Reculver - Transport

Transport

Reculver is at the end of an unclassified road, Reculver Lane, and is about 2 miles (3 km) by road from the nearest major junction of the A299, or "Thanet Way". From Roman times Reculver was connected to Canterbury by a road, the presence of which is reflected in parish boundaries for much of its length. The Reculver end of this road has disappeared owing to coastal erosion, but it is marked as "The King’s highe Way" on an estate map of 1685. Remains of a Roman road leading to the east gate of the fort have also been found, which were "substantial ... consisting of a sandstone platform wide and at least deep."

In 1817, the nearest coaching route to Reculver was that running between London, Canterbury and the Isle of Thanet, which passed through Upstreet, about 4 miles (6 km) south of Reculver, before entering Thanet. In 1839, coaches and vans ran daily from Herne Bay to Canterbury and on to destinations on the southern and eastern coast of Kent, with access to the English Channel, at Deal, Dover, Sandgate and Hythe. In 1865, transport between Herne Bay and Reculver was available by "fly" – a type of one-horse hackney carriage.

As of 2012, a bus service, route 7/7A, which is operated on behalf of Kent County Council, connects Reculver directlly with Herne Bay and Canterbury daily, except on Sundays and bank holidays. Other destinations on this route include Reculver Church of England Primary School, at Hillborough, Broomfield, Chislet, Hoath, and the railway station at Sturry, on the Ashford to Ramsgate line. Route 36 connects Reculver with Herne Bay and Margate daily except Sundays. Other destinations on this route include Reculver Church of England Primary School, at Hillborough, Beltinge, Birchington-on-Sea and Westgate-on-Sea. The bus stop at Reculver is adjacent to the King Ethelbert Inn.

The nearest railway stations to Reculver are at Herne Bay, about 3.75 miles (6 km) to the west, and Birchington-on-Sea, about 4.5 miles (7 km) to the east. Both stations are on the Chatham Main Line, running between London's Victoria station and Ramsgate, on the south-eastern coast of the Isle of Thanet. The railway first reached Herne Bay from the west in 1861, and was extended to Ramsgate Harbour railway station by 1863, but no provision was made for direct access from Reculver. A short-lived goods station for Reculver was opened on the main line in 1864, and in 1884 the South Eastern Railway proposed a branch from its Ashford to Ramsgate line to serve Reculver and Herne Bay, but this was never built. Rudimentary houses were erected by the railway company on marshland near Reculver in 1858 for the navvies who constructed the line through the area; these had been taken over by enginemen of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway by October 1904, when they were replaced by cottages.

There is no formal access to Reculver by sea. Passenger steamships called at Herne Bay pier on their route between London and destinations along the north coast of Kent from 1832, but this service ceased in 1862. However, Reculver has had connections with the sea since the 1st century, when the Roman fort of Regulbium had a supporting harbour, and the quantity and variety of coins found at Reculver dating from the 7th century to the 8th are almost certainly related to its location on a "major trading route". Anglo-Saxon Reculver probably had its own harbour, and the monastery at Reculver may well have operated a "fleet of ships and its own boatyard." Details in the 10th century charter in which King Eadred gave Reculver to the archbishops of Canterbury suggest that there was then an island north of Reculver, with its own "mini-Wantsum could have provided a sheltered channel for beaching and berthing ships"; the present day Black Rock beyond the shoreline at Reculver may be a remnant of this island.

In the 16th century, oysters dredged at Reculver were reported as better than any in Kent, and, in the 17th century, an inlet north-west of Reculver was described as "anciently for a harber of ships, called now The Old Pen". In the 18th century, there was a place for landing passengers and goods at Reculver village. The former name of the King Ethelbert Inn at Reculver, the "Hoy and Anchor", makes reference to hoys, a local type of merchant sailing vessel, which continued to serve the coastline around Reculver in the mid-19th century, by which time the remnant of the village had been recorded as home only to "fishermen and smugglers". A travel guide of 1865 advised that

best way to visit Reculver from Margate is by means of a sailing or rowing boat ... Herne Bay is by far the most convenient place to get to Reculver from, as you can be rowed to the foot of the twin towers in little more than half an hour ... we run the boat on the beach, and plant our foot on the famous "Rutupian shore," sung by Juvenal ...

— All About Margate and Herne Bay, 1865

Coastguards were stationed at Reculver from the mid-19th century until they were withdrawn in the mid-20th century, but the towers of the ruined church of Reculver remain a landmark for mariners, both practically and through their use to mark the division between areas covered by Thames Coastguard and Dover Coastguard.