28/07/2024
75 Years ago today: Thanet welcomes the Danes!
The arrival of replica Viking ship 'Hugin' to Kent shores was greeted 'to the continuous cheering and waving of tens of thousands of people' as reported in the Thanet Advertiser of 29th July 1949.
The arrival and celebrations in a post-war Britain that was still subject to rationing is beautifully captured on this film https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/72724/
Hugin had been sailed and rowed by 50 Danes in historic costume and sporting specially grown beards all the way from Esbjerg to mark the arrival 1500 years earlier (449AD) of Hengest and Horsa, who by tradition gave the image of the prancing white horse as symbol of Kent https://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/the-stories-behind-kents-white-horse-232108/
Whether you know it as The White Horse of Kent, the Invicta, or the Saxon Steed, the horse used across the county is linked to a number of legends.
