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The name of 'Margate'.

 

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. 

 

  

 

 

 

Last updated 6 December 1998.

 

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