It used to be an island... Exploring Thanet by Bus
17 August 2025
ABOVE: Stagecoach South East 34648 (GX54 DWY), a Dennis Dart SLF Plaxton Pointer 2, stands at the Birchington-on-Sea terminus of route 48 in East Kent. All photos in this article were taken on Saturday 19 April 2025.
I've decided to explore some 'local' bus services in East Kent that have been on my to-do list for a while. These are the kinds of services that one doesn't really notice when using the main routes around the region, but also the kind that bring one really close to the lovely towns and villages of this great nation.
All my buses today will be with Stagecoach South East, and I want to put a Stagecoach day ticket on my phone. But the app is having none of it. It wants me to buy a ticket from its Devon range. This is a little impractical as I'm at Canterbury Bus Station. But I had previously bought a ticket in Devon and the app can't get used to the idea that I might want a ticket from a different part of the country - is it so rare?
I try to reset my account, but the promised email to enable me to do this doesn't turn up. In the end, I have to delete and reload the app entirely, using a different email address - it's not one I use regularly so I have to recall it off the top of my head. It does the trick, although I later realise that I have mis-recalled the address, and the one I have used probably doesn't exist at all (or if it does, it belongs to someone else entirely)!
But it has worked, and, after 15 minutes of fiddling about, I have my day ticket ready just as my first bus pulls onto the stand.
I'm starting my day today on route 600 to Herne Bay. This is one part of the former "Triangle" service that I mentioned in an earlier article about a trip to Whitstable. As I board the 600, though, that Whitstable trip is a few hours into the future.
The 600 is operated by Stagecoach South East using ADL Enviro400 MMCs. The main daytime service (routes 600 & 601) runs every 15 minutes on this busy corridor, but it's only 0815 as I set off and the service is half-hourly at this point. Just as well, or I would probably have missed one trying to sort out my ticket!
An easterly exit from the city centre puts us on the road to the village of Sturry. Sturry lies at the old Roman junction of the road from the city to Thanet, at the point where a fort was built to protect the crossing of the River Stour. This river was significant in earlier times, with its original mouth on the Wantsum Channel, an important sea route. We'll come to that shortly.
The bus turns onto a more northerly trajectory now, through an area that is largely open countryside. A few miles in is the Kent location of the Wildwood Trust, with 40 acres of ancient woodland to explore, where one might stumble across bears, wolves, bison, elk, badgers, arctic foxes, wild boar, deer, lynx, wildcat, owls, storks or snakes.
ABOVE: Stagecoach South East 11558 (SK21 FJD), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, passes the Wildwood Trust park on a route 601 journey towards Canterbury. INSET is the sign outside the park, highlighting some of the animals one might meet.
Next is the village of Herne. In the village is the Smuggler's Inn public house. Parts of the pub date back 400 years, and it has a "smuggling history". It is suggested that there is a tunnel from the cellar to the church opposite, which smugglers would use if Customs officials came visiting (although, I am told, smugglers were not especially keen on churches either)!
A more modern feature at the edge of the village is the A299 Thanet Way - a major trunk road that stretches 22 miles across East Kent, from Faversham to Ramsgate. It "separates Herne village from Herne Bay" according to some sources, and became a dual carriageway following an upgrade between 1989 and 1997.
ABOVE: The A299 Thanet Way, near Herne.
It's only a 35-or-so-minute journey from Canterbury before we reach the environs of Herne Bay. But what's this? Signs are proclaiming that the High Street is closed, and the 'main' stop for the Town Centre has temporarily relocated to Kings Road. At least, I assume it is the main stop, as the bus empties out here!
ABOVE: Stagecoach South East 15330 (YN67 YLC), a Scania N250UD ADL Enviro400 MMC, at the temporary bus stop in Kings Road, Herne Bay.
The bus is now heading on to Whitstable - at some point on the next bit of the journey, it will become a service 400, continuing back to Canterbury. (This corrects my earlier statement in my Whitstable article that interchange is necessary between the 400 and 600 at Greenhill; I don't think it is - it's the buses that make the change!)
The problem with the temporary stop arrangement here is that there is no information provided as to what stops here. I want to catch route 36 - the first of my 'local' services - but I have no idea whether it will be coming down this road (nor in which direction if it does). And, as it's a temporary arrangement, there may not even be accurate advice online. I decide to play safe and head the 36 off at the railway station.
This involves walking through Herne Bay Memorial Park. This was established after World War I to commemorate local fallen heroes.
It's half a mile or so to the station; part of the walk is back on the official route of the 600 / 601, and I could probably catch the 36 from here as well, but I press on to the station.
ABOVE: Stagecoach South East 15275 (YN16 WVR), a Scania N250UD ADL Enviro400 MMC, heads along Station Road, Herne Bay
I get to the station with a few minutes in hand. It's an impressive-looking building from the street:
One of the things I am aware of in this area is that a number of Dennis Darts are still in service, and I wonder if I am going to find one on the 36. This service starts along the coast in Westcliff, just west of Herne Bay, and continues to Margate and on to the local hospital, the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (QEQM).
The vehicle that turns up is an ADL Enviro200. It's a busy service, even for 0917 on a Saturday.
Inevitably, the bus heads back to Kings Road, where it not only stops right opposite where I left the 600, but stands there for two minutes - would have been plenty of time if I had been on the wrong side of the road! In fact, in the first half of the journey, there seems to be quite a lot of standing waiting for time.
We pass through the residential areas of Beltinge and Hillborough. These villages, and that of Bishopstone (slightly off the route) are the three geographically-contiguous eastern localities of Herne Bay. Beltinge Cliff describes a large central portion of the gently sloping cliff range here - the first cliffs east of London.
And we're just west of the small settlement of Reculver, which had an important Roman Fort and a channel which served to provide safer passage around what was the "Isle of Thanet" until the early Middle Ages. The Wantsum Channel was a strait separating the Isle of Thanet from the north-eastern extremity of the English county of Kent; it connected the English Channel and the Thames Estuary, and was a major shipping route when Britain was part of the Roman Empire. Thanet ceased to be a separate island as a result of silting in the late Middle Ages.
The 36 covers some ground swiftly by making a four-mile non-stop dash along the Thanet Way, to the edge of Birchington-on-Sea. I shall come back to Birchington later - both in my journey and in this article!
ABOVE: On a parallel road, about to join the main carriageway of the A299 Thanet Way
The wide and sandy beach of Margate soon comes into view.
I leave the bus at the Cecil Street Council Offices stop at 1005, one minute later than scheduled. Another seven minutes should see it through to QEQM Hospital.
ABOVE: Stagecoach South East 36865 (GN13 EXX), an ADL Enviro200, in Churchfield Place, Margate. Behind is Stagecoach 15279 (YN16 WVV), another Scania N250UD ADL Enviro400 MMC, on route 8 from Canterbury to Westwood Cross
My plan now is to catch route 34 across Thanet to Ramsgate. This is another route that I consider a possibility for finding one of the remaining Dennis Darts. (I photographed one on this route a couple of years ago and it's at the top of my 2023 page. Whilst I'm waiting, an actual Dennis Dart passes through on route 32 (Minnis Bay to Margate).
ABOVE: 34730, a 20-year-old Dennis Dart SLF Plaxton Pointer 2
But it looks as though the 34 has been upgraded in the last couple of years, as the bus that turns up, as with all that I see on the route, is an ADL Enviro400. Still, at least that gives me a top deck to view the route from, and what a route it is!
Although we ease out of Margate via a simple route, things become complicated very quickly as we reach the Millmead Road and venture into the Dane Valley residential area. It takes about eight minutes to navigate this area, and it turns out to be a huge one-way circuit (buses in both directions go the same way round, which must be confusing); we return to Millmead Road afterwards.
As we progress towards Westwood, there are some really large and unspoilt open areas of green space, mixed in with housing and industrial units.
ABOVE: Westwood Road near the Asda Superstore
The whole Westwood area (I believe it is officially a part of Broadstairs, albeit a fair way from the coastal part of town) seems to be one huge retail park, although it is actually several! Familiar supermarkets jostle for space with other familiar High Street brands, all of whom seem to have gone large for the residents of Thanet.
Westwood Cross is one of these retail parks, with "high street fashions and sports shops", and a multiplex cinema. A small Bus Station has been incorporated here...
ABOVE: Stagecoach 26234 (YW19 VND), an ADL Enviro200, stands at Westwood Cross whilst working the "Loop" service between Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate. For more about the "Loop", go to http://busestopdeck.co.uk/092.html.
The 34 has been busy so far, but passenger numbers drop noticeably after Westwood. We have a driver change at the Bus Garage here, which is very slow (several minutes' delay in fact).
From here, a straight-forward drive along the Margate Road would see us into Ramsgate. But the 34 has other plans, as a right-turn takes us into Newington. Ramsgate Borough Council developed the Newington Estate in the late 1940s to replace housing lost in World War II.
Newington morphs imperceptibly into St Lawrence. We're approaching Ramsgate from the western side, so I'm expecting a left turn to take us into the town. I'm caught unawares, then, when the 34 creates one final twist for me by turning right. It turns left almost immediately after, though, and this is actually part of the turn-around route to give the bus an easy exit out of town on the return journey.
We head along Royal Parade and get a splendid view of the Harbour.
The bus drops at Leopold Street, five minutes behind schedule at 1136. There is a sizeable group assembled for the return journey.
I have 24 minutes to find my next bus, which is just as well, as buses from Ramsgate seem to leave from a number of different points, and there doesn't seem to be a focal point (unless you want The Loop, Stagecoach's highest-profile service in this area, which leaves from the centre of the Harbour).
I need to venture inland slightly, to King Street, to find the infrequent route 48. This service, with eight trips on weekdays but only four on Saturdays, starts at nearby Dumpton, and will take me right back across Thanet to Birchington.
I hope. There's a paper shop next to the bus stop which is broadcasting a local radio station, and that radio station is reporting on an accident somewhere nearby, that is causing some issues for the traffic in the area. Of course, I have no knowledge of the local area and therefore no idea of whether the bus will be affected by it, but it is late...
The bus turns up at 1207, seven minutes later than scheduled. There's nowhere much for it to stop on this narrow road, so the middle of the road must suffice:
ABOVE: Stagecoach 34648 (GX54 DWY), a Dennis Dart SLF Plaxton Pointer 2, in King Street, Ramsgate
As you can see from my photograph, I have finally caught up with a Dennis Dart! This 20-year-old vehicle belies its age, though. It runs smoothly and looks very smart and clean. Seats appear to have been given new coverings, or a deep clean at least, fairly recently.
Unfortunately, the accident being reported has a direct impact on the 48, and it's very slow progress out of Ramsgate.
We call in at the railway station (which is some way from the harbour). A smart ex-RATP London Scania Scania N230UD OmniCity is parked up. It still carries it old fleetnumber but is now operated by YMS Travel, a coach hire company that also runs school contracts.
ABOVE: Former RATP London Scania N230UD OmniCity YT59 SGO is now in the fleet of YMS Travel, when seen at Ramsgate Station. It carries the RATP fleet number, SP 40096.
The queue of traffic finally fades, only for us to hit another queue near Manston; this time caused by traffic calming measures (a passing point where traffic going one way must give way to traffic going the other way). The scenery has become countrified again.
In the hamlet of Acol (one of the smallest communities in Kent), there's an extremely tight squeeze for the driver after a car decides not to give way in a narrow road. The driver needs all of his skills to get through, but does it with aplomb.
But it's just another delay to add to what has already been lost on this journey. We reach the terminus, near Birchington-on-Sea railway station, at 1303 - 35 minutes behind schedule. What should have been the 1233 departure back is more than half an hour late, and I believe that the Ramsgate to Dumpton section of that subsequent journey may have been cancelled to help recover the lost time.
As I see the bus disappear, I wonder, as I always do, whether this has been my last trip on a Dennis Dart in regular passenger service. It was a hugely successful design, and more than 12,600 were built, but even the newest will now be 17-18 years old, and they are disappearing rapidly. Indeed, the two Darts in photos in this article have both been withdrawn since my visit, and BusTimes no longer lists any Darts in the Stagecoach South East fleet (the last one, 34442, KV53 EZW, seems to have last run on 25 July 2025).
Birchington is a nice spot. Technically a village, it has a vibrant main street. Although desribed on maps as Birchington-on-Sea, the "on sea" addition is technically only for the railway station. As a seaside resort, the village is a tourist and retirement destination.
The village was first recorded in 1240, and its parish church, All Saints, dates back to the 13th Century.
A mile away is Minnis Bay, a family beach with attractions such as sailing, windsurfing, a paddling pool and coastal walking routes. Its three smaller beaches are surrounded by chalk cliffs, cliff stacks and caves. I don't venture there on this occasion, but having since looked at Google Streetview, maybe I should have done...
Back to Birchington, and I've completed my planned trio of 'local' services, moving back-and-forth across the former island. Now, I'll be catching the number 8 service back into Canterbury. Or an 8A in this case. The two routes link Canterbury with Margate before going off in separate directions (Westwood Cross for the 8 and Northdown Park - a residential area at the very tip of north-east Margate for the 8A). Between Margate and Canterbury they combine to provide an impressive 15-minute frequency.
This early afternoon service is busy. There's a group of tourists occupying most of the front four rows upstairs, and I am pushed much further back. It makes photography tricky, but this route is characterised by its vast green and empty fields - miles of them!
The most interesting village on the route is Sarre, which is located at the point where the old 'Island Road' from Margate to Canterbury crossed the Wantsum Channel, initially by a ferry, and from the late Middle Ages, by a bridge. It's a lovely spot, and, just off the bus route, is the Crown Inn, a Grade-I listed "Old Established Halfway House" dating from around 1500. It's also known as the Cherry Brandy House, having started selling the distinctive liqueur in the 17th Century, made to a recipe brought by French Huguenots.
Back to the 8A, and the 38-minute journey includes some lengthy brisk sections, as we swallow up the countryside. It slows down drastically on the approach to the CIty Centre and the Bus Station, of course - always a congested area during the daytime.
ABOVE: Stagecoach 15265, a Scania N250UD ADL Enviro400 MMC, passes Cecil Square in Margate, on a route 8A working to Canterbury.
My day is far from over, but I've already described the subsequent trip that I made to Whitstable. It's getting quite warm as well, now, as Spring makes itself felt! And I've had a lovely few hours exploring Thanet!
BELOW: An approximation of the route described in this article
