Heritage open days in Thanet this weekend

We are once again at that weekend in the year when local people have the opportunity to look inside some of our important local buildings. It also allows you free entry into buildings that usually charge for entry. With some of the venues the opening times are fairly short, or the free opening periods are, so if you want to make the best of this series of local events you need to plan it fairly carefully.

Here is the list from http://www.visitthanet.co.uk

Heritage Open Days

Thu 8 Sep 2011

St Peter's Village Tour

Fri 9 Sep 2011

Heritage Open Days at St George's Church

Margate 3 Squares Walk at Margate

Margate Baptisit Church at Margate

Fri 9 - Mon 12 Sep 2011

Open Days at Pugin's Grange

Sat 10 Sep 2011

Heritage Open Days at St George's Church

Sat 10, Sun 11 Sep 2011

Heritage Open Weekend at Powell-Cotton Museum, House & Gardens

Sat 10 Sep 2011

Margate 3 Squares Walk at Margate

Margate Baptisit Church at Margate

St Peter's Churchyard Tour

St Peter's Village Tour

Sun 11 Sep 2011

European Day of Jewish Heritage and Culture at Ramsgate

Theatre Tours at Theatre Royal Margate

Tue 13 Sep 2011

Open Days at Pugin's Grange

Wed 21 Sep 2011

St Peter's Churchyard Tour

I am not sure if this is a complete list, I will try to find out if anything is missing and add it to this post.

In Ramamsgate Montefiore Synagogue Ramsgate is one that is well worth a visit, picture above. If you have a head for heights I can also recommend taking as tour up the tower of St George’s Church.  


http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk has a slightly different list for Thanet

Name	Town	Opening	Pre-Booking Required
St Peter's Churchyard Tour	Broadstairs	Saturday: Tour 1400	Yes
St Peter's Village Tour	Broadstairs	Thursday: Tour 1345 Saturday: Tour 0945	Yes
Margate 3 Squares' Walk	Margate	Friday: dep. 1145 Saturday: dep. 1145	No
Margate Baptist Church	Margate	Friday: 1000-1200 Saturday: 1000-1200	No
Margate Museum: Former Police Station	Margate	Friday: 1100-1700 Saturday: 1100-1700 Sunday: 1100-1700	No
The Tudor House	Margate	Saturday: 1200-1600 Sunday: 1200-1600	No
Theatre Royal Margate	Margate	Sunday: Tour 1400 & 1600	Yes
St George's Church, Ramsgate	Ramsgate	Saturday: Tower tours 1130, 1230, 1430 & 1530 Sunday: Tower tours 1200, 1300 & 1430	No
The Grange	Ramsgate	Friday: 1000-1600 Saturday: 1000-1600 Sunday: 1000-1600	No

At this point I was a bit confused about some of the entries, so this is by way of explanation.

My questions were is the Powell Cotton Museum doing something different for the heritage open day – free entry or a special event – or does this just mean that it is open as usual? 

Why doesn’t the Tudor House opening appear on the council funded tourism site and is it in fact open?

Margate Museum opening does appear on the council’s tourism website but the link there takes you to http://www.margatemuseum.org/ a website of few words.

Anyway I went back onto http://www.visitthanet.co.uk and tried to phone up the tourist information office to check this out, the number given there is Thanet 577577, phoning this number is an education in itself and mostly seems to suggest that one oppresses buttons that eventually lead you to an automated message telling you to look on http://www.visitthanet.co.uk

As an effort to deter tourists it is a very powerful device that takes one agonisingly slowly through a list of alternatives the very last of which is to speak to a tourist information officer.

Eventually I managed to speak to an officer who told me that The Powell Cotton Museum has free entry but only for the two hours between 11am and 1pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The Tudor House is open although it doesn’t appear on the council’s website they don’t seem to know why.

http://www.visitthanet.co.uk have now updated their website, I think it is now pretty comprehensive. 

Heritage Open Days

Thu 8 Sep 2011

• St Peter's Village Tour

Fri 9 Sep 2011

• Margate 3 Squares Walk at Margate
• Margate Baptisit Church at Margate

Fri 9 - Mon 12 Sep 2011

• Open Days at Pugin's Grange

Sat 10, Sun 11 Sep 2011

• Heritage Open Weekend at Powell-Cotton Museum, House & Gardens

Sat 10 Sep 2011

• Margate 3 Squares Walk at Margate
• Margate Baptisit Church at Margate
• Margate Museum Heritage Open Days at Margate Museum
• Open Days at Tudor House
• St Peter's Churchyard Tour
• St Peter's Village Tour

Sun 11 Sep 2011

• European Day of Jewish Heritage and Culture at Ramsgate
• Margate Museum Heritage Open Days at Margate Museum
• Open Days at Tudor House
• Theatre Tours at Theatre Royal Margate

Tue 13 Sep 2011

• Open Days at Pugin's Grange

Wed 21 Sep 2011

• St Peter's Churchyard Tour

Are Thanet District Council Anti-Semitic and against multi-culturalism?

There are various historic buildings open in Thanet this weekend; among them are several places of worship.

There is a link on the councils homepage called “Heritage Open Days come to Margate” this takes you to the following page http://www.thanet.gov.uk/news/latest-press-releases/heritage-open-days.aspx St. John’s Parish Church and Margate Baptist Church but nothing about the two Thanet synagogues that are open this weekend; Montefiore Synagogue and Thanet & District Reform Synagogue.

Strangely enough the other historic buildings that are open in Ramsgate aren’t mentioned either St George's Church and The Grange, so perhaps the council are just Anti-Ramsgate and not Anti-Semitic, these things are a bit difficult to decode from the signals that come from the council.

I don’t think there is any way the council didn’t know about these buildings being open as this is an annual thing, indeed councillors and council officers go and look at the buildings and I have met some of them there.

I also posted about these buildings being open at http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2010/09/ramsgate-heritage-open-days-2010-10-12.html and I know that some of the local councillors and council officers read this blog, so presumably they must have known about it that way too.

Anyway I have made an official complaint to the council that they have behaved Anti-Semitically, as I believe councils are supposed to behave multiculturally.

This is particularly important in this instance as Moses Montefiore was one of the most prominent forerunners of multi-culturalism in the UK and his relationship with this country was vital to the forming of the multi-cultural society we enjoy today.

Ramsgate Heritage Open Days 2010 10-12 September and I admit to a persecution complex

Some of the historic buildings in Ramsgate are open to the public tomorrow and this weekend, details and links to photographs of the buildings below.

Montefiore Synagogue & Mausoleum open Sunday 12 September 9.30am-2pm, this is the building with the shortest opening time this weekend, so I recommend you plan your visit around the time this one is open. It really isn’t one to miss, here are the links to the pictures and information about it.
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Montefiore/index.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/clock/index.htm

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2009/09/montefiore-synagogue-and-mausoleum-open.html

St George's Church, Saturday: 1000-1800, Tower Tours 1130 & 1230 & 1430 & 1530

Sunday: 1200-1600, Tower Tours 1200 & 1400 & 1500

Links to the pictures

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop710/id4.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop710/id5.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop710/id6.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop710/id7.htm

The Grange Ramsgate Friday: 1000-1600

Saturday: 1000-1600

Sunday: 1000-1600

Links to the pictures

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/grange/index.htmhttp://www.michaelsbookshop.com/grange2008/

Now we come to the bit about having a few toys lose in the attic, I suppose the best thing in a case like this is to admit to the problem in the first instance.

The other day one of our own dear councillors and a member of our esteemed cabinet seemed to think I was developing delusions about the council; “I think the mistake you make is in believing that every aspect of life is micro-managed by the council” see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2010/09/local-councillors-blogs-and-beware-of.html

I believe the trickcyclist people call this querulant delusions, this is something like a persecution complex, well today I have to admit to once again thinking that Thanet District Council are persecuting Ramsgate.

I looked at the council’s homepage and although I could see an article there about Heritage Open Days in Margate, these querulant delusions completely prevented me from seeing the one about Heritage Open Days in Ramsgate.

My Therapist Johann Christian Reil, has produced the following therapy schedule.

First plunging me (the lunatic) into a bath full of live eels..

And then showing me a Katzenklavier, or cat-clavichord (pictured above), an instrument played by pressing keys attached to nails which in turn strike the tails of a series of cats arranged with care so as to miaow in tonally sequenced pain.”

I have been having the therapy and I am expecting to see the Ramsgate article appear there at any moment.

Update I am afraid that things are getting worse I have just suffered the delusion that the council’s Twitter update about “Shop Local in Thanet” says only, shop local in Margate, see http://twitter.com/ThanetCouncil/statuses/24023311694

This sort of thing is taking its toll on the eels and the cats.

Cooking, the books and reflections about racist penguins and kosher cookery.

Having recently published a reprint of the first Anglo Jewish cookery book, something that may seem, in the first instance, to be a little strange for a local history publisher who is a gentile, see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/lady_montefiore_s_cookbook_1846.htm

However recent research discovered this to be the work of the wife of one of Ramsgate’s most important residents and therefore an insight into the life and particularly the cookery of the gentry in Ramsgate in the middle of the 1800s.

The first printing produced a few errors now corrected, partly because of my woeful lack of knowledge about Ramsgate’s Anglo Jewish heritage and partly because this is the first time that I have published a cookery book.

Anyway having produced 20 copies with these minor errors and given them away to various well-known locals, mostly chefs and Jews, plenty of each here in Ramsgate although most don’t fit with the stereotypes, I was amused to note that a much larger publisher had also produced an initial run of a cookery book that had an error in it that made it unsaleable.

The Australian edition Penguin's Pasta Bible had to be pulped costing the publishers at least $20,000. after a member of the public complained that a recipe for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto, called for 'salt and freshly ground black people'.

More information at http://www.penguin.com.au/new/new.cfm

Illustration above for the back cover of Montefiore's home in Ramsgate, Eastcliff Lodge © Mark Negin More information about the Montefiores the synagogue in Ramsgate and I will do something about Eastcliff Lodge soon.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Montefiore/index.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/clock/index.htm

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2009/09/montefiore-synagogue-and-mausoleum-open.html