There are prehistoric, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon settlement remains on the peninsula around Ebbsfleet Farm, which may have also been the landing stage for the Roman ferry across the channel to Richborough from Thanet.
Although now some distance from the sea, Richborough stood at the southern end of the Wantsum Channel from prehistory to the early mediaeval period.
In 1917 one example, no. 685 was converted into an S class 0-6-0ST for use as a heavy-duty shunter at Richborough port which was then being used to ship locomotives and armoured equipment to the Western Front.
It led from Richborough in the south-east by way of a ford of the Thames at present-day Westminster to near Wroxeter, where one section went on to Holyhead and another, by way of Chester, on towards Scotland.