Napoleon’s Eagles, that were captured from the vanquished Imperial French army at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), landed in Britian at Broadstairs in Kent. The originals are now in museums, however a replica of Eagle 103 still surveys Viking Bay in Kent, the sandy beach now surrounded by the town of Broadstairs, “The Jewell of the Isle of Thanet”. With the eagles came the first news of the great victory at Waterloo.
Viking Bay acquired its name in the course of the 1500th anniversary of the landing in Thanet of Hengist and Horsa in 449 AD. Wooden elements of the pier survive from Tudor times.
Charles Dickens wrote several books in East Kent, and the large house atop the cliff is said to have insprired his novel “Bleak House”.
A more recent resident was Oliver Postgate, the animator and creator of childrens’ characters, including The Clangers, who are remembered with a small mosaic outside his one-time residence in Chandos Square, Broadstairs.