Tankerton (formerly Tankerton-on-Sea) is a suburb of

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of 32 ...

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 ...

in south-east

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was designed in the late 19th century as the train network brought holidaymakers to the sea. It gives its name to a

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

Canterbury City Council 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 th ...

History

The place-name 'Tankerton' is first attested in ''The Book of Fees'' for 1242, where it appears as ''Tangrenton''. The name means 'the town or settlement of Tancred's people'. Tankerton-on-Sea was a commercial development by the Tankerton Estate Company in the late 19th century, and was designed with a grid of streets leading from the shoreline. In 1890 the Tankerton Estate, including Tankerton Tower (now known as Whitstable Castle) was purchased for development by Charles Newton-Robinson, a road was built, the land was divided into plots and sold at auctions. The Tankerton Estates still exist and are managed by County Estate Agents in Whitstable. Formerly Tankerton's coastline included a small pier, built in 1894, but this no longer exists having been demolished in the 1910s. In July 2018, the wreck of a Tudor era merchant ship appeared in the sand. One timber of her hull was felled in 1531. She measures 12m x 5m, and had a capacity of 100 to 200 tons. She is thought to have been in the

Copperas Iron(II) sulfate (British English: iron(II) sulphate) or ferrous sulfate denotes a range of salts with the formula Fe SO4·''x''H2O. These compounds exist most commonly as the heptahydrate (''x'' = 7) but several values for x are know ...

trade. The wreck was discovered by local history volunteers, who reported it to Historic England. They commissioned a report from Wessex Archaeology. The government has now listed the vessel as the only wreck of its kind in south-east England.

Environment

The slopes to the shore are a site of special scientific interest (

SSSI A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

) because they support a population of Fisher's estuarine moth, Gortyna borelii lunata, whose sole larval food-plant is the large

umbellifer Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

hog's fennel (''

Peucedanum officinale ''Peucedanum officinale'' is a herbaceous perennial plant in the family Apiaceae found mainly in Central Europe and Southern Europe. It is also native to the UK, where it has the common names hog's fennel and sulphurweed, but it is a rare plant t ...

'') which grows well there. Tankerton has a

Blue Flag beach The Blue Flag is a certification by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) that a beach, marina, or sustainable boating tourism operator meets its standards. The Blue Flag is a trademark owned by FEE, which is a not-for-profit non-gov ...

and a

Seaside Award Keep Wales Tidy is a Welsh national voluntary environmental charity which works towards achieving "a clean, safe and tidy Wales". It works in partnership with Local Authorities, schools and community groups, and organisations such as Waste Awaren ...

, certified for high environmental standards.

Economy

The economy is based around tourism. The little wooden

beach hut A beach hut (also known as a beach cabin, beach box or bathing box) is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, chan ...

s at the base of the slopes are currently highly desirable, and notable owners have included

Tracey Emin Tracey Karima Emin, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Associate of the Royal Academy, RA (; born 3 July 1963) is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawi ...

, who sold hers to

Charles Saatchi Charles Saatchi (; ar, تشارلز ساعتجي; born 9 June 1943) is an Iraqi-British businessman and the co-founder, with his brother Maurice, of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The brothers led the business – the world's largest a ...

for £75,000. Seaview Caravan Holiday Park adjoins Tankerton, and formerly also contained a large number of chalets, as well as static caravans and camping. It is one of the largest holiday parks on the North Kent coast

Demography

At the 2001 UK census, the Tankerton

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 ...

had a population of 4583. The ethnicity was 98.7% white, 0.4% mixed race, 0.6% Asian, 0.2% black and 0.1% other. The place of birth of residents was 95.3% United Kingdom, 0.7% Republic of Ireland, 1.3% other Western European countries, and 2.7% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 80.2% Christian, 0.4% Buddhist, 0% Hindu, 0.1% Sikh and 0.2% Muslim. 12% were recorded as having no religion, 0.4% had an alternative religion and 6.6% did not state their religion. The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 34.3% in full-time employment, 12.6% in part-time employment, 11.3% self-employed, 1.9% unemployed, 2.2% students with jobs, 3.2% students without jobs, 22.3% retired, 5.8% looking after home or family, 4% permanently sick or disabled and 2.4% economically inactive for other reasons. The industry of employment of residents was 17% retail, 10.9% manufacturing, 8.2% construction, 9.9% real estate, 13% health and social work, 13.2% education, 6.9% transport and communications, 5.9% public administration, 4.2% hotels and restaurants, 4% finance, 1.2% agriculture and 5.6% other. Of the ward's residents aged 16–74, 20.6% 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 completi ...

qualification or the equivalent, compared with 19.9% nationwide.

Gallery

File:The Lees Tankerton Kent.jpg, Tinted photograph on postcard dated around 1905-1914 showing "The Leas" File:All Saints Church, Whitstable, Kent - geograph.org.uk - 1010798.jpg, All Saints' Church File:Beach Huts Alley - geograph.org.uk - 502881.jpg, Colourful rows of wooden huts on the grassy slopes of "Tankerton slopes" below Marine Parade

References

External links

* * https://www.thebeachguide.co.uk/south-east-england/kent/tankerton-beach.htm {{authority control Villages in Kent Whitstable Beaches of Kent