page_title: History of Ramsgate
section_title: Electric Tramways & Lighting Co. Ltd.
hierarchical_section_title: History of Ramsgate / Electric Tramways & Lighting Co. Ltd.
caption_attribution_description: English: Summer parade in Margate. Tram in the background
context_page_description: Ramsgate as a name has its earliest reference as 'Ramisgate' or 'Remmesgate' in 1275, from Anglo-Saxon 'Hraefn's geat, or 'Raven's cliff gap', later to be rendered 'Ramesgate' from 1357.
context_section_description: At the turn of the 20th century, the Isle of Thanet saw the introduction of about 11 miles (18 km) of track, laid down for the use of the Electric Tramways & Lighting Co. Ltd, which began its service with electric trams on 4 April 1901, linking the towns of Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs. On 3 August 1905, an unseasonably wet summer's day, Car No. 41, during a routine descent of the precipitous, and adverse camber leading down Madeira Walk hill into Ramsgate harbour, suddenly careered out of control, jumping the tracks, causing it to crash straight through the railings, so that it then dropped over the 30-foot (9.1 m) cliff edge adjacent. Providentially, only a few passengers were travelling on Car No. 41 that day, and they came out of the ordeal unscathed, but the driver, who was new to the job, sustained some injury. The Electric Tramways & Lighting Co. Ltd. continued to operate with no further significant incidents recorded until its services were replaced with the buses of the East Kent Road Car Co, which began on 27 March 1937.
  This was one of the few inter-urban tramways in Britain, owned by a private company and running through open countryside between the three towns (most of it built over now). Much of the route was on its own right of way, and this only became public roads when the tramway was abandoned.
  The line started in Westbrook west of Margate, at the junction of Canterbury and Walton roads. A little tram-shed survived there until recently, and the tram-tracks were to be preserved in the housing development replacing it. Along Canterbury Road and the sea-front, then dividing in two. In the Broadstairs direction, up Paradise Street (now incorporated into Fort Hill dual carriageway); from Broadstairs, down Fort Hill and along King Street. Then Fort Crescent, Athelstan Road, Northdown Road to private track connecting to Lower Northdown Road. This bit is now a public footpath. Lower Northdown Road eastwards to the Wheatsheaf, then cuts across country to Northdown Hill. This bit is a rough track now. Past the main tramshed on the corner, still there and used as factory units, into Westover Road. Church Street (over railway) to St Peters, Albion Road to crossroads, left under railway bridge by Broadstairs station, along Broadstairs High Street to Queens Road, Oscott Road and the seafront. Then along private right of way to Ramsgate, now Dumpton Park Drive. Bellevue Road, Plains of Waterloo, Nelson Crescent, down Madeira Walk to Ramsgate Harbour. Up Royal Parade, Paragon, St Augustines Road, all the way along Grange Road, right at Park Road, to the old South Eastern Ry station where it had its own approach to the south of the station. This was the terminus.
  There was also a short-cut between Ramsgate and St Peters called the Top Road, which ran from the crossroads by Broadstairs station, south along Osborne Road, Gladstone Road, across Ramsgate Road and on private right of way (now Salisbury Avenue) to the main line. This was very lightly used and no-one is sure why it was built. Broadstairs town wanted to build a proper town centre at the station crossroads before World War I but could not find the money, and this may have had something to do with it.
  The company wanted to extend to Birchington, but was defeated by the landowners of housing estates at Westgate who wanted to keep the riff-raff away. Perhaps as a result, Westgate was refused its application to become a separate urban district because it lacked "civic character" before World War I (it became part of Margate). A line to Pegwell village was also proposed.
  The trams were double-decker, but never had roofs on the upper deck, even in winter. This was because the track was narrow-gauge and there were many right-angle bends. Twelve could squeeze into the lower deck, where there were two wooden benches facing each other, but in bad weather the top deck was extremely unpleasant. The service could not hope to compete with buses all year round, even if the trams were fondly remembered on hot summer days.
caption: Tram in the background, Margate
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