19th March 2024
Several people have asked us if the new name for a section of London’s Overground train line – the Mildmay Line – has anything to do with Shoreham’s landowning Mildmay family. The answer is… Sort of.
Several people have asked us if the new name for a section of London’s Overground train line – the Mildmay Line – has anything to do with Shoreham’s landowning Mildmay family. The answer is… Sort of.
The Mildmays, who rose to wealth as merchants in Chelmsford in the 16th century, gave their name to an estate to the east of Islington a hundred years later. In the late 18th century, the heiress Jane Mildmay married Henry Paulet St John, who decided to co-opt his wife’s prestigious name, calling himself Henry Paulet St John-Mildmay. The couple’s seventh child, Humphrey, had the good fortune to marry the daughter of the banking magnate, Alexander Baring, who bought the vast Shoreham estate for his daughter and Mildmay son-in-law in the 1820s.
When Jane Mildmay’s politician husband died in 1808, the Mildmay estate in East London fell back into her hands, and she sold land to a new railway built through the estate. The East and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway opened in 1850, and soon after was renamed The North London Railway. Jane died in 1857, aged about 92; her son Humphrey, the first Shoreham Mildmay, had died four years before. |
But the new name for the rail line is not really in honour of Jane or her family. In the mid-Victorian period, the Revd William Pennefather and his wife Catherine – based at a church in Mildmay Park – set up several projects to help the sick and poor of the area. These became known as Mildmay Institutions and it led to the creation of a Mildmay Mission Hospital in Shoreditch in 1892. Under the same name, it became a renowned centre for AIDS-related illnesses in 1988 – famously visited by Princess Diana. This is the reason why the Mildmay moniker is now attached to the railway.
28th February 2024
Highlights in the Hall is a new pamphlet from the Historical Society telling the story of 100 years of Shoreham Village Hall. There had been the idea for a hall before the First World War, but a committee set up in 1919 to advance the plans talked of the “appalling costs” involved – up to £3,500 – and the following year one of its key advocates, the builder Benjamin Greenwood, said he was “deeply disappointed” that the project had stalled. It seems that only a handsome contribution from local landowner Francis Mildmay, who had donated the land on the Recreation Ground where the hall was to be built, allowed construction to go ahead four years later. The grand opening, with enthusiastic villagers packed inside, finally took place on 24 May 1924.
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The hall faced demolition on two occasions after the Second World War. In 1966, hall income was only £147 and it was decided that an extension was needed along with parking for 20 cars on the Recreation Ground. After a rancorous village meeting turned down the car park idea in 1967, the parish council – which was the hall’s charity trustee at the time – floated plans for a new hall on part of the allotments. The hall’s management committee was opposed and a village meeting vetoed that idea, too.
A flat-roofed extension was built in 1972, but 15 years later this was leaking so badly that the council put up a second scheme for a spanking new hall on the allotments, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds and paid for by housing on the site of the 1924 building. “Residents Oppose New Hall Scheme” blared a headline in the Sevenoaks Chronicle, and yet again villagers voted against. Instead, in 1992, the current hall was refurbished and extended with a new pitched roof after a huge fund-raising effort. The aim was to create a venue that would “last well into the next century with little or no trouble” – something which, in large measure, has been achieved.
19th February 2024
Some people think that Samuel Palmer arrived in Shoreham in 1824; others believe it might have been a year or two later. But an exhibition at the Kaleidoscope Gallery in Sevenoaks tends to favour the 1824 date, which would make this year an important kind of bicentennial for Shoreham. The absorbing exhibition, entitled Samuel Palmer: Visionary Landscapes, runs at the gallery inside Sevenoaks Library until 12 March. It’s at the Sir Peter Blake Gallery in Dartford from 15 March until 16 May. The show contains several high-quality reproductions of Palmer’s Shoreham output alongside works by many contemporary artists inspired by his art and ideas. Among the contributors are Kit Boyd, Amanda Hopkins and Victoria Threlfall. Some fine paintings by pupils at Shoreham School also capture the familiar shapes and moods of the hills above the village. The Palmer pictures (such as a fanciful view of Ivy Cottage, shown here) are presented in a larger scale than you would often get in a book, allowing you to immerse yourself more fully in them and get a clearer sense of his use of line and colour – and to study the faces and forms of the people he depicts, which are sometimes overlooked.
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6th February 2024
Can you spot the difference between these two pictures? Even non-Shoreham residents would have no difficulty seeing the Cross on the Hill and the war memorial by the river appear in the second of the before-and-after shots, which have recently been donated to the Historical Society. The Cross was dug on the western hill by voluntary village labour between May and August 1920 in memory of those killed in World War I. The “inscription stone” by the bridge, with 31 names of the dead inscribed on bronze plates, was completed about a year later. (You can read more about the Cross on the Hill in the Village History section.)
Can you spot the difference between these two pictures? Even non-Shoreham residents would have no difficulty seeing the Cross on the Hill and the war memorial by the river appear in the second of the before-and-after shots, which have recently been donated to the Historical Society. The Cross was dug on the western hill by voluntary village labour between May and August 1920 in memory of those killed in World War I. The “inscription stone” by the bridge, with 31 names of the dead inscribed on bronze plates, was completed about a year later. (You can read more about the Cross on the Hill in the Village History section.)
But there’s another difference between the two photos – the telegraph pole that moves from the east bank of the bridge to the west. In January 1921, the minutes of the committee set up to plan the inscription stone recorded the need to move the pole “abutting the bridge” so as not to get in the way of the stone. Within a week or two, the local Post Office engineer had said there would be no problem with that, a speedy response that might not come from telecom firms today. And as we can see, the engineer was as good as his word.
29th October 2023
Sometimes people ask us if we know the history of the bridge in the centre of the village, and the answer is: We know some, but not all of it. Recent research in our Archive has allowed us to piece together a fuller picture.
Sometimes people ask us if we know the history of the bridge in the centre of the village, and the answer is: We know some, but not all of it. Recent research in our Archive has allowed us to piece together a fuller picture.
The earliest reference to the bridge – as the “Longebregge” – comes from 1318 when the Archbishop of Canterbury controlled our lands as lord of the manor at Otford. A tenant had refused to pay five shillings due from him for the repair of the bridge. The structure appears to be marked on a map by Lambarde of around 1570, but by the 1700s significant repairs were needed. By then it was a “county bridge”, which meant much of the money for it was dispensed by Justices of the Peace at their regular Sessions. Seventy pounds were spent on it in 1739-40, but a further £144 and 16 shillings were needed for “repair or rebuilding” in 1764.
It's thought that at one point the bridge had two arches, but a report by a county surveyor in the early 1800s carried a drawing of the bridge with three arches, as today, and proposed adding a fourth on the side nearest the church. The report noted the bridge appeared to be about 50 years old, having been “drove away by a flood” just before that time. The surveyor said that the condition of the bridge was “certainly very bad”: it needed repairs to its underneath and a repaving of the road and footpath (which was on the same side as today). This would all cost at least £160.
It seems as though the Justices had been on the case in this period, but that Shoreham’s largest landowner – the controversial Sir Walter Stirling – had not been shouldering his share of the responsibility. A bitter letter from a Mr Goodenough, seemingly to one of the magistrates, criticised Stirling and said the bridge was “every day getting worse”. If repairs were “delayed much longer the expense will be heavy indeed”.
Another survey of 1815 agreed that the bridge was “very much out of Repair”. Because of the actions of the paper mill downstream, owned by the Wilmot family, which caused the river to be “penned up considerably”, it was hard to study the crumbling underside of the bridge. But wheel-ruts in the roadway “were so deeply cut through, as to endanger the [central?] arch if not immediately rectified”, while “the underpinning is universally defective”. The bridge was 14 ft 3in wide, not far off its width today. It’s thought that serious improvement work was done in 1818, allowing Samuel Palmer to capture the bridge in a rather more secure state in his famous picture of about 1829. (see image on left) |
9th September 2023
The Society has just acquired some new drawings and writings by the celebrated Shoreham artist Franklin White – an exciting addition to our Archive. Franklin White (always known as such, although his full name was Charles Franklin White) lived at “Reedbeds” in Church Street from 1919 until his death in 1975, and was a prolific sketcher and painter of Shoreham scenes and village characters, when not teaching at the Slade School of Fine Art and running art classes at his house.
The Society has just acquired some new drawings and writings by the celebrated Shoreham artist Franklin White – an exciting addition to our Archive. Franklin White (always known as such, although his full name was Charles Franklin White) lived at “Reedbeds” in Church Street from 1919 until his death in 1975, and was a prolific sketcher and painter of Shoreham scenes and village characters, when not teaching at the Slade School of Fine Art and running art classes at his house.
The new material is in a small sketchbook that chronicles car trips he made with friends, family and students in 1963 and 1964. There are swift, mostly pencil drawings of spots around the valley – Cockerhurst, Magpie Bottom, Farningham, the “road to Romney St” – plus picturesque places up to the Thames and across to the Medway. The sketches come with lists of the places visited and of his motoring companions, including his son Edmund and former student Gertrude Granger. Just occasionally there is a log of an event along the way, such as stopping in the May rain at a pub at Toy’s Hill to play darts and shove-halfpenny. And on 9 October 1963: “Head-on collision at Magpie Bottom. Miss Keane’s car badly damaged. After this we painted at Knatt’s Valley.”
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At the back of the sketchbook are various jottings that add texture to our understanding of Franklin White and his world. “My wife died in 1958,” runs one note, “but she left such an influence that I am still living with her.” This refers to his first wife, Olga. Then on 8 January 1964 he simply logs: “Married Gertrude.” Gertrude Franklin White carried on his art school at “Reedbeds” after his death; she died in 2011.
Franklin White was born near Adelaide and came to Britain as a young man in 1913, and what appear to be drafts of letters back to Australia, including to an old schoolmate, show his disdain for the country of his birth. “England has helped me, Australia has done nothing for me, did not even thank me for the help I gave to Australian airmen during the last war,” he laments, describing how much he hated his schooldays and languished at the bottom of the class. (In the Second World War, he took in members of the Allied military at “Reedbeds”.) What he calls his “awakening” as an artist only came, he says, when he arrived in Britain. |
Then, on a separate page of reflection, he muses on his admiration for Samuel Palmer. “No one has drawn trees with such vision as Palmer. Unrealized to himself, Palmer made the earth paradise… The more you study Palmer, the more you are convinced that in his depth he had little in common with [William] Blake, though he was outwardly under the Blake spell.” Like Palmer, Franklin White clearly had an intensity of seeing, as shown in a note on his Kentish excursions right at the start of the sketchbook: “The pleasure of seeking, anticipating, finding, examining, comparing, recording, re-creating – justifies our motor trips.”
24th July 2023
The sale particulars waxed enthusiastic. The freehold estates on offer were “valuable and desirable” and contained “some of the best fruit land in the county”. There were large holdings, small holdings, arable and pasture land, water meadows and building land – 673 acres in all. It reaped income of £1,204 per annum.
The sale particulars waxed enthusiastic. The freehold estates on offer were “valuable and desirable” and contained “some of the best fruit land in the county”. There were large holdings, small holdings, arable and pasture land, water meadows and building land – 673 acres in all. It reaped income of £1,204 per annum.
The 37 lots were to be auctioned by the Mildmay family on 25 July 1894, and signalled a need for cash for the landowners after the family bank, Barings, hit hard times. The detailed particulars of all the lots – along with large coloured maps – have recently been rediscovered, and add useful detail on Shoreham in the final years of Victoria’s reign.
The parish’s first Mildmay, Humphrey, had the good fortune 71 years earlier to marry a daughter of Alexander Baring, the boss of the finance house. It was Humphrey’s second son Henry, a partner in the bank, who had to face the music in 1894. Land around Little Timberden, Sepham and Preston Hill were among the agricultural lots.
In Shoreham village, the Post Office (Lot 15) was offered as “a capital modern house” producing an income of £33 per year. Markings on the sales document indicate that it was sold to postmaster George Spring for £580. Holly Place
(Lot 17) was a “desirable freehold investment” with a butcher’s shop and carpenter’s business. Most of it had been let for £21 a year to the cow-keeper Frederick Boakes, who now proceeded to buy it for £350. He laid out a further £350 for a three-acre “valuable water meadow” – today known as Boakes Meadow. Forge Cottage (Lot 19), with its smithy run by the Brown family, was also on the auction block; its rent was £19 a year. Perhaps the grandest dwelling for sale was Oxbourne House, at the north end of the village, described as a “gentleman’s capital private residence”. The six-bedroom property had a paddock, stables and tennis court, and was let to Mr J. J. Beale for £57 per annum.
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The emergency sales were only a portion of the Mildmay holdings, and excluded Filston Farm and the land along the western hill. A year later, Henry’s son Francis took charge of the remaining estates and in time the family fortunes returned to more of an even keel.
27th June 2023
This June, the Mission Chapel at Well Hill has been celebrating its 130th anniversary. The little chapel, high on the downs to the north-west of Shoreham, was one of three such outposts of the parish church opened in the late 19th century and is the only one still in use. In such a large parish, with the population expanding, more convenient places of worship were then needed for those outside the village envelope – among them, the hop-pickers who came down from London each year.
This June, the Mission Chapel at Well Hill has been celebrating its 130th anniversary. The little chapel, high on the downs to the north-west of Shoreham, was one of three such outposts of the parish church opened in the late 19th century and is the only one still in use. In such a large parish, with the population expanding, more convenient places of worship were then needed for those outside the village envelope – among them, the hop-pickers who came down from London each year.
Local notables such as Lord Dunsany and Henry Mildmay contributed money when the idea for the chapel was first mooted in 1889, but two years later only half the cost of about £300 had been raised. The Lullingstone landowner William Hart Dyke signed over a plot of land for the building in April 1892 and the Archbishop of Canterbury issued an appropriate licence, but only after demanding some changes to the internal layout. The project was still in debt when the “pretty and much admired chapel” opened in June 1893. Its design was supervised by Spencer Chadwick, the architect and owner of the Highfield estate on the eastern hills, though Chadwick died six months before the opening.
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The August 1920 issue of the Shoreham parish magazine noted that the chapel’s weekly service supported its own choir and organist. Although none of its worshippers were well-off, and their attendance involved “in many cases a not inconsiderable walk”, they all put enough in the collection plate to keep the chapel self-supporting. It was in 1938 that boundary changes pushed the Mission Chapel into the parish of Chelsfield and the care of the incumbent there.
24th May 2023
Working people in Shoreham in the late 1800s and early 1900s often had to stay in tough manual jobs well into later life. The Old Age Pensions Act didn’t come into force until the start of 1909 and then only provided up to five shillings a week to those “of good character” aged over 70. Local relief from a few charities and “slate clubs” was available before the new law; the remaining option was the workhouse. Recent research into a pair of Shoreham cottages suggests how long many low-income villagers had to keep grafting.
Working people in Shoreham in the late 1800s and early 1900s often had to stay in tough manual jobs well into later life. The Old Age Pensions Act didn’t come into force until the start of 1909 and then only provided up to five shillings a week to those “of good character” aged over 70. Local relief from a few charities and “slate clubs” was available before the new law; the remaining option was the workhouse. Recent research into a pair of Shoreham cottages suggests how long many low-income villagers had to keep grafting.
The Bungalows in Church Street, next door to Ivy Cottage, were known as the Low Cottages until the early 20th century, and census returns show that in 1881 one of the occupants, Henry Chapman, 68, still worked as a gardener. In 1891, James Ford was a farm labourer at 71, while in 1901 the widow Mary Gaskin was employed in the arduous task of rag-cutting at the paper mill at the age of 66. In 1911, James Thompson still had two years to go before he could collect the new state pension, so at 68 he was another “labourer at garden”. |
The Low Cottages were probably built in the 1830s but they look to have been reconstructed later in the century. One of them was occupied in 1871 by Martha Lee, whose husband Edward was a plate-layer on the new railway. But a decade later it seems Edward had died and Martha had married a general labourer called William James, who also lived at the cottages. He was at least 13 years her junior, but this didn’t stop Martha being widowed for a second time. By 1891, she was living alone in the two-room cottage and had to find a job. So, at the age of 65, she noted in the census that she “works on farm”.
20th April 2023
For many years, it was thought that important papers telling the story of the Mildmay family – the great Shoreham landowners from the 1820s to 1950 – had been lost after the family’s firm of solicitors in Tonbridge threw them out. But recently old material has come to light at Mothecombe in Devon, where Mildmay descendants still live. It includes reminiscences of a childhood at Shoreham in the late 1800s by Alfred Mildmay (1871-1944). Extracts have been sent over to Historical Society member Ann Ball by Devon historian Phil Ward.
For many years, it was thought that important papers telling the story of the Mildmay family – the great Shoreham landowners from the 1820s to 1950 – had been lost after the family’s firm of solicitors in Tonbridge threw them out. But recently old material has come to light at Mothecombe in Devon, where Mildmay descendants still live. It includes reminiscences of a childhood at Shoreham in the late 1800s by Alfred Mildmay (1871-1944). Extracts have been sent over to Historical Society member Ann Ball by Devon historian Phil Ward.
Alfred was the third surviving child of Henry Mildmay – a banker in the family firm, Barings, and in charge of the huge Shoreham estate from 1866 until the end of the century. Alfred tells of the several months a year he and his siblings spent at the Shoreham Place mansion built by the Mildmays, with its grounds stretching across today’s golf course. Governesses taught them in their own schoolroom, and leisure time was filled with pony-and-cart rides, roasting potatoes in the manicured gardens or going on carriage trips to Sevenoaks – dodging traction engines and penny-farthings on the way. |
Grass driveways covered Mildmay land stretching as far as today’s Knockholt Station, where Henry would catch the train to London because the Shoreham trains were too unreliable. Henry was particularly short-sighted and would doff his hat to every passer-by, whether they were strictly speaking worthy of this or not. When a prospective vicar, Karl Sopwith, came to size up the village in about 1903, he was so charmed by the elderly hat-waving Henry, passing by on a horse, that he resolved to accept the living, according to Alfred.
Each summer in the late 1870s, the village schoolmaster and mistress, Mr and Mrs Pitman, would lead a procession of children – each carrying a “mug in a handkerchief” – to be greeted by the Mildmays before tucking into “a substantial tea, the tea being served in bath cans”. Another big Shoreham Place summer event was the Village Flower Show. Sports and games were added and these became the main attraction – perhaps a forerunner of the Village Fete. Alfred’s mother, Georgiana, was shocked when she first saw one of the male contestants in a skimpy running costume.
It was Alfred’s aunt, Sybella, who in the 1860s took charge of the extension of the church into today’s Choir Vestry on the north-eastern side, according to Alfred. She caused controversy with a plan to put in a new church window in memory of her husband’s father, Humphrey St John-Mildmay, and first wife Anne Eugenia. Humphrey’s second wife, Marianne, was still alive and took exception to this. In the 1890s, Barings Bank descended into crisis: the Mildmays sold off farms and retreated for a time to their Devon estate. Even a gardener thought “too extravagant” had to be let go. But when the Mildmays returned for a visit, the villagers – knowing how much the family had invested in Shoreham’s infrastructure in times past – greeted them with peals of the church bells.
18th March 2023
It was in 1836 that Shoreham’s Methodists opened their first chapel in Shoreham, built by a group of farmers, tradesmen and workers, in a building just behind the cottages facing the Bridge on its eastern side. The building still exists today, but after 40 years as a gathering place it was thought to be “ill-ventilated, incommodious and no longer adequate” and a brand-new chapel – the Wesleyan Chapel – was built in 1878 in today’s High Street, opposite The Landway up the western hill. This 1886 poster (pictured right) has recently been added to our Archive and marks the triumphant 50th anniversary of chapel life in Shoreham. |
Of course, Shoreham had a tradition of Methodism dating back to the mid-18th century, before the sect split off from the Church of England, led by the vicar Vincent Perronet and his friends John and Charles Wesley – frequent visitors to the village and preachers here. Local opinion then was often in strong opposition to the new ideas, and tension flared at points in the following century and a half. But by the early 1900s a number of prominent villagers were Methodists – including dairyman Frederick Boakes, who gave his name to Boakes Meadow; and John Bowers, the first chairman of the parish council after whom Bowers Road is named. In 1950, relations were good enough between church and chapel for the vicar, Victor Edwards, to hold a Good Friday service in the Wesleyan Chapel. Sadly, the chapel was demolished two decades later.
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Shoreham’s Baptists built a chapel of their own in Crown Road in the 1890s, courtesy of another leading village non-conformist, the wealthy builder Benjamin Greenwood. It was closed in 1982 and is now a private house.
26th February 2023
This remarkable image of the church dates from 1912 or perhaps slightly before, surely the earliest colour photo we have of the building. It’s part of a portfolio of ten colour shots of Shoreham taken by Leonard Lawrence – estate manager for Roger Gregory, the wealthy London lawyer who lived at today’s Shoreham House, near where Station Road enters the village. It was known as Shoreham Cottage in those days (or just “The Cottage”) and Leonard – a Hertfordshire gardener who went to work for the Gregorys after 1902 – clearly tended his employer’s grounds with great pride, as many of his photos show the spectacular planting there. |
The portfolio has recently been put together by his grandson, John Lawrence, and kindly shared with the village. The pictures, which survive on photographic plates, made use of a pioneering “additive” colour process and were exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society in 1913. Leonard said he was also responsible for planting the beech trees along the top of the Recreation Ground (sometime after 1911). He lived at Gregory Close in Church Street and his son, Ross, remembered the village band playing outside at Christmas – “with old Isaac Brown [the blacksmith from Forge Cottage] and his trombone, and [my sister] Hilda and I would glue our noses to my bedroom window to see mum take the mince pies out to the band.”
30th January 2023
A dramatic event in Shoreham in December 1744. “Last Tuesday,” reported the Ipswich Journal, “Ruth and Williams, two notorious smugglers, were seized at Shoreham in Kent, by a Riding Officer, assisted by a Party of Soldiers, after exchanging several Shot at each other, whereby Williams was very much wounded, and being carry’d before a Magistrate were by him committed to Maidstone Gaol.”
A dramatic event in Shoreham in December 1744. “Last Tuesday,” reported the Ipswich Journal, “Ruth and Williams, two notorious smugglers, were seized at Shoreham in Kent, by a Riding Officer, assisted by a Party of Soldiers, after exchanging several Shot at each other, whereby Williams was very much wounded, and being carry’d before a Magistrate were by him committed to Maidstone Gaol.”
It's likely the smugglers were members of the infamous Hawkhurst Gang, who were thought to frequent the Crown Inn in Shoreham and the Pig and Whistle (or “Pig and Wassail”) overlooking Magpie Bottom on the eastern hills. The same month, two customs officers were robbed of their horses and money at Shoreham by several smugglers – one of whom, John “Funny Jack” Jennings, was later committed to jail in Southwark, according to the Kentish Weekly Post. And yet another report from around this time said an officer called Peter Floyd was kidnapped at Shoreham and later drowned by smugglers. |
It was at Shoreham in Sussex, however, where the Hawkhurst Gang carried out their most audacious kidnapping – grabbing and torturing two officers before taking them out to sea “from whence they never return’d”, in the account of the Kentish Weekly Post.
Our own Shoreham is cited again in a story of October 1765. The Leeds Intelligencer covered the execution in Maidstone of three “malefactors” and printed the confession of Thomas Rogers, the “son of a Smuggler” who allegedly said: “In Shoreham, in Kent, a little before I was taken, I broke open a house with a partner, and took money to the amount of 12 pounds.” At their hanging, the three “suffered in the presence of a multitude of spectators, seeming very penitent, and cried very much”. Two of the men were aged 22 while Rogers’ age was not given.
9th January 2023
Dalhanna is a house on the road from Shoreham to Cockerhurst, with a commanding view of Timberden Valley. The owner has kindly allowed us to look over some documents telling its story. It was built on a patch of land, of a little under three acres, sold off from the vast estate of Sir William Hart Dyke of Lullingstone Castle in 1923, on condition that a house be built there worth at least £1,800. The selling price of the land was just £269 and the buyer was Elizabeth McKnight Buchanan of “Preston Park, Shoreham”. She gave her new home its Ayrshire name. |
She sold it in 1941 for £3,250 and later owners called it Hill House for a time. One of them was Benjamin (“Benny”) Greenwood, based nearby in Coombe Hollow, who had been head of Shoreham’s Home Guard in the war (and whose father had built Coombe Hollow, along with the Baptist Chapel in Crown Road). In 1934, most of the Hart Dykes’ land – 5,370 acres – had been sold for £150,000 to the Kemp Town Brewery of Brighton, when it was earmarked for housing and even a new London airport. But those schemes faded and in 1956 18 acres of land running below Dalhanna were sold to the home’s owner, Harry Ross, for £800. It was on condition that the land not be used for “the sale or manufacture or storage of ale, beer, wine or spirits”. Ross sold the house and its new land for £13,750 in 1963. In the early 1980s, the house was split in two, with an old garage area at the rear converted into Dalhanna Cottage. By then, the main house and its land were worth £137,000.
19th December 2022
In the 18th century, Master and Servant Laws forced workers to stay working for employers under apprenticeships and “covenants” – and woe betide anyone who absconded. Justices could take action against these runaways if caught, and the settlement laws – which restricted people from moving to another community – were a further block on those seeking pastures new.
In the 18th century, Master and Servant Laws forced workers to stay working for employers under apprenticeships and “covenants” – and woe betide anyone who absconded. Justices could take action against these runaways if caught, and the settlement laws – which restricted people from moving to another community – were a further block on those seeking pastures new.
But this didn’t stop some Shoreham servants from ditching their masters, as recent newspaper research has shown. John Hall, 26, was an apprentice to wheelwright William Young when he went missing, and Young took out a notice in the Kentish Gazette in April 1777 to get him back. It said that “if he returns to his said Master, he will be kindly received, and no Reflections cast on him”. Anyone sheltering him, though, “will be dealt with according to Law”.
John Russell of “Shoreham Hill” faced an even worse situation in April 1792: no less than three of his workers had gone AWOL. His notice in the Kentish Gazette, headed “Run Away And Left Their Service”, described 23-year-old Samuel Jupp, a waggoner, as “about five feet eight inches high, straight darkish flaxen hair, stoutish in the body, fresh coloured” and John Dunmicks, a waggoner’s mate, as aged 18 or 19 with “dark hair, swarthy complexion, thick lips”. Jupp was wearing a “smock frock and high shoes”. The third to bolt was William Bates, a 23-year-old labourer with a “swarthy complexion, rather stooping in the shoulders”. |
Russell was less forgiving of those fleeing than Young. He offered a one-guinea reward for each man, “so as they may be brought to justice”. Between 1720 and 1792, multiple new laws were passed stiffening the punishment for runaways, which could include prison, a whipping or both.
14th November 2022
This delightful painting by an artist with the initials M.J.K. is dated 1869 – one of the oldest images we have of this part of Shoreham (although 40 years earlier Samuel Palmer had made a picture of Ivy Cottage, which you can see in our Gallery/Shoreham in Art section). This view down Church Street came to light recently in the church archive.
This delightful painting by an artist with the initials M.J.K. is dated 1869 – one of the oldest images we have of this part of Shoreham (although 40 years earlier Samuel Palmer had made a picture of Ivy Cottage, which you can see in our Gallery/Shoreham in Art section). This view down Church Street came to light recently in the church archive.
Ivy Cottage on the left is well captured, although foreshortening pushes it close to the lych gate. The old cottage “jettied” over the street, and today replaced with Obsidian Cottage, can be seen and Church Cottages appear to have greenery growing up them. The Irish yews along the churchyard path had been planted two years earlier and their early growth might just be visible beyond the lych gate. Some intriguing small cottages sit next to Ivy Cottage in the foreground, and Church Street clearly had a ditch running along it. |
On the right, the sign outside the Old George can be spotted. The roof to the right of the sign is possibly part of the inn. The right-hand side is dominated by the “Stirling wall” – built at the turn of the century by landowner Sir Walter Stirling to enclose his new home, Shoreham Cottage (today’s Shoreham House). The width of “Shoreham Street”, as it was then known, is clearly a little exaggerated in the picture, as is the sharp turn in the Stirling Wall which has a much fainter kink today, although elements of the wall’s construction are surprisingly familiar.
3rd October 2022
Many assume that the hills above Shoreham have been thickly wooded since time immemorial, but aerial surveys of the valley using LiDAR technology suggest there were once fields on the summits. LiDAR uses lasers to seek faint bumps and dents in the ground and has been deployed by the Darent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme (DVLPS). On the western hills, in Meenfield Wood and Pilots Wood, there are rows of small ridges indicating medieval or post-medieval ridge-and-furrow field systems, according to DVLPS archaeologist Anne Sassin. One area in Meenfield Wood – filled with bluebells in the spring – is about 430 metres by 150 metres and extends to the edge of Blackberry Common. Both here and in Pilots Wood, the trees had arrived by at least 1800, as shown on the first reliable maps.
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The two images on the right show the Shoreham Cross, a LiDAR image on the left and an aerial photograph on the right. You can clearly see the depth of the Cross compared to the field around it. The trees on the left of the image have been stripped away by the LiDAR enabling you to see the ground beneath.
Most of the woods on the eastern hill only sprang up in the late 19th century. On Preston Hill and The Birches, straddling the Shoreham/Eynsford border, a complex series of banks and enclosures in the woods could indicate a pre-historic settlement and field system. You can study all the LiDAR evidence, and even add to the investigations, by going to the Kent LiDAR website, here.
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This data is reproduced with permission from the copyright holder Kent County Council and was funded by the Interreg 2 Seas programme 2014-2020 and National Lottery Heritage Fund
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18th September 2022
The news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II was met with great sorrow by members of the Historical Society. Several villagers sent us fond memories of meeting the Queen and the former Prince Charles, now King Charles III.
The news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II was met with great sorrow by members of the Historical Society. Several villagers sent us fond memories of meeting the Queen and the former Prince Charles, now King Charles III.
Pauline Clark said the Queen spoke to her during the Silver Jubilee of 1977. “She just stopped and asked where I was from,” she said. “It was very emotional.” Sheila Birkin had a similar encounter the same year on a royal walkabout in Islington and took the photo you can see here. Her daughter Sasha, aged six, is handing the Queen a bunch of wild daisies she had picked on Gold Hill, and her younger daughter Catherine (holding the Union Flag) and nephews Christopher and Mark can also be seen. “Sasha and Catherine had been invited to be part of the crowd put in the front to meet the Queen,” says Sheila. “The wild flowers were a message about the importance of protecting the environment, particularly in the beautiful Darenth Valley!” |
Ann Ball had a surprise meeting with Prince Charles in 1974. “I was on a committee organising a show at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London to raise money for the people of Darwin, Australia, after the hurricane there. I went to the Palace to talk to the Secretary of our royal guest, Princess Anne. Afterwards as I waited to go down in the lift he said, ‘Prince Charles is coming up in the lift and I will present you.’ An abiding memory of a charming young man.” Ann added: “I was so pleased to have been taught to curtsey by the nuns at school.”
29th August 2022
A village highlight in July was the talk by Colin Harrison on Samuel Palmer. Harrison, senior curator of European art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, led us through Palmer’s life and work in an extensively illustrated presentation in the Village Hall, organised by the Darent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme.
A village highlight in July was the talk by Colin Harrison on Samuel Palmer. Harrison, senior curator of European art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, led us through Palmer’s life and work in an extensively illustrated presentation in the Village Hall, organised by the Darent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme.
Palmer’s grandfather, William Giles, had a country house in Shoreham, and it may have been this that drew Palmer to the village in 1824 or 1825. “The past is for poets, the present for pigs,” Palmer said, and Harrison explained how art from the Northern Renaissance of the early 16th century inspired the visual leaps of faith of Palmer’s Shoreham period. One of his earliest oil paintings, showing the Repose of the Holy Family, seemingly used the Giles family and a landscape described by Palmer's son as “Shoreham Paddock” (perhaps a stylised view along the valley south of the village).
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Prone to depression, along with bouts of energy and “ecstasy”, Palmer cut an eccentric figure as he roamed the neighbourhood in an odd-looking long coat, a priestly white cravat and a straw hat, which sometimes featured in his pictures. He left Shoreham in 1835 and most of his Shoreham pictures were destroyed by his son in 1908. Religion was always the bedrock of his work. Landscape on its own was of little value, the artist said. “However gorgeous, it can be but paradise without an Adam… paradise without a God.”
21st July 2022
The Society’s Strawberry Tea was sadly called off in July because of excessively hot weather. The venue was to have been the Old Post Office, just over the Bridge on the western bank of the Darent, and members were denied a chance to hear about its history and swap memories of an old-time village institution.
The Society’s Strawberry Tea was sadly called off in July because of excessively hot weather. The venue was to have been the Old Post Office, just over the Bridge on the western bank of the Darent, and members were denied a chance to hear about its history and swap memories of an old-time village institution.
The pleasing red-brick Post Office was built in the 1840s by landowner Humphrey Mildmay in the same decade as he built the Village School – an era when mail arrived by “foot post” once a day from Dartford and Sevenoaks. By the 1860s, a postal dynasty was underway that saw the intermarried Walker and Spring families run the business for the next 120 years. George Spring was in charge in the 1890s when the Mildmays saw their finances nose-dive and had to sell the building – a “capital modern house” with an income of £33 a year. George also worked at a bakery at the back. His daughter Annie Elizabeth Spring was postmistress when a phone box was put outside in 1928 after lobbying by the local Women’s Institute.
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On the left is an extract from the 1931 edition of Kelly's Directories, a kind of Yellow Pages of the day, showing the entry for Spring, A.E. Note the telephone number, Shoreham 1 !
Annie’s niece, Elsie, took over after the war in partnership with her husband Jim Morse. Jim’s family had come to Shoreham in the 1930s and lived in part of Old Darenth Cottage. Sweets, stationery, fireworks, wool, toys and “ladies products” – discreetly wrapped in brown paper by Elsie – were on offer next to the Post Office counter, and there was a lending library for a time. In 1981, after surviving two serious floods, the Morses retired to Otford, the building became a private house and the Post Office moved to the Village Stores in the High Street. |
30th June 2022
June was a month for discovering new things over at Otford. Surviving parts of the great Tudor Archbishop’s Palace – the north-west tower and part of the gatehouse – were given an open day, as the Archbishop’s Palace Conservation Trust flagged up some of its recent advances. Preservation of the tower is underway, with plans for an interpretation centre across three restored floors. For now, the building is still open to the roof, and Otford historian Rod Shelton explained how the seals from papal bulls had been discovered at the foot of the old garderobes (toilets). Perhaps the documents from Rome had been thrown down there by an angry Archbishop Warham or (just before the Reformation) Cranmer. In Church Field to the east lies a newly uncovered Roman villa, which also welcomed visitors. Not far from another Roman building (the so-called Progress Villa), this latest dwelling was larger than the famous villa at Lullingstone and came to an intriguing end during the fourth century. After decades of remodelling and extending, someone demolished and removed every above-ground element – roofs, walls and even mosaic flooring. No one knows why, but something similar happened to a villa at Farningham. One theory is that the building was the victim of violence between rival imperial forces that might have raged along the Darenth Valley. Or maybe the owners just decided to move their house lock, stock and barrel somewhere else. |
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7th June 2022
With Shoreham’s best bunting on display for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, here are a few other times the flags have been out in the village down the years. For Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in June 1897, there was a big village party in the paddock at Shoreham Place, home of the Mildmay family. The Village Band provided the music – wearing, it was said, uniforms similar to those of the 10th Hussars, complete with pill-box hats. The school was closed for six days to mark the event, and when it returned on 24 June the children had another afternoon off “owing to the Maxim Gun demonstration and the visit of the Colonials”, according to the school log-book.
To mark Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, the local branch of the Royal British Legion held a parade and there were special church services. People crowded into houses such as that of David Cheeseman in the High Street to watch the coronation on the handful of newly acquired TVs. The area by the bridge was thronged for the Silver Jubilee in 1977 (below left). And there was a grand picnic on the Recreation Ground for the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, with a hospitality team busy in the Village Hall (below right).
With Shoreham’s best bunting on display for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, here are a few other times the flags have been out in the village down the years. For Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in June 1897, there was a big village party in the paddock at Shoreham Place, home of the Mildmay family. The Village Band provided the music – wearing, it was said, uniforms similar to those of the 10th Hussars, complete with pill-box hats. The school was closed for six days to mark the event, and when it returned on 24 June the children had another afternoon off “owing to the Maxim Gun demonstration and the visit of the Colonials”, according to the school log-book.
To mark Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, the local branch of the Royal British Legion held a parade and there were special church services. People crowded into houses such as that of David Cheeseman in the High Street to watch the coronation on the handful of newly acquired TVs. The area by the bridge was thronged for the Silver Jubilee in 1977 (below left). And there was a grand picnic on the Recreation Ground for the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, with a hospitality team busy in the Village Hall (below right).
1st June 2022 Our continuing study of old Shoreham wills has led us to the testament of William Wall, vicar of Shoreham for more than 50 years – and to a highly questionable investment. Wall, who inhabited the vicarage from 1674 to 1727, was a celebrated theologian who wrote the much-studied History of Infant Baptism (1705). One person who knew him praised his “candour and piety”. Among the bequests in a complex will with several codicils, Wall left to his son Edward “all those my moneys or dues in the capital and principal stock of the Governor and Company of Merchants of Great Britain trading to the South Seas and other parts of America”. This was the long-winded name of an enterprise better known as the South Sea Company – which spent much of its time carrying African slaves across the Atlantic. After its founding in 1711, it’s thought the firm transported 34,000 slaves, of whom 4,000 died on the ocean. In 1720, its share price rose tenfold as speculators piled in, then it swiftly crashed in a scandal known as the South Sea Bubble. It’s not known whether Wall was one of the thousands who lost fortunes at the height of the frenzy, but between his first will in 1724 and his death in 1727 he had sold the blood-soaked shares for £318. |
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14th April 2022
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We have recently downloaded more than 130 wills of Shoreham residents held by the National Archives. The oldest goes back to 1532 and the most recent to 1858. The records were held by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury during a time when wills had to be “proved” by church or other courts. A number of well-known village figures appear in them. At one end of the social scale is landowner John Borrett who, in 1738, left his wife, children and grandchildren bequests worth tens of thousands of pounds. His holdings up and down the country included two “shops and tenements” on London Bridge, while his wife also got “my coach with a pair of my best coach horses”. The inhabitants of the Shoreham Almshouses, for whose support Borrett was responsible, saw their monthly stipends go up from just over two shillings to four shillings per month on his death – and each Christmas a further five pounds was to go to the “schoolmaster of the charity school at Shoreham”. |
Among will-writers of more modest means, there are labourers, gardeners, blacksmiths and carpenters. John Perritt, an “armourer now on board the ship Mary” in 1706, instructed his executors to pay off debts of four pounds and ten shillings, but also made sure a nephew received £10 to take up an apprenticeship. William Willmott, who ran the paper mill and described himself as “gentleman”, died in 1775 and left his wife £150 a year and all his household goods, including “beer brewing utensils” – but only on condition that she did not remarry. The sorrows of old age are reflected in the will of Vincent Perronet, the 18th-century vicar of Shoreham who befriended the Wesleys. He left his books, manuscripts, household items and a third of his estate to his beloved daughter, Damaris, with the rest going to his seven grandchildren. But he had to amend the will a year later after Damaris had died.
19th February 2022
This 15th-century farmhouse at Dean Bottom near Horton Kirby, recently visited by members of the Historical Society, has an important link to Shoreham. It farmed land owned by Thomas Terry, who in his will of 1628 directed that the farm’s income should be distributed among Shoreham’s poor. Legend has it that Terry was once a beggar who wandered into the village and was so grateful for people’s kindness that, when he became better off, he wanted to pay Shoreham back. The 25-acre farm brought in £20 a year to “Terry’s Charity” by the 1830s, shared out between 45 low-income villagers who received no other help from the parish. Charity commissioners noted that beneficiaries were selected from “the most industrious parishioners of both sexes with the largest families, those being excluded who have but one child”. The farm was sold in 1921 for £721 and the money put into a trust fund. In 1957 it was folded into the charity that runs the Almshouses. By then the Terry fund was worth just over £950. |
(Thanks to Ann Ball and Diane Rees for the visit). |
31st January 2022
A new addition to the Historical Society’s archive is a guest book kept when the Crown was still an inn. The book covers 1937 to 1952, although the pub had offered lodging for many years before that. The Crown Hotel, as it styled itself, most likely had two rooms, and one or two people seem to have made it their home for a while, as they listed it as their permanent address. Other guests came from as far afield as Trinidad and California.
A new addition to the Historical Society’s archive is a guest book kept when the Crown was still an inn. The book covers 1937 to 1952, although the pub had offered lodging for many years before that. The Crown Hotel, as it styled itself, most likely had two rooms, and one or two people seem to have made it their home for a while, as they listed it as their permanent address. Other guests came from as far afield as Trinidad and California.
The hotel kept surprisingly busy during the war, although the only guests between October 1944 and February 1945 were a couple who gave their address as “RAF Preston” and made six visits, perhaps staying for a weekend each time. By 1951, bookings had fallen even more but two gentlemen from Melbourne, Australia, who arrived on 8th September, seemed keen enough on Shoreham. Mr McLaren stayed until 17th October, Mr Barker until the following January. The last entry in the guest book is from May 1952, which seems to be when the hotel came to an end. The book was kindly donated by Philip Crome – you can read more about his war years at the Crown in our News item of 9th November 2021.
7th January 2022
Pat Osborne has kindly donated to the Historical Society’s archive a portfolio of excellent photos and postcards of Shoreham she’s collected across more than 30 years. Most of the photos were taken by Pat herself and show all corners of the village across the changing seasons – from snow in the winter to bluebells in the spring and poppies in the summer. This picture shows the George on 2nd December 2010, a period when there was a particularly freezing spell from 29 November until 4 January. |
13th December 2021
The Historical Society has been given some interesting items from the family of the late Robin Marshall-Andrews and his wife Norah. They include an account book recording purchases at the Village Stores (or Ashby’s as it was known) in 1966 and 1967. Here are one or two of the somewhat startling prices back then:
A dozen eggs: 5s (25p)
Half a pound of streaky bacon: 2s (10p)
A giant packet of Daz: 5s 2d (c.26p)
Two pounds of granulated sugar: 1s 5d (c.7p)
The Historical Society has been given some interesting items from the family of the late Robin Marshall-Andrews and his wife Norah. They include an account book recording purchases at the Village Stores (or Ashby’s as it was known) in 1966 and 1967. Here are one or two of the somewhat startling prices back then:
A dozen eggs: 5s (25p)
Half a pound of streaky bacon: 2s (10p)
A giant packet of Daz: 5s 2d (c.26p)
Two pounds of granulated sugar: 1s 5d (c.7p)
There’s also a photo collection showing the village in the post-war years, including this one of the return of the church bells in 1982. They had been taken to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry for repairs and were re-hallowed by the Bishop of Rochester in September of that year. Significant village fund-raising was needed: the cost of taking the bells down, restoring them, repairing their ringing frame and re-hanging them came to more than £20,000. |
24th November 2021
The family of the late Raymond Cornwell has very kindly donated to the Historical Society new material on Shoreham’s scouts and cubs. Raymond was Group Scout Leader from 1963 until 1974, four years before the group disbanded, and we now have many of his notes on scouting, along with an excellent gallery of pictures. In 1971, Raymond estimated that 60 per cent of village boys were in the cubs or scouts.
The family of the late Raymond Cornwell has very kindly donated to the Historical Society new material on Shoreham’s scouts and cubs. Raymond was Group Scout Leader from 1963 until 1974, four years before the group disbanded, and we now have many of his notes on scouting, along with an excellent gallery of pictures. In 1971, Raymond estimated that 60 per cent of village boys were in the cubs or scouts.
We also have new details about Stanley “Skipper” Brown, the legendary village scoutmaster from 1922 until his death in 1963. Stanley worked at a bank in London and he’s shown here in a picture from 1961 (second from left) with his wife Barbara (left). Barbara Brown was another remarkable figure, a teacher at a school in Bromley who ran Shoreham’s cubs for more than four decades. She became known as “Mum” after a sleepy cub scout called out “goodnight mum” to her one night at a summer camp. (In the 1920s and 1930s, as Raymond noted, these camps were sometimes the only holidays village children had.) When Barbara retired from active involvement in the movement in 1966, a collection was organised for her. More than 110 villagers contributed and she was given “a very comfortable chair and an electric blanket to add to her comfort in her retirement, together with a cheque”. |
9th November 2021
The Historical Society was last year given this picture of the Crown, painted by one of its former landlords, and we recently passed it on to the pub’s current tenants. It was done by Walter Jeffries, who ran the Crown with his wife Jessie. They married in 1946 but Jessie had been landlady for many years before that, working alongside her former husband Herbert Woolidge. Her nephew Philip Crome lived as a boy at the Crown during the Second World War while his father was stationed at Biggin Hill, and we are grateful to Philip for donating the picture to the village. Among other memories, he recalls hearing a V-1 rocket come over when he was up the lane towards Shacklands Road and hurling himself to the ground in panic. Walter Jeffries did the sketch for the Crown picture in 1949 but only finished painting it in the early 1970s. He lived to the age of 104, dying at Bosham, near Chichester, in 1997. |
22nd October 2021
Shoreham is now the proud guardian of a scheduled monument. The Cross on the Hill was awarded the designation this week after an application by the parish council. The council had originally asked for the Cross to be given “listed” status – in common with so many buildings in the village – but the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport decided to add it to the “schedule of monuments”. It’s the oldest form of heritage protection, designed for “nationally important” sites, and places the Cross in the same category as Eynsford Castle and Otford Palace. In reaching its decision, after advice from Historic England, the government noted how the hillside landmark stands “as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on this local community, and the sacrifice it made in the First World War”. |
16th October 2021 Recently the Historical Society was invited to inspect some papers held by Richard Waldron, the grandson of Albert Wilmot. Albert was the last in the long line of Wilmots in charge of the paper mill. His mother was Victoria Hussey de Burgh, the second wife of George Wilmot who was the great mill-owner of the 19th century and builder of The Mount. Albert sold the mill and moved with his wife Dorothea to Sevenoaks in the early 1920s. One of their children, Jillian (pictured right), went on to attend finishing school and be presented at court. She died at the age of 92 in 2010, and her son Richard – an award-winning artist and graphic designer – explained to us how the de Burgh lineage gave some of his forebears a great sense of family importance. (The de Burghs say they can trace their ancestry back to the brother of William the Conqueror.) Jillian also left writings about her father, Albert Wilmot. He had a twin who died young, and he was never keen to take on the Shoreham mill. “He wanted to be a lawyer but never had the chance,” she noted sadly. |
4th October 2021
We’re sorry to announce that our 15th October meeting, with the talk on “Underground Kent”, has been cancelled. This is due to the sad death of the speaker, Mike Clinch. Our next meeting is on 20th November at 8pm in the Village Hall, with a talk by Mike Brown on “The Real Dad’s Army”.
1st October 2021
Thank you for all the likes we’ve received so far on Facebook for our new website. We’re sorry that the web address given in the October Gazette is incorrect. We’ll try to get it right for the November Gazette! Here are the answers to our Facebook history quiz:
1. In which decade did the railway come to Shoreham? Answer: the 1860s.
See “Shoreham Through the Ages” under the Village
History tab.
2. Where did Samuel Cheeseman take his cannon? Answer: The Cross on the Hill.
See the article under the Village History tab.
3. Which village pub did Charlie the swan visit? Answer: The Rising Sun.
See the article under the Buildings tab.
4. Which Shoreham author said, “I never had much time for old people, so perhaps this long life is God teaching me a lesson”? Answer: Katharine Moore.
See the article under the People tab.
We’re sorry to announce that our 15th October meeting, with the talk on “Underground Kent”, has been cancelled. This is due to the sad death of the speaker, Mike Clinch. Our next meeting is on 20th November at 8pm in the Village Hall, with a talk by Mike Brown on “The Real Dad’s Army”.
1st October 2021
Thank you for all the likes we’ve received so far on Facebook for our new website. We’re sorry that the web address given in the October Gazette is incorrect. We’ll try to get it right for the November Gazette! Here are the answers to our Facebook history quiz:
1. In which decade did the railway come to Shoreham? Answer: the 1860s.
See “Shoreham Through the Ages” under the Village
History tab.
2. Where did Samuel Cheeseman take his cannon? Answer: The Cross on the Hill.
See the article under the Village History tab.
3. Which village pub did Charlie the swan visit? Answer: The Rising Sun.
See the article under the Buildings tab.
4. Which Shoreham author said, “I never had much time for old people, so perhaps this long life is God teaching me a lesson”? Answer: Katharine Moore.
See the article under the People tab.
18th September 2021
On Friday 17th September, the Historical Society had what almost felt like a triumphant return to the Village Hall – it was our first talk for 18 months after the endless period of pandemic and shutdown. The turnout was excellent and people clearly relished the chance to meet and mingle again, as our Chairman Suzie Faubert welcomed us all back and people reached into pockets for subscriptions and money for publications. The talk – on Dickens in Kent, by Christoph Bull – did justice to the occasion, and you can read a report on it in our Events section.
On Friday 17th September, the Historical Society had what almost felt like a triumphant return to the Village Hall – it was our first talk for 18 months after the endless period of pandemic and shutdown. The turnout was excellent and people clearly relished the chance to meet and mingle again, as our Chairman Suzie Faubert welcomed us all back and people reached into pockets for subscriptions and money for publications. The talk – on Dickens in Kent, by Christoph Bull – did justice to the occasion, and you can read a report on it in our Events section.
17th September 2021:
Over the summer, the Village Hall Management Committee donated
to the Historical Society two ledgers of minutes that cover the life of
the hall from 1949 to 1982. We’ve only studied them up to 1965 so far, but already we can see that they contain much of value. For instance,
it cost just five shillings (25p) to hire the hall for an hour back in the 1950s. Licences for drinking were issued to people like the cricket club, but not to political groups – so the Labour Party and Conservative Association were out of luck. Finances were perpetually shaky, particularly after a number of chairs were filched and later “smashed
by the school”.
The hall itself was insured for between three and four thousand
pounds – perhaps a good idea given that “paraffin night lights” had been installed in 1951.
Later in the Fifties the Carnegie Trust, in return for a grant, forced changes to the way the hall was run, reducing the influence of a group of local trustees. In 1960, complaints mounted about noise from “teenage dances” along with “petty pilfering of handbags”. As a result, it was decided to ban the youthful get-togethers.
Over the summer, the Village Hall Management Committee donated
to the Historical Society two ledgers of minutes that cover the life of
the hall from 1949 to 1982. We’ve only studied them up to 1965 so far, but already we can see that they contain much of value. For instance,
it cost just five shillings (25p) to hire the hall for an hour back in the 1950s. Licences for drinking were issued to people like the cricket club, but not to political groups – so the Labour Party and Conservative Association were out of luck. Finances were perpetually shaky, particularly after a number of chairs were filched and later “smashed
by the school”.
The hall itself was insured for between three and four thousand
pounds – perhaps a good idea given that “paraffin night lights” had been installed in 1951.
Later in the Fifties the Carnegie Trust, in return for a grant, forced changes to the way the hall was run, reducing the influence of a group of local trustees. In 1960, complaints mounted about noise from “teenage dances” along with “petty pilfering of handbags”. As a result, it was decided to ban the youthful get-togethers.
9th September 2021:
This impressive drawing of Shoreham was on display at the “Shoreham Celebration” exhibition over the August Bank Holiday as part of Robin Wood’s collection of pictures. It was done by the artist Adrian Hill who clearly visited Shoreham in the 1920s, but it raises a bit of a puzzle. It’s marked “Drawn on the spot 1928!”, but can this really be the date? The Village Hall, built in 1924, is nowhere to be seen at the bottom left. Instead, “Friars”, “Pilgrims” and Edwards’s Yard are all clearly visible behind where the hall should be. The indistinct date on the drawing itself might just be “23” and perhaps this was misread at a later point as “28”. Hill was a pioneering war artist in the First World War who went on to publish a number of books about art. It’s also thought he coined the term “art therapy”.
This impressive drawing of Shoreham was on display at the “Shoreham Celebration” exhibition over the August Bank Holiday as part of Robin Wood’s collection of pictures. It was done by the artist Adrian Hill who clearly visited Shoreham in the 1920s, but it raises a bit of a puzzle. It’s marked “Drawn on the spot 1928!”, but can this really be the date? The Village Hall, built in 1924, is nowhere to be seen at the bottom left. Instead, “Friars”, “Pilgrims” and Edwards’s Yard are all clearly visible behind where the hall should be. The indistinct date on the drawing itself might just be “23” and perhaps this was misread at a later point as “28”. Hill was a pioneering war artist in the First World War who went on to publish a number of books about art. It’s also thought he coined the term “art therapy”.
31st August 2021:
The “Shoreham Celebration” exhibition in the Village Hall over the August Bank Holiday was a tremendous success. Many congratulations to Christine Euman and her team at the Shoreham Society for pulling it all together. The Historical Society pitched in with material – including researching and writing the “history boards” telling the story of 18 buildings around the village. They were beautifully designed by Neil Powell.
The Historical Society did a good trade in publications thanks to our chairman, Suzie Faubert, heroically supervising the stall for most of the weekend. And people were intrigued by our special display of pictures from the Society’s Franklin White collection, showing Shoreham villagers from 100 years ago. Visitors traded a good deal of useful history information with us, adding to our stock of knowledge and hopefully enlightening a few of them in return.
The Historical Society did a good trade in publications thanks to our chairman, Suzie Faubert, heroically supervising the stall for most of the weekend. And people were intrigued by our special display of pictures from the Society’s Franklin White collection, showing Shoreham villagers from 100 years ago. Visitors traded a good deal of useful history information with us, adding to our stock of knowledge and hopefully enlightening a few of them in return.