Westgate-on-Sea

Westgate-on-Sea
West Bay
Westgate-on-Sea is located in Kent
Westgate-on-Sea
Westgate-on-Sea
Location within Kent
Population6,996 (2011)
OS grid referenceTR321701
Civil parish
  • Westgate-on-Sea
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWESTGATE-ON-SEA
Postcode districtCT8
Dialling code01843
PoliceKent
FireKent
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Kent

51°22′53″N 01°20′17″E / 51.38139°N 1.33806°E / 51.38139; 1.33806

Map

Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of Kent, England. It is within the Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort of Margate. Its two sandy beaches have remained a popular tourist attraction since the town's development in the 1860s from a small farming community. The town had a population of 7,517 at the 2021 Census.[1]

The town is notable for once being the location of a Royal Naval Air Service seaplane base at St Mildred's Bay, which defended the Thames Estuary coastal towns during World War I. The town is the subject of Sir John Betjeman's poem, "Westgate-on-Sea". Residents have included the 19th-century surgeon Sir Erasmus Wilson and former archbishop of Canterbury William Temple. The artist Sir William Quiller Orchardson painted several of his best-known pictures whilst living in Westgate-on-Sea. The British artist Louis Wain and his family. The British composer Arnold Cooke attended the town's Streete Preparatory School in the early 20th century, and Eton headmaster Anthony Chenevix-Trench spent the earliest few years of his education in the town.[2]

  1. ^ "Westgate-on-Sea - areainsights.co.uk".
  2. ^ Peel, Mark (1996). The land of lost content: the biography of Anthony Chenevix-Trench. Edinburgh: Pentland Press. ISBN 1-85821-400-9.