This is a list of past meetings with a brief description of the talk given by the guest speaker.
April 2024
Historian Christoph Bull made a welcome return to talk to us about the history of Cobham – a Kentish gem, as he described it. He took us on an illustrated tour of the parish, highlighting many of its historic buildings, including an impressive church with its medieval chantry, plus the Leather Bottle pub, described by Dickens in The Pickwick Papers. Among his many photographs was an astonishing 1920s image of Watling Street as a gently winding, bucolic byway just before it was turned into the busy A2. Christoph also told of famous and notorious Cobham characters – from the architect of the Bank of England, Sir Herbert Baker, to Richard Dadd, a talented artist consigned to Broadmoor in the late 19th century for a savage murder.
March 2024
Maritime researcher and archivist Stuart Bligh gave a vivid and memorable illustrated talk on the Battle of Trafalgar and the part played by Kent, at a meeting that also included our AGM. The 1805 engagement off the coast of Spain, in which 27 British ships defeated 33 of the French and Spanish fleets, held off a possible invasion of our shores by Napoleon. Fifteen of the British vessels were built in Kent – among them Horatio Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, built at Chatham in 1759, and the Temeraire, later pictured by William Turner. Stuart told of the vast, meticulous effort that went into their construction, using Kentish oak and elm. The Victory alone required 27 miles of rigging. He described the bold frontal assault on the opposition’s line that led to Nelson’s death early in the six-hour battle, and told stories of several Kent seaman involved in the noisy and terrifying clashes – among them, a boy from Maidstone who may have been as young as ten.
February 2024
Rod LeGear told the entertaining story of Chislehurst Caves in a well-illustrated talk. Some writers used to believe that the caves went back to prehistoric times, and myths evolved about Druidic sacrifices and the like, but in fact the two main complexes were dug in the early 1700s as chalk mines and continued to be worked until the mid-19th century. The chalk was used as fertiliser and to make products like lime mortar. During World War I, Woolwich Arsenal stored explosives in the caves, and in the Second World War they were used as bomb shelters. Up to 15,000 people stayed in them for a penny a night, serviced by canteens, a church, a cinema and a first aid post. In the 1960s, music acts like Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones made appearances there. The caves are still run by a family that grew mushrooms in them between the wars, but tourism is the focus today.
January 2024
In our annual Lothian Lecture, which is always on a medical topic, Toni Mount gave a well-received talk on the trials, errors and leaps of faith of healthcare in medieval times. It was illustrated with fascinating images from medical texts of the time. Illness was regarded as punishment for sin by many, Toni explained, and hence not always worthy of treatment. But university-taught male physicians, their training surprisingly rigorous, also came to prominence, while women carers – sometimes called “wise women” – also offered remedies, and could even become surgeons (then on a low rung of status). Blood-letting until the patient fainted was a treatment until the 19th century and there were primitive anaesthetics. Of the many weird and wonderful medicines and applications, some like meadowsweet, betony and honey are found to work today – while even leeches have beneficial effects in some cases.
November 2023
At our November meeting, Rod Shelton gave a fascinating illustrated talk on the mysteries of Eynsford Castle, before describing the meticulous techniques he uses to make models of historic buildings along the Darent Valley, the castle among them. It’s likely, he said, that the irregular shape of Eynsford Castle follows the way the river once curved around it. There seems to have been a Saxon fortified settlement here originally, complete with a “motte and bailey” arrangement of some sort. The present-day walls were part of a particularly early Norman “enclosure castle” mentioned in the Domesday Book. It seems to have been fortified to fend off the attentions of the notorious land-grabber, Odo of Bayeux, and for many generations was in the hands of the William of Eynsford family, who were part of the rebellion against King John. A later family dispute in the early 1300s led to the castle being ransacked and abandoned. Rod’s model can be seen at Lullingstone Castle.
October 2023
David Cufley made a return visit to the Society to give a detailed and intriguing talk on how the railway came to the Darent Valley and its effect on the landscape – as cuttings, embankments and bridges were made. The largest brick structure was, of course, the great viaduct at Eynsford. Back in the 1850s, all bricks had to be made within a five-mile radius of where they were needed, which meant a vast amount of clay and chalk was dug in the Eynsford area and a large brickfield opened up. David explained the construction techniques for the viaduct and bridges, involving temporary timber arches to hold the structures up as the brickwork hardened. And he told of the tough conditions for the hundreds of labourers who lived in cramped huts and “shants”, and moved along the line as it advanced. The line from Swanley to Bat & Ball was finally opened in 1862.
September 2023
Our first meeting after the summer break saw Nick White speak on The Four Battles of Sevenoaks – violent clashes that occurred on our doorstep and impacted national history. The first was the attempted invasion of Kent by Offa of Mercia in the eighth century. Three thousand Mercians were held off by far fewer Kentish troops where the Darent crosses over Pilgrim’s Way West at Otford. Nearby at Twitton, Edmund Ironside pushed back Cnut (Canute) of Denmark in 1016, leaving many casualties and field names that still record the event today. In 1450, rebels backing Jack Cade beat back royalists at Solefields near the middle of Sevenoaks. Finally in 1554, in fields between Otford and Wrotham, fighters loyal to Sir Robert Wyatt – determined to stop Mary I marrying Philip of Spain – also fought forces loyal to the Crown. The rebels were scattered over the North Downs and Wyatt later surrendered in London.
May 2023
James Dickinson gave a stirring, illustrated talk on the changing fortunes of the Cinque Ports. He explained that, even before 1066, Edward the Confessor set up several free ports around the Kent coast to provide the king with ships and ease the passage of cargo. It was after the Conquest that Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney and Hastings became the fortified Cinque (pronounced “Sink”) Ports, with Hastings as the head port. They were given tax exemptions and their Barons had certain royal roles, while towns nearby were designated as “limbs”. They provided few warships but their maritime expertise and manpower were useful to the monarchy. Later the harbours of most of them silted up and they became more associated with feuding and smuggling. The honorary role of Warden of the Cinque Ports still exists and is currently waiting to be filled by the Crown.
April 2023
A very well-attended meeting saw Amanda Doran talk on a mystery she’s been unravelling as a historian and curator at Ightham Mote. The owner of the medieval manor house from late Victorian times, Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson, had a lifelong interest in Jewish culture and took a leading role in Jewish organisations. Why did this typical member of the English upper classes show such an interest? Amanda suggested it was likely he was harbouring a family secret – that he was the offspring of a Jewish man with whom his mother had an extra-marital affair. Sir Thomas’s second wife, Mary Cohen, was of Jewish descent and the family later made a point of sheltering refugees from the Nazis. Sir Thomas died in 1951 and the National Trust took on Ightham Mote in 1985.
March 2023
Our AGM on 24 March in the Village Hall was conducted by our Chairman, Suzie Faubert, and President, Ken Fowler. Suzie and our Secretary, Lynda Alleeson, were confirmed in post. Val Turner stepped down as Membership Secretary and was presented with flowers in gratitude for her many years of excellent service. The AGM was followed by a powerful and moving presentation on the history and current activities of the RNLI by Colin Brown, accompanied by several short videos. The lifeboat service was set up in 1824 by Sir William Hillary at a time when there were 15 shipwrecks around Britain a week. Today the service – entirely funded by contributions from the public – saves the lives of around 300 people a year. It has units on the Thames plus lifeguards on beaches. It even designs and builds high-tech lifeboats at its own shipyard.
February 2023
The Village Hall was full for a fascinating talk by Ian Thomson on the women code-breakers of Bletchley Park. Ian, who has been a guide at Bletchley, described the former Government Code and Cipher School near Milton Keynes as “probably the most important World War II heritage site” in Britain. It was set up in the 1930s after the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair, bought the house and grounds with his own money for £7,500. Ian explained many of the head-spinningly complex cipher-cracking procedures done there, before telling of the contribution made by dozens of women – processing reams of data, translating, and breaking open critical messages. Many of the women were upper class, but they also included an opera singer, a film star and mathematicians like Joan Clarke, who deputised for the computer pioneer Alan Turing. Ultimately, up to 18,000 messages were pouring in for analysis each day.
January 2023
The Lothian Lecture is given annually in memory of the Society’s first chairman, Dr Bill Lothian, and this year Dr Charles Shee gave an excellent talk on the History of Tuberculosis. Dr Shee worked for 40 years in the NHS as a general physician with an interest in chest medicine, and he explained to us how TB went back thousands of years: cases had been found in the mummies of Ancient Egypt. By the England of 1815, the “White Death” killed a quarter of the population. Explanations for it were fuzzy until a country doctor in Germany discovered the bacillus behind it in 1882. Some thought that “immodest dress” and even “waltzing” might be the cause. The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate and Emily Jackson House in Sevenoaks were among Kent’s facilities trying to cure people, but the first big drug breakthrough came with the discovery of streptomycin in the 1940s. Even today, 1.5 million people worldwide die each year from tuberculosis.
Historian Christoph Bull made a welcome return to talk to us about the history of Cobham – a Kentish gem, as he described it. He took us on an illustrated tour of the parish, highlighting many of its historic buildings, including an impressive church with its medieval chantry, plus the Leather Bottle pub, described by Dickens in The Pickwick Papers. Among his many photographs was an astonishing 1920s image of Watling Street as a gently winding, bucolic byway just before it was turned into the busy A2. Christoph also told of famous and notorious Cobham characters – from the architect of the Bank of England, Sir Herbert Baker, to Richard Dadd, a talented artist consigned to Broadmoor in the late 19th century for a savage murder.
March 2024
Maritime researcher and archivist Stuart Bligh gave a vivid and memorable illustrated talk on the Battle of Trafalgar and the part played by Kent, at a meeting that also included our AGM. The 1805 engagement off the coast of Spain, in which 27 British ships defeated 33 of the French and Spanish fleets, held off a possible invasion of our shores by Napoleon. Fifteen of the British vessels were built in Kent – among them Horatio Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, built at Chatham in 1759, and the Temeraire, later pictured by William Turner. Stuart told of the vast, meticulous effort that went into their construction, using Kentish oak and elm. The Victory alone required 27 miles of rigging. He described the bold frontal assault on the opposition’s line that led to Nelson’s death early in the six-hour battle, and told stories of several Kent seaman involved in the noisy and terrifying clashes – among them, a boy from Maidstone who may have been as young as ten.
February 2024
Rod LeGear told the entertaining story of Chislehurst Caves in a well-illustrated talk. Some writers used to believe that the caves went back to prehistoric times, and myths evolved about Druidic sacrifices and the like, but in fact the two main complexes were dug in the early 1700s as chalk mines and continued to be worked until the mid-19th century. The chalk was used as fertiliser and to make products like lime mortar. During World War I, Woolwich Arsenal stored explosives in the caves, and in the Second World War they were used as bomb shelters. Up to 15,000 people stayed in them for a penny a night, serviced by canteens, a church, a cinema and a first aid post. In the 1960s, music acts like Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones made appearances there. The caves are still run by a family that grew mushrooms in them between the wars, but tourism is the focus today.
January 2024
In our annual Lothian Lecture, which is always on a medical topic, Toni Mount gave a well-received talk on the trials, errors and leaps of faith of healthcare in medieval times. It was illustrated with fascinating images from medical texts of the time. Illness was regarded as punishment for sin by many, Toni explained, and hence not always worthy of treatment. But university-taught male physicians, their training surprisingly rigorous, also came to prominence, while women carers – sometimes called “wise women” – also offered remedies, and could even become surgeons (then on a low rung of status). Blood-letting until the patient fainted was a treatment until the 19th century and there were primitive anaesthetics. Of the many weird and wonderful medicines and applications, some like meadowsweet, betony and honey are found to work today – while even leeches have beneficial effects in some cases.
November 2023
At our November meeting, Rod Shelton gave a fascinating illustrated talk on the mysteries of Eynsford Castle, before describing the meticulous techniques he uses to make models of historic buildings along the Darent Valley, the castle among them. It’s likely, he said, that the irregular shape of Eynsford Castle follows the way the river once curved around it. There seems to have been a Saxon fortified settlement here originally, complete with a “motte and bailey” arrangement of some sort. The present-day walls were part of a particularly early Norman “enclosure castle” mentioned in the Domesday Book. It seems to have been fortified to fend off the attentions of the notorious land-grabber, Odo of Bayeux, and for many generations was in the hands of the William of Eynsford family, who were part of the rebellion against King John. A later family dispute in the early 1300s led to the castle being ransacked and abandoned. Rod’s model can be seen at Lullingstone Castle.
October 2023
David Cufley made a return visit to the Society to give a detailed and intriguing talk on how the railway came to the Darent Valley and its effect on the landscape – as cuttings, embankments and bridges were made. The largest brick structure was, of course, the great viaduct at Eynsford. Back in the 1850s, all bricks had to be made within a five-mile radius of where they were needed, which meant a vast amount of clay and chalk was dug in the Eynsford area and a large brickfield opened up. David explained the construction techniques for the viaduct and bridges, involving temporary timber arches to hold the structures up as the brickwork hardened. And he told of the tough conditions for the hundreds of labourers who lived in cramped huts and “shants”, and moved along the line as it advanced. The line from Swanley to Bat & Ball was finally opened in 1862.
September 2023
Our first meeting after the summer break saw Nick White speak on The Four Battles of Sevenoaks – violent clashes that occurred on our doorstep and impacted national history. The first was the attempted invasion of Kent by Offa of Mercia in the eighth century. Three thousand Mercians were held off by far fewer Kentish troops where the Darent crosses over Pilgrim’s Way West at Otford. Nearby at Twitton, Edmund Ironside pushed back Cnut (Canute) of Denmark in 1016, leaving many casualties and field names that still record the event today. In 1450, rebels backing Jack Cade beat back royalists at Solefields near the middle of Sevenoaks. Finally in 1554, in fields between Otford and Wrotham, fighters loyal to Sir Robert Wyatt – determined to stop Mary I marrying Philip of Spain – also fought forces loyal to the Crown. The rebels were scattered over the North Downs and Wyatt later surrendered in London.
May 2023
James Dickinson gave a stirring, illustrated talk on the changing fortunes of the Cinque Ports. He explained that, even before 1066, Edward the Confessor set up several free ports around the Kent coast to provide the king with ships and ease the passage of cargo. It was after the Conquest that Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney and Hastings became the fortified Cinque (pronounced “Sink”) Ports, with Hastings as the head port. They were given tax exemptions and their Barons had certain royal roles, while towns nearby were designated as “limbs”. They provided few warships but their maritime expertise and manpower were useful to the monarchy. Later the harbours of most of them silted up and they became more associated with feuding and smuggling. The honorary role of Warden of the Cinque Ports still exists and is currently waiting to be filled by the Crown.
April 2023
A very well-attended meeting saw Amanda Doran talk on a mystery she’s been unravelling as a historian and curator at Ightham Mote. The owner of the medieval manor house from late Victorian times, Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson, had a lifelong interest in Jewish culture and took a leading role in Jewish organisations. Why did this typical member of the English upper classes show such an interest? Amanda suggested it was likely he was harbouring a family secret – that he was the offspring of a Jewish man with whom his mother had an extra-marital affair. Sir Thomas’s second wife, Mary Cohen, was of Jewish descent and the family later made a point of sheltering refugees from the Nazis. Sir Thomas died in 1951 and the National Trust took on Ightham Mote in 1985.
March 2023
Our AGM on 24 March in the Village Hall was conducted by our Chairman, Suzie Faubert, and President, Ken Fowler. Suzie and our Secretary, Lynda Alleeson, were confirmed in post. Val Turner stepped down as Membership Secretary and was presented with flowers in gratitude for her many years of excellent service. The AGM was followed by a powerful and moving presentation on the history and current activities of the RNLI by Colin Brown, accompanied by several short videos. The lifeboat service was set up in 1824 by Sir William Hillary at a time when there were 15 shipwrecks around Britain a week. Today the service – entirely funded by contributions from the public – saves the lives of around 300 people a year. It has units on the Thames plus lifeguards on beaches. It even designs and builds high-tech lifeboats at its own shipyard.
February 2023
The Village Hall was full for a fascinating talk by Ian Thomson on the women code-breakers of Bletchley Park. Ian, who has been a guide at Bletchley, described the former Government Code and Cipher School near Milton Keynes as “probably the most important World War II heritage site” in Britain. It was set up in the 1930s after the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair, bought the house and grounds with his own money for £7,500. Ian explained many of the head-spinningly complex cipher-cracking procedures done there, before telling of the contribution made by dozens of women – processing reams of data, translating, and breaking open critical messages. Many of the women were upper class, but they also included an opera singer, a film star and mathematicians like Joan Clarke, who deputised for the computer pioneer Alan Turing. Ultimately, up to 18,000 messages were pouring in for analysis each day.
January 2023
The Lothian Lecture is given annually in memory of the Society’s first chairman, Dr Bill Lothian, and this year Dr Charles Shee gave an excellent talk on the History of Tuberculosis. Dr Shee worked for 40 years in the NHS as a general physician with an interest in chest medicine, and he explained to us how TB went back thousands of years: cases had been found in the mummies of Ancient Egypt. By the England of 1815, the “White Death” killed a quarter of the population. Explanations for it were fuzzy until a country doctor in Germany discovered the bacillus behind it in 1882. Some thought that “immodest dress” and even “waltzing” might be the cause. The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate and Emily Jackson House in Sevenoaks were among Kent’s facilities trying to cure people, but the first big drug breakthrough came with the discovery of streptomycin in the 1940s. Even today, 1.5 million people worldwide die each year from tuberculosis.
November 2022
Nick Rushby came to talk to us about restoring the Archbishop’s Palace at Otford – fascinating nuggets of its history, plus a full update on how the long-awaited conservation project is going. Nick, who is secretary of the palace’s Conservation Trust, explained how the medieval monarchy first granted land at Otford (and Shoreham) to Archbishops of Canterbury, and why Otford was a good spot for one of their command centres: it was at the junction of what became the Pilgrims’ Way and a key route from London. Becket, Holbein, Erasmus and of course Henry VIII all visited, and Thomas Cranmer was its most famous resident after the former manor house was expanded into a vast Tudor complex to rival Hampton Court. Today, the north-west tower is most of what remains, and work is progressing on a £1.5 million project to convert it into a museum, archive and centre for studying the Darent Valley. You can learn more and help out by visiting https://otfordpalace.org
October 2022
“A bloody and violent activity that often involved a huge loss of life” was the way that our October speaker, Mark Lewis, described Kent’s smuggling industry in an engaging talk on those dealing in contraband in the 18th and 19th centuries. A high proportion of the nation’s smuggled goods passed through Kent – hundreds of gallons of spirits might land in a single consignment in places such as Deal. Mark traced attempts to evade the customs men to the 13th century, but the heyday of smuggling was the 1700s. The tentacles of the business stretched deep into village life, including churchyards (where rum or brandy might be stowed in tombs) and even churches themselves (church towers might be signalling posts). The Hawkhurst Gang were the most notorious of the criminal bands; it’s thought their travels took them through Shoreham with stops at our pubs on the way.
September 2022
At a meeting on 16th September – the day after Battle of Britain Day – Andy Burton gave a well-received talk on the Biggin Hill Memorial Museum. An air force veteran who used to fly in Nimrod aircraft, Andy explained that the Biggin Hill site was chosen at the end of the First World War for its quietness: the military needed somewhere to test ground-to-air telephony free from electrical interference. He went on to detail the development of the airfield’s most famous fighting planes, the Spitfire and Hurricane, and highlighted many distinguished aircrew and groundcrew, both male and female. Spitfires could be refuelled in 20 minutes, and on 15th September 1940 each plane could take to the air three times. It was Churchill who made sure that St George’s chapel of remembrance was set up, and more recently the National Lottery helped preserve the wartime site and create the visitors’ centre.
May 2022
The talk on Water Mills of the River Darent had been prepared by Dr Lionel Parks – but because Dr Parks had become indisposed, the script of his talk was delivered by our president, Ken Fowler, alongside illustrations provided by Dr Parks. We learnt how water mills go back to Ancient Greek and Roman times, and how the earliest in the Anglo-Saxon era are recorded in the seventh century. By the time of the Domesday Book, there were 7,500 mills across England and about 350 in Kent. The Darent powered an astonishing amount of economic activity along the valley – not least, at Shoreham Upper Mill (next to today’s Home Farm) which dates from the 12th century, and the paper mill at the foot of Mill Lane, which produced high-quality paper from the 1600s to the 1920s. Dr Parks’s excellent talk was very ably presented by Ken.
April 2022
Rod LeGear gave an enjoyable and well-illustrated talk on Kent History From the Air. Rod flew light aircraft for 25 years and showed us a collection of his aerial photos of places including Knole, Hever, Canterbury, Reculver, Rochester and even Shoreham. Many pictures highlighted ancient landscape features, from Roman ditches and hill forts to First World War practice trenches. Rod explained how ground disturbances in times gone by created crop marks – that is, different degrees of vegetation or crop growth – which could be picked out from thousands of feet up. Sometimes such marks only came to prominence for brief periods of time. He went on to illustrate how, after he retired from flying, LiDAR imagery (a technology that scans the contours of the landscape) and services such as Google Earth offered him a new source of study of Kent from above.
March 2022
After our February meeting was sadly cancelled because of severe storms, we reassembled for our Annual General Meeting and a well-received talk by Jonathan Fenner on “Maritime Kent”. Taking us round the 150-mile Kent coast with the aid of handsome photos, Jonathan traced how county history has been intimately tied to activity along the water’s edge. From the Romans’ Saxon Shore Forts through to the Cinque Ports in medieval times and the launching places for the Dunkirk operation in 1940, the shoreline has long been associated with defence and warfare. But the sandy and shingle beaches have also done much for Britain’s leisure industry. Cross-channel ferry traffic came with the arrival of the railways, and trips to the coastal resorts began among the fashionable of the 18th century – including at Margate, a haven for sea-dippers that claimed to be “the home of the bathing machine”.
January 2022
There was a large turnout for this year’s Lothian Lecture, which is usually given on a medical topic. Paul Murphy spoke on “From Here to Maternity: Men in Midwifery”. Paul was himself a midwife for more than 20 years until he retired in 2007. Tracing the story of midwifery from Ancient Greece through the “barber surgeons” of the 17th century to today’s NHS, he said that men delivering babies had been rare throughout history. It remains so in Britain today: there are thought to be about 200 registered male midwives and more than 40,000 female ones. Paul went on to give a highly entertaining account of his own career in the profession, at Gravesend Hospital and as a community midwife, with tales of eccentric parents and of births taking place in bathtubs and carparks.
November 2021
Mike Brown returned to Shoreham to give a fascinating talk on the wartime Home Guard, entitled “The Real Dad’s Army”. He carefully disentangled reality from myth in the TV comedy – while pointing out ways that the show got things just about right. With the aid of uniforms, radio recordings and even pieces of weaponry, Mike traced how the early volunteers went from a ragtag body to a well-drilled and resourceful one by the time they were stood down in December 1944. A key job was to be enemy spotters along the coasts where they would have been the first line of defence. Kitchen knives attached to broom handles and stirrup pumps as makeshift flamethrowers gave way to machine guns and rocket launchers in the hands of three million men – plus a number of women – who eventually joined the Home Guard.
September 2021
Christoph Bull spoke about Dickens in Kent – a lively and much-appreciated talk. With photos of the houses, pubs and buildings large and small that fired up the mind of the novelist, Christoph showed how Dickens ranged for inspiration across almost every corner of the county. In many cases, the buildings he placed characters in were located elsewhere in the
real world. The donkey-hating Betsey Trotwood lived in Dover in David Copperfield, though the house he modelled hers on was (and is) in Broadstairs. The churchyard where the terrified Pip encountered Magwitch at the start of Great Expectations is probably based on two churches – one at Cooling, the other at Higham. The talk came with a number of readings from Dickens, including his ode to Gads Hill Place, the house he yearned to live in as a child and finally bought in the 1850s.
April 2021
While our meetings in the Village Hall were suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, Alain Cozens gave a talk via the internet at our Annual General Meeting, in a joint session on Zoom with the Shoreham Society. He spoke excellently on the history of Shoreham’s vicars since 1888. Beginning with Robert Bullen (who started the parish magazine), Alain had a fund of intriguing stories of the lives and times of these incumbents, both during their years at Shoreham and their ventures elsewhere across the world. Two vicars, for instance, were arrested and jailed in their younger days. Paul Gliddon (vicar from 1944 to 1950) had been a supporter of the Suffragettes and was imprisoned for assaulting David Lloyd George at a protest. And Geoffrey Simpson (1980-91) was arrested in Mississippi for being part of a Freedom Ride against racial injustice in 1961.
February 2020
The Craft of the Clock Maker, Mike Bundock a good speaker with examples of different clocks, the subject was much enjoyed.
January 2020
The Dr Lothian lecture by Dr Mary Bliss The History of a Mattress relating to the development of hospital mattresses to alleviate bed sores. It was well presented with original slides, and was well received by members.
November 2019
The meeting was unusual as Mike Brown related Christmas on the Home Front and unlike so many recent programmes on radio & tv it was about the ingenuity & creative attitude of the British people for Christmas throughout the war years.
He had examples of presents made from scraps of metal from armaments factories to make toys, a blouse from parachute offcuts, knitted toys & jumpers made from recycled wool. Items from manufacturers such as an expensive leather handbag with gasmask section, books on cooking on rations, games to play in the air raid shelter, so much more. It was a really interesting evening.
October 2019
Presentation of Unravelling the Yarn, a book by Zoe Hart Dyke on the production of silk at Lullingstone.
September 2019
Ann Kneif gave an interesting talk on The Bevan Boys with good content relating to young men on National Service during World War 2 who were sent down the mines to extract the much needed coal for the war.
July 2019
Strawberry tea was enjoyed by members at the Old Vicarage by kind permission of Frank Hinks.
May 2019
Prior to the Society's visit to the area in June, David Card related the history of Thanet from back in the days when it was an island separated from the mainland by the 600-metre wide Wantsum Channel.
26th April 2019
Marcia Barton spoke about Vita Sackville West & Harold Nicolson.
March 2019.
At the AGM of the Historical Society, Suzie Faubert was elected chairman and all the committee members re-elected.
Suzie gave her annual report; the accounts were approved and Hamish Howie was thanked for auditing the accounts.
The speaker after the AGM was Christoph Bull, a retired librarian, very enlightening on the subject of how Carnegie had funded new buildings for libraries if local authorities bought the land, showing examples throughout Kent; also sadly he reported of the present day closure or destruction of some of these with the decline in available libraries & their content.
Christoph retired early in protest at the direction local authorities were taking with regard to libraries. He was an amusing and informative speaker.
February 2019.
An enthusiastic talk was given by members of a Society preserving the Medway Queen.
January 2019
Kate Mail, the education offer at Chartwell, spoke to the Society on Winston Churchill's legacy through the Churchill's Chartwell project. Local craftsmen have been re-creating some of Churchill's most treasured artefacts to go on tour.
November 2018
David Cufley gave an illustrated talk to the Society in November on brickmaking, with some pictures showing barefoot children carrying lumps of clay, life was harsh for all workers, often a family laboured together. With a map indicating previous brick kilns in west Kent, he explained the number of brick maker's kilns was dictated by the requirement for building houses etc, often created just for the duration of the construction. Interestingly there was a kiln for bricks to build the Eynsford viaduct.
October 2018
To publicise the Kent Firefighting Museum, the Historical Society had a talk on the history of the formation of the Fire Brigade. The museum which is run by volunteers, is located at Woodlands Garden Centre, Ashe Lane, Ash TN15 7EG. Open from 10.00am to 4.00pm. Entrance is free.
www.kentfirefightingmuseum.org.uk
April 2018
Sheltering In The Underground In World War II by Alan Williams
This was a very well researched and illuminating talk on the use of the underground stations for protection during the war.
In anticipation of German bombing raids on London and other key cities the Government had built some shelters. They assumed at first that raids would happen in the daytime, be of short duration and use gas. However it soon became clear that they were going to happen predominately at night, last for a long time, and not use gas.
At first, the Government forbade the practice of using the stations but it became increasingly clear that the scale of the bombing that was unleashed was such that it was inevitable that the underground would have to be used. More and more Londoners took to spending the night in the stations and at the peak of the bombing, thousands were taking their bedding and most precious documents and trying to get what sleep they could. It could not have been a pleasant experience. People were packed in on the platforms like sardines with no privacy, and no toilet facilities. As time went on the authorities began to arrange for food and drink to be on offer and some rudimentary bed structures were provided. We were shown a number of photographs which tried to give the impression that it was a fun experience and there was a short film of Arthur Askey singing a cheery song while he was getting up in the morning. Morale had to be kept up. It is undeniable that sheltering in the underground stations must have saved thousands of lives. Many who emerged in the morning would have found their homes reduced to rubble as the raids intensified. Only one station took a direct hit and that was caused by a V2 missile as late as 1944 . There would simply not have been enough shelters to protect Londoners without the use of these stations.
Nick Rushby came to talk to us about restoring the Archbishop’s Palace at Otford – fascinating nuggets of its history, plus a full update on how the long-awaited conservation project is going. Nick, who is secretary of the palace’s Conservation Trust, explained how the medieval monarchy first granted land at Otford (and Shoreham) to Archbishops of Canterbury, and why Otford was a good spot for one of their command centres: it was at the junction of what became the Pilgrims’ Way and a key route from London. Becket, Holbein, Erasmus and of course Henry VIII all visited, and Thomas Cranmer was its most famous resident after the former manor house was expanded into a vast Tudor complex to rival Hampton Court. Today, the north-west tower is most of what remains, and work is progressing on a £1.5 million project to convert it into a museum, archive and centre for studying the Darent Valley. You can learn more and help out by visiting https://otfordpalace.org
October 2022
“A bloody and violent activity that often involved a huge loss of life” was the way that our October speaker, Mark Lewis, described Kent’s smuggling industry in an engaging talk on those dealing in contraband in the 18th and 19th centuries. A high proportion of the nation’s smuggled goods passed through Kent – hundreds of gallons of spirits might land in a single consignment in places such as Deal. Mark traced attempts to evade the customs men to the 13th century, but the heyday of smuggling was the 1700s. The tentacles of the business stretched deep into village life, including churchyards (where rum or brandy might be stowed in tombs) and even churches themselves (church towers might be signalling posts). The Hawkhurst Gang were the most notorious of the criminal bands; it’s thought their travels took them through Shoreham with stops at our pubs on the way.
September 2022
At a meeting on 16th September – the day after Battle of Britain Day – Andy Burton gave a well-received talk on the Biggin Hill Memorial Museum. An air force veteran who used to fly in Nimrod aircraft, Andy explained that the Biggin Hill site was chosen at the end of the First World War for its quietness: the military needed somewhere to test ground-to-air telephony free from electrical interference. He went on to detail the development of the airfield’s most famous fighting planes, the Spitfire and Hurricane, and highlighted many distinguished aircrew and groundcrew, both male and female. Spitfires could be refuelled in 20 minutes, and on 15th September 1940 each plane could take to the air three times. It was Churchill who made sure that St George’s chapel of remembrance was set up, and more recently the National Lottery helped preserve the wartime site and create the visitors’ centre.
May 2022
The talk on Water Mills of the River Darent had been prepared by Dr Lionel Parks – but because Dr Parks had become indisposed, the script of his talk was delivered by our president, Ken Fowler, alongside illustrations provided by Dr Parks. We learnt how water mills go back to Ancient Greek and Roman times, and how the earliest in the Anglo-Saxon era are recorded in the seventh century. By the time of the Domesday Book, there were 7,500 mills across England and about 350 in Kent. The Darent powered an astonishing amount of economic activity along the valley – not least, at Shoreham Upper Mill (next to today’s Home Farm) which dates from the 12th century, and the paper mill at the foot of Mill Lane, which produced high-quality paper from the 1600s to the 1920s. Dr Parks’s excellent talk was very ably presented by Ken.
April 2022
Rod LeGear gave an enjoyable and well-illustrated talk on Kent History From the Air. Rod flew light aircraft for 25 years and showed us a collection of his aerial photos of places including Knole, Hever, Canterbury, Reculver, Rochester and even Shoreham. Many pictures highlighted ancient landscape features, from Roman ditches and hill forts to First World War practice trenches. Rod explained how ground disturbances in times gone by created crop marks – that is, different degrees of vegetation or crop growth – which could be picked out from thousands of feet up. Sometimes such marks only came to prominence for brief periods of time. He went on to illustrate how, after he retired from flying, LiDAR imagery (a technology that scans the contours of the landscape) and services such as Google Earth offered him a new source of study of Kent from above.
March 2022
After our February meeting was sadly cancelled because of severe storms, we reassembled for our Annual General Meeting and a well-received talk by Jonathan Fenner on “Maritime Kent”. Taking us round the 150-mile Kent coast with the aid of handsome photos, Jonathan traced how county history has been intimately tied to activity along the water’s edge. From the Romans’ Saxon Shore Forts through to the Cinque Ports in medieval times and the launching places for the Dunkirk operation in 1940, the shoreline has long been associated with defence and warfare. But the sandy and shingle beaches have also done much for Britain’s leisure industry. Cross-channel ferry traffic came with the arrival of the railways, and trips to the coastal resorts began among the fashionable of the 18th century – including at Margate, a haven for sea-dippers that claimed to be “the home of the bathing machine”.
January 2022
There was a large turnout for this year’s Lothian Lecture, which is usually given on a medical topic. Paul Murphy spoke on “From Here to Maternity: Men in Midwifery”. Paul was himself a midwife for more than 20 years until he retired in 2007. Tracing the story of midwifery from Ancient Greece through the “barber surgeons” of the 17th century to today’s NHS, he said that men delivering babies had been rare throughout history. It remains so in Britain today: there are thought to be about 200 registered male midwives and more than 40,000 female ones. Paul went on to give a highly entertaining account of his own career in the profession, at Gravesend Hospital and as a community midwife, with tales of eccentric parents and of births taking place in bathtubs and carparks.
November 2021
Mike Brown returned to Shoreham to give a fascinating talk on the wartime Home Guard, entitled “The Real Dad’s Army”. He carefully disentangled reality from myth in the TV comedy – while pointing out ways that the show got things just about right. With the aid of uniforms, radio recordings and even pieces of weaponry, Mike traced how the early volunteers went from a ragtag body to a well-drilled and resourceful one by the time they were stood down in December 1944. A key job was to be enemy spotters along the coasts where they would have been the first line of defence. Kitchen knives attached to broom handles and stirrup pumps as makeshift flamethrowers gave way to machine guns and rocket launchers in the hands of three million men – plus a number of women – who eventually joined the Home Guard.
September 2021
Christoph Bull spoke about Dickens in Kent – a lively and much-appreciated talk. With photos of the houses, pubs and buildings large and small that fired up the mind of the novelist, Christoph showed how Dickens ranged for inspiration across almost every corner of the county. In many cases, the buildings he placed characters in were located elsewhere in the
real world. The donkey-hating Betsey Trotwood lived in Dover in David Copperfield, though the house he modelled hers on was (and is) in Broadstairs. The churchyard where the terrified Pip encountered Magwitch at the start of Great Expectations is probably based on two churches – one at Cooling, the other at Higham. The talk came with a number of readings from Dickens, including his ode to Gads Hill Place, the house he yearned to live in as a child and finally bought in the 1850s.
April 2021
While our meetings in the Village Hall were suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, Alain Cozens gave a talk via the internet at our Annual General Meeting, in a joint session on Zoom with the Shoreham Society. He spoke excellently on the history of Shoreham’s vicars since 1888. Beginning with Robert Bullen (who started the parish magazine), Alain had a fund of intriguing stories of the lives and times of these incumbents, both during their years at Shoreham and their ventures elsewhere across the world. Two vicars, for instance, were arrested and jailed in their younger days. Paul Gliddon (vicar from 1944 to 1950) had been a supporter of the Suffragettes and was imprisoned for assaulting David Lloyd George at a protest. And Geoffrey Simpson (1980-91) was arrested in Mississippi for being part of a Freedom Ride against racial injustice in 1961.
February 2020
The Craft of the Clock Maker, Mike Bundock a good speaker with examples of different clocks, the subject was much enjoyed.
January 2020
The Dr Lothian lecture by Dr Mary Bliss The History of a Mattress relating to the development of hospital mattresses to alleviate bed sores. It was well presented with original slides, and was well received by members.
November 2019
The meeting was unusual as Mike Brown related Christmas on the Home Front and unlike so many recent programmes on radio & tv it was about the ingenuity & creative attitude of the British people for Christmas throughout the war years.
He had examples of presents made from scraps of metal from armaments factories to make toys, a blouse from parachute offcuts, knitted toys & jumpers made from recycled wool. Items from manufacturers such as an expensive leather handbag with gasmask section, books on cooking on rations, games to play in the air raid shelter, so much more. It was a really interesting evening.
October 2019
Presentation of Unravelling the Yarn, a book by Zoe Hart Dyke on the production of silk at Lullingstone.
September 2019
Ann Kneif gave an interesting talk on The Bevan Boys with good content relating to young men on National Service during World War 2 who were sent down the mines to extract the much needed coal for the war.
July 2019
Strawberry tea was enjoyed by members at the Old Vicarage by kind permission of Frank Hinks.
May 2019
Prior to the Society's visit to the area in June, David Card related the history of Thanet from back in the days when it was an island separated from the mainland by the 600-metre wide Wantsum Channel.
26th April 2019
Marcia Barton spoke about Vita Sackville West & Harold Nicolson.
March 2019.
At the AGM of the Historical Society, Suzie Faubert was elected chairman and all the committee members re-elected.
Suzie gave her annual report; the accounts were approved and Hamish Howie was thanked for auditing the accounts.
The speaker after the AGM was Christoph Bull, a retired librarian, very enlightening on the subject of how Carnegie had funded new buildings for libraries if local authorities bought the land, showing examples throughout Kent; also sadly he reported of the present day closure or destruction of some of these with the decline in available libraries & their content.
Christoph retired early in protest at the direction local authorities were taking with regard to libraries. He was an amusing and informative speaker.
February 2019.
An enthusiastic talk was given by members of a Society preserving the Medway Queen.
January 2019
Kate Mail, the education offer at Chartwell, spoke to the Society on Winston Churchill's legacy through the Churchill's Chartwell project. Local craftsmen have been re-creating some of Churchill's most treasured artefacts to go on tour.
November 2018
David Cufley gave an illustrated talk to the Society in November on brickmaking, with some pictures showing barefoot children carrying lumps of clay, life was harsh for all workers, often a family laboured together. With a map indicating previous brick kilns in west Kent, he explained the number of brick maker's kilns was dictated by the requirement for building houses etc, often created just for the duration of the construction. Interestingly there was a kiln for bricks to build the Eynsford viaduct.
October 2018
To publicise the Kent Firefighting Museum, the Historical Society had a talk on the history of the formation of the Fire Brigade. The museum which is run by volunteers, is located at Woodlands Garden Centre, Ashe Lane, Ash TN15 7EG. Open from 10.00am to 4.00pm. Entrance is free.
www.kentfirefightingmuseum.org.uk
April 2018
Sheltering In The Underground In World War II by Alan Williams
This was a very well researched and illuminating talk on the use of the underground stations for protection during the war.
In anticipation of German bombing raids on London and other key cities the Government had built some shelters. They assumed at first that raids would happen in the daytime, be of short duration and use gas. However it soon became clear that they were going to happen predominately at night, last for a long time, and not use gas.
At first, the Government forbade the practice of using the stations but it became increasingly clear that the scale of the bombing that was unleashed was such that it was inevitable that the underground would have to be used. More and more Londoners took to spending the night in the stations and at the peak of the bombing, thousands were taking their bedding and most precious documents and trying to get what sleep they could. It could not have been a pleasant experience. People were packed in on the platforms like sardines with no privacy, and no toilet facilities. As time went on the authorities began to arrange for food and drink to be on offer and some rudimentary bed structures were provided. We were shown a number of photographs which tried to give the impression that it was a fun experience and there was a short film of Arthur Askey singing a cheery song while he was getting up in the morning. Morale had to be kept up. It is undeniable that sheltering in the underground stations must have saved thousands of lives. Many who emerged in the morning would have found their homes reduced to rubble as the raids intensified. Only one station took a direct hit and that was caused by a V2 missile as late as 1944 . There would simply not have been enough shelters to protect Londoners without the use of these stations.