A Brief History of the Town

Thanet was an island when the romans invaded Britain. They built forts at Richborough and Reculver to guard each end of the Wansum Channel which separated Thanet from the rest of Kent. Towards the end of the Roman occupation the Vikings were regular raiders, in AD449 Hengist landed at Pegwell Bay taking posession of Thanet and the rest of Kent, the visitors stayed and made there homes. In AD597 Augustine landed much more peacefully and founded his monastery in Canterbury. The Monks spread their faith to Thanet, building the church at Minster. In time the fishing village of Bradstow (anglo-saxon meaning a broad place) grew to become Broadstairs,

In the 16 and 17 hundreds ship-building was the biggest industry in Broadstairs. In 1538 the first pier and the York gate were built in order to aid and protect the ship yard in Harbour Street. Built by George Culmer and originally called Flint Gate it was renamed after the Grand old Duke of York and extensively rebuild in 1795 by lord Henniker. The town's people helped provision the English fleet anchored off-shore in 1588 while they awaited the Spanish Armada. Later many large vessels were built for the Royal Navy and for merchant firms, until ship building ended in 1824.

In 1850 the town was presented with its first life boat the Mary White, a year later it was the first to carry out a rescue from the goodwin sands. A second boat the Culmer white was added soon after. Both boats were privately run until 1868 when the RNLI took command of them. The station finally closed in 1912 after 62 years of active service, 269 lives having been saved.