Past
A History of Our Villages
- Introduction
- Genesis
- The Years 1000 to 1400
- Growth and Reform - 1400 to 1600
- The 17th & 18th Centuries
- Towards the Present Day
- Epilogue
Epilogue
How can one end this sample of our village history? Shall I tell you of the establishment of the village school for which I have the early Minute Book, Rules, accounts, etc. from over a hundred years ago? Or perhaps show you the applications for Sheldwich Post Office to become a Telegraph Office and a Money Order Office - and photographs of its last tenants or the story of their standing up to armed robbers? Shall we look at the effects of two World Wars and the aftermath (did you know we had a secret post in Sheldwich watching for the coming of the Russians during Cold War years?) In the first World War we experienced locally the largest ‘commercial’ explosion in history when the gunpowder works blew, killing over 100 people (and because we didn’t want the enemy to know that Faversham was so important in making explosives we were encouraged to keep it quiet!) What about our Village Halls (one built on the site of a shooting gallery)? We ought to have a history of Sheldwich’s excellent Cricket Club, the Parish Council, the Horticultural Society. What about modern things - the Millennium project to give our church in Sheldwich back its bells after the tower had been silent for 92 years ( - the bells fell catastrophically during a wedding and at he dedication of the new bells the daughter of that couple came from Canada for the occasion!) How about ................
Well, these can be perhaps included in a larger and illustrated version before too long. But you cannot in fact finish local history because it’s constantly happening all around, all the time. Remember it’s not history, it’s yourstory! May we keep feeding our local archives with photographs, papers, memories of current times, so that our descendants can tell our story too at some future time.
Meanwhile I hope you have enjoyed this part of our story as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.MIKE JOHNSON. NOVEMBER 2000
