WWLB028
Location: St. Johns Cemetery, Margate
Walk: 3m (4.67km) (Return journey). Long with some hills.
Keeper: Joan Smith
Status: Installed

Guide:
Begin the walk at the entrance to Arlington House on All Saints Avenue. I was told by a local shopkeeper that his grandmother told him a story, when he was a little boy, that an elephant is buried in the ground upon which Arlington House now stands, it having once been the site of a circus.

Walk under the railway bridges and turn left into Tivoli Park Avenue. Continue along the road past the park and the sports field. Look out for the green parakeets among the trees. They are descendants of aviary escapees about 20 years ago. Walk past the woods on your right hand side. At the end of the chain link fence turn along the footpath. This will bring you out on Hartsdown Road.

Cross the road and continue right until you reach the footpath on the left. This will bring you out by Shottendane Farm. Turn right and you will see the memorial to P. C. Jon Odell, who died on duty in 2000. Cross the road and continue right until the footpath just before the houses (a walk of about a quarter of a mile). Follow the footpath. At the top of the hill look back and you will see (from the left) the landmarks of All Saints Church, Arlington House, St Johns Church and the chimney of the hospital.

The path ends on Manston Road, opposite Half Mile Ride. Cross the road, turn left and continue past the cemetery wall. Ignore the first entrance and go in the main entrance a little further on. Walk between the chapels and turn left to where you will find a magnificent memorial to the Sanger family, topped by a full size statue of a sad looking circus horse.

When I first saw this I remembered Sanger’s circus from my childhood, in the early fifties. I lived in Bedford, my home town, and I can remember Lord Robert Sanger’s touring circus. So I made the connection between the elephant and assume that Sanger’s circus must have come from Margate.

Further along the cemetery path is the grave of J. M. W. Turner’s physician friend David Price. See if you can find it. Then look for the letterbox. It is on a yew tree close by. The cemetery dates from 1856 and is now a good place for bird watching and I am also told that there are also some albino squirrels.When I got home I found a lot more out about the Sanger family in a recently published book on the history of Dreamland, the old amusement centre, which is adjacent to Arlington House in Margate. The book contains a lovely photograph of the memorial and shows where the letterbox is sited.

On leaving the cemetery continue right towards the town and return along Tivoli Park Avenue.m here thirty-nine steps could take you in any direction.