A key part of Kent’s rail heritage has been given a new home.

For several years, the Invicta locomotive engine has been kept at the Canterbury Heritage Museum in Stour Street.

But it closed in 2017 to become a new drama facility for the Marlowe Theatre, called The Kit.

At a recent community committee meeting, councillors unanimously voted to move it to the Whitstable Community Museum in Oxford Street.

They were considering a council report that recommended it be exhibited there, rather than at a new purpose-built facility at Whitstable Harbour called The Shed.

The museum attracted just 9,144 visitors in 2017-18, while the harbour regularly draws more than 150,000 visitors per year.

Cllr Joe Howes expressed his worries that the engine could be hidden from public view at the museum.

“It’s owned by the Transport Trust and one of the things that’s important is letting the world know about the Invicta,” he said.

“We know there are more people visiting the harbour and therefore more people would see it in the harbour.

“Then more outside people would understand the significance Whitstable has played in the nation’s railway industry.”

But the committee chair, Tankerton councillor Neil Baker, argued it would draw greater numbers of people to other parts of the town.

“It’s always been an aspiration of Whitstable councillors to stretch out the footfall of visitors to help all of the traders in the town and I think this may do that,” he said

“There are a lot of railway buffs who will go to the museum to see it.

“The Invicta is indeed, after all these years, coming home.”

This comes after a public consultation which found 79.5% of voters favoured the museum location.

Initially, the engine will be kept in the building’s main exhibition hall, but it would later be moved into its courtyard.

It is estimated the first phase would take no longer than a year and cost £70,000.

The second is expected to need £170,000 of funding.

Brian Hitcham, the chairman of the Whitstable Community Museum, said: “We have undertaken a good deal of research and are confident that although there will doubtless be complications, we can see this project through to a successful completion.

“With Invicta proudly displayed in the museum not only with the winding engine flywheel but also at some stage in the future with the whole Clowes Wood stationary engine built by Robert Stephenson and Company and completed in 1828.

“It’s the world’s oldest surviving railway winding engine and one of the earliest surviving pressure engines for any application.

“This really would tell the story of the Crab and Winkle Line.”

Built in 1829 by famed engineers George and Robert Stephenson, the Invicta first operated at the opening of the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway in 1830.

What do you think of the decision to move the Invicta to Whitstable Community Museum? Email whitstablegazette@thekmgroup.co.uk.