Lest Bridge & District History Society NEWSLETTER DOVER CASTLE VISIT On Saturday 24th February, a cold clear day with a flat calm sea, a group of us visited Dover Castle‘. We were able to enjoy wonderful views across to France and down to Dungeness. We then visited the wartime underground tunnels. These have recently been extended to show the original plotting table and the offices used by Admiral Ramsay during the evacuation from Dunkirk- Operation Dynamo. A statue to Admiral Ramsay has recently been erected at the castle. Following the visit we enjoyed our usual cream tea in the Underground cafeteria which had been opened especially for us.’ F ORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS Due to circumstances beyond our control and the foot and mouth epedemic we have to change the next two meetings in the programme. On Tuesday 27 March — We will now have a talk on the Bronze Age Dover Boat. Come along to Bridge Village Hall at 7.30 pm and hear about the first cross-channel ferry. This will be followed up by a visit on Saturday 28 April -To the Bronze Age Boat gallery in Dover combined with a visit to the historic Crabble Mill and a Kentish tea. _ Tuesday 22 May - a meeting at Bridge Village Hall with a talk on the Kent and East Sussex steam railway by Doug Lindsay Saturday 16th June - An all day visit to Tenterden with a trip on the Kent and East Sussex steam railway to Bodiam with a cream tea on the return train joumey Bodiam Castle THE WATERS OF WOE The recent flooding of the Nailbourne has brought to mind the legends about this river. it is said that when the river floods, woe is predicted and this was borne out when the river flooded in 1939. This year, however, the flood- ing has beengso extensive that the woe has been directly visited upon the poor people who have been at it's mercy and endured the flooding of their homes and businesses. Not one village along the Nailbourne has es- caped and, as far as we can tell, this is an historic event since the records show that this is most extensive flood‘- ing for over 300 years. I know it will be many months before some people can get their houses back together but hopefully the level of the water has started to recede. Patrixbourne 86 DISTRICT HISTORY SOCIETY JANE AUS_TEN IN KENT For those who missed our meeting on the 14th November, and it was not the best of evenings for weather, Meriel Connor has kindly written a synopsis of the talk by Anthea Bryant Anthea gave us a most interesting talk about Jane Austen, illustrated by slides of excellent quality. Jane was one of six brothers and one sister. One of lier brothers was epileptic, and was put in an institution where the family had nothing more to do with him a sad indication of how such a condition was regarded then. Otherwise, the family was articulate, cultured and happy, though never wealthy. Janes contact with the wealthy was through other mem- bers of her family, and this, Anthea suggested, placed her rather in the position of an observer, looking in on a more affluent way of life. Her first experience of gracious living was at the home of her uncle, Francis, who was a successful lawyer and land agent to the Sackvilles at Knole. Jane visited him at the Red House, his home in Sevenoaks. . The Knight family of Godmersham adopted one of Jane’s brothers, Edward,, and he eventually took their name. This was important to Jane because it was as Edwards guest that she was introduced to high society. Edward was to inherit a number of houses, including Goodnestone and Godmersham,,_ where he implemented many improve- ments and introduced some of the fashionable decorative features so popular at the time, like bridges, follies and ruins. At Godmersham, he even had the road (the A28) movedto its present position! It was in the summerhouse at Godmersham that Jane probably wrote part of Mans- field Park. Jane revelled in the life of a large country house, and found there all the material she wanted for her books. Anthea described many aspects of the social life of the time, telling us, for example, that in a large country house it took thirty-six servants to go round changing the candles! Edward married Elizabeth Bridges, who bore him thir- teen children. Sadly, her last confinement killed her. One year, three of his daughters were married, two in a double wedding ceremony at Goodnestone. Elizabeths sister Sophia married William Deeds, Lady Fitzwalters ances- tor, in 1793, and so a link was made with both sides of the Fitzwalter family. Even then, there was a cricket pitch at Goodnestone, and Anthea told us that Jane, having had six brothers, enjoyed playing not only cricket, but also rounders and baseball not an American invention as we might have thought. Jane was an accomplished seamstress and also a compe- tent musician and practised for an hour each day before breakfast. She bought a piano for £200 a huge expense at the time. Though she visited Goodnestone often, she never’ stayed there but rather at Rowling, where she rewrote part of Pride and Prejudice. Even closer to home, Anthea told us, Jane was familiar with the Whitefriars, (though she wouldnt recognize it if she were to visit it now!). When her brother Edwards adopted father died, his widow moved from Godmersham to the house. which stood in the Whitefriars, where Jane visited her. Together they called on a lady who lived in Cathedral House in the Precincts who was to be the model for poor Miss Bates in Emma! Jane visited Canterbury more than once with Edward. On one occasion he visited the new Canterbury prison, then a model of what a modern prison should be! Jane also visited Ramsgate, where her brother Francis had a house on the harbour front. Jane learnt much. about the sea from her sailor brothers, whose hero was Horatio Nelson. Two of them became admirals,. From Godmersham, Jane sometimes walked to Chilham Castle and there she saw the elephant house built in the extensive grounds.. Jane received at least one proposal of marriage. One she accepted but changed her mind overnight! She spent the last years of her life in Hampshire, at Chawton, on Edward Austen-Knights vast Hampshire estate. Jane is buried in Winchester Cathedral with her father, where she is remembered simply as his daughter with no reference to heriown achievement! Meriel Connor CONTACTS If you wish to join Bridge & District History Society please come along to any meeting in”Bridge Village Hall and you will be made most welcome. The evening meetings are informal and sociable. If you have difficulty in getting to any meeting, transport and/or ecorts can usually be arranged with other members living nearby. Membership is annual commencing in September. Rates are £5.00 single, £7.50 double and £2.50 for each additional person residing at the same address. For more information please contact:- Bill Dawson - Secretary Telephone 831044 John Bishop - Chairman Telephone 832596 V E BRIDG 81 DISTRICT HISTORY SOCIETY The new programme for 2001/2 With the completion of another very enjoyable and successful year for the Society we now have next seasons programme ready. With this is enclosed an application form for renewal of membership. Prompt return of the membership form would help us enormously This year as an experiment we are enclosing a form listing all our visits and would ask you to return it with the membership application form indicating which visits would interest you. We emphasise that this does not in any way commit you, it would just give us an idea of what numbers we can expect to be interested. We have drawn up an interesting programme of visits starting on Saturday 20“‘ October 2001 with a Canterbury Walk led by Meriel Conner The cost will include all entrance fees. She will be exploring many little known aspects of Canterbury and the visit promises to be both enjoyable and instructive. The next function on Saturday 15”‘ December 2001 is our traditional annual Christmas buffet to be held at the White Horse Inn in Bridge. Those of you who were there last year will appreciate the care and attention levied by Alan and his staff at the White Horse to make sure we had a most enjoyable afternoon. NEWSLETTER On Tuesday 26”‘ February 2002 we have our Ghost Evening. This was last held two years ago and when we say the atmosphere was spine chilling those who were there will remember — due to an act of God— just how spine chilling it was. Come and be prepared to be chilled and thrilled in a warm and friendly atmosphere. In April next year we are planning a visit to Lambeth Palace which we will combine with a visit to the Museum of Gardening History which is next door to the Palace. We are as yet unable to confirm the date or the cost but further details will be advised to you as soon as they are available. fith Palace — Great Maidstone is our next venue on Saturday 18”‘ May 2002, we will have a guided tour of the Archbishops palace and other attractions followed by a river walk and a cream tea. Our final visit is to Ypres with it's many reminders of the First World War but also with many beautiful and historic buildings to see. A very long day by coach from Bridge, but you will find it a rewarding and memorable day. Programme 2000-2001 Last season's programme had to be rearranged at short notice due to the illness of our speaker on Romney Marsh and then by the foot and mouth outbreak which closed the countryside and made our follow up visit to the Romney Marsh impossible. As reported in our last newsletter we were fortunate in obtaining the services of another speaker, Peter Clark who gave a fascinating talk on the Dover Bronze Age boat, This was followed up by a visit to the Dover Museum and it's Bronze Age boat gallery. It was combined with a visit to Crabble Mill and the traditional obligatory cream tea. The last two meetings of the year were both concerned with the Kent and East Sussex railway and below are details of the lecture and follow up visit. Kent and East Sussex Railway Doug Lindsay from the Kent and East Sussex Railway, 21 preserved steam railway operating from Tenterden to Bodiam, gave us a very interesting lecture on the history of the railway and the early plans for it's bid to link up with the main lines from Hastings and Ashford to London. He explained how it had been built under the Light Railway Act under the auspices of Colonel Stephens. In the beginning the major source of revenue was agricultural freight but with the coming of reliable petrol driven road transport this traffic died and the railway lost money for many years until it fell into the hands of British Rail and was closed down. He recounted the many trials and tribulations of the early volunteers in their battle with officialdom and British Rail before they were able to operate a service. Now the line is open to Bodiam and they are hopeful it will eventually reach Robertsbridge on the Hastings main line. Visit to Tenterden and Bodiam Following on from the talk by Doug Lindsay an intrepid band of members left Bridge by coach despite an awful weather forecast and soon ran into heavy rain which continued on our arrival at Tenterden. We had arranged a guided tour of the town and fortunately soon after the tour started the rain ceased and we had no more for the rest of the day. After a very interesting tour of the town we all scattered to find lunch and then assembled at the station for our train ride. Going to Bodiam Castle we had a diesel train with an” observation car. On arrival at Bodiam there was an opportunity to visit the castle and then we returned to Tenterden behind a steam train. On the return journey we were served with a superb cream tea and then returned back to Bridge by coach. A very enjoyable day for all those who took part. Bridge & District Society Newsletter August 2001 issue. V E BRIDG 8! DISTRICT HISTORY SOCIETY October 2001. MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIRMAN Another new season has started. It hardly seems possible that the Society has been running for over six years. It was encouraging to see how many old and new members turned up for our first meeting on the 25”“ September. Although it does get rather nerve - wracking when the seventy-two chairs in the hall have been used up and people are still arriving at the front door! However we coped and are not quite at capacity yet. At this first meeting the bulbs on our projector failed although hopefully by the time you receive this newsletter they have been replaced, but we must extend our grateful thanks to Ken Stacey for dashing off to fetch his projector and "saving the day". I hope you all felt the wait was worth it. Personally I thought that Derek Butler's talk and slides were excellent and a really good start to the new season. I drove along Old Dover Road today and really noticed, for the first time in years, some of the old buildings mentioned, plus a few not really noticed before. Changes seem to happen without us paying much attention until we look at old slides, books and photographs. History, I think, is like that in some way. We are now living through a period that will have a great impact on tomorrow's historical scholars, both locally and internationally. Locally, with the Foot and Mouth epidemic and the winter flooding, which we all hope is on the way to being resolved. Internationally, of course, the terrible events in the USA and the rest of the so—called civilised world which moves and affects us all deeply. Returning to Society business, may I remind you about our forthcoming events. Please do give us plenty of notice if you intend participating, this will help us a great deal to keep things running smoothly. The time will soon be upon us to begin planning next season's programme. If any member has any idea for NEWSLETTER forthcoming talks and events, please do not hesitate to let one of the committee know. We also welcome any letters comments or articles of interest for the Newsletter.. Please let us know if you feel that things are not going as well as you expect, after all it's your Society. Once again many thank for your support and enjoy the rest of the new season. John Bishop. COMMITTEE MEMBERS FOR 2001-2002 We have re-organised the duties of the committee members and below is list of the committee members, their duties and their telephone numbers should you wish to contact any of them Chairman John Bishop Treasurer Maurice Raraty Correspondence Secretary Jenny Vye Press Officer Meriel Connor Telephone 830487 Publications and Membership Secretary Telephone 832596 Telephone 830508 Telephone 830983 David Gilmour Telephone 832450 Agenda and Minutes Secretary David Millyard Telephone 830256 Catering Officer Janet Bishop Telephone 832596 As the Chairman has said above, please contact any member of the committee if you need any help. MEMBERSHIP CARDS This year we will be issuing membership cards and they are being sent out with this newsletter. If you have paid and not received a card please contact the membership Secretary. BOOK EARLY Last year we made a loss on some of the visits as we ' had fixed costs which were not covered by suflicient numbers. To alleviate the problem this year we have adopted a new policy. If there are insuflicient numbers for any event by the final booking date then that event will be cancelled. To help us control this situation this year we have introduced one booking form for all the visits .It has a simple tear off slip which we ask you to complete and send with a stamped addressed envelope to the organiser of each visit. He or she will then send you the tickets for the event or visit. If the visit is cancelled then all monies will be returned On the other side of the coin, some of the visits we have arranged in’ the new programme are strictly limited in numbers and early booking is advised. We will operate on a strictly first come, first served basis so send your booking forms in as soon as possible. The visits with very strict limits on numbers are The Canterbury Walk, The Ghost Evening, The Christmas Buffet, Lambeth Palace and Yprcs. The booking form is enclosed with this newsletter. HIDDEN CANTERBURY Our first meeting of the new season was very well attended and we were particularly pleased to see some new faces. After the Annual General Meeting and an unscheduled coffee break due to the non operational state of the projector, Derek Butler gave us an exceptionally good slide show of Old Canterbury. Many of the buildings he showed us now no longer look the same or have completely disappeared. He pointed out many items of interest which were not elayious to the casual observer. He showed us how the very poor people lived in Victorian times with slides showing the tenements that were crowded with people living in very insanitary conditions, no wonder life expectancy was so very short. A very good show for those who knew Canterbury in the old days but equally of great interest to those who do not know it all well but who now know it better and a great introduction to the Canterbury Walk After the meeting there was an opportunity to buy the various books Derek Butler has had published showing Canterbury and the district in old photographs and these were sold out within minutes. The photograph at the top of the paragraph comes from his book "Canterbury Revisited". FORTHCOMING EVENTS. Our next event is on Saturday the 20”’ of October and is a guided walk around Canterbury by Meriel Connor. She has included all admission prices in the cost of the ticket and hopes to get us into some of the places not normally open to the general public. This promises to be a most interesting exploration of the city and will be of particular interest to those who attended the talk by Derek Butler. It will also be of help to those participating in the quiz at the Christmas buffet, as the photo quiz will be based on Canterbury so that no one village in our Society can have an unfair advantage. This visit is in member's own cars and we will meet up at the new Dover Road Park and Ride at 1.30 pm. For those without cars who still wish to come we will organise a shuttle service from the Bridge Recreation Ground to the Park and Ride. If you wish to use this service please Contact the organiser, John Bishop. We are limited in numbers on this visit and if it is substantially oversubscribed we will organise another visit later on in the season. On Tuesday the 27*‘ of November we will have a talk on Nelson in Kent. This will be by Anthea Bryant who, you may remember, last year gave us the talk on Jane Austen. This time she will talk on Nelson and his associations with Kent and his visits to his friends in the great houses in Kent and to this area in particular. This meeting will be in Bridge Village Hall as usual and will start at 7.30 pm. The Visit to Lambeth Palace has now been confirmed for Wednesday the 10*‘ of April 2002 and the cost will be £16.00 for members and £18.00 for non-members. We will be travelling by coach, leaving Bridge Post Office at 9.30 am and first visiting the Museum of Gardening History which is next door to Lambeth Palace. After lunch which can be taken in the Museum or you can bring a packed lunch we will have a guided tour of the Palace. This will finish about 4.30pm and we will be home by approximately 6.30 pm. Published and printed by David Gilmour. P" ‘V BRIDGE It DISTRICT HISTORY SOCIETY December 2001. Christmas Buffet. Our next big event is the Christmas buffet on Saturday 15”‘ December. As last year we will meet up in the village hall with hot soup and mince pics to stave off the hunger pangs while perusing the photos for the photo quiz. This year’s photos are of Canterbury, which will give everyone a fair chance of identilying the places depicted. Alter the hot soup and mince pies we will adjourn to the White Horse across the road for more eats and other entertainment Those who came last year will remember how well Alan and his staff looked after us and what a good time was had by one and all. There are still a few places left so if you have not returned your slip to John Bishop please do so as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you there, but if we don't see you before Christmas, the Chairman and committee members wish you a merry Christmas. A Canterbury Walk- A report On a dull overcast Saturday the 20*!‘ of October 28 members met up at the new Dover Road Park and Ride to join Meriel Connor for her Canterbury walk. This took us via Burgate to Blackfriars, the Dominican Priory, Eastbridge Hospital, Greyffiars and ended up at NEWSLETTER Greyfiriars the Heritage Museum. Fortunately the rain held off until the very end of the walk but just as we were walking back to the bus the skies opened. We saw many points of interest and others were pointed out that we had walked past many times and not noticed. A very enjoyable and instructive afternoon was had by all. New booking system for visits. The new system is working very well and we thought it would be useful for you to know how it will work in detail. When the organiser receives your slip and cheque the slips are numbered to note order of receipt (first come, first served). The organiser then holds the cheque and this will not be cashed until the final booking date shown on the slip. If the event is cancelled then the cheques will be returned. As some of the events are many months ahead and cheques are only valid for six months could we ask you to date your cheques to agree with the final booking date shown on the slip. When the final booking date is reached the organiser will send out the tickets giving details of where to meet and at what time. If you have booked and not received tickets within a week of the final booking date then please phone the organiser and check that you are booked. Old Ramsgate Our first meeting in the New Year at Bridge Village Hall on January 22”“, will be a talk by Brian F agg on Old Ramsgate Ramsgate Quay in its Victorian heyday. Brian is an excellent speaker with the ability to ” inform oandentertatn ‘ at the sa1ne‘onnre:‘*€ome*r*oo o and enjoy an evening in fiiendly company. Nelson in Kent. The last meeting before this newsletter was on Tuesday the 27a‘ of November in Bridge Village Hall when we had a talk by Anthea Bryant. No doubt many of you will remember. That on her last visit she spoke to us on Jane Austen in Kent. This evening she spoke on our most famous admiral and naval hero, Nelson and his life and career, starting with his introduction to the navy at Chatham. Anthea outlined the highlights of his life in many different locations and of his extraordinary abilities. Most unusually he was not only a hero after his death but also a hero in his own lifetime. Forthcoming Attractions Tuesday 20”‘ February 2002 Ghost evening at the White Horse Inn. This promises to be a really enthralling and atmospheric evening. Eat by candlelight and be entertained by tales to make your blood curdle. Those who were at the last ghost evening two years ago will remember that supernatural intervention can and does happen. We still have some places available — — please send those slips off to John Bishop if you have not done so already. Wednesday 10”‘ April 2002 Visit to Lambeth Palace... . p Bookings are coming along very nicely but we still have a few spare places if you wish to join us. Guided tours of Lambeth Palace have been arranged and we also include a visit to the Gardening Museum and :John_ ‘Tradescant’s garden which is rightsnext door to Lambeth Palace. ' » V T So once again if you haven’t booked please send those slips and cheques in. ' " ‘ 4 ’ Snippets from old newspapers NEW ROAD from CANTERBURY towards DOVER, NOTICE is hereby Given, . THAT the TUBN_1,’IKE.!31§TE},,n9W S¥@I1