Definitive traces of human activity on the island of Thanet stretch back as far as 8000 BC. By around 5000BC the area was quite well populated with early farmers and Thanet became a major Stone Age settlement. Early Britons known to have been in Thanet were a mix of Neolithic farmers from the Mediterranean circa 3000BC and "Beaker' people (so called because of the kind of pottery they used), from the Rhineland circa 1700 BC. Trade in Corn, lead, tin and skins from Thanet ports to Ireland and the Continent were already established in the Bronze age circa 1800 BC or even earlier. Romans came to Thanet, establishing forts at Richborough and Reculver. After the Romans came the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Anglo-Saxons were peaceful colonists while the Jutes and Danes were war like and vicious and Kent was the first part of Britain to be colonised by these warriors from the North. During the 12th and 14th centuries life centered around small fishing settlements on the coast or farming hamlets in land. Brewers in Margate, fisherman and ropemakers in Ramsgate, exporters of wool, flax and hemp to Europe, coopers, carpenters, bakers and smiths prospered in a 13th Century trade boom from the Island. Ramsgate was primarily a fishing port, Broadstairs built up a substantial cod fleet and Margate prospered from herring fishing. Thanet was famous for the quality of its agriculture, due to advanced systems of crop rotations, cheap improved drainage as well as the use of seaweed as both fertilizer and animal fodder. Up until the 18th Century, Thanet consisted of a group of farming and fishing villages living as communities based around Churches and Harbours. Improved communication and leisure travel, as well as trade, helped develop the Island's seaside industry. In 1815, Paddle Steamers had started to ferry in passengers in greater numbers, but the real developers and exploiters of the travel market were the railway companies, which began to arrive in Thanet in 1846. By the turn of the Century, Margate had established itself as among the foremost of Britain's Holiday resorts. Tourist soon began visiting neighbouring Broadstairs which attracted a more refined holiday maker, while busy Ramsgate, thrived around the Harbour which developed from a small fishing port to a Harbour handling cargo ships, a cross channel ferry service and now an international yacht marina. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.4/332 - Release Date: 5/4/06