Ramsgate

Sister cities

• Frederikssund Municipality
• Conflans-Sainte-Honorine
• Chimay

History

Ramsgate began as a fishing and farming hamlet. The Christian missionary St Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great, landed near Ramsgate in AD 597. The town is home to the Shrine of St Augustine. The earliest reference to the town is in the Kent Hundred Rolls of 1274–5, both as Remmesgate (in the local personal name of 'Christina de Remmesgate') and as Remisgat (with reference to the town). The names Ramisgate and Raunsgate appear in the parish of St. Laurence records . These are all derived from late Anglo-Saxon 'Hremmes' from earlier 'Hræfnes' (raven's) and 'geat' (gate), with reference to the gap in the cliffs. In 1357, the area became known as Ramesgate. Ramsgate was a member of the confederation of Cinque Ports, as a "limb" (subordinate member) of Sandwich. The construction of Ramsgate Harbour began in 1749 and was completed in around 1850. The harbour has the distinction of being the only Royal Harbour in the United Kingdom. Because of its proximity to mainland Europe, Ramsgate was a chief embarkation point both during the Napoleonic Wars and for the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. The Official Illustrated Guide to South-Eastern and North and Mid-Kent Railways (June 1863) by George Measom describes Ramsgate thus: "It is impossible to speak too favourably of this first-rate town, its glorious sands, its bathing, its hotels, libraries, churches, etc. etc. not forgetting its bracing climate...The streets of Ramsgate are well paved or macadamed and brilliantly lighted with gas." The architect Augustus Pugin and his sons lived in Ramsgate and built several important buildings there, including St Augustine's Church, The Grange, St Augustine's Abbey, and The Granville Hotel. The artist Vincent van Gogh moved to Ramsgate in April 1876, at age 23. He boarded at 11…

Geography

Ramsgate is located 78 miles from central London in an east south-easterly direction at one of the most easterly points of the United Kingdom (the furthest point east is Lowestoft in Suffolk). The town is an amalgamation of two settlements: a fishing community on the coast in the shallow valley between two chalk cliffs, and an inland farming community that is now the Parish of St Lawrence. The cliffs are known as the East Cliff and the West Cliff and are predominantly residential areas. There are promenades along both cliff tops with parks at either end and sandy beaches on the coast. Ramsgate has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) as is typical in the United Kingdom; the nearest Met Office weather station for which data is available is Manston Airport, about two miles west of the town centre. The highest temperature ever recorded is 34.6 °C (94.3 °F) in August 2003, though typically the warmest day of the year averages 28.5 °C (83.3 °F) and 8.8 days will record a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above. The lowest recorded temperature is -14.5 °C (5.9 °F), in February 1986, though typically the coldest night of the year averages -6.2 °C (20.8 °F). A total of 21.4 days |source 2 = KNMI |date=March 2011}}