The Scoop – everything you need to know about the news in and around town

Brightside award

HUGE congratulations to our very own Lizzy Tweedale who picked up the award for Kent Designer of the Year at the Kent Press and Broadcast Awards 2022. Lizzy is the reason all the Brightside magazines have such a distinctive – and we think fabulous – look. Her work continues to grow with now six magazines in the Brightside Publishing family – new title the Folkestone Foghorn has just launched.

Festival of Sound

One of the few festivals to continue through the pandemic, Ramsgate’s Festival of Sound is back from 27 August to 4 September. The festival celebrates the history, landscapes, architecture and people of Ramsgate, and this year’s theme is resonance. Catch performances from Ramsgate’s infamous cabaret Screaming Alley, celebrating Britney Spears in Oops We Did It Again. Busk at Dusk will be back headlined b y the Great Malarkey with music from Pie Factory Music’s newly established Wantsum Music label, and the Sonic Trail will be taking you on a tour of Ramsgate.

For tickets and full listings visit ramsgatefestival.org

Contra Pop

Featuring artists working at the boundary between experimental music and pop, Contra Pop returns for its fifth festival to Ramsgate’s Main Sands on 20 and 21 August. Hosted by independent label Extra Normal Records, the two-day event is free of charge (donations gratefully accepted to keep it running) with the bar serving local beverages courtesy of Time & Tide, Gadds’ and Kent Cider. For the full line up and tickets see

extranormal.org.uk or Instagram @extranormalrecs

Writer

Gemma Dempsey

Illustrator

Jade Spranklen

A dose of Ramsgate life from a lady about town

It was five years ago that I saw some horses on the beach at Western Undercliff for the first time. Their riders guided them down the ramps onto the beach where they had a bit of a gallop before

Boating Pool

Plans announced in the last issue of the Recorder have migrated from what was originally in the pipeline but are on track for a fun-filled season. The bar is busy, with a new Italian pizza offering from Fridays through the weekend. Thursday mornings play host to a popular kids’ toy swap – bring your unwanted toys and find something new to entertain the children through the holidays. Look out for a series of live music and DJ events throughout the coming months. Follow

@theboatingpoolbar for the latest

The Granville Hotel

In 2019, we featured plans to bring the Grade II listed Granville Hotel, designed and built in 1867 by Edward Welby Pugin, back into community use. We’re delighted that the ambitious project is back on track. Delayed by Covid, community interest company (CIC) Heritage Lab have now secured a £300,000 grant from the Government’s Community Ownership Fund and a further £77,300 from the Architectural Heritage Fund. The Granville was once the country’s premier health club, with 26 spas and baths, marble skate rink, theatre, ballroom and its own private train, bringing visitors, from royalty to aristocrats, writers and actors. All that remains is a sequence of spectacular, but derelict, seafacing public rooms. These will be turned into low to nocost space for community and voluntary groups to hold large events, room for the town’s burgeoning creative industries, and will create 100 jobs and apprenticeships. “The more we raise from grants and donations, rather than borrowing, the cheaper space will be for artists and the community, that’s why we will also be launching a crowdfunding campaign in the autumn,” explains Heritage Lab CEO Rob Kenyon. heritagelab.org.uk

Ramsgate Gardens

Last year, Ramsgate raised £1,700 for the National Garden Scheme. The annual event raises money for nursing and health charities, and this year three Ramsgate gardens will open on 11 September. Expect beautiful displays, refreshments, and plants for sale. Look out for yellow signs to 104 Grange Road, 6 Edith Road and 12 West Cliff Road. Further afield, the Chapel House Estate, a luxury wedding and events venue, is opening its historic garden to visitors. ngs.org.uk

Granville Theatre bid

Kent Film Foundation are pressing ahead with their bid for the Granville Theatre. The charity uses film and the arts to build confidence and aspirations in young people. It outlined plans to convert the building to include three cinemas, a theatre and performance space, a roof terrace café bar and restaurant, and spaces for creative projects and offices to support its work tackling poverty of opportunity in Thanet alongside other creative partners. In 2019 KFF succeeded in getting the building approved as an Asset of Community Value, but in 2022 their bid to obtain it as a Community Asset Transfer was rejected by Thanet District Council, and the Granville was listed on the open market. KFF has since reapplied, following support from the community with petitions and events held outside the building. TDC has confirmed that the building will not go to the highest cash bid but that what the bidder will bring to the community of Ramsgate will be taken into consideration. A TDC panel has been established, and the fate of the building will be decided in the coming weeks. Search “Save the Granville

Theatre Ramsgate” on Facebook

Ellington Park Green Flag

Congratulations to Ellington Park on its Green Flag award, recognising it as one of the country’s best parks. The scheme is run by Keep Britain Tidy, with the visiting judge impressed by work done. Restorations in 2021 saw renovation of the historic bandstand, and a new children’s playground, as well a café and toilet block opened, supported by £1.8 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The park has also been rewarded with Historic England’s Green Heritage Site accreditation for its management of historic features. Pegwell Bay Country Park also got a Green Flag.

Bedford Inn restaurant

A new menu from the Bedford Inn on West Cliff Road will see popular Sunday roasts retired for the summer, with a weekend menu from Thursday to Sunday. Monday nights’ menu will be themed “what’s in the cupboard”. With pan-fried sardines, dusted squid, crispy chicken thigh and vegan beetroot burgers on offer, ingredients are sourced locally and the menu will be changing as the season progresses. And never fear, come winter the roasts will be back. @bedfordinnramsgate for more

trotting into the sea. It was summer, the sun was out and the clouds were like candy floss… and just like that the theme to the 1960s TV show The White Horses popped into my head.

Back in those days we only had three channels and regular repeats meant the theme tune was forever burnt into my brain. The White Horses was a (then) Yugoslavian and German co-production about a young girl, Julia, visiting her uncle’s stud farm of beautiful Lipizzaner horses. It was dubbed (badly) into English and its theme tune by Jackie “Jacky” Lee had the dreamy refrain “On my horses, snowy white horses, let me ride away…”

The sight of those horses on the beach and that theme tune inspired me to call up Nelson Park Riding Centre in Birchington. My birthday was on the horizon and in the past I’ve marked the day with a hack in Baja Mexico’s Valle de Guadalupe or London’s Richmond Park, and it was time to add my new hometown to the list. The lady at Nelson’s was very nice but said I had to come in to be assessed before we could discuss galloping anywhere. She was absolutely right, but it stalled my enthusiasm and I never got around to calling her back. Then Covid happened which stalled just about everything. So I am delighted to report that I’ve finally had a lesson! As I waited to meet Julia, my instructor, a chestnut horse stuck his head out its stable and neighed at me, exposing its big teeth and flabby lips. This time the TV show Mister Ed came into my head – a US series about a talking horse. Later, a YouTube trip down memory lane surprised me as to how many TV series were horse-related – Black Beauty, The High Chaparral, Follyfoot…

Anyhoo, back to my long postponed lesson. Julia took me to the indoor arena and introduced me to Violet, a lovely 11-year-old Irish mare who patiently waited as I scrambled on top of her. When asked about my prior experience, I said I’d ridden over the years but with little consistency or competency. While in the US I’d become used to a western saddle, which is basically like sitting in an armchair (albeit with your legs akimbo a big beast), making it very hard to fall off. English saddles are a whole other enchilada, and while I have yet to perfect the rising trot, I was very pleased to be told I had good poise and balance! I’ll need a few more lessons before I feel the wind beneath my wings, but at least I’ve made a start. The motto of this story can be neatly summed up by the theme to Follyfoot, “The Lightning Tree” (sung by the Settlers): “Grow, grow the lightning tree, it’s never too late for you and me. Grow, grow the lightning tree, never give in too easily!”