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Headteacher Mrs. M. Kehoe BEd

St. Crispin’s Road consisted for quite a long time of allotments and playing fields, and several bungalows including Mr. Crispin’s which I understand stood on quite a large plot of ground. Where the Georgian style houses now stand there used to be the playing fields of St. Margaret’s Girls school where they played, amongst other things, lacrosse. I think these playing fields were there quite a long time ago but I am not too sure St. Margaret's was a private school along the sea front in Westgate and this was obviously where the name - St. Margaret’s - came from for the cul-de-sac opposite St. Crispin’s school. Down the end of the road there was even a caravan park. I am not absolutely sure when this was though but I think it was about 1975.

On this page I hope to give you some idea of what was here before St. Crispin’s school. I am afraid I do not have many photos but those I do have are interesting in their own way. Of course if you have any information I could add to this page I would be very grateful.

before st crispins

Here is that name plate again but Mr Crispin’s bungalow was demolished now and the new houses at Prospect Close were being built. You can see the houses finished and still with the same name plate in front of them that once stood in front of Mr. Crispin’s bungalow.
Of course, we all know that we need more and more houses for people to live in, but sometimes when you look at the traffic down St. Crispin’s Road and elsewhere for that matter, don’t you often wish for somewhere a bit quieter?
Just think what it was like for Mr. Crispin. Open fields everywhere, no cars or motorbikes racing around and very peaceful. It must have been bliss.

I have been given this old photo of what was seemingly one of the first bungalows to be built down St. Crispin’s Road. I am told that this is over a 100 years ago so it was even before Mr Crispin.
You can plainly see the lack of road and footpath. What a lovely peaceful way of life it must have been!

Mr Crispin did in fact have a lot to do with the building of St Crispin’s Road and also with St Margaret’s Road. How long Mr. Crispin lived there I do not know but I do know that the bungalow was eventually demolished in 1984. I have since been told (by Mr Crispin’s grandson no less) that Mr Crispin did in fact die in 1956. Whether he lived in St Crispin’s road until then I am not sure. I am grateful to Mr Crispin’s grandson for contacting me and for giving me extra information. How about this then, before the war, Mr Crispin was given the chance to buy Dreamland for £100. Can you imagine what that would cost now even without Dreamland ?

So when we talk of St. Crispin’s Road, while the name is certainly that of a patron saint, the more modern day Mr. Crispin must have had some input into the naming of the road.

Most people reply, when asked about the name St. Crispin, that he is the patron saint of cobblers (shoe menders/makers). That is of course true. But how many people know that in the early 1920’s a man called Mr. Crispin did in fact build a bungalow in St. Crispin’s Road?

St. Crispin’s Road did not in fact exist when this bungalow was built. I believe it was little more than a track then and it was not until well into the 1930’s that it first took shape as a road. Even then of course it was nothing like we know it now.

Therefore St. Crispin’s school should be just down the road. In fact it was built right next door to the bungalow in some of its ground.
When the school was first built it was not as large as it is now. It consisted of just the main building with the six classrooms.

This is another view of the bungalow but from this you can begin to get some idea of where it stood. The name plate for the road is the one by the newer houses at Prospect Close.

One of the vans of the builders who were involved with Prospect Close. They even had the name St. Crispin’s on them.

So there you are, that is all I can tell about St. Crispin,s road. If you have any more information I would love to hear it. Perhaps some of my facts aren’t correct. Please let me know

Here are some old photos of Westgate to finish off with. This one shows Canterbury Road in the 1950’s. This was taken from Domneva Road looking towards Margate. It was just an ordinary road with a single lane each way. It all looks so quiet. How times change !!
I don’t know who the two people waiting at the bus stop were but I hope they didn’t wait too long.

If you are interested, there is a very good web site with lots of old photos of Thanet. They have given permission for me to show these old photos of Westgate on this web site. It really is worth a visit to have a look at the other photos on show and you can do this by going to www.thanetonline.com There is also lots of other useful information regarding Thanet in general. Well worth a visit.

I would like to thank Mr. Richard Hambidge who gave me some of the photos on this page. He has lived in Westgate all his life and has quite a few stories to tell if anyone is interested.
Also thanks to Mr Trevor Crispin, Mr. Crispin’s grandson, who took the trouble to contact me with more information about his granddad.

These last two pictures are from the early 1900’s. I know they are nothing to do with St. Crispin’s Road, but they are Westgate. The first one is Roxburgh Road in Westgate and the other one is Station Road in Westgate. Both of them show that while the actual roads have not changed much, there certainly is a lack of traffic. Doesn’t it all look nice and peaceful!

Some old pictures of Westgate

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This is Mr Crispin’s bungalow. I can remember when we first moved to Westgate, we used to wonder who could have lived here. It always looked so nice set in its own ground. I never ever thought I would later be writing about it.