Thanet isn’t even an island now, just a spur of Kent sticking out into the Channel.

But for a thousand years it was the hinge upon which England’s history turned. Then it really was an island, separated from the mainland by the Wantsum Channel, a tidal channel that separated the high chalk of Thanet from the rest of the country.

The Isle of Thanet was also one of the closer points to the continent. The Wantsum Channel, by cutting it off from the rest of Britain, acted in effect as a moat, providing defences for anyone holed up on the island. This was something eyes watching from across the Channel noted so that, when Julius Caesar arrived in 55 and 54 BC, he set up a fort on the island. Indeed, he might have landed on it too when first arriving. When the Romans returned, they set up their initial fort at one end of the Wantsum Channel and, once Britain was secure, turned that fort into the most important fort/port in the country, Richborough.

They also established another fort, Reculver, at the other end of the Wantsum, showing clearly how strategically important this channel was.

Then, after the Romans left Britain, the Anglo-Saxons arrived and, according to legend, Hengist and Horsa were given the Isle of Thanet by a foolish King Vortigern in return for their mercenary help. He should have remembered his history: no good could come of giving men with swords such an impregnable base. Sure enough, Hengist and Horsa overthrew Vortigern and set themselves up as kings of Kent. Once again, Thanet had been the hinge upon which England’s history had turned.

And this was not the end. During the Viking era, Viking armies realised that the Wantsum Channel was the ideal place to moor their longships while the isle provided them with a secure base to overwinter before better weather allowed them to resume their customary raiding and pillaging.

In 865, the Great Heathen Army, that came within a single battle of conquering all England, overwintered on Thanet. The isle’s inhabitants must have been becoming a little tired of being the providers for so many passing raiders. Nevertheless, the soil was so rich that the Isle had the highest population density in Kent a while later.

It was only the silting up and closure of the Wantsum Channel, turning the Isle into the tip of Kent, that ended its hinge role in history.

Gerald Moody’s excellent book gives all the archaeological detail of these few extraordinarily important square miles and sets them into their historical context.