The name has been variously spelt as Margat, Meregate and in the 13th Century, de Mergate. "Mere" could mean sea, lake or pool, and "gate" a way in or out of the country. Perhaps the Brooks, now the site of Dreamland, low-lying and fed by springs, did become a lake (sometimes freezing, to give the locals some skating). For another possibility, a monk of Reculver, Ymar by name, had a dying wish to be buried in St Johns Parish Church. Ymar could have become Margate in time. Tradition insists that an old stone coffin lid at the church was his. 

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