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June 1959 - June 2009 Fifty Years On Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society Newsletter
June 1959 - June 2009Fifty Years On
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Civic SocietyNewsletter
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In thisIssue:
Front cover: Civic Society’s 50th Birthday - the cake.
The Society’s 50th BirthdayParty. See page 8.
Camden Road - the Musical.See page 14.
Memories of the SecondWorld War. See page 18.
A heritage centre inSheerness (p 21) and a
rather tenuous connectionwith the West Indies (p22).
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Personally Speaking ... 4
From the Planning Scrutineers by Gill Twells ... 5
Chairman’s Letter by Alastair Tod ... 6
50th Birthday Party ... 8
The Fall and Rise(?) of the Civic Trust ... 11Roger Joye explains the current situation.
Proud to be Different ... 12
The Vanishing Elephant ... 14The Camden Road Musical.
Tunbridge Wells Horticultural Fete of 1859 ... 16Mike Hinton describes a royal event.
War and Peace in Tunbridge Wells ... 18Preview of a new book by Ann Bates.
Local History Group News ... 20
Yet another anniversary ... 22June 1939 this time.
Heritage Open Days 2009 ... 23
Forthcoming Events ... 24
Editor: Chris Jones. email [email protected]: Mrs Pauline Everett. email [email protected]
Contents
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by Chris Jones
Personally Speaking
Cake ... There are some people who are always the lastto leave a party, who just cannot take the hint when the hosts
get out their hot-water bottles and start talking about Horlicks. Sometimes it’squite a good policy. At the Society’s birthday party we had a cake (see frontcover). The story somehow got about that it was ‘for cutting, not for eating’, somost people left without tasting it. But the last half-dozen of us, determined toparty on, challenged the statement and found that the cake was not only ‘foreating’, but really quite delicious - chocolate brownie with lemony icing. I hadfour pieces. Well somebody had to.
Column ... It’s called ‘Personally Speaking’ to make it clear that I am notnecessarily presenting the Society’s official viewpoint here. That’s meant toallow me to be a little outrageous at times, perhaps to goad you into responding.But what is there to be annoyed about at present? Prince Charles’ interferencein the Chelsea Barracks planning application? Well I don’t generally think heshould be using his influence to sway planning decisions though I can sympathisewith his views on the architecture. But in this case by lobbying the owners/developers, he doesn’t seem to have over-stepped any constitutional boundaries.It has no doubt infuriated Lord Rogers, but I cannot believe that Lord Rogershimself hasn’t lobbied in the past.
What is annoying at present is our own Council’s decision to close the TownHall to the general public. In one simple, deliberate act they have created adead space in the very heart of the town.
Old Newsletters ... We send a copy of our Newsletter to the Centre forKentish Studies in Maidstone - the official archive for this part of Kent. Theycontacted us recently saying that they were planning to bind the copies, andasking whether we had spare copies to fill the gaps in their collection. We havearranged to do this, but have found that they would also be interested in earlierissues - their collection only goes back to 1986. I have a fairly complete setback to April 1976, with a patchy collection from the early 1970s - if anybodyhas any that are earlier than 1976 then do please let me know. CKS are happy totake photocopies of the earlier ones, so you would not have to give up youroriginals. Thanks. CJ
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From the PlanningScrutineers
by Gill Twells
Recent decisions have been made on the followingproposals : -Refused - The large new block of flats on the site of the existing Dunorlan
HouseWithdrawn - The scheme for major additions to Spencer Mews (off Camden
Road)Approved - 83a Mt Ephraim, replacement house with mansard roof.Approved - Beacon Hotel - both the extension to the building and the
improvements to the south car parkRefused - Skinners School new sports hallApproved - 3 Cumberland Walk - now called The Old School House, at the
corner of the stair from Chapel Place. After the refusal of a firstapplication for the restoration of original windows, the secondapplication has been approved.
The proposed redevelopment of the Medway Depot site (extending beneaththe Grosvenor Bridge), with new housing which includes a large amount of“affordable housing” - has been revised and resubmitted. It seems that no localHousing Association has been able to raise the necessary funding. We have notyet scrutinised the new application.
Proposed extensions to Pomander Cottage in Hungershall Park look veryappropriate and we look forward to hearing that they have been approved.
A little reminder:James Burton started to build the new town of St. Leonards, just 23 miles
from Tunbridge Wells and 1 mile from Hastings, at exactly the same time thathis son, Decimus, was building our own Calverley New Town. Did they comparenotes? It seems highly likely.
Come and see for yourself. RTWCS is visiting the Burtons’ St. LeonardsSociety on Saturday 15th August and they are very kindly giving us alecture and a tour. Ring Gill Twells on 01892 527493 for details. Placesare limited to 25 people, so book asap. JC
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Chairman’s LetterChairman’s LetterChairman’s LetterChairman’s LetterChairman’s LetterScene: breakfast at a hotel in a county town in another part of England.
Year: the early eighties. At the next table three young men in suits down fromWhitehall on inspection. Quote, sadly: ‘Whatever we say they won’t do whatwe want‘.
Times have changed. Nowadays it seems councils do what Whitehall wants(and get rated Excellent for doing it exactly). The attempt to standardise whatcouncils do results in about 200 targets and performance standards, as wellas the new procedure for planning the future, the Local DevelopmentFramework (LDF), and other policy statements.
The complexity of the system is amazing. One Tunbridge Wells document,the Strategic Plan, derives from seven other sets of policy documents, includinga ‘vision‘ for 2026, some with subordinate delivery plans. It includes a ‘GreenAction Plan‘ with targets for tasks such as maintaining the street scene. Amongimprovement targets in the Confident Action Plan (sic) one requires no morethan 13% of people to be ‘concerned about anti-social behaviour‘.
This reflects the idea that nothing is real unless it can be measured andevery job must be quantified. But it also confuses the more or less routine withpolicy choices, and increasingly reduces local democracy to a range of servicescomparable to those of a post office. In contrast to the rhetoric of participation,‘customers‘ get what they need across a counter, whether bin emptying, alibrary book or a housing tenancy.
Fortunately no-one seems very happy about this (except no doubt the threeyoung men, now possibly very senior). The Government promised in a 2006White Paper in Tony Blair’s words to ‘give people a bigger say over the servicesthey receive and the places where they live‘. But the review of developmentcontrol has since tilted further towards treating this as a service to developers,making land available for building.
The combination of direction from above and the complexity of the processestake the dialogue out of local government; they demoralise councils and tendto disenfranchise voters. They prevent councillors taking important decisions,and deny local people a role in deciding on development, whether and when,not just how.
Now a Conservative Green Paper promises more freedom to councils andsteps to restore their confidence, including removing restrictions on the role ofcouncillors. Greg Clark MP invited the Society to respond to this and we havedone so, welcoming the approach and trying not to be too sceptical about theprospects for turning back the tide in the short term.
These misgivings are topical as we prepare to respond to major changes.
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The Core Strategy of the LDF has now arrived, the final version of a documentwe commented on last year, with nine policies relating to Royal TunbridgeWells. We were glad to see some of our doubts about the earlier version hadbeen met, but we still wonder how far it expresses real priorities for policy, asopposed to bland aspirations equally appropriate to other places.
The Society has published a position paper on the town centre, and has nowreplied to a questionnaire (this and other papers from the Society referred tocan be found on our website). We expressed strong wishes for better accessand more space for cyclists and pedestrians, and an improved public realm, aswell as views on the location of increases in shopping and the protection ofresidential streets. We trust this and other expressions of public opinion willinfluence the proposals for the town centre from the Council’s partnership withLaing’s, expected in October/November.
The other document in this trio of heavyweights was the housing land surveySHLAA itemising all the sites in the borough identified as possible housingsites up to 2026. The basis was that anyone could name a site, without owningit and without knowing the owner’s intentions. The Council evaluated theentries in the resulting very large compendium, with an assessment of whenthey might be developed. They concluded from this that there would be nodifficulty finding land in Tunbridge Wells for the 6,000 dwellings required.
The Society has not commented on the method or the results of the SHLAA,which relate to such a long period in a highly unstable situation that we feelany conclusion, favourable or otherwise, would be unwise. But we note that infuture some of the Council’s funding will depend on delivering housing land inline with the SHLAA.
In so much paper planning and distant horizons it was welcome news thatthe Council is taking forward the idea of regulating front-garden parking, onwhich we presented a case with the Town Forum. This is usually treated asPermitted Development falling outside planning control, and yet can be highlyproblematic in some areas. We have pressed the Council to produce guidancefor those wanting to adapt front gardens, and to bring it under control, at leastin the conservation areas, as they can do.
We now hope other changes with a cumulative impact which also creepbelow the radar – such as plastic windows and solar panels, on which we havealso reported to the Council – will receive the same attention. In ourenvironment the handling of small changes needs as much care as grand policystatements, and better expresses a sense of local identity.
Alastair
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Civic50thBirth
The Civic Society was born on 17thJune 1959, in the drawing room of 4 StJames Road (left), the home of Walterand Rosemary Coltham. The meeting hadbeen called to discuss plans for theimprovement of Monson Road, and thisbecame the new organisation’s firstproject. It was originally called the ‘59Society’, at least partly to distance it fromthe earlier Civic Association which haddisbanded the previous year. The name‘Civic Society’ was not adopted foranother ten years.
One of the founder members, indeedthe first Secretary, was Dr Philip Whitbourn,who is still tirelessly working for the good ofthe town. Philip played a leading role in thebirthday celebrations on 17th June this year.
He first led a select group on a Town Walk- Monson, Calverley, Lansdowne and CrescentRoads - to look at some of the buildings thatwere saved as a result of the Society’scampaigns, and to remember some that werenot.
He then presented a talk at Trinity tosummarise the activities of the Society overits first fifty years. There was the campaignagainst the council’s ‘Town Map’ in the 1960’swhich would have destroyed much of thecharm of Camden Road; and the battle againsttheRing Road proposals in 1970. Theseenvisaged a giratory system through the centreof the upper town with a new road cutting fromVictoria Road to the middle of Lansdowne.
4 St James Road, where theSociety was founded
1980s proposal for a hugeroundabout outside Dunorlan,which the Society opposed
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This would have meant thedemolition of one house (right) andthe blighting of most of the others.The late 1970’s saw the long fightto save Trinity from demolition. Itwas appropriate that we shouldhold the birthday celebration atTrinity, and thus contribute to itsfunds at a time when its grant has beenslashed.
The environment in which the Societyoperates has changed tremendously since1959. There were no conservation areasthen, and planning applications wereconsidered in secret. Things are better now,but we need to be vigilant. The currentgovernment is keen to simplify planningrules for the benefit of developers.
After the talk there was a presentationto Gill Twells in recognition of all her hardwork over what must be nearly forty fiveyears. And then tea and cakes. It was goodto see so many past members: HaroldBlakey, one-time treasurer; Ian Burn; PatHarbour; Margaret and Richard Steward,who organised outings for members; andothers shown in the pictures overleaf.
We must thank Pauline Everett for allher hard work in organising thecelebrations.Those who were not presentmay wish to read Philip’s talk in anillustrated booklet, which will beavailable, price £1, at future meetings.
Societyday Party
The house in Lansdowne Roadwhich would have been
demolished for the 1970 Ring Road
Gill Twells cutting the birthday cake.Philip Whitbourn in the background
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Pauline Everett, withJohn and Kate Minnis,who came down from
their new home inDownham Market.
Vera Coomber, Brenda Hopkin, and Jane Clark
Norman Collings andAndrew Bridge
Janina Story andDavid Wright
Ron Burchwith Gill
Twells
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The Fall and Rise(?) of the Civic TrustMost members will be aware that
our national umbrella organisation, TheCivic Trust, was placed intoadministration in April, followingsevere pressure on its financialposition. It lost its major income-producing Green Flag contract lastsummer, and, despite restructuring anda fundraising appeal to its membership,it became clear that it could notcontinue. Severe funding constraintson local authorities and other potentialfunders meant that even dramaticallyscaling back its programmes would nothave been enough.
Regrettably the amount generatedby subscriptions from the 700 civicsocieties is wholly inadequate tosustain even a skeletal organisation.Income from societies would need toincrease four-fold to fund the mostbasic elements of a national movement– press, policy, campaigning, web andeducation. Ironically, the trustees hadrecently improved their services,established a web-site, introducedtraining for civic societies, and secureda high profile President (Griff RhysJones); but it was always a race againsttime, and ultimately time ran out.
An organisation called The CivicSociety Initiative has rapidly arisenfrom the ashes of the Civic Trust. Theloss of the Trust has promptedmessages of support and practical
offers of help from professionalbodies, local authorities, voluntary andcharitable organisations and others.Along with more than 500 other civicsocieties, RTWCS has asked to be keptin touch with future arrangements.
Three things are consideredessential:
• the civic society movement needsan independent champion
• the voice of individual societiesand local groups must be strengthened
• the future needs to be rooted inwhat the societies want.
Some facilities have already beenprovided:
• one year’s funding from theNational Trust for Tony Burton to leadthe Initiative
• office space donated by CPRE(London) and RIBA (Liverpool)
• a charitable ‘home’ to receivefunds and provide governance throughthe North of England Civic Trust
• a civic society conventionsupported by Blackpool Council inOctober 2009.
The Civic Society Initiative isaiming to produce a set of proposalscombining immediate practicalviability with a 3-5 year plan of thefuture. For further information,members may wish to refer towww.civicsocietyinitiative.org.uk. RJ
Roger Joye explains the current situation
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Proud to be DifferentThose who live in
Tunbridge Wells areused to telling those whodon’t, and who think
they know us better than they do, ‘It’snot like that really‘. In that situationwe are happier to be regarded as justlike anywhere else. We are notcollectively superior or somehow apartfrom normal life. The Liverpudlianwriter Stewart McConie in his searchfor middle England said of us we areneither disgusted nor disgusting.
But there’s another side to this.When the Council said it would restoreour place in the retail hierarchy byadding 240,000 square feet ofshopping, many said ‘why?‘. We liketo think we make our mark in our ownway, not by our position in a hierarchy.We expect our council to look after ourdifference.
Governments don’t recognise this.The rules they now impose reflectconcerns with the efficiency andhonesty of local government. They aredesigned to ensure common standardsand measure progress towards statedobjectives. Local character doesn’tcome into it, let alone the quality ofthe environment and historicassociation. It is ironic that a phrasesometimes used now for planning is‘place-making‘.
I argue in my Chairman’s letter thatthe requirement to quantify and justifyhas become so oppressive that much
of a council’s time and energy are spenton meeting it. Being an excellentauthority means we are a bit lessourselves.
The process is bureaucratic in thestrict sense: the functions involved arespecialised, exercised by those withspecial knowledge, and hidden fromview. Opportunities for publicinvolvement occur at precisely definedmoments for defined purposes. Thereis even a Statement of CommunityInvolvement, approved by theMinister, which sets out when and why.
So it was not entirely a criticism ofTunbridge Wells Council when we saidabout the Core Strategy last year: ‘Akey feature... should be the protectionand promotion of Royal TunbridgeWells as a unique historic town, not asa commercial centre with historicfeatures‘. Others have said the Strategywould apply equally well to MiltonKeynes. What is there to show itapplies to us?
The problem is not just the banalityof the statements - ‘Green, Safe,Prosperous‘ - it’s the absence ofpriorities. ‘The Council will preservethe general extent of the Green Belt‘ -fair enough, but what are thecircumstances in which the Green Beltwill give way? When will Safe orProsperous outweigh Green? Moregenerally, does this sort of planninggive a basis for taking collectivedecisions about what could be a flood
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of development proposals withcommercial muscle behind them?
We know we are different but howdo we show it? Much can be donebelow the level of strategic planning.The Society has amended its articlesto add ‘development andimprovement‘ to the previousobjectives of ‘protection andpreservation‘. We aim to take apositive view of change and concernourselves with more than the physicalenvironment. Our voice has beenheard recently on licensing, affordablehousing, and the future of the TouristInformation Centre.
We’ve played our part with nearly200 Conservation Awards in thirtyyears, given for development of anykind which enhances its setting (andnow known as Civic Society Awardsto make this clear). We scrutinise about200 planning applications large andsmall per year, and makerepresentations on about 50, andsometimes discuss with developersbefore they submit proposals.
Further, we raise issues wherenecessary: we’ve produced a towncentre position paper, and urged theCouncil to bring garden parking underplanning control, with other works nowclassed as permitted development. Weargue for planning briefs to guidedevelopment in sensitive areas.
But it would be easy to feel that weare up against not merely reasonableopposition but the way the systemworks. Are the other side disagreeing
or merely busy elsewhere? A case inpoint is the Town Hall complex, aunique group on a key site built for usin the thirties, and now listed.
The administration says it iswasteful and difficult to use properly,and they are ‘assessing alternatives‘;one of these is known to be re-development for commercial purposesto ‘improve linkages‘ in the towncentre. At the same time the land hasbeen listed in the housing land surveyas a housing site. And visitors, evento official functions, are directed to the‘tradesmen’s entrance‘ round the side.
The Society disagrees withrestricting the use of the town hall, butare we actually talking about the samething? A town hall is properly thecentre of its community, used formeetings of all kinds, where decisionsare taken in public and officials andcouncillors are available to discuss andadvise. This after all is the model usedat Westminster. What it is not is a back-office where officials carry on thearcane business of government insecret.
Our distinctiveness is expressed byour public facilities and the use wemake of them. This applies to thebandstand too. The Council now saythey will facilitate a replacementfunded by an appeal, and there is widepublic support for this. After a longdelay while we faced the prospect of acleared site (another one!) there seemsa chance that we will add to the townsomething to mark our difference. AT
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Two years in the making and with a castof over 130, the Camden Road Musical,or The Vanishing Elephant as it is moreformally called, has finally been staged,in twelve performances between 8th and20th June. But these two weeks were onlythe climax of two years of hard work bymany hundreds of volunteers and theatreprofessionals.
Creating a community play is a longprocess. It starts with a ‘discovery’ phasein which local people are asked for oldphotographs, for their personal memories,and for stories that their parents andgrandparents might have handed down. Agroup of researchers then tries tocorroborate these stories and provide somesort of historical background. Then, bysome strange alchemy, these individualsnippets of fact and fancy coalesce into asingle story with a beginning, middle andend. This is the skill of writer Jon Oram,who then finds the dialogue by which thecharacters, all based on real people, driveforward the plot.
The play starts in the 1880’s with theBaltic Saw Mills murder, the foundation
Philip Whitbourn in the role of CharlesWhitbourn Emson, Mayor of Tunbridge Wells.Emson feared for the reputation of TunbridgeWells if Madam Sarah Grand, lady novelistwith ‘advanced’ views, was allowed a leadingrole in the care of the Belgian refugees whosettled in the town during the First World War.
Jon Oram, writer and director, and aninspiration to the whole project. This was histhirtieth community play, and despite havingworked across England, in Europe and NorthAmerica, the first in his home town - he livesin Rusthall. His affection for Camden Road, itshistory and residents, is clear.
Camden Road -
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Jacky Yardley as Pauline Spender-Clay, wife ofthe local MP, and Gilly Bishop, as Edith
Tattershall Dodd, secretary to the NUWSS.Pauline Spender-Clay’s father was William
Waldorf Aster, the richest man in America. A localpaper said of her “without being a strikingly
beautiful woman, Mrs Clay has attractive featuresand a restful way of talking.”
Above. Karen Wickens, Anne Goldstein andMeena Chauhan, as Fanny Cross, Gertrude
Mosely and Ellen Haffenden, radicalsuffragettes. The play highlights the division
between the ‘conservative’ suffragettes ofthe NUWSS, and the more radical group
who were blamed for burning down thecricket pavilion at the Nevill.
of St Barnabas’ church, andattacks on the Salvation Army.It moves on twenty years to thecampaigns of the suffragettes,some radical, some less so; andthen to the Great War - theHMS Hythe disaster and thedeath of local men on theSomme. But the War alsoprovides the local women withan opportuntity to show their capabilitiesin the management and operation ofcanteens and laundries for the troops. Theplay ends with them being given the vote,as a reward for co-operating with theauthorities perhaps, but also having gainedin self confidence and an awareness ofwhat they could achieve.
The whole production was mostimpressive - costumes designed and madefor 130 characters; wonderful props,including a 20 foot puppet of the Kaiser;music especially written and excellentlyperformed; professional lighting andsound. Everyone involved, I hope, like thewomen in 1918, felt a great sense ofachievement. CJ
The Musical
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Tunbridge WellsHorticultural Fête 1859
A grandhorticultural fête was held in TunbridgeWells on Friday 1st July 1859 and wasreported in the Illustrated LondonNews the following week. Theoccasion was honoured by the presenceof members of the exiled French RoyalFamily: Marie Amelie, Countess ofNeuilly and widow of King Louis-Phillippe; her son, Louis, Duke ofNemours; and her grandson Gaston,Count of Eu. The ‘Royal’ party, whowere staying at the Calverley Hotel,were conducted to the fête, held in theadjoining Calverley grounds, by theHon F.G. Molyneux and members ofthe committee. The wife of one ofthem, the Rev. George Goldney,presented the visiting ladies withelegant bouquets.
The report continued:We will follow the noble party in
their tour through the tents. The firstentered was that devoted to theproduction of cottagers’ gardens,where fruit and vegetables exhibitedby W. Brown of Southborough,attached much notice. The next tentwas filled with cut flowers. Here thecollection of roses shown by MrHollamby, of the Strawberry Hill
Nursery, near Tunbridge Wells, wasmost splendid; and a box of cutverbenas exhibited by Mr Foreman,gardener to the Rev. Goldney, wasdeservedly commended. Among thefruit (which, however, was decidedlypoor considering the liberal prizesoffered) were some very fine grapes,grown by Mr Powell, gardener to DrS. Newington, and a fair collection ofsix dishes of fruit from Eridge Castle,exhibited by Mr Ogle, gardener to theEarl of Abegenny [sic]. The collectionof stove and greenhouse plants in thistent contained some gloxinias from thegardener of H. Reed, Esq., ofextraordinary growth, also a finecollection of British and exotic ferns,grown by Mr Maxted, gardener to J.Field Esq. Beyond this there weresome splendid plants, exhibited by MrGilbert, among them wereconspicuous Aphelexis sesamoidesBarnsii, Rhyncospernum jiminoides,and Alamanda cathartica. Mr Pring,gardener to Henry Reed Esq., hadmany fine plants: two noble vincas,the rare and beautiful plantCyanophyllum magnificum, Cissusdiscolour in great beauty, an immenseplant of Coleus blumei, and a very fine
Mike Hinton describes another royal event,from exactly 150 years ago
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Araucarni excelsa. Messrs Rycroftand Wells, gardeners to AldermanSalomons, M.P., had a Medinellamagnifica which eminently deservedits name; five or six achimenses highlycommended by the judges, and manyother well very well-grown plants. Thepelagoniums, though past their best,were very beautiful.
A fifty strong band of the RoyalArtillery was in attendance and playedsome ‘beautiful pieces’ while the reportconcludes with a list of the prizewinners selected by the judges, theRev. H. H. Dumbrain, and Mr Cox,gardener to W. Wells, Esq., of Redleaf.
The artist who drew the sketch forthe engraving (below) must have stood
in the region of the present day ‘basket-ball’ courts. The towers of ChristChurch in the High Street and of therailway station can be clearly seen.Both buildings have since beenreplaced.
It is interesting to identify the mainexhibitors. Henry Reed was the ownerof Dunorlan, and Alderman Salomons,MP lived at Broomhill. His ‘MP’ labelis significant. He had been elected inMay of that year in the first electionafter the law was changed to allow Jewsto sit in Parliament. The Rev Goldneylived at Southfield in Southborough -where the Skinners’ playing fields arenow, and ‘Redleaf’, home of W. WellsEsq, was north of Penshurst. MH
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War andin
The next monograph from the LocalHistory Group, due to be published onSeptember 3rd, is Tunbridge Wells inthe Second World War and the Yearsof Austerity. It has been written by AnnBates (left), who contributed to theearlier books: 400 Years of the Wellsand The Residential Parks ofTunbridge Wells.
Ann was born and brought up in thetown, and, apart from a few yearsliving in London, and a tour in theWRNS, has lived here all her life.During the war she was a pupil at theTunbridge Wells and Blackheath HighSchools. (The two schools were bothpart of the Girls Day Schools Trust.Blackheath was evacuated toTunbridge Wells in 1940. When thewar ended, and the Tunbridge Wellsschool closed, some of the pupils,including Ann, continued theireducation in Blackheath.)
Ann has worked extensively in the
National Identity Card - to be carried at all times,and shown on demand to any police officer ormember of HM Armed Forces who was in uniformand on duty. It didn’t include a photograph.
Tunbridg
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Borough archives, studying theminutes of the various Councilcommittees, to understand theproblems facing the town duringand after the war. The Courier, too, onmicrofilm in the Reference Library, hasprovided a week by week account ofevents, though wartime censorshipmeans that places are not always fullyidentified. The research brought backmany memories:• watching the ‘dog-fights’ in the clear
summer skies of 1940,• seeing the glow of the fires in
London from Rusthall Common,• sleeping in the air-raid shelter during
the Blitz (Ann’s father’s company, TBates and Sons, built many of theconcrete shelters used in the town).
And after the war, there were the longcold winters, shortages of every kind,and the bomb damage all around theschool.
Staff at T Bates & Sons inEridge Rd during a civil
defence exercise
Clothing coupons (right) . There were strictinstructions that shop-keepers must themselvescut the coupons from the books and not accept
loose ones.
Peace
e Wells
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Local History
The Friends of Woodbury Park Cemeterygot together recently with the RoyalPharmaceutical Society of Great Britain tocelebrate the life of Jacob Bell, who diedin Tunbridge Wells on June 12th 1859. Bell,pharmacist, businessman, one-time MP, anda founder of the Society, suffered fromincurable TB of the throat and larynx. Hecame to the town to seek some benefit fromthe clean air, staying at Summerhill onLondon Road (currently in very poorcondition), but died here at the age of 49.June Bridgeman and Briony Hudson havedescribed his life in a new book Jacob Bell1810-1859 A useful and honourable life,available from the FWPC at £4. During his
visit to the town the President of the Society formally re-opened the long-established pharmacy, AE Hobbs onMount Pleasant, which has recently been renovated. CJ
A Celebration of Pharmacists
AE Hobbs’ pharmacy wasfounded in 1896. There was also
a shop in St Johns Rd. Thispicture is from the pre-war
period before the buildings inMount Pleasant were re-
numbered. The door was then tothe right. Hot water bottles seem
to have been a popular item.
A display of Victoriana in AEHobbs. The small bottle on theright contained Dr Williams Pink
Pills. See p 100 of Tunbridge Wellsin 1909 for some of the miraculous
claims made for these pills.
Slightlymorerecentproducts
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It was the turn of Sheppey LocalHistory Society to host this year’s one-day conference of the Kent HistoryFederation. It will be our turn next year,so Roger Joye and I went toQueenborough to see how Sheppeyhandled the organisation.
The main theme of the conferencewas the birth of the British aviationindustry - which started on Sheppey in1909. We were very pleased to see thatFrank McClean, of Rusthall House(and previously Pembury Road)received due recognition as one of itsmain financial sponsors.
But Sheppey has other claims tofame (other than the fact that it hasmore caravans than the rest of Kent puttogether). The naval dockyard atSheerness was established by SamuelPepys in the1660s, suffered in theAnglo-Dutch wars of that period, wassignificantly extended by John Renniein the early 19th century, and acted asa base for destroyers and mine-sweepers during the 20th. It closed in1960.
Roger and I chose a visit to‘Bluetown’ from the range of visitsavailable in the afternoon. Bluetownwas the home of the dockyard workersand built in the early 19th century.Most of the early buildings have beenswept away, but we were impressed bya new heritage centre in what had been
Group NewsKHF Conference
a music hall, but which has recentlyserved as a warehouse for bathroomfittings.
We will have to organise up to eightwalks or visits for the visitors toTunbridge Wells next year. Walksaround the Pantiles, Mount Sion, andthe Decimus Burton estates areobvious suggestions, and visits toSalomons and High Rocks could bepopular. If you have any other ideas,or would like to be involved with thearrangements, please let me know. CJ
Figurehead from HMS Scylla in theBlueTown Heritage Centre, Sheerness.
HMS Scylla was a 21-gun wooden steamcorvette built at Sheerness in 1856.
22 www.thecivicsociety.org
Yet another anniversary
The Assembly Hall was opened inMay 1939. The invitation above wasfor an event there on 9th June. Theannotation in the bottom right-handcorner describes it as “an opportunityto see the magnificent new MunicipalBuildings”. The town was obviously
proud of its civic centre in those days.The subject matter of the film “The
Romance of Regent British Petrols” israther intriguing. ‘Regent’ was thebrand name used by the TrinidadLeaseholds company for the petrol itproduced on that island. It could be thatthe film explored the romance of theoil wells and refinery. The companycertainly produced illustrated bookletson the subject (see left).
I find these lesser-known aspects ofthe British Empire quite fascinating, soI was very interested to hear fromRichard Dolman of Orpington, wholeft for Trinidad on 10th June 1939.His father was taking up a post at thePointe-a-Pierre refinery. Mr Dolman’smemories are of boozy parties with RNofficers and of his mother goingalligator shooting by boat at night. Itwas a different world - and a differentworld even then from life in wartimeBritain. CJ
23
New
slet
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Sum
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9
Every year Heritage Open Days celebrates localbuildings and places of historical, cultural andarchitectural value. From Thursday 10th to Sunday13th September, the Tunbridge Wells areaprogramme offers a range of activities, from visitsto mansions to revealing walks. Councillor MikeRusbridge leads a Royal Walk through RoyalTunbridge Wells, in this its centenary year.Willicombe House will open its doors for thepublic to witness the beautiful restoration (seebelow). Jane Dickson leads a walk around hiddenTunbridge Wells. The RSPB’s Broadwater Warreninvites visitors to discover the archaeologicalsecrets of the new reserve.
The programme of nearly fifty local events andvenues will be available on our web-site (seebottom of page) from mid-July. The full nation-wide programme will be available from the samedate on www.heritageopendays.org.uk
Amy Powell
Willi
com
be H
ouse
Sal
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s - S
tabl
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All
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Chu
rch,
Tud
eley
Meetings start at 7.45 on the second Thursday in the month (unlessotherwise stated), in either Committee Rooms A and B or the Council
Chamber within the Town Hall. Please remember to bring yourmembership card. Visitors are welcome.
The views expressed in this Newsletter are those of the named author or of the editorand do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Society.
Published by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society.
Registered Charity No. 276545
Guided tour of St Leonards by the Burtons’ St LeonardsSociety. Numbers are limited. Please contact Gill Twells on527493.
Annual Garden Party- at Eridge Park, by kind permission ofthe Marquess of Abergavenny. 6 - 8 pm. Admission is byticket - please contact Frances Avery on 862530.
July10th(Fri)Aug15th(Sat)
Sept10th-13th
‘Without Let or Hindrance’ - the story of passports - anillustrated talk by Martin Lloyd.
Sept10th
Heritage Open Days Organised this year by Fiona Woodfieldand Amy Powell. Please see page 23.
Unveiling of the Panorama to commemorate the centenaryof ‘Royal’ Tunbridge Wells. On the edge of the Commonopposite the Royal Wells Inn - 5pm.
Sept25th(Fri)
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Civic SocietyForthcoming Events
NB With the closure of the Town Hall we may not be able tohold our meetings there in future. Please check our web-
site or our posters, or contact a member of the committee.
