Great British Road Journeys - Kent - Ramsgate to Dungeness Ep. 19
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- #roadtrip #kent #driving
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In this episode we continue our exploration of Kent and without wanting to give too much away, Hoverport.. there's a sodding hoverport! Abandoned...of course, along with some other abandoned things like roads and sort of airports.
As for the delightful towns and people of Kent, we'll be stopping by Ramsgate, Ashford and Canterbury as well as some more interesting places "off the beaten track" if you will.
Using a copy of the 1923 Michelin Guide, I'll be travelling the country to see what remains and what's changed since it's publication. The guide offers suggestions on thing to see and where to stay all with the goal of getting you out there and exploring in your motor vehicle.
*Why not visit these places*
Ramsgate Tunnels - www.ramsgatetu...
Canterbury Cathedral - www.canterbury...
West Gate - www.canterbury...
Ivychurch Raceway - www.invictakent...
St. Augustine's Church - www.romneymars...
Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway - www.rhdr.org.uk/
Fun fact, Dungeness is said to be England's only desert. I can only assume that whoever compiled that very short list of "Deserts in England" had never visited Slough.
I was born in Slough. Somebody has to be.
As someone who lived in Slough for many years I can tell you that one difference is that Dungeness has a great pub.
That's not a desert😅
lol
The Netherlands has deserts too... It's called Utrecht! No, seriously, I am guilty of repeating a Dutch joke there. There's two places that are technically desert, and one of them is just outside Utrecht, hence the joke.
I genuinely have no idea why I find these videos so entertaining, but here we are. Keep them coming John!
Wicked sweet awesome 😎
Always more interesting when it's areas you know.
informative, funny, reliable, concise.. 👍
Same 😳
Good narration is the key to any vid's longevity. I can recall getting a hovercraft from Ramsgate to Ostend, then train to Bruges, while on a 'fag' run during the mid-nineties.
Clock accurately telling the time twice a day 😂😂😂
"At least twice" to be exact. Perhaps it runs on a 48 hour day?
Got me rolling 😂😂😂
I have some of those as well.
Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day. And for once I'm inclined to believe Withnail is right...we are indeed entering the arena of The Unwell..
Everything seen in this video from 8:45 onwards can be experienced as it was in early 1971 in the _Doctor Who_ story _The Claws of Axos._ Even some of the pebbles currently on the "beach" are original BBC props brought to the location for the production and left _in situ_ ever since.
This is exactly what I read the comments for. So good.
Very cool :)
I was expecting to be shown the ditch that the tramp, Pigbin Josh, rides his bicycle into, when startled by the arrival of Axos in the story.
But we weren't.
In reality, it was stuntman Derek Ware who rode a bike into a ditch of literally freezing water for a throwaway gag shot.
"you'll be toileting in a ditch! But who cares?!" 😂😂😂 Absolutely love John's witty snips 😂
Explains why our rivers are full of Shite!
In fairness, that would probably be no different if you went to the F1.
I can't believe you skipped the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway's part in the second small disagreement. Cutest armoured train ever....
And Denge sound mirrors!
@@fatman3785 and the section of mulberry harbour off littlestone
@@chrisgironde6669Very appropriate as it failed to get to help D day etc with the 80th anniversary this coming week.
@@fatman3785It's rare that the sound mirrors are open sadly.
And that RHDR was reopened after the second small disagreement by Laurel & Hardy. And that Captain Howey's business partner was (another racing driver) Count Louis Zborowski, the owner of the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, although he was killed in a race at Monza before the New Romney site was chosen.
Love the " you can land or crash depending on your circumstances" You are funny John and your wit makes your videos so enjoyable
Can confirm, Ramsgate Tunnels is a bloody good day out.
Seems more like a bloody good day in.
I would say its a good few hours out, and it very much depends on which tour guide you get :)
@@monotonehell or day under
@@VectorTracker down under?
i agree it was a good tour
"At least it's on the seafront rather than a horrible river estuary, here's looking at you Gravesend" brilliant and spot on!
With Dungeness, all the huts there are old railway carriages that workers from the Ashford depot bought and put there as holiday homes. They would jump onto trains back up to the depot in the morning while the family stayed by the sea. They now seemingly sell for more £ per sq foot than apartments around Hyde Park!
a lot of writers and artists use the place as a 'retreat' hence the price !
Sundays just aren't Sundays without Jon and Auto Shenanigans. Cracking episode Jon
Also there isn't a big nimby movement as Manston Airport is reopening. It was only a DFL who had funding from housing developers, that went to court to try and force it permanently closed but they failed miserably.
I was the guy who started the whole Save Manston Airport campaign back in 2014 so am very glad the campaign grew so much and it's got another chance. Locally most people want it reopened so there is proper jobs for Thanet.
So it can't be long before Ryanair starts operating from Mansion and O'Leary rebrands it as Brighton International Airport. It will cleanup the gullible LGBTQQIA+ market.🤣
"Second Small Disagreement" - gets me every time. I have started slipping that into daily conversation where i can!
Wiley fox enjoying Jon's entertainment whilst waiting patiently for the train...
I've been on the little trains to dungeness numerous times over the years. The fox is always there for the last time out
Old hoverport carpark is where I first learnt to drive age 13, happy days
I bet lots more different things were learnt there too.
No fish & chips in Ramsgate? Try Peter's Fish Factory opposite the Pavillion (Wetherspoons).
Did you go and see the Denge sound mirrors while you were down near Lydd? While you can only access them on certain days, they can be seen quite easily by parking up on one of the side roads, and a short walk, and I'm sure the drone would have provided some great video there.
Well, I never knew you could get close. When I was over that way they are fenced off and you can't get closer than about 500 metres 😥
@@michaelblake8837 normally it is restricted access, but they are (or used to be at least) open on special days.
I think Lydd airport might be funny about you flying a drone less than 1km from the runway!
@@adjwood yes, good point.
The rspb opens the sound mirror site up a few times a year... went there in June intresting history must be seen to be belive ...access is now via a draw bridge... wow you can see them on Google maps ...
I love Dungeness.. that is all
Yep, you're not alone. I love that the little buildings just seem to sprout up randomly out of the alien terrain. Are there species there that aren't found anywhere else in the world? If not, there should be.
The further south you go, the further south you go. Legendary Jon. 😂
Dont forget Dungeness is one of the places where longshore drift is making MORE land faster than coastal erosion is taking it away
Thank you for the vlog, Manston is the first place an aircraft can land when coming from Europe, the runway is also long enough to take the space shuttle.
I walked the old A253 that ran beside Manston Airport back in March took some mad photos loved it. Ramsgate is my hometown, I absolutely love it. The tunnels definitely is a great day out you should try it some time I'd highly recommend it.
I grew up in Kent and I fully endorse this video.
Manston was built extra long and extra wide as it was the first airfield returning aircrews would pass on their way back from Germany, so was built to accommodate anything requiring an emergency / crash landing.
Due to the nature of it's runway, it was also designated an emergency landing site for the shuttle programme. If NASA's shuttle ran into issues re-entrring over Europe, it would have been diverted to Manston.
(It was also said to have been on the USSR primary strike target list for any nuclear exchange)
Funny. Walked past you videoing this in Canterbury but as it wasn't a motorway wasn't 100% sure. Would have said thanks for what you do.
Jon's done all the motorways now. So we could see him anywhere!
nice little cheeky bit of woollarding there, top marks..
Yet another cracking video, Jon. There's a model railway in New Romney that's worth a visit. Also, "you'll be toileting in a ditch, but who cares?" What a classic one-liner 😂
A friend of mine told me that if you gave our country an enema you would stick the pipe in Kent. He was born in Kent so I guess he would know. During the 2nd small disagreement the Romney Hythe and Dimchurch ran armoured trains with Lewis guns to defend the fuel pipeline.
Kent is the garden of England and Sheppey is the outside toilet.
Fun fact: The now closed Dungeness railway station was once voted the worst station on the whole Southern Railway network, second place was Bromley North.
before it's rebuilding in the 30s may i add
interesting that they were both owned by the south eastern and chatham...
For clarity, this was a mainline station that closed, not sure when. However the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch narrow gauge railway station at Dungeness is a lovely station that also has an eatery.
What came 3rd?
@@WindyJAMiller Closed 1937 to passengers. Standing on the site of it in almost the last shot.
The great potential with this channel is even if Jon runs out of British roads to talk about.
There are roads all over the world that he could eventually discover and comment about.
The host and his take on things is probably the number one reason people watch this channel.
The content is probably second.
☮
I love the area around the Romney Marshes and Dungeness.
I wonder if the local authorities dread seeing Jon's Saab drive through town because they know they'll get such grief from him in the weekly video.
Thank you John. Another Sunday ritual is smiling at whatever you get up to.
You really do have to listen carefully to your voiceovers, if you blink, you'll miss a gem - i.e. 06:50 _"... that still tells the time accurately at least twice a day!"_ Brilliant !! 😂😂
Hi Jon, thanks for another entertaining video!
Allegedly, Brookland Church tower jumped off its underpinnings in surprise when a virgin came the church to get married...and a local was quoted as saying about Dungeness, "This is the last place on earth that God made, and he forgot to finish it!"
I live in Hamstreet, but only for about another week...
Hello Jon, how the devil are you, have you had a good week?
My name is Sam not Jon. And yes I did have a good week thank you very much
3:30 How come that abandoned road is in better condition than my local, seemingly not abandoned, roads?
Believe it or not, there was a time (until about a decade ago) that buses (including double deckers) were allowed to drive through the Westgate arch.
Your description of Dungeness was spot on!
Did the double deckers have a special roof profile like the ones built for Beverley North Bar or could regular ones limbo through?
@@Gordanovich02 Regular. It was a very tight squeeze!
Another excellent video. While you were in Ramsgate I am hoping you made another video on the Ramsgate port road tunnel. A huge tunnel opened at almost the same time the port closed down and now largely useless ! Would make a perfect subject of one of your videos . Keep up the great work 😊
Lovely route on a motorbike on a hot day (rare!) lovely and cool, can be done via car but can find the barrier down at the marina end.
Manston Airport once had the name Kent International Airport which had passenger service. For an internship in New Romney I was able to fly from Amsterdam to Kent directly.
Fun times!
My Mum and Dad frequently flew from Manston to Edinburgh to visit friends, sometimes for only a pound. Probably explains why it didn't survive.
It was very handy, as we are all in east Kent, and it saved fannying about driving to Gatwick or Stanstead.
That is one of the longest runways in the country, and it could handle the largest planes. Lots of large freight planes used to use it.
On the 60s on there was an airline flying cars across the channel from Manston using "Carvair" (Car via air) freighters... as seen in Goldfinger...
This will be coming back with passenger flights a few years after the cargo side of things is rolled out. Fun times ahead again :)
It was also briefly known as London Manston Airport. Alas, even Ryanair thought that a bit bloody audacious.
I like the whole area around Dungeness, New Romney, Rye and Appledore. A lot of the area was part of the sea up to a few hundred years ago and it feels relatively quiet and peaceful (and flat) for south east England. Rye can be a bit touristy but is worth a visit and was once an important port.
My first time in a 'plane was from the old Lydd airport where the family car was loaded into the front of an air ferry and we were flown across the Channel to Le Touquet.
Took that flight many times on the old Bristol Freighters. Grass airstrip in th early days if I remember correctly. Noisy old beasts, but did the job.
My uncle "Tiny" aka Alan Craig lived alongside Manston, he was a very well known teacher and headteacher in Thanet as well as a firebrand union chap and was prob one of the largest chaps I ever seen in this life as he was immense in height and weight. He did work with me father in signalboxes but an event led him to lose his job and he went into teaching instead, I imagine he has pushed up his daisies by now as he was an elderly but still pretty tall chap when he came to me mum's funeral 20 years ago but did catch news articles with him stamping on government stuff about schools for some time after.
I remember Alan Craig from my schooldays at Hereson. Bloody good teacher and nice bloke. Coincidentally I am a signalman on the railway!
Great vlog - shame you missed the road sign in the countryside: "Ham Sandwich". Used to live Margate, regularly travelled on Hoverlloyd through to Brussels - and flew Manston to Bruges (maybe flew into Ostend?) on a commercial flight in around 1965. Oh, and as others have mentioned - Manston runway was known as a master diversion runway, to which any aircraft in trouble in the south of England would be diverted to land on its foam carpet. I once was a passenger in a fire truck on an exercise travelling at speed down the length of the runway! Exhilarating!
I lived in Margate as a child. My mother often had to go to Canterbury for doctor visits. We we down the old Roman road in our old Morris Minor. My dad was stationed at Manston RAF. This was back in the early 50s.
Thanks for the memories!
We we down, did you?
@@composimmonite3918I bet you're a hoot at parties.
Have spent some time wandering around the remains of the Ramsgate hoverport over the years and it's quite fun doing the old Time Team thing of trying to piece together where it all used to be. There's still a surprising amount of infrastructure remaining including the old passenger footbridge, road markings and the pads where the hovercraft would park up for maintenance. Shame Hoverspeed eventually stopped running them in 2000 as they were awesome machines. 4 jet turbines and 4 massive propellers made for quite the spectacle whether you were aboard or watching from the coast.
Informative and irreverent stuff as ever - thanks Jon.
Top class wollarding on the stone bench at the beginning.😎
I noticed that too...
Sunday episode of Auto Shenanigans, thanks again Jon. Hope you're well, safe travels atvb.
Ramsgate lived there
Canterbury lived there
Ashford lived there
escaped Kent 2015
happy memories
Where did you escape to?
@@SuperFIFTHGEAR the Royal Navy then West Sussex
I watch all your videos with a smirk on my face 🤣🤣
Dungeness is a very surreal place to visit, that secret fuel line was a new thing to me.
Thanks for another insightful and entertaining video sir!
Heading back to last week's episode for my old stomping ground of Dartford and Gravesend
Great seeing the RH&DR
Used to go down to my grans in Greatstone as a kid 50 years ago and go on the railway
Romney Marsh is a truly extraordinary place, like a bit of the American Great Plains transplanted to south-eastern England
and Kent as a whole is nothing if not varied - the "garden of England" part is mainly in the centre, but if you head out to the west it's hilly and full of dense woodland, and it gets very steep and craggy in the east round Folkestone and Dover
Great video, John! Thanks for mentioning Manston Airfield (one of only three with the "triple-width" runway that you mentioned). As I've said before, a series by you dedicated to what's happened to those WWII airfields that have a direct connection to modern motorways would make good reading. A pity you weren't able to visit the "listening ears" near Dungeness, but it's RSPB land now and only open on special days.
Great episode. As a child I lived in East Sussex and I remember being taken to the RH&D Railway. It blew my tiny 7 year old mind. It was the first railway I'd seen that was my scale.
My immediate thought when hearing the tourist attraction narrow-gauge railway was shut down in 1965 was "Beeching axed that line too?!?!". 😀 Made more sense when you finished the sentence.
Ramsgate pier, or harbour arm, does house a brasserie at the end of it that does very good fish and chips. At the landward side of the harbour arm is Peters Fish Bar, which in my option provides excellent fish & Chips to either take-away or sit down. The Wetherspoons is also housed in a fine old building with great views of the main sands, harbour and town from the upper outdoor terrace. The only down side is being attacked by the flying rats, otherwise known as seagulls. Ramsgate was also home to the mad dutch guy with a brush who cut his ear off, the architect Pugin and Karl M's daughter.
Dungeness is located between Dungeon R and Dungeon T, and a former RNLI lookout station has been converted to a 2 bedroom holiday rental. The miniature railway is bonkers and fun.
Apparently, during the second small disagreement, a German dive bomber was attacking the RH&D. However, though their maps showed it was a railway line, it didn't mention it was miniature, and going by the scale of what the pilot saw they didn't pull out of their dive quickly enough and crashed!
Achtung, you can't park your Stuka there mate........
Variety of different flavours and textures. Just like a good meal. The Good The Bad and The Ugly was a nice touch. The more I watch, the more I realise I don't know my own country.
I was convinced that the sea would creep up behind you in tb6e introduction, and you would get wet feet😊
Hi, is it me, or does anyone else recall the Hoverlloyd 'landing pad' originally being in Ramsgate harbour before it was developed into the VW depot and the ferry terminal. I have been visiting Ramsgate for 65 odd years, and it has been comprehensively buggered in that time. Also remember the cliff lifts to avoid the stairs, lastly the motorcycle sprints along the esplanade
I was wondering when somebody would mention this in the comments!
You are indeed correct, HoverLloyd ran a foot passenger only service for a while from Ramsgate harbour, just next to the clock house, making Ramsgate harbour the worlds first International Hoverport! The pad is still there today!
Brilliant John, best one yet, the humour is constant with this one!!
Ashford being referred to a "yeahh..." is so true
Nice to see my old stomping ground. Will be around the area later in the month. The old Hoverport was the Police operation centre during the 84/85 dispute. Many an hour spent there.
Said this for last few weeks now you keep going to places we been to week before the vids go up ,got bump into to you soon somewhere . hahah keep them coming ,we watch all ya stuff
Those hovercraft were wonderful machines but their effect on the digestive tract was equivalent to 7 pints of Stella, three Jagermeisters, a bad Kebab & an interview with Jade Goody.
If I remember correctly, Dungeness was "created" by some ferocious storm in the 15th/16th century (??). The Fishermen of Lydd went to sleep (possibly) only to wake up and find several miles of shingle preventing them getting their boats out. Some of the area was clearly (salt)marshland prior to that probably making it easy for the shingle to build up.
The RH&DR is a fascinating little railway and had some interesting celebrity visitors - like Laurel and Hardy.
The orange train you can see at 6:48 I drove out of that siding last night, to work in Sevenoaks!
For some reason I always thought Dungeness was in Scotland, always learning with this channel.
Another fwicked sweet awesome vid. One of the funniest for a while.
I just had to look up the etymology of Dungeness. This is what Wikipedia has to say:
"Dungeness's name means "the headland at Denge", referring to nearby Denge Marsh. The marsh is first mentioned in 774 as Dengemersc. Its name may mean "marsh of the pasture district", from Old English denn *gē mersc, or else "marsh with manured land", from Old English dyncge mersc."
Nevertheless, as Jon said, it still has 'dung' in its name and that seems to be very factual! Of course, Jon had already done his research and that's how he likely and cleverly came up with his witty remark, making pillocks like myself go and look it up.
To be honest, John's totally true and not made up at all explanation of the origin of the name of the town of Wetwang was a little more convincing!
Margate has piers of stone, but it used to have a pleasure pier called The Jetty. Outside the Ramsgate Tunnels, up on a pole is an air raid siren. You can see it in the video. It is sounded from time to time to commemorate anniversaries of the 2 Small Disagreements.
Loved the shot of the Fox!
In the 1950's and '60s, you could go to Lydd airport, and drive your car in to a monstrous aircraft called a Bristol Superfreighter, and fly across the channel to, I believe, Le Touquet. In the novel of 'Goldfinger' James Bond follows Goldfinger and Oddjob in their Rolls Royce, and finds them about to depart. He gets the Customs to distract them whilst he puts a homing device on the car.
Ian Fleming lived at St Margaret's for a while, and knew Kent well. Goldfinger has a small factory near Reculver, and Hugo Drax' 'Moonraker' project is based near St Margaret's. Yes. The novel of Moonraker is set mostly in Kent.
There was also a Dan-Air service to Beauvais, part of a London-Paris route involving coach travel at each end \m/
these just keep getting better!
If your looking for the Garden of England vibe, head out a few miles west of Ashford, and you will find vineyards everywhere around
Thank you, I love all these random things around the country we can visit that we never know about!
I love these videos and find them very interesting. Yes I am being serious for a change. 😃👍
We’ve been on the train a few times now. It’s quite relaxing, some would say fwicked even.
Ramsgate Hovercraft terminal and riding on the R H & D R, blast from the past.
Pegwell Bay Hoverport, not really Ramsgate.
@@composimmonite3918 Thanks, it was a long time ago, but Pegwell Bay sounds familiar.
My part of the World. There was several things in this vid I'd never heard of, interesting!
Great episode, Jon! If you ever get the chance, do go down the Ramsgate tunnels - it’s fascinating and a “bloody good day out”!
I once did a video at ham street about the military canal!
In the '70's, when on a School trip, we went up the Light House , shown @ 9.37. At the top, I dropped an Orange over the edge, it didnt survive the drop......
You were the bar steward who dropped it then ?
It landed on my head
When I went there on a school trip, a boy threw something over the edge at the top. He got spotted by a teacher and, as legend goes, got the cane when we got back to school. He was also called Andrew, but this was the 80s, and apparently he is dead now......not from the caning.
@@susi-emily It was 1977, when i went there. It was with Springfield School, in Sunbury.
Given the state of water companies these days, toileting in a ditch is an improvement... :P
Hi Jon hope your well, thanks for showing me Kent which is near France, have a good one
Is that how you address post to Kent? 25 Old Dover Road, Canterbury, Kent-which-is-near-France, England. 😅
@@composimmonite3918 Yes, we all do that. Although sometimes I mix it up a little by using "Closer to France than London" instead.
@@susi-emily That's what I mean it's closer to France than London
That Pluto pumping station used to be the local church 🙏🙏
takes 'baptisim by fire' to a new level...
lol, the banjos as you’re talking about going to south Kent were hilariously appropriate.
Must’ve been a little while ago you filmed this, as I thought they’d stopped traffic going through the Canterbury west gate these days.
One of my fondest memories of Ashford was one Xmas in the 70's, at the railwayman's club we had a party and no less than Sir Peter Parker dressed up as Santa giving out pressies... Kid brother ruined the atmos when he didn't like his 1974 Football annual and wanted my Star Trek annual and cribbed and kicked off until my Star Trek annual was taken from my resisting hands... ruined Xmas all the way that did...
What issue of the 1970's comic book was Spiderman knighted? I must have missed that one.
Was hoping you'd mention the srn4 hovercrafts and I wasn't disappointed. Thanks sir.
Hehe remember terrorising the locals in many a village pub back when did my "tin city" in Lydd army camp, we did our bit for England trying to increase the population whilst getting barred from just about all the pubs for silly things like chucking blokes through windows and well being typical drunken squaddies, used to be an excellent narrow gauge railway on Lydd camp we used at every opportunity.
Bring Back National Service.
@@highpath4776 Where else have I heard that recently? 😁
What year did you do tin city ? I did it in the early 80's
Beautiful Fox Jon. Was that actually filmed by yourself, or did you sneak a stock video in? I'm thinking the former. Another enthralling video. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoy your videos, the sarcasm, and, well, everything really.
Manston is where Barry Gray recorded various V bombers for use in Gerry Anderson productions. Thunderbird 2 is voiced by an idling Vulcan
I visited Dungeness for the first time a few weeks ago. There is something of the World’s End about the place. The Fish Hut does a nice lunch though.
I hope while you were in Dungeness you had fish and chips in The Pilot 😋
It's required by local bye-law.
Every time I've been to Dungeness I've been forced to visit The Pilot ( by the delicious fish & chips)
Autograss racing is also Whicked sweet awesome to watch too...
Loved that one John. You managed to make my birth town of Ramsgate quite attractive. Everywhere you went I’ve either lived in or travelled around. Pegwell Bay Hoverport, I used to dig for lugworm there in the bay whilst the SRN4s went thundering past. I was an Air Cadet at RAF Manston and that’s where I first fell for the Vulcan, I now do cockpit tours at the Solway Aviation Museum Vulcan (yep moved as far from Kent as possible). Worked on the Channel Tunnel project whilst living in Ashford. I spent a lot of time chasing cesspool tankers around Romney Marsh when I worked for the local council. So you jogged a lot of memories with that one, many thanks. Love your humour.
My great-grand parents are resident in St Augstine church graveyard, so lovely to see it one of your clips, and thanks for popping in to see it.
ahhhhh, the dymchurch little railway 😀been on it, didn't know where it went, just paid for the full length madam, 🙂🙂ended up in dungeness , ahhhhh, memories of happy times 🙂🙂
I did it again. I waved back. What a brilliant episode! Loved the writing.
Great stuff, just up the road from me this time, this has become essential Sunday viewing!