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
Introduction
I am the first to admit that the title for this section is far too grand! First, I am no historian and in addition a ‘real’ history of our villages is beyond the scope of this small project. But I am an enthusiastic amateur, and at least it is a start - a framework which can be built upon to produce a much more worthy history when time permits. With that in mind I welcome contact from those who, reading this, might correct me when I’m wrong or be in a position to add to the local story I tell. In fact I have been able to gather more material than can be accommodated in this publication, and neither the funds made available or the time I have at present will allow me to include it. I will however by the Summer of 2001 have an enlarged version complete with many illustrations - interested readers might like to contact me then if they would like to buy a copy for themselves.
As I have researched in archives such as those in Canterbury Cathedral, libraries and other local sources, I have been fascinated by the amount and variety of material around. This work can be little more than a selection of the things which most caught my attention. But it is hoped that you will find, as I have done, that we are the inheritors of a rich legacy which helps to put our current situation in historical context. If, as I suspect, the road to the future is best decided by considering it to be a continuation of the journey we have already travelled to this point in time, then this story will be helpful. At very least we should become more aware of the richness of our heritage, more proud of our villages, more ready to protect what is precious in them.
Not knowing how a ‘proper’ local historian would approach this work, I had to decide what strategy to use. In the end I thought it useful to put the village stories I have discovered into the setting of what was happening around - in neighbouring villages, our nearest town Faversham, or even nationally, for we cannot be understood in isolation as though we were socially independent. At times it may be clear that I have let my imagination free to wonder and to wander, but the bulk of the story is fact rather than fancy. It may sound an ungrateful cop-out, but it is impossible to list all the sources I have used during the six months that I have been scribbling down notes in an exercise book. I have tried not to be a plagiarist whilst at the same time I fully acknowledge that little in these pages is original: I am a purveyor of other people’s ideas which I have gathered and sorted into some kind of order. My account had to be shortened and I shall be brief on most recent history, but it is important that ‘modern’ history is not lost. So I welcome contributions: for instance I wonder if someone can tell me the history of Sheldwich’s excellent Cricket Club or the Morgan-Kirby Nursery, or the various trades carried on in the villages but now lost.
A final thought. It is inevitable that some might consider my study to be too heavily dependent on news from ‘the church’. This is inevitable, not because I’m the Village Priest and happen to believe there’s nothing so important, however true that may be! Rather, it so happens that for centuries the church was not only at the centre of the life of the villages - providing the community with its morality, politics, education, entertainment, annual rhythm to life, and so on - but in early times it provided the only group of locals who actually kept a record of what was happening. So when you look for a source of history, it tends to be someone connected with the church who has recorded it for us: without that there would be little to study. In earlier times the village church was the ‘historical DNA’ which contains the structure to explain why we are as we are today. Some of what happened in the name of the church is shameful and should be condemned - but at least we have a record of what it was. It might be said that all people are fundamentally religious, finding a need to be devoted to something be it God, football, materialism, whatever. Some even become religiously fundamental to their object of worship, in which case they become blinkered, bigoted, intolerant to any who do not share their passion. But whereas religion is ‘natural’ to people, true Christianity is hard, tough, goes against the grain. As you read those parts of the history of our villages provided by the church, you will no doubt decide for yourself which parts are religion, which parts Christianity
