had to be demolished and a replacement manor house was built in its place. In 1818, the Waterloo Tower was built on the grounds of Quex Park. It is a bell tower built by the owner of Quex Park, John Powell Powell, who had an interest in change ringing. Waterloo Tower was the first twelve-bell tower in Kent. The village was a farming community until the late 19th century, when it began to develop into a coastal resort. Birchington railway station was opened in 1863 and the Railway Hotel, now the Sea View Hotel pub, was opened in 1865. Station Road was subsequently built to serve as Birchington's main shopping street. Coast Guard cottages were built at Minnis Bay in the 1870s and the first shops appeared by the bay in 1903. Geography Birchington-on-Sea is located at (51.377, 1.305) in northeast Kent, on the coast of the Thames Estuary. The village is 14 kilometres (9 mi) to the east of Herne Bay and 6 kilometres (4 mi) to the west of Margate. The small town of Westgate-on-Sea lies between Birchington and Margate. The village is built beside four partly sandy bays; Minnis Bay to the west, Grenham Bay and Beresford Gap towards the centre and Epple Bay to the east. The village is situated on the Isle of Thanet, which was a separate island from mainland Kent until around two hundred years ago, when the channel in between became silted up. The area to the west of the village, between Birchington and Herne Bay, was once part of the channel and is now low-lying marshland. In the east of the village the land rises, forming chalk cliffs and cliff stacks around the beaches at Grenham Bay, Beresford Gap and Epple Bay. A sea wall stretches along the foot of the cliffs to prevent further erosion. The geology of Thanet consists mainly of chalk, deposited when the area was below the sea. Isle of Thanet became exposed above sea-level once the English Channel broke through between Kent and France, causing the sea-level to fall. The whole of the northeast Kent coast has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The drinking water in the village is classed as being 'very hard', having just over 120 mg of calcium per litre. The hardness is due to water being obtained from underground chalk sources by the water company Southern Water. Climate In