St. Margaret's at Cliffe is a three-part village situated just off the coast road between

Deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, ...

and

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

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. The centre of the village is about ¾ mile (1km) from the sea, with the residential area of Nelson Park further inland, and St Margaret's Bay situated along and below the cliffs north of

South Foreland South Foreland is a chalk headland on the Kent coast of southeast England. It presents a bold cliff to the sea, and commands views over the Strait of Dover. It is centred northeast of Dover and 15 miles south of North Foreland. It includes ...

. The parish church, dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, is a Grade I listed building. Channel swimmers and submarine telephone cables start from St Margaret's Bay. At the north end of the bay is Leathercote Point (sometimes spelt Leathercoat Point or Lethercote Point), where there is the

Dover Patrol Monument The Dover Patrol Monuments are a trio of war memorials designed by Sir Aston Webb to commemorate the Royal Navy's Dover Patrol of the First World War. Two identical granite memorial obelisks, high, were erected near Dover and on the Cap Blanc ...

war memorial commemorating the

Dover Patrol The Dover Patrol and later known as the Dover Patrol Force was a Royal Navy command of the First World War, notable for its involvement in the Zeebrugge Raid on 22 April 1918. The Dover Patrol formed a discrete unit of the Royal Navy based at Dove ...

. According to the

International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is an intergovernmental organisation representing hydrography. , the IHO comprised 98 Member States. A principal aim of the IHO is to ensure that the world's seas, oceans and navigable waters a ...

, Leathercote Point marks the western end of the line which defines the divide between the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

, the opposite end being at the Walde Lighthouse near

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

History

In 1851, the first successfully laid international

submarine telegraph cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables laid beginning in the 1850s carried tel ...

started here to

Sangatte Sangatte (; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department on the northern coast of France on the English Channel. The name is of Flemish origin, meaning hole or gap in the sand. Engineering Sangatte is the location for the Channel Tunnel's ...

, France – with

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 ...

as the responsible engineer. During the Second World War, most of the population were moved out and guns with their attendant military personnel were moved in. Most of the guns were anti-aircraft but there were heavier pieces intended to prevent German shipping from travelling along the French coast. There were two guns called "Jane" and "Clem" and there were also the two famous ex-Navy

BL 14 inch Mk VII naval gun The BL 14-inch Mk VII naval gun was a breech loading (BL) gun designed for the battleships of the Royal Navy in the late 1930s. This gun armed the battleships during the Second World War. Background The choice of calibre was limited by the Sec ...

s called "Winnie" and "Pooh". They originally came from the

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

. The parish church suffered a direct hit from German guns located in

, but the only damage was the destruction of a window dedicated to John Knott, lighthouse keeper of

South Foreland Lighthouse South Foreland Lighthouses are a pair of Victorian lighthouses on the South Foreland in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England, used to warn ships approaching the nearby Goodwin Sands. There has been a pair of lighthouses at South Forelan ...

. Sir

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov ; 16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, filmmaker and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits ...

was stationed in the village during the Second World War, and bought a house on the cliffs after the war. The house is now owned by actress

Miriam Margolyes Miriam ( he, מִרְיָם ''Mīryām'', lit. 'Rebellion') is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus. The ...

, and both have hosted functions to raise funds for the new village hall. At the other end of the beach there are cottages, two of which were owned by

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

, and one which was rented by

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

. Oxney Court, to the north east of the village, is a Grade II listed country house, dating from the 16th century. The original manor house was owned by the De Crioll family and later by the Sedley family. The adjacent church of St Nicholas is now a ruin. In the 18th century, Oxney Court was owned by the Jeken and Rose-Fuller families, who added a Gothic tower and crenellations; in the 19th century it was further remodelled for its then owner, John May of Deal and later acquired by Sir Edward Banks. The house became a school and was requisitioned for military use in World War I, and then suffered fire damage. It was restored in the 1990s as a private residence. The village had its own fire station from 1896, a hand-cart that was manned by volunteer firemen who were residents of the village. At the start of the 20th century, a second fire shed was constructed on the beach where there was a small community existing of hotels, cafés and housing. In 1936 the village purchased its first motor fire engine and housed it next to the Hope Inn in the central village. Its first emergency call was to Wanstone Court Farm, St Margaret's. The

Auxiliary Fire Service The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of the Civil Defence Service. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the local brigades were superseded ...

took the station over in 1939, and at the outbreak of the Second World War, the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

based in the village manned the two fire engines that were stationed there. In 1945, it reverted to the National Fire Service, and in 1948, with the disbandment of the NFS,

Kent Fire Brigade Kent Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the administrative county of Kent and the unitary authority area of Medway, covering a geographical area south of London, to the coast and including major shipping route ...

took over. A new station was built in 1970 along Reach Road, and St Margaret's became one of the first fire stations in Kent to alert the crew by Pocket Alerter instead of the traditional siren. Kent Fire Brigade was rebranded Kent Fire & Rescue Service on 1 October 2003. The station closed on 1 April 2012 along with nine other fire stations in Kent due to restructuring by Kent Fire & Rescue Service In 2005-06, the affordable village housing in Ash Grove won the Best New Neighbourhood category in the

Kent Design Awards These awards were created to celebrate design excellence in Kent and were first staged in 2003 and are usually held every two years. They were then renamed 'Kent Design and Development Awards' in 2012. Then have stayed as the 'Kent Design and Deve ...

. There has been green energy in the village since 1929, when

St Margaret's Bay Windmill St Margaret's Bay Windmill is a Grade II listed Smock mill on South Foreland, the southeasternmost point of England. It was built in 1929 to generate electricity for the attached house, high on the White Cliffs of Dover. History The mill was bu ...

was built to generate electricity.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

with the same name exists. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 5,169.

References

External links

Parish council website

{{authority control Saint Margaret-at-Cliffe Beaches of Kent Civil parishes in Kent Populated coastal places in Kent