page_title: Whitstable
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Whitstable / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Whitstable beach in Kent, England, UK.
context_page_description: Whitstable is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England, 5 miles north of Canterbury and 2 miles west of Herne Bay. It has a population of about 32,000.
  Whitstable was famous for its 'Native Oysters' which were collected from beds beyond the low water mark from Roman times until the mid-20th century. This is celebrated at the annual Whitstable Oyster Festival, which takes place during the summer.
  In 1830, one of the earliest passenger railway services was opened by the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway Company. In 1832, the company built a harbour and extended the line to handle coal and other bulk cargos for the City of Canterbury. The railway has since closed but the harbour still plays an important role in the town's economy. The railway route is now a bike path which leads to the neighbouring city of Canterbury.
context_section_description: Archaeological finds indicate that the Whitstable area was inhabited during the Palaeolithic era, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Oysters were harvested in the area in Roman times. The remains of a Roman building have been found in the centre of the town. Charters indicate that there were Saxon settlements where salt production and coastal trade occurred.
  The town was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, under the name Witenestaple, meaning "the meeting place of the white post", which referred to a local landmark. At that time, Witenestaple was the administrative centre of the hundred of Witenestaple which stretched from the coast to the village of Blean, 3 kilometres (2 mi) north of Canterbury. In addition to Witenestaple, the hundred contained three manors at Seasalter, Northwood and Swalecliffe.
  The Seasalter and Swalecliffe manors were owned by the church, and the manor at Northwood was run by a noble family on behalf of the king. Fisheries were located at the Seasalter manor, saltworks were at the Northwood manor, and pigs were farmed at the forest in Blean. By 1226, the name of the area had evolved into Whitstaple. Saltworks were opened at the Seasalter manor around the turn of the 14th century, and a sea wall was built there in 1325 to prevent coastal flooding. The history and development of the town has determined and been determined by the shape and location of the coast which has changed in a complex way over recorded history due to natural events and human interventions.
  By 1413, the three manors had combined to form the Whitstaple manor, and had been sold to a religious foundation in Essex. The manor was seized by King Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, and was given to the Minter family (an old noble family, originally from Ickham. Branches of this family still survive today in the same area). A Royal Patent was granted in 1574 to the manor owner for the fishing of its oyster beds, and in the same year, the lands at Tankerton were incorporated into the manor. A copperas works was established at Tankerton in 1588, which operated until about 1830. By 1610, the name Whitstaple had become Whitstable.
  Around the mid-18th century, goods and passengers began to be transported by ship between London and Whitstable, and a toll road was built to the cathedral city of Canterbury. These improvements in transport led to the town's development as a seaside resort; the first advertisements for bathing machines at Whitstable appeared in 1768. In 1790 the manor was sold to private landowners, and three years later the rights to harvest the oyster beds were bought by the newly established Company of Free Fishers and Dredgers of Whitstable, the successor to the Whitstable Company of Dredgers. Between roughly 1775 and 1875 the well smacks or early longliners out of Barking and other local fishing ports would collect lugworms and whelks from Whitstable's bait-diggers and dredgers before beginning their tour for prime fish north to Iceland. Whelks suspended in net bags in the well could live for a while due to circulating fresh water.
  On 3 May 1830, the world's first steam-hauled passenger and freight railway service was opened by the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway Company. Designed by William James, the line ran six miles (10 km) from Westgate in Canterbury to Whitstable town centre. The railway line's initials—C&WR—and Whitstable's shellfish industry eventually led to its nickname, the Crab And Winkle Railway.
  Trains were driven by a locomotive for part of the journey, but on inclined planes were pulled on ropes by steam-driven stationary winding engines located at Tyler Hill and Clowes Wood. The locomotive used was the Invicta, an 0-4-0 inclined cylinder tender locomotive built by Robert Stephenson, the son of engineer George Stephenson. Whitstable harbour was opened by the railway company in 1832, and the rail line was extended to enable goods, mainly coal, to be directly transferred from ships onto the trains. In 1834, the world's first season tickets were issued for the C&W
caption: Whitstable Beach
exif: {"Image Make": "Nokia", "Image Model": "N73", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2008:04:01 23:00:53", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "208", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "662", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2742", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:03:13 17:40:49", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:03:13 17:40:49", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1793/200", "EXIF ApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "28/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1013", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None"}