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

Deal In cryptography, DEAL (Data Encryption Algorithm with Larger blocks) is a symmetric block cipher derived from the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Its design was presented by Lars Knudsen at the SAC conference in 1997, and submitted as a proposa ...

and

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast 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 southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. The centre of the village is about ¾ mile (1 km) 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. 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 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 Dov ...

. According to the

International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) (French: ''Organisation Hydrographique Internationale'') is an intergovernmental organization representing hydrography. the IHO comprised 102 member states. A principal aim of the IHO is to ...

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

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

and the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

, the opposite end being at the Walde Lighthouse near

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

History

In 1851, the first successfully laid international

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

started here to

Sangatte Sangatte (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, 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 i ...

, France – with Thomas Russell Crampton 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 guns called "Winnie" and "Pooh". They originally came from the

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

. 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. Sir

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, director and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. Ustinov received #Awa ...

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 Margolyes ( ; born 18 May 1941) is a British and Australian actress. Known for her work as a character actor across film, television, and stage, she received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Mingott in Marti ...

, 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), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

, and one which was rented by

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, 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., and his ...

. 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 Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

based in the village manned the two fire engines that were stationed there. In 1945, it reverted to the

National Fire Service The National Fire Service (NFS) was the single fire service created in Great Britain in 1941 during the Second World War; a separate National Fire Service (Northern Ireland) was created in 1942. History The NFS was created in August 1941 by t ...

, and in 1948, with the disbandment of the NFS, Kent Fire Brigade 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. There has been green energy in the village since 1929, when St Margaret's Bay Windmill 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 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