Thanet

Thanet is a district of Kent, south-east England, in the east of the county; it is a small peninsula protruding into the North Sea. Thanet is also known as the Isle of Thanet, as it was formerly an island separated from the Kentish mainland; the dividing waterway has silted up and is now dry land. The name is of Celtic origin and means 'bright island', relating possibly to an early lighthouse or perhaps to its white chalk cliffs. Thanet includes the resort towns of Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate (the last also a port with ferry services to Dunkirk and Ostend), the village of Minster (also called Minster in Thanet, to differentiate it from Minster in Sheppey), and Manston, the site of an RAF airfield (now a local airport) which played a major role in the Battle of Britain. Pegwell Bay, on the southern edge of Thanet, is traditionally the place where the Romans first landed in Britain, where the Saxons Hengist and Horsa landed, and where Saint Augustine landed in 597. The bay was also a base for early hovercraft services.