Ramsgate Recorder Summer 2022

RAMSGATE

13

RECORDER

Modern-day Seaside Stories

Summer 2022

WRITE ON Author Maggie Gee helps launch our new creative writing section

HANDS ON DECK Meet the new team behind the boating pool

FREE

GREEN FIELDS Exploring the allotments across Ramsgate

Hurt Heart (2021)

Tracey Emin A Journey To Death CARL FREEDMAN GALLERY | 24 APRIL - 19 JUNE 2022 | 28 UNION CRESCENT MARGATE

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ramsgate recorder

13 Editor

Contents

Sub-editor

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Editorial Lila Allen

Welcome to our summer issue!

John Murphy

Founder & Editor-in-Chief Clare Freeman

Co-founder & Advertising director Jen Brammer

The Scoop – what’s hot in town Gemma’s Jaunts – our columnist peeps across

the great divide

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New in town – the businesses opening their doors in town

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The Hotlist – where to be and when in Ramsgate

11 Sails up at the boating pool – meet the team

The boating pool team

by Ed Thompson

t has been a slow ascent to summer, but this issue is proof if you need it that better days are ahead. When we first heard rumours about ambitious new plans for the boating pool, we knew this was a story. But on meeting the team behind it, learning their individual histories and what brought them to personally invest in a project that will see the boating pool into its centenary, it was clear the plans reflected something about Ramsgate: the drive to create places that are for

and about community. Our regular “New in town” feature is packed with new independent businesses investing in the town, and strikingly everyone is focused on creating something for the community. From a new bookshop, cafés to a soft play centre for children, to list just a few, the individuals behind these ideas have the vision and drive to create spaces for us all to enjoy and that bring vibrancy and business to the town. And then there are the volunteers making Ramsgate greener and more bountiful; from the green-fingered keeping the town’s five allotments blooming, to the army of gardeners planting, pruning and sprucing our public spaces. With an invitation for us all to get involved, and so much on offer for us to enjoy, the summer and beyond is looking bright in Ramsgate. And since summer is about holidays, we’ve a few suggestions on how you spend them around town with our round-up of this season’s activities. Settling down under the summer sun with a good read is a fine way to spend the days, and we’re very excited to be launching our new creative writing section with acclaimed novelist and Ramsgate resident Maggie Gee, as she publishes her latest novel The Red Children. So along with your sun cream and picnic, be sure to pack your notebook and start putting pen to paper – you could just win yourself a copy of Maggie’s book and see your words on these pages.

Contact

Issue thirteen

regulator

sister publications

Website

Summer 2022 – May to July

Design director Lizzy Tweedale

From the Editor Lila Allen

Publishing assistant Esther Ellard

Social media manager Emily Hebe

Contributors

Writers

Poppy Britcher Russell Chater Gemma Dempsey Andrew Flood Lynsey Fox Emily Hebe Rachel Mills Laura Nickoll Keith Ross Christabel Smith James Soules Nicola Wren

Photographers Jaron James Storme Sabine Ed Thompson

Illustrators

Molly Pickle Jade Spranklen

cover image

brightsidepublishing. com

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taking on the boating pool

15 Common ground – Ramsgate allotments and the people turning them green

18 Meet the musician: Josh Flowers 19 On record – Simon Trought of Soup Studios shares his top tracks

21 Nice going – a tribute to the founder of

Nice Things as the shop and gallery closes

23 The mermaid army – the artist celebrating the female form and wild swimming

26 Write on – calling all writers, a new section dedicated to creative writing

29 Summer activities – your guide to how to spend your summer holidays

32 Celebrating a centenary – marking 100 years

of the Queen’s Head, we meet the landlord there a decade

37 Restoring the past – the restorers using traditional techniques on Ramsgate’s historic homes

40 Blooming brilliant – the gardening groups keeping Ramsgate flowering

43 Unsung Hero: Carl Whitewood – officer at Ramsate’s Salvation Army

45 Thanetians – photographer Russell Pullen goes back to the classroom for this issue’s portrait

46 Bird watch – where to spot the unusual bee-eater

Social Media

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We are regulated by IMPRESS. If you wish to make a complaint about anything that appears in the Ramgate Recorder, please visit the website brightsidepublishing.com/contact

Broadstairs Whitstable Beacon Whistler

Deal Despatch

Printers Printed by Mortons Print Ltd, Morton Way, Boston Road Industrial Estate, Horncastle, LN9 6JR ♻ We print on recycled paper

Vintage Specialist

Open Friday to Monday 84 Queen Street, Ramsgate CT11 9ER 01843 852968

ramsgate recorder

NEWS

Ramsgate Friday Market

Balearic Ramsgate

A new weekly Ramsgate market will be popping up every Friday from 3 June at Centenary Hall on Hardres Street from 9.30am until 4pm and will feature an array of local independent businesses. Keep up to date with the events on social media where organiser Kirsty is also looking for new stall-holders to join the regular indoor event.

A new monthly residency held the first Sunday of every month is underway at Albion House. Good Intentions sees DJ Jim Breese spinning delicious deep house, 1990s garage and US house on vinyl only. Balearic, is his achingly tasteful record label and compilation series, with fans around the world – Café Mambo Ibiza and Ku De Ta Bali are devoted supporters, especially after Breese’s pivotal DJ residencies at these world-renowned beach bar venues.

Find Ramsgate Friday Marker on Facebook or on Instagram @ramsgate_friday_market

New music Wantsum Music?, Ramsgate’s new music label created

by Pie Factory Music’s Emerging Artists – a collective of young musicians – have put out their first single. Vo Sò’s “Alive Again,” released 29 April, can be listened to and downloaded on all streaming platforms and Wantsum Music? Bandcamp. Vo Sò (voh-so) is a collaboration between Claire Pitt Wigmore (multi-instrumentalist and singer) and Liotia (duo Abigail Hubbard and Matthew Smyth) and “Alive Again” is a dreamy, trip-hop, dub track. Claire joined Pie’s Emerging Artists programme in 2021, during the pandemic, to hone her skills and work with mentor Kimberly Anne from Palm Bay Music to grow her knowledge of music distribution and promotion.

“For me, the track is about turning over a new leaf,” says Claire. “Saying goodbye to people who perhaps haven’t benefited you in the long run. It’s about selfreflection. I want people to feel elevated when they first listen to it.” As young lives have been flipped upside down and the future feels fractured, Wantsum Music? is creating a channel for young musicians to rise up, for the unsigned to be seen, a platform for making waves into the sound of young Kent.

Vo Sò and the collective are joining forces with fellow youth-led Tonetic Records to present a showcase of youth music at Ramsgate Music Hall on Friday 6 May, 7pm. Tickets £3 for under-18s, £5 for over-18s, pay on the door.

Instagram: @wantsum_music facebook.com/wantsummusic wantsummusic.bandcamp.com

Writer

Gemma Dempsey

Illustrator

Jade Spranklen

A dose of Ramsgate life from a lady about town

I

t is a year since inappropriately dressed I scaled the heights of local church belfries. This time I’ve been drawn underground to what lies six feet beneath some of our churchyards, my legs safely

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Thanet Book Club at Archive Running on the last Monday of every month, this book club meets at Archive Homestore & Kitchen. Founded

by Poppy Britcher, who works in copywriting and publishing, and Tia Duff, a freelance writer, the aim is to create a book-reading community that is accessible to younger people and champions fiction and non-fiction works from POC, female and queer voices. Next meeting 23 May, 7.30pm.

Instagram: @thanetbookclub

New home for Potters Ramsgate’s much-loved home store Potters is celebrating three years of business by opening in a new premises. Taking over the former Thomas Cook travel agents on Queen Street, the team hope to be opening the doors to their new home early June. The larger premises marks an expansion for Potters which sells a range of homewares, plants and gifts and is run by friends Wednesday Lyle and Alison Murphy. “We are really excited to move into the centre of town and to a bigger shop,” says Wednesday. “The space will allow us to expand our homewares range to include some new ceramics and textile brands. Later in the year we will be branching into small batch personal care products and home fragrance. Lots of new gift ideas and of course plants and pots too!”

23 Queen Street Instagram: @pottersramsgate

back in jeans. Early summer is the perfect time for a perambulation around hallowed ground, for while the voices of those that have gone before have been silenced, above ground is abuzz with insects, wildlife and blooming nature.

I decided to cycle to the Ramsgate Cemetery and it’s only when you’re on a bike that you realise how hilly Ramsgate is. I’d not been astride my Claude Butler for a year, and was beginning to wobble as I approached the Albion House, but then two friends saw me and cheered “Go on Gemma you can do it!”

And do it I did! I would have shouted thanks for their encouragement, but I could hardly breathe. And they say exercise is good for you?

From the pinnacle of Winterstoke Crescent I descended towards the woodlands by the Montefiore Synagogue. The tranquillity of this little leafy oasis is occasionally interrupted by birdsong, or the chiming clock; the sole example of its kind in an English synagogue. The impressive mausoleum is a replica of Rachel’s tomb on the way to Bethlehem, behind which is a porphyry pillar, considered to be the rarest and most historically important stone in the world, coming as it does from a single mountain in Egypt. I look forward to winning a pub quiz with that gem!

Passing the Honeysuckle Inn, across to Cecilia Road and through its impressive entrance arch, I finally arrive at Ramsgate Cemetery. It occupies

Events are held on the first Sunday of every month, 4 to 8pm at Albion House, Albion Place. @jimbreese @endofthelineclub @balearicrecs @albionhouseramsgate

Remembering Ramsgate The Ramsgate Seafront Placemaking project is part of Ramsgate Heritage Action Zone focusing on the heritage and history that makes the town so special. The project has launched a survey asking you to share your memories of the seafront, from West to East Cliffs and along the seafront promenades, to help capture the past, mark the present and explore its future. The project aims to contribute to the understanding of place and bring to life the story of Ramsgate’s seafront through creativity.

Find the survey online at smartsurvey.co.uk/s/RamsgateSeafrontSurvey

Ice House update The 6th Ramsgate Royal Harbour Sea Scouts would like to say a huge thank you to Wickes Westwood Cross, who generously donated materials towards the Ice House project, an ambitious plan to create a vibrant centre for the Sea Scouts and other youth and community organisations in Ramsgate harbour. Flooring materials were delivered that have allowed repairs to part of the damaged floor. These repairs are the first of many and have made it safe to access the upper floor and will allow further repairs to be made.

6thramsgateseascouts.org.uk

an expansive and elevated spot with views over the town. Reading the inscriptions gives me a real sense of local history through the names and epitaphs of former Ramsgate residents, one of whom obviously had a sense of humour: “Oops!”, reads the engraving.

Both this and St Laurence’s churchyard have an area for Commonwealth War Graves, among which were several German names which I hadn’t expected to see.

I’ve since read that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission decided that the dead were to be buried where they fell; as their sacrifice was common, so their commemoration would be too.

My guide around St Laurence’s churchyard, Barbara Byne, is one of the volunteers who takes care of the grounds, minimally manicured to encourage flora and fauna, giving it a charming overgrown feel. It is steeped in history as the oldest church in Ramsgate, visited by Elizabeth I and where Queen Victoria would worship as a child. Many of its 1,400 graves are covered in colourful lichens and feature cherubs, urns and skulls, depending on the style of the day.

Its well known residents include Lady Augusta Murray, descendants of George III in the d’Este Mausoleum, and the grave of architect Mary Townley, who apart from designing some of Ramsgate’s finest buildings, was known for “gambling, politics, partying and drink” until she became a Christian late in life.

Now there’s a lady I’d like to meet on the other side!

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ramsgate recorder

NEWS

BOOK BODEGA Sapphire Bates is a self-confessed book lover, devouring “a couple of books a week. I read fast without meaning to and just love getting lost in a book.” So when she and partner Nick Turner walked past an empty shop in Harbour Street, their first thought was that this would make an amazing bookshop. One look inside and a meeting with the bank later and Sapphire and Nick are now preparing to open Book Bodega early June. (“I have some Spanish heritage and the name’s a nod to that,” says Sapphire.) A bit of everything will be on offer – Sapphire favours dystopian narratives and horror while Nick is into classic and historical fiction. There will also be a wide range of secondhand books to buy.

Nick, who runs Board the Waves teaching jetsurfing on Ramsgate seafront, is also a trained chef and the bookshop will have a takeaway café serving coffees, sweet treats and toasted sandwiches to encourage customers to spend time perusing the shelves. “Every town needs an independent bookshop,” says Sapphire who previously set up a flower studio in Essex, and runs a global online membership forum for female founders (@thecovengirlgang). “It brings the community together.”

Opening early June, 7 Harbour Street Instagram @bookbodega

New

in town SALT BARBER AT THE HONEYSUCKLE INN A new barbers in town is doing things a little differently by opening in a local pub.

“The Honeysuckle Inn seems to be a bit of a heartbeat to the creatives of Ramsgate,” says Alex Gillings who runs @salt.barber.

“When I moved here it became my local quickly. When I asked if I could run a barbershop here, landlords Kat and Joe didn’t even bat an eyelid and were bang up for it, mostly because they are awesome!”

After cutting in Covent Garden, Stockholm and Oxford, alongside some of the absolute best at the craft, Alex wanted to bring “all that I’d learned into my own little happy space, with all the vibe and community spirit of your local barbershop and with an ethos of every client having access to a premium cut and a great service,” she explains.

Find @salt.barber at the Honeysuckle Inn off Hereson Road. Book by calling 07784286199 but drop-ins are welcome

©Pete Bateson

DISCOVERY PLANET In partnership with the University of Kent, an exciting new learning space has opened.

The award-winning community interest company Discovery Planet will be hosting several creative science workshops open to the public. With a two-year programme funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the next workshops will explore how we observe space with telescopes (19-21 June), offer interactive sessions on meteorites (16-18 June) and examine how science can help us explore heritage (7-9 July). Schools can book sessions on Thursdays and Fridays, with Saturdays set aside for open workshops starting on the hour, every hour from 10am to 3pm. Attendance is free with quiet sessions for people needing a calmer environment offered at 10am on Saturdays.

47 High Street | discoveryplanet.co.uk facebook.com/DiscoveryPlanetUK Instagram @discovery_planet_0

THE GREENGROCER A new fruit and vegetable shop has opened up in the former greengrocer Bartlett & White. The family-run business offers seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables alongside an array of organic goods, deli products and sweet treats. They will also begin stocking fresh flowers from May.

ALCHEMY BY SALTWORKS The long-awaited addition to the Saltworks Company is coming with new shop Alchemy.

The new premises can be found in the previously much loved Brewer & Howard shoe shop on Harbour Street, which closed in September 2021. Alchemy will continue to offer a selection of shoes and bags for men and women but brings a freshly curated line of menswear to accompany their sister boutique Saltworks in Charlotte Court. The shop’s top floor will also become their perfumery workspace, where the brand will continue to hand make their fragrances producing a bespoke range of scented products from perfumes to soaps.

10 Harbour Street thesaltworkscompany.com @alchemybysaltworks @thesaltworksramsgate

11 King Street

STAPLE STORES KIDS BRIGHT HOUSE This family-run indoor children’s play centre has been in the pipeline for over a decade.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for fifteen years,” says owner Shereen. The former Montessori nursery school teacher knows a thing or two about children and has two of her own. After becoming a mum she worked at Courts Pharmacy from where “half of Ramsgate knows me,” she jokes. “I’ve always wanted to do something for the community” Shereen explains listing the range of groups on offer, from Tuesdays breastfeeding group (9.30-11am), Thursdays toddler group (9.3011am), to after-school offers and a Friday session for children with special needs (9.3011am). There’s an onsite café offering healthy food, with vegan, vegetarian and dairy-free options, located in perfect observational distance of the kids’ area. “Parents don’t have to run around after their children, they can just be chilling. One dad last week fell asleep in his chair, he said he’d never felt so relaxed in a softplay,” she laughs. The top floor is due to open in the coming weeks with bouncy castles installed and the venue is open to private hire. A 2.5 hour session is priced at £6.50, with under-1s £1.50.

A second summer on Ramsgate seafront beckons Ring Ring Ice Cream, this time in partnership with Milk and Cookie, a new independent foodie offering in Margate bringing cookies and er… milk. Ramsgate’s unique ice-cream vendors Ring Ring, situated opposite Wetherspoons in two very compact old-fashioned red telephone boxes, are working with Stuart Saint behind Milk and Cookie starting this June to offer an array of sweet treats for hot summer days by the beach. Follow them on social media for opening dates and times.

33 High Street | kidsbrighthouse.com

@ringringicecream | @milkandcookieuk

MILK AND COOKIE AT RING RING

Much-loved bakery and café Staple Stores, with locations in St Peter’s Broadstairs and Westgate, are opening in Ramsgate bringing everything Staple is associated with – great coffee (with Curve Margate the main supplier), pastries from croissants to cruffins, delicious cakes and sourdough bread, and is introducing a new range including soft serve ice-cream, and deli-style sandwiches on bloomer bread made from Englishmilled, sustainable flour. With Neal’s Yard cheeses, charcuterie and pickles for sale, the shop will also be licensed offering craft beers and bottles of wine – perfect for a trip to the beach or a stop off on the way home.

Opening mid June, 34 York Street.

For updates follow Instagram @staple_stores

FOLIAGE A plant coffee shop has opened in St Lawrence run by former headteacher turned plant expert Keeley Wilson. Having designed her own house around her plant collection, Keeley was ready for a new challenge having been a teacher for 23 years. With 400 plants at home, she started an online business selling houseplants, including rare and exotic plants, and the business has grown into a plant shop and café. As people sip coffee and eat cake surrounded by plants, they can also learn from Keeley’s advice: “I wanted to create a place for well-being, somewhere to relax in a plant environment.” The shop also has gifts for sale, candles and jewellery, with gift baskets and an online plant delivery service.

For Keeley, who got married in St Lawrence Church and grew up around the corner, the shop is a chance to be closer to home around “coffee people and plant people. I’m enjoying it, and not missing my old life,” she laughs.

7A St Lawrence High Street foliageplants.co.uk Instagram: foliageplants38

Limarni

A design-led lifestyle store and cafe offering a fresh approach to eating, drinking and shopping. Find us in one of the Military Road Arches, overlooking Ramsgate’s Harbour.

Available for events & private hire.

17 Military Road Ramsgate CT11 9LG Tel. 01843 580666

Where in Ramsgate can you order a belt on the way to the beach and collect it on the way home?

Or a glasses case or a coin purse? Handbags take a little longer however.

Tak and Coco Peppas design and make their own range of bags and accessories in Ramsgate.

They also have a curated selection of vintage jewellery, clothing and objects which are not found elsewhere, from bird cages to opera Glasses.

Come visit us at 26 Harbour Street, Ramsgate.

Open Thurs - Sun 11:00 - 4:00

Moon Lane Children's Books & Toys 43-45AddingtonStreet Ramsgate Kent CT11 9JJ 01843 654730 helloramsgate@moonlane.co.uk

Multi award winning children's bookshop, festivals, school supply & consultancy

Thursday - Sunday 11am - 4pm Friday story time 10:30am Dedicated to raising equality in children's books; access, representation & roles in the publishing industry

@moonlane_ramsgate

archiveramsgate

Summer Hotlist Summer Hotlist MAY “In Plain Sight” Fabio Almeida, solo exhibition.

Paintings looking at the raw urban reality of our present world and at the legacy of the modernist movement by this Brazilian-born UK-based artist.

Makers market Pop-up spring makers market at the Italianate glasshouse.

A wonderful way to see and buy work from local independent makers, including jewellery, homewares, clothing, original artworks and more.

Open Thursday to Sunday, 11am – 6pm laurentdelaye.com IG: @laurentdelaye

Tim Jarzabek The Cameron Twins, Tim Jarzabek, Rebekah Sunshine: paintings, prints, objects and lightboxes.

Until 9 May The Wooden Box Gallery, 92 High Street

makersmarkets.org

Michael Blake and Stephen Lewis A collaborative show of hardedged expressive abstract paintings and welded steel objects that incorporate found objects.

11-18 May

Open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday, 11am – 4pm thewoodenboxgallery.com IG: @thewoodenboxgallery

Penstone House, Albert Street holdcreativespaces.co.uk

Live music on the bandstand, fun for all the family, 100 stalls and food from vegan and pizzas to burgers and a beer tent.

mcgillanandwoodell.co.uk

Ramsgate Bowls Club Open Day

Ellington Park

Bob Connell

Ramsgate Bowls Club Royal Esplanade

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street

Annual exhibition of photography Isle of Thanet Photographic Society’s annual show.

15-21 June

23 June – 17 July

Open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday 11am – 4pm thewoodenboxgallery.com IG: @thewoodenboxgallery

FB/IG: @holdcreativespaces

JUNE A mix of cyanotypes, historically developed camera film prints and original works.

1-14 June McGillan & Woodell, 43 Queen Street mcgillanandwoodell.co.uk

Broadstairs College end of year show

3-14 June

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street

The Wooden Box Gallery, 92 High Street

yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

Open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday, 1-4pm thewoodenboxgallery.com IG: @thewoodenboxgallery

An exciting show bringing together paintings, assemblages and sculptures.

southerncountiesomnibus. weebly.com/the-thanetpreserved-bus-road-run.html

The Front Room, 10 Bellevue Road EmeraldFaerie.com @emeraldfaerie

Anna-Maria McLean Hand-made cards, jewellery, bags and cushions with an eco theme.

16-29 June

JULY Lin Fletcher

Vicki Salmi Large-scale paintings, textiles, digital work and collage.

An exploration of making; sometimes there is intention and sometimes not, some things are shown and others are suggested, partially hidden, fully revealed, lost or found.

24-31 July

Exhibition from a painter experimenting with textures.

The Wooden Box Gallery 92 High Street

6-13 July

Open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday, 11am – 4pm

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

thewoodenboxgallery.com IG: @thewoodenboxgallery

Sue Fewings

AUGUST

43 Queen St, Ramsgate CT11 9DZ mcgillanandwoodell.co.uk

John Sweeney and Peter Peterson Peter was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1978, becoming its vice-president and has exhibited around the UK and internationally. Former pupil John joins him and has also sold work around the world.

22 June – 6 July

Photographer Sue is one of the founding members of the Women In Photography (Thanet) group. Her interest is in portraits and street photography.

13-19 July York Street Gallery, 22 York Street yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

Sarah Tighe

19-31 May

Nicky Browne

McGillan & Woodell, 43 Queen Street

Working in pen and pencil Nicky loves drawing and printmaking.

mcgillanandwoodell.co.uk

8-15 June

20-26 July

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street

yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

24 July

24-26 June, 11am – 5pm

The Wooden Box Gallery, 92 High Street

thewoodenboxgallery.com IG: @thewoodenboxgallery

Thanet Vintage Bus road run

Handmade decorative lighting, chandeliers, jewellery and statement pieces.

15-22 June

Open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday, 11am – 4pm

yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

facebook.com/groups/ thanetroadrun

24 June, 7-9pm

holdcreativespaces.co.uk

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street

Emerald Faerie

yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

Penstone House, Albert Street

27 July – 3 August

Invitation only. Contact Ruth via Instagram at: @ruthcrescent

Rule Of Three: Wood, Chalk, Seaweed

Mooch workshop

Peter Leigh, Rob Clarke and Lucy Troubridge

An exhibition of works from these artists and painters.

Vintage buses, some dating back to the 1950s, arrive at the boating pool from 10am before making several passes of the harbour in convoy and on to Dumpton Gap, Palm Bay, Margate and Westgate with a stop for lunch (pack a picnic), then along the coastal road to Birchington and Minnis Bay before returning to the boating pool via Acol and Manston. Free to ride with a collection for Thanet Cats in Crisis. Organised by Southern Counties Omnibus Collection and Friends of East Kent.

A one-night event to see what three artists, Nick Page, Ruth Rollason and Viv Yankah, create with three materials.

Public art practice Mooch hosts Jubilee Really Royal Harbour Community Workshops.

Paul Yandell and Carl Hawkins

The Wooden Box Gallery 92 High Street

isleofthanetphotographic society.co.uk

18-25 May

An abstract exhibition by this Ramsgate-based artist.

laurentdelaye.com IG: @laurentdelaye

PMH is a Ramsgate charity focused on arts-heritage based projects with young people.

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street

Exhibition of works from this local artist.

Kay Cox

Open Thursday to Sunday, 11am – 6pm

The Project Motorhouse exhibition

yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

A wide range of works incorporating different themes, media and concepts.

For anyone who would like to try bowls for the first time.

7 May, 10am to midday

25 May – 8 June

15 May, 11-7pm

5-17 May McGillan & Woodell 43 Queen Street

Painter of local seascapes and landscapes in the tradition of British Impressionism using oils and watercolours.

David Silk Ellington Park May Fayre

10 June – 11 September

Mike Samson

FB/IG: search holdcreativespaces

11-18 May

This local photographer and artist displays a selection of work in different mediums.

FB/IG: @holdcreativespaces

31 May – 3 June

14-22 May

Malcolm Kirkaldie

Laurent Delaye Gallery, 1 Addington Street

The Wooden Box Gallery, 92 High Street

Showcasing fourteen artists under one roof, weekends only.

yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

21 May holdcreativespaces.co.uk

thewoodenboxgallery.com IG: @thewoodenboxgallery

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street

Rotating displays showcasing new and current gallery artists, new talents, mixed medias.

Penstone House, Albert Street

Hold’s May art sale

An exhibition of works from this artist.

Hold Creative Space’s one year birthday celebrations.

Throughout May watch out for birthday offers on social media.

Italianate Glasshouse King George VI Park, Montefiore Avenue

Open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday, 11am – 4pm

Lee Bates

Summer group exhibition

7 May, 11am – 3pm

Until 5 June Laurent Delaye Gallery, 1 Addington Street

Happy birthday Hold

York Street Gallery, 22 York Street yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

Graphic designer and artist with a passion for all things colourful.

yorkstreetgallery.co.uk

Annabelle Losa, Zara Gabriel and Anne-Marie Rymill exhibition A collaborative show of paintings, prints and collages.

1-16 August The Wooden Box Gallery 92 High Street, Gallery Open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday, 11am – 4pm thewoodenboxgallery.com IG: @thewoodenboxgallery

Pi

Daily classes, Teacher Training Programmes, Workshops + Retreats

Vegetarian Cafe

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Open Monday-Saturday 9am-3pm 25-27 Queen Street Ramsgate CT119DZ unionramsgate.com @unionramsgate

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PURE indulgence by the sea

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Have you lost your sense of self?

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ramsgate recorder

BUSINESS

Sails up at the boating pool Writer

Lila Allen

D

Photographer Ed Thompson

esigned in the Italianate style, and soon to mark a century, the boating pool is enjoying something of a Renaissance. A new 25-year lease has been agreed with a team who, as we go to print, are just days away from opening, bringing a new café with in-house bakery, pizzeria restaurant, bar, live entertainment venue, music studio and retail space. Leah, Simon, Adam, Ed, Abigail and Tim together bring a wealth of experience, running individual businesses, and an ambitious vision to make this a destination for local people and visitors alike. Opening in stages the bar, bakery, pop-up café

and Dough Eye Pizza will be the first to welcome customers. the boating pool shop, Harbour & Tide, will follow soon and there are plans to put on activities and events for all the family, including markets and pop-up events, with a return of the pedalos and Viking Model Boat Club. Every penny of profit will be put into renovating the building, staying true to its iconic history, with works completed within a year. Here we meet the new team.

LEAH MORGAN It is fitting to describe Leah as a bit of a dreamer, one that turns dreams into reality. The boating pool project began with her daily walks past the building. “Like everyone I’d think, what is this building?”, but unlike everyone, she didn’t stop there. Three years later she is its creative director and has created a team of individual businesses. Instead of walking past she will be walking to the site every day.

With a background in graphic design, painting and prop making, Leah also runs Tandem Set and Scenery with her partner, carpenter Glen Hughes. The company creates imagined landscapes, designing and building sets for theatre, film, immersive shows and escape rooms, as well as pop-up restaurants, bars and drivethrough cinemas.

Originally from Yorkshire, Leah moved to Ramsgate in 2017. With friends in the town, and tiny twins, she was ready to step back from the busy life of Tandem, which had grown from a bedroom business to a company with 20 employees and a huge Kent-based carpentry and metals workshop.

Seeing the boating pool set her creative cogs whirring.

With the building for sale, she thought, “We can do this!” As Glen takes the reins of the day-to-day work of Tandem, Leah is putting her business acumen to use designing the boating pool’s fit-out and branding. She’s most looking forward to creating the family room. “It’s going to be called the Scribble Rooms with crayons and walls for kids to draw on!” She has been working closely with Katy Thalis, who has run the boating pool for almost 20 years taking on the business from her dad.

Like Katy, Leah wants to continue the legacy of this being a family-run business and sees herself living here “forever”. As she says: “I did always want to live by the sea.” Another dream come true.

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ED CURRY AND ABIGAIL HUBBARD Ed and Abi are a familiar sight at the boating pool, running as they do Sourdough Eyes, the pizza pop-up that proved so popular last summer. Now back as the rebranded Dough Eyes Pizza (snappier and the pun is clearer, explains Ed) you can expect more of the same from the couple, with an expanded menu of seven pizzas. They are busy building a new shack to house their professional electric deck ovens on the east side of the boating pool (in a similar position to last year), where they will continue serving pizzas outdoors, with the bar and live performance space serving drinks. Meanwhile renovation work on the other side of the building will see the creation of a restaurant with a wood-fire pizza oven installed, allowing Dough Eye Pizza to offer starters, small plates and desserts.

The transformation of the building has echoes in Ed and Abi’s own transformative journey from working professionals to restaurateurs. It all began in lockdown when Ed was furloughed from his job as a production manager at Kentish Pip Cider, and Abi was working from home as a creative practitioner at Pie Factory Music, Ramsgate’s youth music charity, where she was running songwriting workshops by Zoom. Like many in the country, the couple got into cooking. “It all started with sourdough bread,” Abi laughs. “It was a natural progression to sourdough pizzas.” They invested in a pizza oven, and “the idea hatched from that,” says Ed. Another pizza oven, trailer, company name and logo designed by illustrator and friend Kate Everett later, and they landed a weekly pop-up at the Berry pub in Deal. With more restrictions closing down their pub venture, and realising they were onto something, they contacted the boating pool. “It is such a brilliant spot,” says Ed, “and such a friendly crowd. It went really well.”

When Leah suggested they come on board the longterm project, the couple jumped at the opportunity and brought in Abi’s brother Adam, the Blean Baker.

“It is a family affair,” confirms Ed. “It’s a long-term venture, a sustainable business for us and future generations.” With their son Reuben born in the summer of 2021, just as they found themselves “chucked in the deep end” of running a seven-days-a-week new business, life really has changed for the whole family.

As for Ramsgate, the couple hope to be moving from their home in Faversham. “We want to be part of the renaissance in Ramsgate, and the resurgence of seaside towns,” they say. ►

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BUSINESS

TIM HUGHES

ADAM HUBBARD Baking is in the blood for Adam, whose parents opened and have been running Whitstable’s Hubbard’s Bakery on the High Street for close to 25 years. Growing up around the traditional bakery, helping with the washing-up and decorating gingerbread men, set Adam on his path. “Dad’s always been a baker,” he explains. “It was exciting and meant I grew up with the knowledge.”

Having gone away to university to study food marketing, Adam first started work in quality control, but the pull of the bakery drew him back to Whitstable.

“It was more fulfilling to work at the bakery; I have a passion for it,” he explains – despite the early hours with some mornings starting at 2am. For eight years Adam has worked at the family business. Abi, his sister, now co-running Dough Eye Pizza, would work there too, with his mum and nan at the shopfront, dad out the back and a cousin coming and going to help out with the cleaning. To be working at the boating pool with his sister “feels natural”. He laughs: “It’s a real positive to be working with people you know and like.”

Adam’s plans for his own business have been brewing for several years, and with lockdown came opportunity.

The Blean Baker saw Adam start a delivery service around the village where he lives, baking up to a dozen loaves of sourdough bread from his home oven. Proving popular, his range expanded to offer brownies, buns and cookies. “It was a really nice way to connect with people close to me and meet new neighbours,” he says.

Having had a taste for running his own bakery, he was frustrated by the limitations of baking from home.

“I’d take up the whole kitchen,” he laughs, tricky with his wife Stacie and two young daughters at home. When Abi and Ed suggested he consider opening at the boating pool he had to check it out. He’s now selecting ovens – “they’ll be the size of two washing machines” – and will start baking on the site from early July. A mouthwatering menu is in plan, with sourdough breads, pastries, brownies and cookies on offer. The Blean Baker will also be servicing the on-site café due to open at the same time. “It’s really exciting to be part of this unique opportunity,” says Adam. “It’s a chance to do something with a group of people in such a wonderful building. The boating pool straddles two aspects: repeat customers who have enjoyed the boating pool and will hopefully enjoy what we offer, and younger families that have come to Ramsgate. It has that potential.”

IG: @blean_baker | facebook/TheBleanBaker

The financial head behind the team, Tim has years of experience in project management and finance, having among other things run his own business. “I bring to the team grey hair and experience,” he laughs, but it is as a grandfather that he is most moved to back the project.

Both his young granddaughters are growing up in Ramsgate, and when their mother, his daughter-in-law Leah, mentioned the possibility of taking on the boating pool he decided to help by investing.

Tim is a regular visitor from his home in Buckinghamshire and has a strong connection to Kent with his mother born near Faversham and grandparents from Kent, not to mention his love of golf and the Sandwich clubs.

The boating pool has been a familiar landmark he regularly visited, admiring its beauty and the view it frames. “It’s an iconic building,” he says. With a fascination for history, Tim sees himself as its custodian for the next 25 years. “It’s a survivor,” he enthuses. “It’s 100 years old and exactly as it was when it was first built.

If we do it right it will last another 100 years.”

As a director he is across everything the team want to do. “I say no to most of it,” he jokes, before making his more serious point. The priority is to get the basic core of the business running which, he explains, is to provide for local people here all year round, with a oneyear commitment to restoring the building. At 68, still working and with this project underway, Tim is looking forward to “watching my granddaughters grow up, and watching this grow up too.”

HARBOUR & TIDE AT THE BOATING POOL Launching this summer, Harbour & Tide is a modern local beach store selling goods for seaside life. With a focus on functional, joyful and sustainable products, Harbour & Tide offers essentials such as towels, blankets, picnic-ware and beach bags alongside soaps and natural beauty products, beach toys, books and gifts.

They also plan to offer a selection of sustainable swimwear.

Founder Katy Lassen is a fashion stylist and

SIMON TROUGHT Recording engineer and music producer Simon will be opening Soup Studio on the easterly side of the boating pool. He was quick to come on board as a director when the opportunity first arose. “A studio is one thing,” he explains, “but one that sits back to back with a performance space and then a bar is a dream come true.”

Soup Studio has been going for twenty years, and grew out of Simon’s career as a recording musician in what he calls a “joke bedroom band”, but was in fact the critically acclaimed indie group Tompaulin. The band put out two albums, released several singles, played Glastonbury and recorded two John Peel sessions, before calling it a day. “It was unplanned, we were too old to be in the band. (We were in our 30s!) We didn’t want to tour, we weren’t eighteen. We fulfilled our dreams after a year,” he laughs. New musical ventures beckoned. Offered the opportunity to self-record a record, Simon invested in all the gear and hired the basement of an art gallery. “When it came to handing back the keys it didn’t feel right,” he says. And so Soup Studio was born, relocating a number of times around east London, with some of Simon’s happiest times spent building the spaces. The boating pool is a return to a passion for building projects but also a change of course.

As co-general manager, sharing the duties with Leah, Simon will be at the boating pool most days. “I’m excited about running the whole site,” he says. “I love the studio, and will continue that here, but you can be in a dark room for ten hours a day. I’m looking forward to creating something lovely here.”

art director who has lived in Ramsgate for over five years. Like many people, the pandemic has been a catalyst for change. With more time spent at home, Katy took up sea swimming and shifted focus from the London commute to spending more time in the area, becoming increasingly involved in the local community.

Spending more time on the beach with friends and family, she noticed an opportunity to contribute to the local economy while providing products that locals and visitors can use to make the most of their time by the sea.

harbourandtide.com | IG: harbourandtide

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Margot preparing the soil at Stirling Way

GARDENING

Dave at Stirling Way

Mike and Charlotte at Chilton West

COMMON GROUND Writer

Laura Nickoll

Photographer Jaron James

Ramsgate’s allotment communities are thriving and reveal a world of biodiversity and abundance, hard graft and lifelong friendships ▲ Kaye and Paul at Chilton East

▼ Natalie at Chilton East

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ndustrialisation in the UK led to a surge in new urban areas for the working classes, with little provision in terms of green spaces.

Although the practice of renting land out – allotting it – to individuals for noncommercial cultivation has existed for hundreds of years, the Small Holdings and Allotments Act of 1908 meant that councils were obliged to provide allotments where there was demand.

During the second world war the Dig for Victory campaign was established by the Ministry of Agriculture to increase self-sufficiency during periods of shortage and rationing, encouraging people to grow their own food, not just in their own gardens but in allotments and public green spaces too, from parks to school grounds, which were ploughed to create vegetable patches. By 1943 there were almost 1.4 million allotment plots, and in the 1950s their popularity soared. There are currently only about 330,000 allotments in the UK, though

the combination of pandemic, food supply issues and rising costs has seen a revival of interest, and allotment waiting lists are now longer than ever.

Ramsgate has five allotment sites – Cecilia Road (Cemetery Gates), Chilton Lane East, Chilton Lane West, Margate Road and Stirling Way (Jackey Bakers) – all of which are managed by Ramsgate Town Council and on-site volunteer reps.

Visiting the sites, it is striking how remarkable they are in terms of diversity and the air of contentment, industriousness and cooperation. Each plot is a form of self-expression for its tenant, with regimental serried beds sitting alongside higgledy-piggledy plots; both equally productive in their own ways. Potatoes, brassicas and alliums grow within yards of fruit trees and bushes, nut trees, climbing plants, flower beds, beehives, chicken coops, small orchards and even vineyards.

Ponds, bug hotels and bird feeders all encourage an abundance of local wildlife, from stoats, hedgehogs and foxes to butterflies, frogs and bees.

Tenants represent a cross-section of the local community and each plot boundary is a shared path, where seeds and plants might be swapped, or gluts of produce offered. Advice, solicited or not, is always on hand. Interaction isn’t a prerequisite, however: some plotholders are happy to keep themselves to themselves, tilling the soil, tackling the weeds and tending their patch.

Whether they’re on their plots daily or just at the weekends, plot-holders – who range from teachers, health service workers and chefs to retired military personnel and artists – speak of a sense of refuge at the allotments, and how engaging with nature benefits their physical and mental health.

Charlotte, a homoeopath, shares her plot with long-time friend Mike, a potter. For Mike, the allotment was a lifeline: “When I lost my mother I found this was such a relief, to be up ►

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here, working gently and nurturing something. Being where life is just happening offers solace, as there’s so much going on.”

“In the first lockdown, Mike came down here a lot,” Charlotte says. “I have a garden but he just has a little yard. It was such an escape, a way to get away from the madness. He was very productive.” Charlotte shows me their “lasagne” beds, a no-dig method of layering up everything you’d put in a compost bin that then breaks down into a nutrient-rich mulch ready for planting, and their fruit trees and majestic globe artichoke plants. She and Mike have tended the plot together for 18 years.

“I wanted to know where my food was coming from,” explains Charlotte when asked why she requested an allotment.

“We grow without pesticides or herbicides and it’s as organic as it gets, but we can’t guarantee no nasties; we’ve noticed the micro-plastics turning up in everything. It’s distressing, but you’ve just got to get on with it.”

Kaye Daniels, Chilton Lane East’s site rep, echoes this desire to resist chemicals. “We try to be as organic as possible,” she says, “to encourage the wildlife.” Indeed, in 2018 Chilton Lane East won a National Wildlife Trust Gold medal.

“Ingenuity is key for plot-holders and gardeners,” Charlotte says, “you learn to respect the cycles.” While a robin perches nearby on their blossoming Janice’s recycled bottle greenhouse at Chilton East

GARDENING

apple tree, they talk about the joys of spring and summer and their encounters with nature: “We celebrate the ancient spring festival of Beltane, lighting a fire should the weather permit. We want to keep connections to old ways of marking the change in seasons – maintaining the threads that connect us with our ancestors.” Come summer, “it’s so verdant. Everything’s fresh and vigorous.”

The unofficial code of practice is to reuse and repurpose things, not buy new: piles of spare pallets, sheeting and chitted potatoes are a common site at the entrance of the allotment sites, and there’s always someone busy constructing a shed, greenhouse, fruit cages, polytunnels or raised beds out of scrap materials. Manure and wood chip donated by local stables and tree surgeons are often heaped by the entrance, free for everyone to use.

There’s an official code of practice: every tenant must cultivate their plot and keep it tidy, the size of structures such as sheds are limited, the entrance gates must be locked at all times, and social harmony is key; letters of caution are given to plot-holders who are consistently not maintaining their patch or wantonly breaking the rules.

The site reps explain the code of practice to every new tenant

“We grow without pesticides or herbicides and it’s as organic as it gets”

and offer ongoing support. Kaye gives them a special variety of giant garlic bred

by Godfrey Power, a plot-holder who died in 2014, and she runs a Facebook page for the plot-holders, and thanks to her fundraising a lodge was built on site – a place where people can get together, borrow gardening books, cookbooks and make tea. “I’m one percent site rep, one percent fundraiser for the site, ninety-eight percent plot holder,” says Kaye. “I get to know everyone, so if someone’s not turning up, I can check in to see if they’re okay.”

Allotment fundraising efforts include organising summer barbecues, afternoon teas, and produce and plot competitions. Emma Cole, the allotment officer for Ramsgate Town Council, liaises regularly with the reps and supports the fundraising. The town council finds their input invaluable, says Emma, for “ensuring the good condition of the site and the plots, fostering a healthy community spirit and helping with any disputes. They are the first point of contact for all tenants – they have a wealth of experience and are always happy to help new tenants.”

John Moosab retired a few years back and is now site rep for Newington’s Stirling Way site, tending to his own plot, feeding his chickens and helping other tenants every day of the week. “I couldn’t sit in the house all day,” he says.

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John and his team at Stirling Way

While giving me a tour, which takes in a community hut replete with a newly installed log-burner and a memorial wheelbarrow for George, a much-loved tenant who passed away a few years ago, he explains, “We all muck in.” I meet Sarah and her daughter Margo.

Sarah has just acquired a Stirling Way plot and I ask John for any tips for new plot-holders. “Little and often’s the trick,” he tells me, and, “Start with potatoes, as they help break up the ground.” Creating an edible landscape is quite a commitment, but no plotholder I meet, old-timer or newbie, has any regrets. The benefits, from physical exercise and positive mental stimulus to the sense of community and nutritional advantages from growing your own food, make it worth the wait. And nothing tastes as good as something you’ve grown yourself.

To cope with demand, whole plots are no longer available; instead, they are divided into half plots and quarter plots. Over to Emma: “Quarter plots are more manageable for an individual who is on their own or a new tenant without any previous experience, and current annual rents are £22 a year for a quarter, £44 for a half.” For anyone involved in a community garden project who wants to set up a new site, or expand an existing allotment site, the Amity Allotment Fund (run by the Kent Community Foundation) is open for applications and is offering grants of up to £7,500.

Find out more at kentcf.org.uk/ funding/amityallotmentfund

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MUSIC

MEET THE MUSICIAN:

than melodrama, you might describe Kore-eda’s films as mellow-drama, and I thought I should probably steal that!

josh flowers

Your music evokes elements of The Shins, Wilco, Nick Drake. Would it be fair to cite those artists as influences?

Where does your inspiration lie and does your taste directly influence your music?

Writer

Yeah, those are really good anchoring points for my taste. They influence me but not in a way where I’m trying to imitate them. You would never mistake a Shins melody… or I wouldn’t anyway. He [James Mercer] has such a way of writing songs, his lyrics are so weird and Tweedy’s [Wilco] lyrics are so weird and Nick Drake is esoteric in this undefinable way. All of them just have this weirdo-warmth and magic.

My influences would be those guys and maybe Randy Newman, Yo La Tengo.

I would love Yo La Tengo’s sound to come through more in my music, that’s hopefully where I’m going. I think I need to be more experimental because I spend a lot of time on words and on song structure. It takes some letting go for me to let it become more ambient or just potentially lose lyrics or lose clarity.

Andrew Flood

Local songwriter Josh Flowers speaks about the creation of his forthcoming debut album Mellowdrama, his processes and influences, and his transcontinental side project Echo Baby, all ahead of a headline show at the Ramsgate Music Hall on 16 June What are your earliest musical memories?

I was born in Leeds. Music in my childhood home was Abba, Neil Young and Christian rock. There’s a guy called Larry Norman, who my dad loves.

He’s a great songwriter and seen as the founder of Christian rock. I found it all very cringe when I was younger but now it’s interesting to me. My dad taught me some chords and I started writing songs when I was about 16. I never studied music. Well, I did it in school but I didn’t really find that easy. I was told that I wasn’t very good at it but I don’t think they were interested in the song side of things at all. There’s a bit of a myth that if you learn too much theory it might spoil the magic. I don’t think that’s true actually, but I think I did for a while. Looking at it now, it could just be another tool for me to understand why music feels good when it feels good.

Your new single “I’ve Made It, Mum” is from the forthcoming debut album, Mellowdrama. Tell us the story behind the album. Is there a new sound or direction compared to your previous releases?

The songs I’ve released before this album have been little moments in time. Oneday or two-day periods of recording on my own with an engineer, always trying to hone in on something that was my sound. I generally just keep writing songs and when I have one I want to capture, I’ll try and do it. This record was a moment in time from the middle of the pandemic where I wrote the whole thing in a few months. We then made it in a

You are also involved in a duo called Echo Baby. How did this start? How did you meet your bandmate Julianna Zachariou?

We were working on a theatre show together in New York for a month or so, doing a live score every night as a duo, and on the days off we would share songs. We started writing together and then ended up with a project called Echo Baby, which is a long-distance songwriting partnership. She’s in San Diego. She came over last August to do some shows and we also recorded for a week. But before that, I’d been over there a few times and spent some time recording in Nashville. She went to Belmont University when we met so I got to know that town pretty well and I really like it there. ©Julianna Zachariou

week in Ramsgate and that was with a band of friends who I just love playing with. We said that the unofficial name for the album was “The Big Sleepover” because we all stayed in bunk beds at Big Jelly studio for a week or two, recording these songs live.

How did you settle on Mellowdrama as the title?

I knew I wanted the title to be a wordplay.

I want my music to feel the opposite to melodramatic because I don’t really

relate to melodrama. I relate to the details of the day-to-day. Things that don't seem dramatic but actually are.

There is a Japanese film director called Hirokazu Kore-eda who makes these daily-life, soft, family dramas. They do have plots but they kind of trickle along quite gently. There’s a lot of imagery in them, and it is about the way he shoots or the conversations or little vignettes and not dramatic arc moments. I really related to that when I started watching his films and then I read a review that made the joke that, rather

When you make music, is it generally back and forth over long distance rather than in the room together?

Yeah, we do Zoom writing basically to a point where we feel like we have something, but then there’s a moment when we’re like, “Okay, we need to wait until we’re both in a room to finish that.”

So generally, when we come together, we’ve got a handful of half-finished but pretty substantial ideas in terms of where they’re meant to land.

There aren’t many trans-Atlantic duos.

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on record

The Kills are all that come to mind.

When you came up with the name and the idea behind the project, were there any influences or case studies there?

I loved the Postal Service when I was in my late teens. We decided we were going to do it and have a long-distance thing and then I realised that the Postal Service were similar in the way that they worked together because it was a side-project for them too and it was a long-distance thing that was inhibited by the impracticality of being far away.

But that was what made the project what it was.

What is your process when writing a song? Does the melody steer the song or do the lyrics? A lot of your tracks are acoustic guitar-driven or use soft percussive loops, even vocal percussion...

Yeah, it’s those fun experimental elements that I really like. The production never drives the song, the production always comes in later for me. I mean, not all of the songs are me and my guitar. Sometimes I’ll record it and take the guitar out afterwards or something. Part of my writing process is always being ready to notice something that I think is a potential lyric. I am constantly writing things down that could be good song food.

That’s one of the most important parts of the process, the research phase. Just living and listening. And then if I’m being good, every few days I’ll sit down, and if I’m not being good, then every month I’ll sit down and try to collate all these ideas and see which ones may be linked to each other. I get a lot of rhyming couplets that will fit and then melodies come. I think the best songs for me are the ones that stick in your head because the melody and the lyrics fuse together to become something more. The meaning is threefold: the literal meaning of the words, what the words feel like they mean or the shape of the words, and finally, the meaning that the melody implies. These three different strands of meaning, if they all come together then it’s going to be a great song.

Being a musician requires moments of isolation for that creative spark but then the need to be an extrovert and a performer. Do you get equal enjoyment from both elements or is there one which gives you more fulfilment?

When I was younger, I found it hard to be on my own because I was a very social kid. And then as I get older, I

19

MUSIC

SIMON TROUGHT

enjoy doing things on my own more and more. So, I think it’s a pretty even balance. I need both sides. Yet as you say, the spark of something has to come from an isolated place for it to be potent and sincere. And then you have to take it into the right social and communal space in order for it to grow or explode.

Your upcoming album was recorded at Big Jelly in Ramsgate. Who was involved? Is your band a local bunch?

It’s funny… none of them are. In fact, none of them had been to Ramsgate before the week we recorded and now two of them live here. And two of the others are visiting quite regularly. It was such a good time recording and it was such a great way to get to know a place because Big Jelly has a lot of heart and is connected to so many people here.

Ben Beheshti, who I’ve worked with before, produced the whole thing.

You moved to Ramsgate over three years ago. Has living here influenced you and your music? Has it changed for the better?

The whole experience of being here has been good in so many ways. Apart from two songs on the record, everything was written here in the space of about a month or two. I didn’t realise it when I was writing but there are so many references to the sea. It’s bread and butter songwriting stuff but I feel like I’ve done it in a way that doesn’t make me cringe. One thing I did a lot (while writing), was if I was stuck on a song, I would often go for a run on the beach and usually, by the time I’d get back I would have some new angle or clarity. That was really helpful and that’s something I’ve never been able to do before.There are very specific lyrics about being here as well, like in one song called “Octoblur”, I was getting familiar with the little corners of a place that I didn’t know. I’ve never really chosen somewhere to live before.

I was born in Leeds, taken to London and taken back to Leeds. This is the first time I’ve ever self-selected where I live. So, I feel like there’s a different relationship with it for that reason. I mean, the album is so connected to here and I hope that people will understand and appreciate it for that reason.

Josh Flowers’ debut album Mellowdrama will be released this June and celebrated with a headline show at Ramsgate Music hall on 16 June. You can hear Josh’s music on all streaming platforms and follow him for updates @hijoshflowers and joshflowers.bandcamp.com

©Sam Ford

Writer

Andrew Flood

S

imon Trought is a producer and founder of Soup Studio, currently being relocated from a boat in the Thames to the boating pool in Ramsgate. He has a wealth of recording experience, from writing and producing music on 4-track tape machines as an art student in the 1980s, through to current hi-fi commercial recordings and productions.

What are you listening to?

IN SPITE OF OURSELVES John Prine and Iris DeMent I’m quite a fan of a well picked acoustic guitar and have long admired country/ blues and bluegrass music and artists such as Elizabeth Cotten, John Fahey, Mississippi John Hurt, Townes Van Zandt, Leo Kottke and Doc Watson, and also have a soft spot for a cheesy country ballad duet “Islands in the Stream” style.

The lyrics are hilarious and I love the sentiment and the subjectivity towards each other’s traits.

PIGS… (IN THERE) Robert Wyatt I don’t seem to get bored of listening to Robert’s spoken-word narrative in this song. It always sounds fresh and his understated voice draws my focus to the story every time, which is brilliantly at odds with the music. I find the blend of fizzy, chewy electronic sounds alongside the “organic” organ and percussion instruments pleasing. There is a comforting wonkiness and slightly out of tune-ness, which I cherish in most of the music I’m drawn to.

ENTONIGT KLINGAR DEN LILLA KLOCKAN Jan Johansson Don’t ask me to pronounce it! I refer to it as the bluesy one where it sounds like the drums are falling down some stairs. The album, Jazz På Ryska, is a 60s Swedish post-modal bop interpretation of traditional Russian folk songs. Sounds pretentious but the music on this album is the opposite of pretentious. It is humble yet powerful, playful but not noodle-y and also smooth jazz cliché free. It is as good as jazz gets after my decades-long (and continuing) Howard Moon-esque quest to find the “Spirit of Jazz”. It’s almost as good as brass band music!

ME AND MY ARROW Harry Nilsson A daft song about the friendship between a person and a dog. It was the theme song for an animated 70s film about a boy called Oblio who is the only person with a round head in his Pointed Village and his trusty dog, Arrow. It reminds me of White Albumera Beatles and kids’ TV theme tunes from my youth. Lovely playing on the keyboards and the conversation between the bass guitar and kick drum is insane!

It gives the song a distinctive groove and really bounces it along. Also makes me want to whistle when I hear it, so that’s good!

Check out these songs that Simon has worked on: Organic Rust by Alfa Mist and Motherfucker by Benedict Benjamin.

Find more information about Simon and his work at soupstudio.co.uk

Urban axe throwing

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ramsgate recorder

COMMUNITY

NICE GOING Writer

Russell Chater

The twelfth anniversary of Nice Things will also be the last day of business for the cherished local shop and gallery. Russell Chater speaks to some of those who have worked with owner Suzy Humphries over the years and pay tribute to her impact

S

uzy is many things to many people: from shop-keeper to gallerist; festival organiser to performer; friend to mentor.

Her role in the community has been invaluable since she arrived in Ramsgate in 2008. As co-founder of Ramsgate Arts in 2010, she promptly delivered the Summer Squall festival, today run by a new team and known as the Festival of Sound. In 2012 Suzy founded the Looping the Loop festival, which continues to entertain. But she is perhaps best known for Nice Things, the shop and gallery she opened in 2010.

It has been instrumental in selling and promoting the work of local creative talent.

Julie Westbury was the first artist Suzy exhibited in Nice Things, then located in Custom House before the shop moved to its current home in Harbour Street.

The pair met in 2009 when Suzy walked into an exhibition of Julie’s wearing paint-splattered clothes. “Another artist,” thought Julie, only to learn that she was actually wearing a theatrical costume – highlighting Suzy’s other passion for theatre. Suzy loved Julie’s work, ranging from colourful prints and illustrations to mesmerising collages created from Thanet postcards, and promptly offered her a show.

Julie has seen many changes to Ramsgate over the years, its “decline and rebirth” as she calls it. When she moved to the town in 2000, Addington Street still had a doctor’s surgery and Post Office. She thanks Suzy for her role in Ramsgate’s revival, as well as for offering her a final exhibition at Nice Things

before the doors close: poignantly bookending this aspect of their relationship.

It was after Nice Things moved to its current Harbour Street location in 2017 that Ella Wood met Suzy. New to Ramsgate, her part-time job in the shop enabled her to meet the breadth of locals who came in, which “opened up [her] world”. Like many, she found Nice Things to be not just a shop and gallery, but a vital community hub, and loved her time there bouncing ideas off Suzy.

Ella was crucial in helping launch the shop website, “which in turn has been fundamental in allowing me to promote my work to a local and national audience,” she says. From graphic design to jewellery and interior products, Ella is developing a new design practice called “One-green” with an emphasis on the eco-friendly. Encouragement from Suzy over the years has helped fuel Ella’s creative and business drive.

Working from his Ramsgate studio, potter Mike Child found a champion in Suzy whose ethos he says is “to bring art to the people”. Mike was already playing a key role in the community (running workshops, tutoring and youth work) when he met Suzy, a kindred spirit.

She was one of the first to offer local creatives’ work to locals as opposed to buyers outside Ramsgate (where the market was previously). Mike has sold through Suzy since 2010. “She often linked interested customers direct to my own studio,” he explains, “giving me sales and commissions. If only the rest of the world worked this way!”

Emily Tull first met Suzy at the first event organised for the Ramsgate Arts

festival Suzy set up. Emily went on to join the festival project board for about four years, even turning her hand to help make props and staging.

Emily’s hands have since been busy with a needle and thread, creating psychologically and environmentally probing “thread paintings”. Suzy has shown these works at both the Custom House and Harbour Street shops, and Emily is incredibly grateful to Suzy for her support over the years – as well as for agreeing to pose for a portrait last year (pictured below). Their relationship is typical of the productive interplay that Suzy so often and uniquely orchestrates: connecting people and projects and seeing individuals operate across both her retail and festival spheres.

Local couple Terry and Janet Prue’s connection with Suzy started when they volunteered for the Summer Squall festival.

Terry had been writing regular history pieces for the Ramsgate Society magazine and Suzy asked if he’d like to develop these as a series of talks for the festival. The rest is, er, history, with both Terry and Janet now arranging a programme of speakers for both the Ramsgate Society and Festival of Sound – highlighting the positive community ripple that Suzy so often has a hand in.

That ripple is something Suzy is very

conscious of as she makes plans to pass on the shop, keen that the new owner has a similar ethos to hers. Thanet-based glass-maker Jo Turner-Rowe (someone Suzy has, unsurprisingly, worked with in the past) along with her artist colleague Fran Ballard will ensure this, creating a studio, workshop and shop where they will sell their work, teach, and showcase local artists.

As for Suzy? A £90,000 funding bid for Looping the Loop will be confirmed in May. If secured, there will be a lot of work bringing her next project Bunker of Zion (a touring and community engaging performance piece devised by acclaimed Zimbabwe-born artist John Pfumojena) to perform in early July.

With so much experience and so many contacts, there are always projects to be involved with. Suzy casually reels off other endeavours, from a role on the Cultural Consortium (as part of the High Street Heritage Action Zone) to teasing the possibility of another shop or gallery! “Things change partly because of demographics changing, but also through doing things. This is how you change mindsets and perceptions of place,” she says.

Nice Things will close on 26 June with an online presence until at least the end of 2022 @nicethingsramsgate nice-things.co.uk

 Artwork by Emily Tull

 Earrings by Ella Wood

 Artwork by Julie Westbury

 Ceramics by Mike Child

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 Community volunteers Terry and Janet Prue

ramsgate recorder

ART

THE MERMAID ARMY

Local artist Jayne Wright is on a mission to create a “stoneware mermaid army” made up of women who wild swim. The Recorder spoke to Jayne, who is based in Thanet and hand-sculpts vessels inspired by the female form, and a few of the Ramsgate women featured in the project

“

It came as a response to all the unhelpful comments made about our bodies,” says Jayne, recalling experiences growing up and in adulthood when some people would remark on her physical shape. “I literally have spent hours googling what fruit or vegetable I am,” she laughs exasperatedly, referring to the apple or pear categories synonymous with body image. When Jayne came across fellow swimmer, Amanda, who was training to cross the English Channel and whose body had been called ‘chunky’, she felt the need to reach out and say “me too!

Almost 30 years ago someone called me chunky and I have never shaken it off.” The idea that the reaction

people have to our bodies and image, no matter gender, can have a lasting impact on the way we perceive ourselves is carried through Jayne’s work. The response has been to create sculptures which represent women, in the narrative they want to portray; to carve out the essence, personality and shape of a person in the most uplifting manner.

Reaching out to several open water swimmers, Jayne asked to create ceramic sculptures of their form. She collected images from each person’s social media and, using collage, created a vision she could sketch that would then inform a vessel. Looking at the photos, Jayne noticed they had one resounding thing in common; each person dropped the idea of the ‘perfect beach body’ for the anticipation of the sea. Peeling off clothes to run through the sand towards welcoming waves, the associations of body image and insecurities would crumple in a pile on the floor – right next to some sandy socks and shoes.

“One thing I’ve really gathered from swimming is the

Writer

Emily Hebe

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Images courtesy of Jayne Wright

camaraderie – it’s real feminism,” Jayne says as she talks about body image and how putting on a swimming costume for the beach can come with complexities.

After joining a local group of women who swim in the sea every morning, Jayne’s approach to her body in a cosie has changed. There isn’t any stigma, judgement or care; they all just get on with it, swimming, breathing, basking in the joy of living as the body takes over from the mind. The focus is no longer dimply bums, untoned tums and big thighs but instead an exhilarating need to stroke the waves. To just keep swimming.

Jayne’s Mermaid Army consists of many local women from the area and further afield. Georgie belongs to one of Ramsgate’s popular local swimming groups ‘The Mermads’ who go out each day at high tide at the Western Undercliff. “I swim because I find it freeing, relaxing and exhilarating,” explains Georgie. “It’s also helped my self confidence, self belief and esteem.

Meeting so many different women who just don’t care or judge… has made me feel that I am good enough as ►

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ART

“My mission is to have an army of stoneware mermaids”

ramsgate recorder

I am”. Asked how it felt to be sculpted by Jayne she said: “My body image has changed as I’ve got older, I love my curves now and accept all the lumps, bumps, scars and marks as part of my story. Jayne’s ceramics backs this feeling up and it’s been wonderful to see other women who are equally as proud of their bodies no matter what. At the end of the day our bodies are what get us through every day, good or bad, so we should love them for what they are”.

The community and liberation Georgie has found is a recurring theme with Ramsgate swimmers. Sisters Linda, Sally, Jane and friend Karen form Jayne’s “Mermaid Triad” with Linda collaborating on her own vessel and the triad by infusing ceramic carvings onto each piece. The group often grace the waves on Ramsgate beaches. Speaking fondly of swimming at dusk Jane describes seeing “the last orange glow of the sun disappearing over Pegwell” as “incredible.”

“The three of us really treasure our laughs, chats and freedom to speak and undress without inhibitions,” says Sally. “There is no better tonic”.

The artwork created in this explorative project speaks to women in a positive way, and reflects on the liberation of wild swimming, an activity which has been on the rise in recent years. This response to another woman’s experience of a running commentary on their body and the societal expectations imposed on us as women (and many people regardless of gender), has opened room for discussion. Fuelled by the enthusiasm for her Mermaid models, Jayne continues to create vessels of strong, incredible, inspiring people.

“My mission is to have an army of stoneware mermaids” and what a wonderful plan that is.

You can see more of Jayne’s work and keep up to date with the growing Mermaid Army by following @jawceramics on Instagram  Jayne Wright

 Georgie

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ramsgate recorder

CREATIVE WRITING

WRITE ON As a home to writers from the distant depths of time right up to the present day, it seems only right that we at the Recorder celebrate the inspiration Ramsgate provides the writers among our readership. Here we launch our new creative writing section, with words of encouragement from celebrated resident author Maggie Gee and our very own writers Christabel Smith and Nicola Wren, who will be reading and curating your entries

maggie gee I am a novelist whose most recent two novels, Blood (2019) and The Red Children (2022), have been set in Ramsgate. But during the ten years I’ve lived here, I have also been part-time professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University. Employers like students who’ve studied creative writing because they’re often good at writing other things too – job applications, business letters or advertising copy. They can usually do something more fundamental as well: because they’ve invented characters in stories, they’re good at imagining other people’s thoughts and feelings, which is a great help in making a happy office, or a happy life.

So what is creative writing when it’s at home, as my mother might have said? It did not exist when she was encouraging me, as a tiny child, to write poems in lined notebooks. It still did not exist when as a teenager I battered out my first novel on an ancient black iron typewriter bought from a poet, with a red and black inky ribbon that spewed red letters randomly among the black ones.

Yet I have become a professor of it, and “Cr. Wr.” is on syllabuses of universities everywhere.

You’re right, creative writing is just writing. But it’s writing with freedom, creative in that sense. It’s writing what’s in your head and your heart rather than writing to someone else’s brief. It can mean writing poems or stories, but it can also mean writing what you felt today, writing who you are and what matters to you, what you hope for or what you’ve

lost – “life writing” as it’s now called.

Every life, every set of memories, is unique. Only you remember certain moments that mattered in your life more than anything else in the world, the light on someone’s face when they said something marvellous or desolating, love or sorrow for particular individuals who played their particular role in your life only. You might remember the feel of hot sand between your toes on a summer beach, or fear and wonder when you first rode a bike or went on a boat. Leaving home, coming home: no one has felt those things in exactly the same way as you, but everyone will respond to your memories, if you write them truly.

At its best, creative writing makes the world fresh because it captures, often with bright, specific detail, the things only the writer has experienced from that angle. Like an impressionist painting, it shows you what sunlight felt like for the painter in that second of time. If it’s a story, the characters are often selves the writer wishes they had lived: if it’s a poem, it comes from an unconscious weaving together of all the sounds, soothing or sad, the writer has ever heard, as well as today’s.

Try it. It’s creative, it’s magical, and it’s free. A phone or computer may be useful, but all you really need to get started is a spare half-hour and a pencil. If you like, begin with what you know best. It could be a ladybird on the path, or the view from your window, or the objects on your table. Before I wrote The Red Children, I walked to all the places I wanted to write about and just looked, and talked to people, until this story started to happen in my head.

excerpt from the brand new novel the red children

BY MAGGIE GEE

The Red Children is set in an imaginary version of the beautiful town we live in, but moved a decade or so into the future, and with a few magical additions, including two talking ravens. When some mysterious, different-looking refugees are found on the quay one morning, the ravens think, “Things are going to change,” but as the book goes on, the local population’s anxieties are charmed away as the newcomers turn out to have come from very far away in time as well as space

T

he first Red people came over by sea.

Once upon a time, Ramadan Baqri, a seventeen-year-old Sea Cadet, arriving at the harbour early and keen just after the January sun had risen, found them sitting, damp and large and red and shaking with cold, on the edge of the quay. They looked up in wonder at the rising sun to the east, then turned their heads to peer west, over the bright cross-hatched lines of the masts of the yachts, at Ramsgate.

Clean sandy beaches, white cliffs striped with black flint, riddled with pigeons’ nests, gulls’ nests, whistling starlings, crows watching out to steal eggs. Though people say nothing ever changed before the Red people came, the chalk’s always falling, the earth’s always warming or cooling.

Over millennia the cliffs have slowly retreated, thirty yards or so every century.

At low tide you see lines of stumpy white pillars like a forest of teeth, that thousands of years ago were cliffs.

These thousands-of-years-old cliffstumps are decked with seaweed every summer, a vivid green slime that came only twenty years ago from the hulls of Chinese cargo-ships. Then they look like stromatolites, layered bacterial rocks four billion years old.

Four billion years ago was the real beginning of this story. Long before

the cliffs and the crows, long before humans, love and hatred. Long before there was sea between us and Europe.

Long before the Romans and the Vikings, all of whom landed here and fought or died on our beaches – on this stretch of shore where British history began. Those who stayed turned into us, children of invaders, the British.

As Britain warmed up in the twentyfirst century, cities were like ovens, while chilly coastal resorts gained weeks of sunshine. Now only January was cold. More city-dwellers moved down, people with cash to flash who put a quick shine on facades of houses and restaurants, and a hopeful look on the faces of people with services to sell. So there were cutting-edge chefs and foragers, writers and whelk-potters, jazz bands and brass bands, actors and bakers, atheists, Christians, Hindus and Muslims, builders and binmen, line-dancers and lindyhoppers, smokyvoiced silver influencers in super-sized sunglasses and blue-bereted Sea Cadets passing each other, calling, smiling, many different tribes making friends in the summer streets and cafés. Music.

Laughter. Oh, and ghosts. New ghosts and old ghosts. Ghosts of the invaders, Belgians, Romans, Norsemen, though you have to listen. And paragliding gulls and green parakeets.

It’s heaven on earth, but not heaven.

The seagulls fight for the roof-ridges

ramsgate recorder

CREATIVE WRITING

christabel smith I am a storyteller, combining journalism with fiction writing, mainly for women’s magazines. The true stories I’ve heard from people in interviews, the triumphs and tragedies, the horrifying and hilarious, have taught me fact really is stranger than fiction and that inspiration is always around us, wherever we go.

Ramsgate, with its natural charm and witty characters, is the richest of

nicola wren My love of writing started early, with sending long letters to friends over school summer holidays and devising plays in my family living room. Now writing is not only my profession but my best tool for understanding how I think and feel about pretty much everything.

I started writing and performing my own plays when I graduated from drama school and have performed my work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in London at the Soho Theatre and Southwark Playhouse, and at an offBroadway theatre in New York.

Since moving to Ramsgate my focus has been on writing creative non-fiction and on facilitating writing workshops in which I share the tools I’ve found for overcoming the hurdles to creativity that so many of us experience. Whether it’s journaling, writing a true story, a poem, a piece of dialogue, a vivid description of a place, a letter or a novel, I fervently believe that writing in all its forms is a powerful, accessible and affordable tool for self-expression, selfhealing, and a bit of fun. I believe that everybody has a story in them worth telling, and look forward to seeing what our creative brief inspires in Ramsgate locals.

IG: @nicolawrenwriting with the crows. Someone homeless roars on the beach. There are youth who have never had jobs, and whose parents never had jobs.

But all kinds of people, and birds, and beasts, and the cliffs, and the wind, at night, told the story to me.

And the ravens, of course. They spoke to me as they flew over. Black hammerbeaked, ruff-necked birds who were here long before the Romans. Ravens are messengers, omens who perched on the shoulders of old Norse gods and pointed to past and future.

Whenever I walk towards Pegwell with my daughter we look for the ravens, and listen.

Roark. Aark.

Once upon a time, the ravens noticed something new.

Strangers, incomers, migrants.

“They were all touching,” Ramadan Bakri the sea cadet told his girlfriend Sandra Birch. “And red. And pointing at the masts.”

Roland the Raven squawked in alarm and took off at top speed to report what he’d seen to his mate, the Princess Ra. “More of those different Youmans.

Things are going to change.”

The Red Children by Maggie Gee is published by Telegram Books, hardback £14.99

the rules • In each issue we will set a Ramsgateinspired theme and invite your written entries. From prose to poetry, dialogue to journaling, a section of a novel-to-be or a completed short story; if it’s the written word, we’ll read it.

• Email your submission of up to 500 words to info@brightsidepublishing. com with “creative writing” in the subject line.

• Please include an email address and

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sources for writers to tap. In the early days of the pandemic, walking daily from the East Cliff to Broadstairs, I captured fragments of conversations in a poem, “The Sea Keeps Me Sane” (hear it on YouTube). A chat in a shop, a drink in the pub, or a ride on the Loop, all can spark a short story. Every day I’m grateful to the friend who gave me a little leather notebook embossed with the words: “Careful or you’ll end up in my novel.”

Whatever it is in Ramsgate that captures your imagination, let it fly!

We can’t wait to read your submissions.

lifeintowords.co.uk

My tips for overcoming the first hurdles: 1) Set a timer – even if just for ten

minutes, do not stop writing until it stops, and don’t read back what you write until the end.

2) Have a piece of scrap paper by

your side, write down any distracting thoughts or niggles of self-doubt when they arise (spoiler: they will) and then come back to what you’re doing. Don’t give up at the first hurdle.

3) Write a horrible first draft – a first

draft is finished when you’ve said everything you want it to say – no one needs to see it.

4) Have one specific person in mind

that you imagine reading your writing – you can then rewrite with different audiences in mind and see how it changes.

5) When asking for feedback, first

identify what you want to say with your piece of writing, then ask specific questions about whether you’re achieving that. If you don’t, people might say things like, “Yeah it’s good, but you should set it in space.”

6) Bonus tip: if in doubt, write a letter to

someone you love, or who inspires you, telling them why you think they’re great.

Then post it. It feels good, and everyone loves a letter.

phone number so we can get in touch.

• All submissions should have a Ramsgate connection, however loose – we are a hyper-local publication after all – and our prompt should help.

• While we will be reading all submissions, we may not have a chance to reply to everyone. If your work has been selected for publication we will contact you.

This issue’s prompt is PEGWELL BAY with entrants in with a chance to win a copy of Maggie Gee’s new novel The Red Children.

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ramsgate recorder

SUMMER ACTIVITIES

29

SUMMER

BY THE SEA: A HANDY GUIDE Writer

James Soules

ZERO TO LOW COST / ACTIVE ▲ James’ daughter uncovers her Geo Cache treasure

GEO CACHING – A FANTASTIC TREASURE HUNT FOR ALL THE FAMILY Essentially a treasure hunt using a free app on your mobile phone, Geo Caching is a fantastic outdoor activity and will have you scouring Ramsgate in search of hidden “caches”. These are normally waterproof containers hidden outdoors and in various sizes from micro to large.

Through the app you can find a description of where each cache is located, an option to get hints to help you find it, and comments from previous treasure hunters in date order.

Cache contents range from a roll of paper to leave your name (take a pen!) through to large boxes containing all sorts of exciting goodies: small toys, badges, and pictures. You are encouraged to take something from the cache you have found but also to put something else in for future geocachers to find.

There are ten caches along Ramsgate seafront between the Granville Cinema and Pegwell Bay, along with a spattering of locations in Newington, Nethercourt, Cliffs End and Manston.

Most of the caches are completely free to find using the Geo Caching app. There are some that require you to upgrade the app to a subscription (£24.99 a year). If you enjoy Geo Caching, you could start and maintain your own cache for other treasure hunters to find.

geocaching.com/play

FOSSIL HUNTING AT PEGWELL BAY Pegwell Bay is a wonderful location for fossil hunting. You could start by investigating the fallen blocks of chalk. These large pieces of chalk are constantly being eroded by the sea and at times reveal new fossils. With a little patience, and after a good hunt along the bay, you should make a few good discoveries.

After you have examined your glorious finds and taken a snap, leave them on the beach for other intrepid fossil hunters to find and enjoy.

ukfossils.co.uk/2007/09/14/pegwell-bay

PEGWELL BAY COUNTRY PARK Pegwell Bay forms part of the Sandwich and Pegwell Bay Nature Reserve: 615 hectares of beautiful countryside including Kent’s only ancient dune pasture. This area is home to lots of rare species including nightingales, cuckoos, and many warbler species, that can be seen and heard as you meander around the easy to follow trails. At times Highland cattle and Konik horses graze within the reserve.

Why not pack a picnic, your binoculars, download the map to your phone and take a walk through this stunning landscape?

There is everything you need for a wonderful day out. Picnic benches, plenty of space to lay out a blanket, toilets and a new play park from 1 June for the kids to burn off some energy. To keep you going there are several huts by the carpark selling a variety of drinks and snacks. You could stop by the bird hide with your camera or relax by simply strolling through the winding paths.

If you are feeling very fit there is a free parkrun here every Saturday at 9am.

Entry is free, parking is £1.30 a day Monday to Friday, £2 at weekends and Bank Holidays.

Open 9am-7.30pm or dusk if earlier parkrun.org.uk/pegwellbay kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/nature-reserves/ sandwich-and-pegwell-bay

As the temperature climbs and the school holidays get closer, it is time to start planning what to do this summer.

Look no further than Ramsgate! With plenty on offer for all ages from picnics in our beautiful parks, to boat trips out to sea, there are lots of exciting things to get up to in the sun, and shade

WAL KI N AND G CYC LING

Ramsgate has many beautiful places to walk, especially along the seafront. If you prefer a set route, here are some suggestions RAMSGATE TOWN WALK A 1.4-mile loop that takes in the Royal Harbour, the home of Vincent Van Gogh, John-Gibson Lockhart and many stunning properties such as St Augustine’s Abbey.

A wonderful way to see the town anew.

Visit explorekent.org to find the route

RAMSGATE TO BROADSTAIRS If you fancy a longer walk, then the Ramsgate to Broadstairs seafront walk could be perfect for you. This 5-mile walk will take you from Ramsgate harbour to Broadstairs Viking Bay. Too tired to walk home? Why not take the Stagecoach open top bus back to Ramsgate and rest your feet.

Visit explorekent.org to find the route

VIKING COAST TRAIL This gorgeous 32-mile circular cycle route takes you from Ramsgate, through Broadstairs, Margate and back to where you began. The route has many traffic free promenades, sea walls and country lanes to cycle. If 32 miles is too far then the East Kent Explorer Guide has divided the route into six smaller themed routes, perfect for a cycle or walk.

Visit explorekent.org to find the route

TOURS AND HIRE

OPEN TOP BUS

Get a different perspective of Ramsgate aboard an open top bus with Stagecoach Route 69. A wonderful and nostalgic bus ride for all the family, the route runs between the boating pool on Eastern Esplanade through to Stone Bay in Broadstairs.

You can get off at any stop, or stay on for a circular trip back to where you started.

Running until 25 September, adults £2.50 and children just £1. You can also ride all day and hop on and off for £4.50.

stagecoachbus.com/thanetopentop

COSTUMED WALKING TOURS Have you ever wondered about our town’s past?

Then these award-winning walking tours will be right up your street and are led by local experts in full period costume.

Starting in various locations including the West Cliff, East Cliff, Town Centre and Royal harbour on most Tuesdays throughout July and August.

Go to visitthanet.co.uk and search Ramsgate costumed walks

ROTTEN RAMSGATE TOURS Take a tour of Ramsgate and find out about its gruesome past. The East Cliff walking tour lasts for around two hours, and you will visit the locations and hear the stories of six historical murders that took place between 1859 to 1930.

Did you know Ramsgate had links to Jack the Ripper?

Find Rotten Ramsgate Tours on eventbrite.co.uk

BOAT TOURS You can book a variety of boat trips that leave from Ramsgate harbour. One of the most popular is the trip to the seal colony just out to sea on a National Nature Reserve — ideal for all the family. Remember to bring your camera so you can record this amazing experience.

You can also book fishing, harbour and wind farm boat trips.

Times and dates vary please check the website: seasearcher.co.uk/trips/seal-wildlife-tours

TENNIS COURTS Are you the next Emma Raducanu or Andy Murray? Book yourself a tennis court at Spencer Square.

£3 per person Call 07834316601 ►

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ramsgate recorder

SUMMER ACTIVITIES Discovery Planet ©Pete Bateson

ME R SUM IN RA RAMSGATE TUNNELS Open seven days a week come rain or shine these wartime historical time capsules set deep in the cliffs are the perfect destination for the whole family. The guided tours begin in a 150-year-old Victorian railway tunnel before taking you through a series of wartime tunnels covering 1.24 km and last around 1.5 hours.

Discover how the tunnels were built, learn about the “Mad Mayor” and hear stories of life underground during wartime.

ramsgatetunnels.org

SPITFIRE AND HURRICANE MUSEUM

FOR THE KIDS DISCOVERY PLANET

DINKY TOWN

Discovery Planet run a series of exciting hands-on science workshops for anyone aged 8 and up. A fun and educational way for children to spend a few hours fully engrossed in science.

There are several sessions running this summer:  Mega zooming – spying outer space with mega telescopes, 19-21 May  Meteorite mash-up – colossal collisions and space dust, 16-18 June  Time detectives – investigate the past and preserve the future, 7-9 July

Let your child’s imagination run free in Dinky Town as they role play being a vet, doctor, fireperson, builder and much more.

Operating on a walk-in basis Monday to Friday from 10am — 3pm with last entrance at 2pm. Children are £6.50 each and adults are £1.25.

discoveryplanet.co.uk

UNDER 1 ROOF A large soft play area for children aged 4 to 11. Slides, ball pits and enough fun to tire out any little one.

Open 7 days a week with three prebooked sessions a day starting from 10am.

under1roofkidsthanet.com

LITTLE SEASIDE TOWN Little Seaside Town promotes imaginative role-play for young children. There are thirteen wonderful worlds for children to explore. Your little one can pretend to serve ice cream from a VW camper van, be a vet, a doctor, run a café, do some gardening at Grandma’s house and more.

Open seven days a week from 9am to 6pm with three daily bookable sessions and an onsite café serving food and drink.

littleseasidetown.co.uk

The museum commemorates the brave men and women who served in defence of the country. The centrepiece of this extensive collection is a Spitfire Mk XVI, one of the few surviving planes that saw combat during world war two, and a Hurricane Mk IIc. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am – 4pm.

Entry is free. The onsite Merlin Café serves food from 10am – 5pm in the summer, seven days a week, offering a full range of meals, sandwiches, cakes and scones Make a day of it and visit the RAF History Museum right next door.

SHRINE OF ST AUGUSTINE AND NATIONAL PUGIN CENTRE

spitfiremuseum.org.uk

augustine-pugin.org.uk

RAF HISTORY MUSEUM

RAMSGATE LEISURE CENTRE

Take a step into the history of the RAF and see some of the planes that have flown in over 100 years of the service. Experience the lives of Manston residents in the 1940s and see the guns, munitions and missiles used.

You even have the opportunity to sit in the cockpit of some of the planes and climb into the back of a Westland Wessex search and rescue helicopter.

Open Monday- Friday 10am-3pm and until 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Adults £5, children £2.50 and under 5-s free with an onsite Naafi Café.

There’s a host of activities on offer including badminton, tennis and 5-a-side football along with two swimming pools and gym. Over the summer there will be roller discos twice a month in May, June and July.

Designed and built by the renowned architect Augustus Pugin, see and learn the history of this beautiful catholic shrine.

Open daily 10am till 4pm, entry is free with a suggested donation of £3.

dinkytown.co.uk | Pysons Road, Ramsgate

PLAY PARKS Kids love nothing more than a playground, so why not spend the summer touring Ramsgate’s bountiful offering from King George VI Memorial Park, Ellington Park, Newington Park, Boundary Park, Courtstairs Park and Jackey Bakers Recreation Ground?

Ellington Park had a refurbishment in 2021-22 with a new children’s play area and café opened that sells a selection of snacks, cold drinks, tea and coffee.

The café is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am — 4pm.

NEWINGTON COMMUNITY CENTRE Hosting an activity and food programme throughout the summer school holidays, Newington Community Centre invites children to take part in sports and creative activities with a hot lunch and pudding on offer. Tuesday to Friday 10am — 2pm (during the summer holidays). Events are free but booking is essential and children must be accompanied by an adult.

facebook.com/NewingtonBigLocal

rafmanston.co.uk

MICRO MUSEUM A history of the personal computer with a unique collection of hundreds of vintage personal computers, calculators and games collected over 40 years. You can even play some classic games including Pac Man and Pong!

Open Saturday and Sunday from 1-4pm until the last weekend in September.

themicromuseum.org

THIS MUSEUM IS NOT OBSOLETE Right next door to the Micro Museum is another hidden gem, a museum focused on celebrating obsolete and experimental technology.

With opening times matching the Micro Museum, you could visit both in one afternoon.

Open Saturday and Sunday 1-4pm.

this-museum-is-not-obsolete.com Little Seaside Town

ramsgateleisurecentre.co.uk

RAMSGATE LIBRARY Get prepared for that summer rain and head to the library to stock up on books for all the family.

Open Tuesday to Saturday.

MARITIME MUSEUM This heritage building in the heart of Ramsgate Harbour is home to four galleries of exhibits that tell the maritime history of the local area.

Did you know that the time in Ramsgate is actually 5 minutes and 41 seconds ahead of Greenwich? The clock house is the site that Ramsgate meridian time is set from.

Open Tuesday-Sunday 10-5.30pm

ramsgatemaritimemuseum.org

CREATED TO TREASURE POTTERY AND CASTINGS A wonderful studio where you and the family can paint pottery and castings. There is an enormous choice including unicorns, dragons, dogs, elephants, plates, bowls, and more. Each item costs between £5 and £50 a piece including all the paint with a good selection under £12.

Open Tuesday to Saturday each week createdtotreasurepotteryandcastings.com

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HISTORY

Celebrating a centenary: the Queen’s Head Writer

Christabel Smith

Photographer Storme Sabine

One hundred years for the building, and a decade for its landlord, the Queen’s Head has lots to be proud of in this Jubilee year

E

very pub has its ghosts and, in Ramsgate harbour’s Queen’s Head, it’s easy to imagine the fish traders and seafarers supping beer in centuries past. Did they look across the water to France when they heard of the king’s execution in 1793?

By then, the hostelry had already been open seven years.

The original building was demolished in the 1890s to widen the road, which led to the old station (now the tunnels).

It was rebuilt, bigger and better, in its present spot on Harbour Parade. This year, the pub is celebrating its 100th anniversary in this spot, as well as 10 years of local legend Jim Barber (pictured right) being landlord.

After co-running the Captain Digby in Broadstairs, Jim worked for Border Force in France before taking on the Queen’s with his wife Sam in 2012.

“It was a very different pub back then,” he says. “It catered mainly for under25s, with DJs and drinks deals. I wanted to attract more of a mixed crowd and make it an inviting place where all ages, and all kinds of people, felt comfortable and relaxed.

“Building up live music has been one of my best achievements. Having played in support with Jon Bon Jovi, Angelo Tristan’s Collateral had their homecoming gig here. And in April we hosted the debut of the Mixtape Collective, an incredible ensemble band of popular local acts. There are eleven of them so they definitely raised the roof!

As well as our monthly ‘Curry and Jam Night’, we have three or four bands at weekends – country, heavy rock, funk,

live dance, you name it. We recently hosted a sea shanty group and even had an opera soprano in the upstairs bar a while back! The Rock, Dock and Twelve Smoking Barrels beer and music festivals, which ran from 2013 to 2019, were one of the highlights of my time here. Sadly, quite apart from the pandemic, red tape and financing issues made it impossible to carry that on.

“Lockdown was a tough time, but there were positives too. We sanded the floor and painted throughout, including the old barrel store to make space for more outdoor seating. Plus I managed to keep all my team. I’ve always been

incredibly lucky with my staff and they adapted brilliantly to the table-service system when we first reopened, although when one customer impatiently clicked their fingers, it understandably did not go down well! It’s a great feeling to be back more or less to normal now, with the old atmosphere and the pub feeling like it used to.”

Sitting directly on the harbour front, the Queen’s was traditionally a seafarers’ pub with customers including fishermen, yachtsmen, local boatmen and lifeboatmen.

“There must have been some great nights and even better stories over

the past century,” says Jim. “It’s a pity CCTV is a recent invention because I’d have loved to have seen some of the things that went on. We still attract a lot of trade from the harbour, including fishing charter boats, in particular the Skerry Belle, whose captain and crew are regulars. Plus, there are the wind farmers and my old colleagues from the Border Force boat Hurricane, which is docked here. Even in the last decade, there have been major changes. When I started there was no vaping, no wi-fi and people usually paid in cash. Now it’s mainly contactless, phone or watch payments. ►

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HISTORY

“In the week Gadds No 5 is our bestseller, and at weekends Birra Moretti, Neck Oil or gin. Ten years ago the only gin behind the bar was Gordon’s. Today, we have 21 different varieties, as well as a choice of five tonics.

There was no food back then, but we now have Ruby’s, James Calver’s homecooked curries, which go down a treat.”

Philip Thorley, director of Thorley Taverns, says: “Thorley’s has owned the Queen’s Head for over 20 years. It’s a special pub, with unique character and beautiful Victorian features. Jim does a

fantastic job and since taking over, has made it a hub of the community on the seafront.”

Jim and his family live upstairs and he’s happy to be at the helm of a locals pub in the heart of his home town, where there are as many female regulars as male. Bookings of the upstairs bar reflect the wide range of the Queen’s clientele, with twenty-firsts to 80th birthday parties, corporate meetings, support groups, fitness meetings – even baby-tobe gender reveals.

The celebratory feel is set to continue

throughout the pub’s centenary year.

It’s not the only Queen on the block, of course, and Her Maj’s platinum jubilee in June promises to be a weekend full of music and fun.

“I’m very proud of the Queen’s,” Jim says. “It means a lot to so many people in all kinds of ways. One customer told me: ‘It’s the place where I run to celebrate life, yet also the place I run to when I need shelter from it.’ That really touched me. It’s exactly what a boozer should be, so I reckon we’re on the right track.”

If you have any information about Ramsgate historic pubs, or photographs, contact Paul Skelton Pub-info@dover-kent.com who runs the dover-kent.com website rich with local history The Queen’s Head, 78 Harbour Parade facebook.com/queensheadramsgate  Courtesy of Paul Skelton, dover-kent.com

 Jim and his team of loyal staff

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ramsgate recorder

PROPERTY

37

RESTORING THE PAST

Writer

Lynsey Fox

Photography

Courtesy of Craig Milburn

From horse hair to cat skeletons, it is all in a day’s work for the specialists restoring Ramsgate’s historic homes. Craig Milburn of Shire Conservation talks about his passion for using traditional techniques to ensure these buildings last for another 200 and more years Before

I

t was after working on a windmill near Whitstable and at a historic building company that Craig’s interest in traditional buildings was piqued.

Growing up with an interest in history, castles and Robin Hood, along with crafts and making, and having worked in the building trade for many years, it was a logical step to specialise in heritage projects. After completing a degree in historic building conservation, he set up his own business, Shire Conservation, with the help of the Prince’s Trust.

Craig has a conservation philosophy: he believes in repairing and rescuing a unique building to ensure it is kept period-correct, rather than the often “easy” route of ripping things out and

replacing with new.

With Thanet having such a good stock of historic buildings, all of his time is spent on conservation work, primarily focusing on Georgian and Victorian buildings, with an exciting sprinkling of mediaeval timber framework and flintstone projects. “Thanet has suffered for years with neglect and little investment,” he says. “Now the beautiful buildings are getting a bit more love and attention from the influx of new homeowners.”

Most of Shire Conservation’s work is lime-plastering and pointing. First and foremost, lime is used to help masonry breathe. “From the 1950s, cement use

was extended from civil engineering to becoming widely used in homes,” Craig explains. “Soon, homeowners began to realise that it actually holds moisture in, drives decay and destroys bricks.” Craig’s explanation of the traditional process of using lime is like a mathematical equation; calculating the correct technique for each individual project based on the type of brick or stone and deciphering which type of mortar to use for the particular masonry. “Different aggregates are added to the lime such as volcanic ash to control drying times and to prevent cracking. Horse hair is also added to help bind the lime plaster and give it tensile strength,” he explains, before detailing that it has to be gently teased and added to the plaster – an expert skill, critical to ensure longevity.

Of all the projects completed in Ramsgate, Craig’s favourites include a unique Georgian townhouse overlooking the Harbour (pictured) with some interesting Victorian alterations. Works included a complete overhaul of a

characterful room which, despite its years of neglect producing a beautiful shabbiness, needed some intense love.

The room received complete new lime plastering and the bay window was restored using traditional and breathable linseed paint and European redwood timber to replace rotten sections.

“European redwood is the wood of choice as recommended by English Heritage, due to its closeness to the original Baltic pine which would have been used when the houses were built,” says Craig. The completed room is a joy to behold, all done honouring the originality of the building.

Another favoured project was work on a sailor’s cottage in the best named street in Ramsgate. Paradise Street is hidden off the High Street and rumoured to be named thanks to the retired sailors who lived in the cottages happy to be on land again (as well as its proximity to local pubs). The cottage Craig worked on had full floor to ceiling wood panelling resembling (and possibly reclaimed ►

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PROPERTY

“I’ve also found a large selection of witch markings over the years”

ramsgate recorder

a wall, believed to ward off evil spirits in Victorian times. I’ve also found a large selection of witch markings over the years,” he says.

With a telling humility for his part in the history of the buildings he works on, Craig and his team sometimes create their own time capsule of sorts, leaving coins for the next generation of restorers to find some time in the future.

Instagram: @shireconservation shireconservation.com ◄ After

from) a ship’s interior. In the basement was an incredibly long beam which he successfully prevented from dipping any further after 300 years of holding up the house by slowly and gently raising it one millimetre a month for 18 months.

Along with the tangible side of looking after heritage buildings comes the intriguing insight into past times.

When asked if there had been any strange or interesting discoveries while working in old buildings, Craig’s finds did not disappoint. In the days before video doorbells brought security and certainty to our homes, our ancestors had to rely on more natural methods.

“I once discovered a cat skeleton behind

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GARDENING

BLOOMING BRILLIANT!

Winterstoke sun shelter and rock gardens in flower

Writer

Rachel Mills

Photography

Courtesy of volunteers

From window boxes to listed gardens, if you are a budding or seasoned gardener there are plenty of ways to dig in and help Ramsgate bloom

I

t is summer and Ramsgate really is blooming. Many of the flowers and newly planted saplings that you see around town were planted by volunteers: community groups that work tirelessly so that birds and bees thrive and all our spirits are lifted. Everyone benefits, but those doing the digging, weeding and planting point to civic pride, community spirit and a boost to mental and physical health as the upside to getting involved. Groups are awarded occasional grants for gardening tools and trees, plants and shrubs – gardeners at Ramsgate allotments do a sterling job growing some too – but they rely on donations and appreciate every penny they get from the public. They also love new members!

Judging for South & South East in Bloom takes place in June and July, and Ramsgate is raring to go. There are various categories to play for including seaside towns, small parks and conservation areas. (Ramsgate took home silver in the small seaside town and heritage categories in 2021.)

FRIENDS OF ELLINGTON PARK Ellington Park has been going from strength to strength, thanks to a recent heritage project and to local volunteers litter-picking, planting trees, weeding and watering (look out for large water butts – old whisky barrels – coming soon). The wildlife area is coming to life, and recently apple, pear, plum, apricot and mulberry trees have been planted; it’s hoped that some of these will grow into arches near the café and that soon there will be a fruit and vegetable garden, and a rejuvenated herb garden, all overseen by Friends of Ellington Park. Volunteers from all walks of life really make a difference (sign up in the café or get in touch on Facebook), and if you don’t have time on your hands then consider becoming a member.

facebook.com/groups/ EllingtonPark

WINTERSTOKE GARDENS AND EAST CLIFF PROJECTS This is a very special part of Ramsgate as the Winterstoke Gardens, sun shelter and chine are Grade II English Heritagelisted. The elaborate 1920s Pulhamite rock garden is a rare example of its type, and the scented gardens were originally planted with visually impaired WWI veterans in mind. The group has a core membership of roughly 14 who turn out come rain or shine on Wednesday and every other Saturday (10am to noon) and who stay in touch on WhatsApp and by text (not least to organise the monthly socials). Fundraising efforts include the 2019 12-hour “slogathon”, when they raised more than £3,000. They also have a collection bucket out while they work – look for their hi-vis vests.

winterstokegardens.co.uk

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Volunteers in Spencer Square

FRIENDS OF SPENCER SQUARE Nearly lost under tarmac as a proposed car park site in the 1970s, the gardens of this handsome GeorgianRegency square have gone from strength to strength since residents took charge two decades ago. Now designated as an Asset of Community Value, the colourful square has herb gardens, exotic beds, a rockery, bird and bee boxes, trees and privet hedges (which the sparrows love).

They’ve also planted hops as part of a community scheme, Hop Along Thanet, which encourages people to grow hops in their green spaces. The group would love volunteers from the surrounding area to pop in and they gather for gardening sessions on Thursday mornings (10am to noon) and the last Sunday of the month (10am to 1pm). Tea, coffee and cake is a given. They have a WhatsApp group for volunteers and you can get in touch on Facebook or simply by dropping in.

friendsofspencersquare.org.uk

RAMSGATE SEA GARDEN This tiny sea garden at Eastern Undercliff near the tunnels was an installation by local artist Ruth Cutler in 2007 that has been recently lovingly restored by volunteers (here most Thursday mornings). Made only from local materials including flint, the swirling design can be seen from the cliffs above and reflects the energies and eddies of the sea in front. The oak bench surrounded by wild plants is the perfect spot for solitude and staring at the waves. The group is fundraising for more seating, information boards, recycling and waste bins.

Search Facebook for Ramsgate Sea Garden

ADDINGTON STREET Ramsgate’s one time high street has got involved in the blooming action by upcycling some Gadds and Queen Charlotte barrels into planters and filling them to the brim with locally sourced flowers from Young’s Nurseries. Shops and residents on the street get involved by displaying them and putting out their own gloriously brimming window boxes.

Last year you might have noticed some non-permanent pavement flower art, too.

facebook.com/ addingtonstreetcommunity Visit facebook.com/ramsgatebloom and sseib.com for information about Ramsgate and South & South East in Bloom. Entry forms for Ramsgate in Bloom are available from the Customs House and various harbour businesses.

If you belong to a community gardening group that we didn’t list here, please get in touch.  Ramsgate Sea Garden

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ramsgate recorder

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ramsgate recorder

COMMUNITY

43

Unsung hero: Carl Whitewood Writer

Poppy Britcher

Images courtesy of Carl Whitewood Some of the donations from local businesses and services

Along with his wife Heather and team of volunteers and churchgoers, Carl Whitewood works seven days a week to keep the lights on for those in need in Ramsgate – and people fed.

The conflict in Ukraine and impending fuel crisis are just the latest issues he’s doing his bit to tackle

P

rior to July 2016, Ramsgate Salvation Army had no officer and there was little to no homeless provision in Thanet.

This meant there was no shelter and no food bank, and little support for the needy. This was the case until Carl Whitewood, choosing to dedicate his life to giving more through the church, was appointed. Now, in the time since heading up Ramsgate’s branch with his wife Heather, members of the church and a team of at least 20 regular volunteers, Carl has helped form essential community services such as the food bank and fuel bank, and has assisted in forming the (now Thanet District Council-run) winter shelter, as well as overseeing and managing a packed itinerary of activities each week, spanning from toddler and parent groups, “friendship hour”, music practices, and Sunday schools. And this is only at the centre itself, as there are also countless hours of pastoral community care that go on outside its walls, as Carl and others visit, call, or write to those in need of support.

Carl is enthusiastic and bright and gives a whistle-stop tour of the centre.

He shows me first the church service room, pointing to the vast array of supplies that are packed up to the rafters with the likes of duvets and bedding, toddler’s toys, clothes and art supplies.

I am then shown a small kitchen, and a brimming food-storage room. Seeing such plentiful supply is a powerful credit

to the community, a community Carl praises when asked about doing this work in Ramsgate.

“The people are fascinating people, warm people,” he says. But, importantly, he recognises the value of the Salvation Army being here: “Because there is a great deal of need.” That there is, with Carl citing the amount of food given out through the food bank having tripled this year in comparison to 2019.

Carl has also assisted in organising collections for those affected by the Ukraine crisis, both across borders and in Thanet. While financial donations are sent directly overseas, donated items are being stored to support Ukrainian refugees settling in the area. More, with an impending nationwide fuel crisis, Carl’s team have given out over £1,200 this year in fuel vouchers, with this number only expected to rise. Though the food bank has never run dry – despite a close call during Covid19 lockdowns, saved only by the hard work of volunteers buying and delivering food directly – this is the area Carl foresees the organisation struggling to continue to provide for, and it is here that donations are most desperately needed.

Led by religion, Carl asserts that the organisation does not discriminate for those in need. Although Carl is resolute in the church’s overwhelmingly positive influence for himself and others, he states if those people who come to the Salvation Army are not interested, or do not care, “that really doesn’t matter, because we want to love them anyway.”

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ramsgate recorder

COMMUNITY

45

Calling all Thanetians!

Marking 200 years of Ramsgate’s Royal Harbour, photographer Russell Pullen has been photographing fascinating faces across Thanet. This time, it is back to school for Russ to snap his favourite teacher

(45 years ago – many of us started the day it opened in 1974), and a while ago a few of us contacted our favourite teacher and took him out for a curry (which he’d never tried, being a huge fan of chip butties!). With that, “The Trooping of The Curry” was born, and we now have regular gatherings with “Mr T”.

Of course, I needed a studio portrait.

Mr T is a worthy Thanetian and I decided it needed to demonstrate the relationship we all have with, and the esteem in which we hold, the great man!

So here he is, aged 83, with Sharon, Sarah and Scott – three now-grown-up Chilton kids!

D

o you remember when you were at your first school, and there was that one outstanding teacher that all the kids adored?

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ramsgate recorder

NATURE

Bird Watch THE BEE-EATER Writer

Keith Ross

S

omething to look out for every summer in Thanet is a visit from the rare and beautiful European bee-eater. These exotic looking multi-coloured birds come from Asia and Africa and are known to migrate to southern Europe. However, recently bee-eaters have occasionally bred in the UK and it is a species that could in future possibly colonise the UK as our climate becomes warmer.

These birds appear slightly larger than a starling and are unmistakable with their bright yellow throat, rustycoloured crown, turquoise under-parts, and yellowy backs. They also have a very distinctive long curved black beak and

Illustrator

Molly Pickle

mask-like eye bands. Their sharp claws are perfect for perching on thin branches and on vertical surfaces where they excavate their burrows in soft sandy banks. They make our resident kingfishers look dull by comparison.

They get their name from their favourite food, but they also eat butterflies, dragonflies, flying ants, and even wasps! They fly from their perch to catch their prey in flight, before returning to their perch where they repeatedly whack the insect against a branch or rub it against a twig until the sting is removed. They are also able to regurgitate indigestible parts as pellets.

I spotted my first ever bee-eater in Stonelees Nature Reserve back in the summer of 2013.

I could hardly believe it when I realised what it was, and it remains one of my most exciting finds. I filmed it swooping from a bare tree branch and returning with a bee in its beak, which it then proceeded to eat in front of me. Within minutes of putting out the news on Twitter lots of birdwatchers and photographers arrived to see this extraordinary bird as it stayed for another day, flying between the Pegwell Country Park and Stonelees.

Since then there have been sightings of them most years, though sadly they don’t always land and keep on flying.

It is a bird you would not expect to see in the UK and it certainly brings a splash of colour to summer if you are lucky enough to see one.

You can see some of my paintings of them on display in Kyoto Sushi and Grill on the High Street.

If you would like the chance to see our migrating birds and other wildlife I do guided nature walks from Ramsgate to Pegwell Bay. Contact me at keithross1@hotmail. com for details

ADULT COURSES

Upskill to further your career or take up a new hobby.

Part-time and short courses available in:

• • • • • • • •

Accounting Automotive Beauty Catering Computing Construction Creative Early Years

• • • • • • •

Engineering English Health & Social Care Hairdressing Maths Science Sport

Some courses may be free depending on your circumstances.

Contact us to discuss funding: 01843 605045

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT

broadstairscollege.ac.uk Adult Courses Ad (RR).indd 1

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ramsgate recorder

ADVERTORIAL

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Whether you’re in search of help with household tasks, eager for tasty treats, seeking a gift for someone special, or ready to relax on a yoga mat, you can trust a local, independent business to meet your needs

Professional picture-framing and mount-cutting in Birchington. Visit us for unique handmade gifts and unusual greeting cards. Passport/ driving licence photo service verified with HM Passport Office, or print off your photos on our excellent quality printers.

Contemporary gallery in the heart of Broadstairs featuring local artists and makers. Prints, photography, painting, ceramics, glass and jewellery.

Changing guest artist exhibitions every month — see website for details.

Open every day 11-4.

W: birchingtonframing.co.uk FB: facebook.com/ birchingtonframing/

E: birchingtonframing@gmail.com T: 07980 949954

Fifty-three-year-old family run patisserie, bakery and retro coffee shop. Freshly baked bread, croissants and Danish, tortes, fresh cream cakes and savouries daily.

Celebration cakes made to order.

A: 246 Northdown Rd, Cliftonville T: 01843 221227 FB: @BatchelorsPatisserie IG: @batchelorspatisseri (no 'e' on the end)

A: 49a Albion Street, Broadstairs, CT10 1NE

Professional, reliable, eco-friendly dry cleaning, laundry and repairs service.

Established over 100 years.

Collection and delivery service.

Please try us! Will take on all domestic and commercial work.

T: 01843 292571 E: elizabethstone81@hotmail.co.uk W: www.markmichaelsvalet.co.uk A: 5 New St, Margate, CT9 1EG

LOVELYS provides a bespoke picture framing service, gallery, exhibitions, art supplies, artisan gifts and cards.

You can visit us at 248, Northdown Road, Cliftonville or visit our website: www.lovelysgallery.co.uk where you can order art supplies for delivery or click and collect in-store. Booking is advisable for a framing consultation.

Traditional service and expert, friendly advice.

E: caroline@lovelysgallery.co.uk T: 01843 292757 IG: @lovelysgallery FB: Lovelys Gallery

GARDEN DESIGN, PLANTSMAN, PROJECT MANAGEMENT, ONE OF CONSULTANCY AND BORDER DESIGN

Emphasis in advising, designing and implementing projects that can improve aesthetics of a site, ornamentally, productively benefiting the client, biodiversity and advising on an organic management approach.

W: kevinpressland.com T: 07775932754 E: kevinpressland@yahoo.co.uk

THE CENTRE, Margate. The colourful

shopping precinct situated in the heart of Margate. Home to a range of independent traders, cafés and national high street shops.

Find a creative community of small businesses, good food and renowned music venue, featuring artwork, studios and our very own indoor market.

IG: @thecentremargate FB: facebook.com/ thecentremargate

E: thecentremargate.com

PIE FACTORY is a unique art space

£15 per hour – one cleaner / £20 to Covid clean and fog a taxi/car.

• We provide: • End of tenancy cleans • Gyms/spas/hot tubs • Remove rubbish/waste, fully licensed • Children’s play areas • Fogging (price on quote) • Fully insured (up to £2 million) • Trained in Covid-cleaning • Products Supplied T: Call Kyla 07516 282608

located in an historic building in Margate Old Town. With a weekly schedule of diverse exhibitions, the gallery offers something special for both visitors and artists.

Now taking bookings for 2023.

IG: @piefactorymargate FB: Pie Factory Margate W: piefactorymargate.co.uk

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM GIFTS T: 01843 853777 A: 45 Queen Street, Ramsgate

Subscribe to the Ramsgate Recorder for only £19.95 per year or all our magazines for £40 per year, and get every issue delivered to your door. brightsidepublishing.com/shop

love local love local

love local love local

love local love local

love local love local

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Seafood, Sea View, See You Soon.

The Dining Rooms at Albion House.

DINING BY THE SEA.

albionhouseramsgate.co.uk 01843 606 630