The History of Our Villages

Past

A History of Our Villages

Towards the Present Day

George IV 1820 George V 1910

William IV 1830 Edward VIII 1936

Victoria 1837 George VI 1936

Edward VII 1901 Elizabeth II 1952

Entries from Gazetteers prove enlightening.

From LEAVELAND in 1845. ‘A parish in the hundred and union of Faversham, county of Kent; 4 ½ miles SSW of Faversham. Living, a discharged rectory, annexed to that of Badlesmere. Acres 320. Houses 8. Property £412. Population in 1801, 37; in 1831, 68. Poor rates in 1838 £29.9s.’ (68 people in 8 houses!)

And in the 1879 entry for Leaveland. ‘A parish in Faversham district, Kent; 3 ¼ miles SW from Selling railway station.’ ( - notice how suddenly the railway changes where the place is!) ‘Post-town Badlesmere, under Faversham. Acres 372. Real Property £685. Population 94, Houses 23. The property is divided among a few. The manor and much of the land belong to Lord Sondes. The living is a rectory, annexed to the rectory of Badlesmere, in the diocese of Canterbury. The church has a wooden turret, and is good.’

Just a few years later in 1890 the entry is much enlarged and amongst the additional information is the following. ‘Situated mostly on high ground, close to the Ashford and Faversham road, ... 4 miles from Selling station on the London, Chatham and Dover railway, and 5 from Chilham Station on the Ashford and Ramsgate branch of the South Eastern Railway, in the North Eastern Division of the county, lathe of Scray, Faversham hundred, petty sessional division, union and county court district, and in the Rural Deanery of Ospringe and Archdeaconry and diocese of Canterbury. The living is a rectory, annexed to that of Badlesmere, joint yearly value from tithe-rent charge £400, in the gift of Earl Sondes, and held since 1884 by the Rev George Bryant M A of Emmanuel College Cambridge, and surrogate who resides at Badlesmere. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and peas. The population in 1881 was 129. Sexton, Daniel Godfrey. Letters through Faversham, which is the nearest telegraph and money order office, arrive at 9.30. Pillar letter box, near the rectory at Badlesmere, cleared at 5.40 p m.; Sundays 11.40 a m. The children of this place attend the National School at Sheldwich.’

Amongst Leaveland’s citizens is listed a shopkeeper, farmer, wheelwright, grocer and boot and shoe maker.

The BADLESMERE gazeteer for 1879 repeats some of the Leaveland information (regarding situation, postal service, etc.) and includes these facts: ‘Acres 778. Real property £1,060. Population 135. Houses 23. The manor belonged in the time of Edward I and Edward II to the potent family of De Badlesmere; was forfeited by the attainder and execution of John Earl of Oxford and Baron Badlesmere, and passed into the possession of the family of Sondes. A house of regular canons was founded in the 13th year of Edward II by Bartholemew of Badlesmere. The church is a very plain, square Saxon structure in very good condition. A fair is held on 17 November.’ You may note that earlier, in 1845, it was stated that in Badlesmere fairs were held for linen and toys on 9 September and 24 October.

And the equivalent for SHELDWICH around that time? These two extracts show how the village begins to benefit from a school and a post office - of which more later. First from 1845: ‘Here is a daily National School, endowed with £12 per annum. In 1835 hops were cultivated in this parish to the extent of 22 acres. Acres of this parish, 1,980. Houses 91. AP £2296. Population in 1801, 410; in 1831, 497. Poor rates in 1838, £149.11s’ Then in 1879; ‘It has a post-office of the name of Sheldwich-Lees, under Faversham. Acres 1986. Real property £3199. Population 616. Houses 119. There are a Wesleyan chapel and national school.’ By the year 1890 is added the fact that the main crops in Sheldwich are wheat, barley, hops, oats, beans and turnips. The population had grown by 1881 to 638 - bigger than today - and the school had space for 240 children (though 150 attended). Amongst the main residents the list contains a grocer, hop grower, shopkeeper, tailor, carpenter, blacksmith, publican, wheelwright and boot maker.

In this century would be built some houses now listed - Maybank, North Street Farmhouse, and Gosmere Oast House, in addition to Lees Court Gates and a milestone!

Glimpses into 19th Century village life may be gleaned from a few extracts of a Minute Book I have.

April 14th 1846. ‘It was agreed at a meeting of the parishioners of the Parish of Sheldwich that Messrs. Cobb and Read be appointed as a Committee for the purpose of acting with the Parish of Selling in the employment of a person to act as a Constable for both parishes. It was also agreed at the same meeting that William Edward Liprose should be employed as a Policeman and receive seventeen shillings (85p) per week and a suit of clothes yearly, payable out of the Poor Rate.’

February 4th, 1851. ‘At a parish meeting held this day for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of a bill to be introduced into Parliament for constructing a Railway ...... And to the principles of the contingent guarantee therein mentioned, to be charged rateably on the owners of the rateable property in the Parish. .... Carried unanimously That this meeting holds an aversion and dislikes all attempts to increase the burden on land and house property, and especially by raising in this parish a contingent rate in aid of railway purposes, and is altogether opposed to the principle involved in such a course.’’

‘At a meeting of the Inhabitants of the Parish of Sheldwich in the County of Kent in Vestry assembled on Thursday the twenty seventh day of November 1856 for the purpose of considering the propriety of rescinding the appointment of Mr Alfred Grey as assistant Overseer of the said Parish and if deemed advisable of rescinding the same, and appointing some other person as Assistant Overseer in his stead with such salary as the meeting should deem fit. .... Resolved that Mr Charles Tucker be, and is hereby appointed Assistant Overseer of the said Parish to perform all the duties appertaining to the office of an Overseer (with the exception of posting Parish notices on the Church Doors) at the Salary of Two Pounds and Ten Shillings per annum, payable quarterly.’ The Overseer seems to have a number of duties in the village, including oversight of the way charity is handled. For instance every year there is an account of monies paid in to charity funds (including a fiver extracted from Lord Sondes) and its distribution in the form of coal for poor villagers. This same group of villagers who belong to the Vestry meeting also handle school matters.

‘At a Vestry Meeting held in the Parish Church of Sheldwich on June 11th 1863. ... for the purpose of selecting two persons to assist the Officers of the Board of Ordinance in ascertaining the boundaries of the Parish.’ (Ordinance Survey arrives!)

5 September 1873. ‘I have visited the Church of Sheldwich and I find the fabric in substantial repair, and the furniture sufficient. Rural Dean.’ (I contrast this flying visit and brief comment with today: a very full professional inspection of each church is carried out by law every five years. This costs each congregation not only several hundred pounds for the privilege, but they are responsible for putting things right before the next Quinquennial Inspection, often at a cost of many thousands of pounds.)

Sept 19th 1892. ‘ ..... Mrs H Hordern having offered to defray the cost of building a flint wall at the West side of the churchyard, and two new gates, one in the form of a Lych Gate, Resolved that her munificent offer be thankfully accepted by the parishioners.’

April 9th, 1912 (to ‘pop’ into the next Century - but in the same Minute Book). ‘It was decided that the vicar should hold services on Sunday afternoons during the Summer at Perry Wood Mission Room in order that an opinion might be formed as to the desirability of continuing the use of this building as a Mission Room.’ (Some readers will not know that Sheldwich Church ‘reached out’ to the outpost of Perry Wood (which was then in Sheldwich Parish) by establishing a Mission Church there - now a private home.)

Another glimpse into the life of our villages is obtained if you go to the Fleur de Lis Centre in Faversham and buy the Faversham Paper No. 24 called ‘An Anthology of Faversham Verse 1430 - 1998’. In there you will find a 100 verse poem called ‘Dick and Sal at Canterbury Fair.’ This is perhaps the most important poem in 19th Century Kentish dialect there is. It tells the riotous tale of two youngsters walking from our villages to Canterbury. Dick and Sal almost certainly lived in Sheldwich, whilst the author was a Sheldwich gardener, probably employed at Lees Court, but who went on to establish the tea industry in Assam!

But most of the information about the nineteenth Century comes from the many books we still have from those times. Some were written about meetings, happenings, decisions, appointments, the daily round of births, marriages, deaths: others are simple records, For instance from Sheldwich:

‘An account of the goods of the church 1813. An iron chest with the registers. Two wooden chests for the papers, etc. A silver flagon, two silver pattens. Two chalices silver and one silver plate. One pewter basin. One Bible. Three Prayer Books. Cushions complete for the desks and Communion Table. A book for the entry of the preachers. A book of homilies. A bier and tools necessary for funerals. A Table of the Degrees of Marriages. Six bells and ropes complete. A Prayer Book abridged for the Communion Service given by the Revd Matthias Rutton January 1818 when he had completed his fortieth year as Minister of this Parish.’ But even these ‘dry’ records can lead to other discoveries. I didn’t know what a ‘book for the entry of the Preachers’ was until I picked one up. It’s what we now call the service register for each week. We discover that when the vicar was on holiday, others looked after the parish - from Stepney, Kings College Cambridge, Northhants, Longport, Norfolk, Southampton, and Oxford. Sometimes there are notes written in various pages in the registers about the weather or some local happening. The names of preachers - including the Archbishop of Canterbury - are recorded, the texts they used, the collection taken. In the 1880’s there were typically 3 to 7 communicants giving between 1s4d (6p) and 6s3d (31p) collectively: when the Archbishop came on May 31st 1889 at 3.00 p.m. there were 12 communicants who gave £49.15s11d (£49.80)! But the following Sunday 15 communicants gave only £3.1s6d (£3.07) - what a difference Archbishops make! Other entries tell of tragedy: ‘Aug 25th 1881. Funeral of H J Smith killed in a quarrel at Perry Wood outside the Rose & Crown Aug. 20th by a Boughton man called Foster.’ The Victorian times saw sermon titles such as these:

The nearness of Christ. Wisdom, courage, joy: gifts from above. The mysterious but practical doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Loving God for himself. The 2nd Miraculous Draught. Victory over Sin. The Divine Commission and Perpetual Presence. The Thorn in the Flesh. Rest for the Weary. Access to the Father through Christ. The Panoply of God. Belshazzar’s Feast. Suddenness of the Second Coming - a reason for watchfulness. The Incarnation with reference to the Raredos in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Local History proves to be an interesting study which sometimes surprises in the way in which stories find a link which stretches over a surprising number of years. Here is an example.

My good neighbour who currently chairs our Parish Council has an ancestor called Stephen Rouse, who died at Minster in Sheppey on September 25, 1814. He was a vicar there and kept a fascinating diary over many years. He ends it by adding ‘Written with a quill pen and ink. Cut his own pens and made his ink.’ We get a glimpse of how different life was in our area when we read for instance:
‘January 1st 1774. Shaved and bespoke a new wig. A large ebb tide last Monday, Phekins and his family t’was said, got a 100 gallons of oysters, also oysters was sold for one shilling and threepence per gallon, which before used to be sold for no more than one shilling.’

Often his entries shed light on how things were here too - for instance in terms of the weather. When did we last have weather like this for instance, and how did it affect our villagers? -

‘January 29th 1776. The water at Kings Ferry in the Isle of Sheppey was frozen so very hard that people passed and repassed in and out of the Island on the ice, and on the first day of February Mr John Head, Mr Richard Hills, Thomas Seavillman and myself went to the said Ferry House and so on the ice which was but five inches thick and saw ... The Mayor come over the said ice and sixteen people at one time. ... William Hope, butcher of Sheerness drove fifteen fat sheep over at the same time and a large quantity of flour was brought over on men’s backs for the Bakers of Sheerness. ... The River Medway was also all covered with ice.’

And an entry from the middle of the Summer (!) In 1779 -

‘On Friday 31st July between 5 and 6 o’clock afternoon, small clouds arose at SW and collected into a violent storm of rain and hail. .... So much hail and pieces of ice, as large as was never seen before, it cut off branches of trees, leaves, fruit and all garden stuff where it came, several of the pieces of ice three inches around. .. I saw next day at night in John Biggs garden, the hail laid four inches thick on the ground. A water spout attended the cloud and balls of fire fell to the earth and very strong thunder and lightening’.

And from August 18th 1783, ‘a large fiery meteor was seen ... Coming from the NW and dropping balls of fire all the way in its course to SE which seemed to mount and terminate in the air right over Faversham ..... At Baddlesmere was seen three at once ....’ What did the villagers make of all these things I wonder? I guess global warming was not blamed! Also:

‘June 26th 1784. The past Spring hath been remarkably unkindly for all sorts of vegetables. ... The deer in Eastwell Park died in abundance. The sheep and lambs in Sheppey died so fast as there to be 50 or 60 dead bodys’ of sheep to be seen at one time ......’
The varied life of the village priest is well described:

‘June 17th 1778. At ten went to the parsonage and was at the killing of 166 rats. At home at 4 and watering my cucumbers, then at a burial, then at home and in bed at 10 o’clock’. Or from October 15th 1789. ‘At night straightening old nails.’ !!
Another link with the villages:

‘February 15th 1786, my mother’s body was carried from Boughton under Blean and buried by my father in Sheldwich churchyard where there is a headstone in remembrance of them.’ And ‘March 12 1783. Buried my uncle Richard and Aunt Mary ... this day in one grave. He was born near Sheldwich Church and she near Selling Church.’

Some entries all from 1797 showing how the law was administered locally : ‘went to Queenborough to see my oak timber and there I saw a soldier whipped for stabbing another in the neck. ..... To see Richard Parker hanged on board the ‘Sandwich’ for mutiny. .... On the hill to see the men hanged on board the ‘Leopard’ .. And three on board the ‘Lancaster’. ..... To see the four men hanged on board the ‘Sandwich’ - buried William Gregory who was hanged .. a cabinet maker aged 33 years.’

To get an idea of how the poor might have been looked after before the NHS (!) ‘November 19th 1798. Buried John Loane, a man from the Parish House, who perished under the sea wall ... after being horse whipped by Lenard Leiter, Keeper of the Parish Poor.’

But to get (finally, having been lost in the previous century of this remarkable diary) to my point about links between the centuries. On December 23rd 1805, Stephen Rouse makes this entry: ‘Up between 7 and 8 writing Richard’s accounts, and then to see His Majesty’s ship ‘Victory’ with Lord Nelson’s body come to the Nore. Afternoon about home cutting the grape vines, evening at home reading in bed 8 0’clock.’ Suddenly there’s a link made between one of England’s great heroes and a local vicar’s diary. Then only last month (October 2000) I was searching through papers from the attic of someone who had died locally and came across a letter on the outside of which is written ‘Sir Charles Phipps has received the command of Her Majesty the Queen to thank Mr Harris for his letter, with its enclosure. Windsor Castle 9 June 1862.’ The letter reads ‘Major ...?.... is desired by His Royal Highness Prince Albert to thank Mr Harris for his kind attention in sending him a facsimile of the last letter written by Lord Nelson. This His Royal Highness has much pleasure in accepting, Should his Royal Highness wish to obtain another copy at any other time he will not forget Mr Harris obliging offer.’ And there, headed ‘Victory Oct 19th 1805’ in Lord Nelson’s handwriting (copy) we read ‘My dearest beloved Emma the dear friend of my bosom, the signal has been made that the Enemys combined fleet are coming out of port. We have very little wind so that I have no hopes of suing them before tomorrow. May the God of Battles crown my endeavours with success. At all events I will take care that my name shall ever be most dear to you and Horatia both of whom I love as much as my own life, and as my last writing before the battle will be to you so I hope in God that I shall live to finish my letter after the Battle. May heaven bless you ... Your Nelson. Oct 10th in the morning we were close to the mouth of the straights but the wind had not come far enough to the Westward to allow the combined fleets to weather the shoals off Trafalgar but there were counted as far as forty sail of Ships of War which I suppose to be 34 of the line and six frigates, a group of them was seen off the lighthouse of Cadiz this morning but it blows so very fresh that I think ...?.... that I rather believe they will go into the Harbour before night. May God Almighty give us success over these fellows and ..?.. us to get a peace.’ Someone has added ‘This letter was found open on his desk and brought to Lady Hamilton by Captain Hardy. Oh miserable wretched Emma. Oh glorious and happy Nelson.’

Before I leave Stephen’s diary however, allow me this gruesome entry! ‘Jan 11th 1778. Buried Samuel Avery (Collarmaker) aged 29 years. A poor object, his hamstrings was cut by George Evenden, Butcher of Minster before a coffin could be fitted for him.’ Or perhaps ‘June 16th 1795. Buried a drowned man who had had his throat cut and sewed up again.’

It is often by looking closely at the life of one local character such as Stephen Rouse that we get a real feeling for what it was like to be in our villages at that time. Another example of this is the story of one of Sheldwich’s Victorian vicars, whose life I researched as the result of one of the many enquiries which come my way every year from people trying to trace a family tree. In 1996 I was contacted by telephone, the caller recently returned from Rhodesia where the family had been involved for four generations growing tobacco. He wanted to know if a village called Sheldwich still existed, and if we ever had a vicar called Bingham Sibthorpe Malden. I soon found that BSM (for short) came to us in 1870. Born in the Isle of Wight and educated at Cambridge, he came from a post in Staffordshire and stayed to leave an indelible mark on the village. He and his wife Susannah were 39 years old and brought children Bertha (15), Mary (13), Margaret (10), Arthur (8), Percy (6), Mable (5), Emily (3) and Gilbert (1) - no wonder they eventually enlarged the vicarage (now Sheldon House)! But Susannah was pregnant and in Sheldwich had Ernest. With only Arthur and Percy at school, the family needed help so they brought with them 21 year old Harriet Norton as a nurse and 22 year old Harriet Smith as a general servant. (You get this sort of information from microfilmed Census returns in Faversham library.) To complete the family, two years later little Amy was born; but her mother died at that time (Oct 12 1873) and you find her grave to the left of the South Porch of the church. BSM was to run a church and very large family without the help of a wife for 33 years.

In the 1880’s BSM extended the church - look at the ‘before and after’ plans framed on the West wall. A North Aisle was added and the interior vastly changed (that’s why it looks Victorian!) A unique ‘flambuoyant’ window was found in the gable, having been covered for centuries. The owners of Throwley House paid for the building of the porch. BSM was interviewed about his ‘new’ church, a long write-up is to be found in the 1888 edition of Archaeologica Cantiana and the Archbishop of Canterbury duly rededicated the building in 1889. The cost, incidentally was £2,500!

In 1906 BSM was 75 years old, still very busy but, judging from the deterioration of his signature in the registers, getting rather frail. In March he baptised four more babies: Daisy was a labourer’s daughter from Perry Wood, Ellen from Throwley, Elsie whose father Joseph, a Station Master from Throwley had died earlier, and Anna, daughter of a Sheldwich gardener. There had been a funeral in March too - picture BSM in his frock coat and top hat in the cold of mid-March, burying the tiny body of Charles Thomas Amos aged 9 months. No wonder that within days others are signing the registers and on May 14 BSM himself died to be buried three days later near to Susannah. In grateful memory his congregation made a new church door - see the brass plaque there on the wall inside. Not just BSM’s genes but his entrepreneurial spirit went on, his descendants moving to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

This story too has another modern link. Remember the person whose attic gave the letter from Admiral Nelson? He told me that his mother used to tell him tales about BSM when he was a little boy - how the vicar would ride around the village on a huge three-wheeler ‘bike, often with children merrily riding on the axle! I was also to learn that when BSM went on holiday he went back to his birthplace. I had a letter from the Isle of Wight Tourism centre beginning ‘Since there may no longer be a vicarage at Sheldwick, I sincerely hope that the Post Office will deliver this letter to the person who has records of Sheldwick parish and I hope that you can ..put me on the right track.’ Evidently the Totland Bay Hotel (demolished in the early 1980’s) had a visitors book in which was an entry in September 1886. A visitor had written a poem and signed it ‘Reverend B S M, Sheldwick Vicarage, Kent.’ This is his poem:

I came one day to Totland Bay
In search of rest and leisure
And there I found in all abound
A source of endless pleasure.

At once you stray round Totland Bay
Midst Nature’s softest greenery
While cliffs on high on downs and sky
Enframe the beauteous scenery.

And all the day at Totland Bay
The wind is ne’er uproarious
And every night the crimson light
Of sunset is most glorious.

I made a stay at Totland Bay
Of much too short duration
Both land and sea afforded me
Such constant recreation.

I go away from Totland Bay
At call of work and duty
But hope once more to see its shore
Its cliffs and all its beauty.

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