digital editionis available online. ''The Broadstairs Beacon'' magazine has been published three times a year since 2019 and is availabl
onlineor in printed form for free at several places in the town.
Local radio stations are
KMFM Thanet
KMFM Thanet is an Independent Local Radio serving the Isle of Thanet and the surrounding areas in Kent, South East England. It is the Thanet region of the KMFM radio network (owned by the KM Group), containing local advertisements and sponsorsh ...
, owned by the KM Group,
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popula ...
station
Academy FM (Thanet); and the county-wide stations
Heart Kent
Heart Kent (previously Invicta FM) was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to Kent from studios at John Wilson Business Park in Whitstable.
History
Invicta in the 80s
Originall ...
,
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
and
BBC Radio Kent
BBC Radio Kent is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Kent.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Great Hall in Tunbridge Wells.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...
. Thanet Community Radio also offer an online community podcasting service for Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate and the wider areas of Thanet.
Notable people
People from Broadstairs are called Bradstonians.
![Bleak-house-broadstairs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Bleak-house-broadstairs.jpg)
*
William Bridges Adams
William Bridges Adams (1797 – 23 July 1872) was an English author, inventor and locomotive engineer. He is best known for his patented Adams axle – a successful radial axle design in use on railways in Britain until the end of steam trac ...
, locomotive engineer and inventor of the
Adams Axle
The Adams axle is a form of radial axle for rail locomotives that enable them to negotiate curves more easily. It was invented by William Bridges Adams and patented in 1865. The invention uses axle boxes that slide on an arc in shaped horn bloc ...
, died at Broadstairs in 1872 and was buried at St Peter's Church.
*
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, composer and pianist, was born in Broadstairs in 1936.
*
John Buchan apparently based the title of his novel, ''
The Thirty Nine Steps'' after the set of steps on the beach at a house called St Cuby, Cliff Promenade at North Foreland, Broadstairs, where he was recuperating from illness in 1915.
*
Thomas Russell Crampton
Thomas Russell Crampton, MICE, MIMechE (6 August 1816 – 19 April 1888) was an English engineer born at Broadstairs, Kent, and trained on Brunel's Great Western Railway.
He is best known for designing the Crampton locomotive but had many eng ...
, MICE, MIMechE, railway engineer, was born in Broadstairs in 1816.
*
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
visited Broadstairs regularly from 1837 until 1859 and described the town as "Our English Watering Place". He wrote ''
David Copperfield
''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...
'' while staying at
Bleak House
''Bleak House'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and ...
.
*
Tim Edey
Tim Edey is an English multi-instrumentalist and composer who grew up in Broadstairs, Kent and is now based in Perthshire, Scotland. In 2012 he was Musician of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and, with Brendan Power, Best Duo. He was awa ...
, multi-instrumentalist and composer, grew up in Broadstairs.
*
Sir Edward Heath,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...
from 1970 to 1974, was born in Broadstairs in 1916 and lived there until going to study at
Balliol College, Oxford in 1935.
*
Edward Higgins (E. O. Higgins), fiction writer, podcaster and performer lived in Broadstairs for two years from 2009, whose novel ''Conversations with Spirits'' is based in the town
*
Oliver Postgate
Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008), generally known as Oliver Postgate, was an English animator, puppeteer, and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television progra ...
, writer of the ''
Clangers
''Clangers'' (usually referred to as ''The Clangers'') is a British stop motion, stop-motion children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse, mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet ...
'' animated TV series, was a longtime resident of Broadstairs and his life is commemorated by a mosaic of the Clangers and a blue plaque on the front of his home in Chandos Square.
*Writer and filmmaker
Bruce Robinson
Bruce Robinson (born 2 May 1946) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote and directed the cult classic ''Withnail and I'' (1987), a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the late 1960s, which drew on hi ...
set his first full-length novel ''
The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman'' in the Broadstairs. Robinson is from the town and the novel is semi-autobiographical.
*
Tallulah, DJ who studied catering at East Kent College.
See also
*
Bleak House
''Bleak House'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and ...
– the Dickens novel is set in St Albans.
*
Thanet power station
Thanet power station, also known as St. Peter's power station, supplied electricity to the towns of Broadstairs and Margate and other locations on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, England from 1901 to 1964. The station was owned and operated by the Is ...
References
External links
Broadstairs Cliff Railway(1901–1991)
Broadstairs and St. Peter's Town Council
{{Authority control
Broadstairs,
Seaside resorts in England
Towns in Kent
Populated coastal places in Kent
Beaches of Kent