George Wells had fond memories of the blacksmith’s forges of Verrall by Mill Lane and the Nicholas’ Brothers in their yard in the High Street, opposite New Street. “…when I was a lad we used to go into Mr Nicholas’ yard and have a look at what they were doing – he didn’t mind, he ...
Reference: WH0961
Frank Lewis Jenner was born in Westerham in 1902, the third son of six surviving children. His parents Edward and Sarah lived at Valence Lodge, where his father was a domestic coachman and later chauffeur for the Watney family. During Ernest Blackton’s time in the late 1920s, Wolfe Garage had run a taxi service from the ...
Reference: WH0965
A London Evening Standard edition for June 1949 ran an article: ‘Sergeant Joe waits for Mr Churchill’ Mr Winston Churchill was presenting long-service medals to fifty special constables at Westerham (pop 3700), two miles from Chartwell Manor, his country home in Kent. In Saint Mary’s 200-seat Church Hall were ‘specials’ who enrolled during the IRA troubles in 1939 ...
Reference: WH0967
From the obituary for John Townsend, February 1917 “…He commenced his walk in life when a young man, coming to Westerham and taking charge of the stud of the late Mr Kitchin, at Dunsdale. Always extremely fond of animals he found a work congenial to his nature. With a natural aptitude for the management of horses, ...
Reference: WH0963
A man of many talents as a farmer, carting proprietor and publican at the Warde Arms, Townsend kept his horses, carts and carriages in ‘Commodious Stables and Coach-Houses adjoining the railway station’. It was a business that saw him through to his end which was a timely demise, as the motor car was beginning to ...
Reference: WH0962
Looking every bit a horse drawn group of ‘Jolly Boys’ wait for the off outside the Warde Arms circa 1885. No doubt there was a barrel of bright beer stowed away on board somewhere for the journey. John Townsend’s cartage business included open and closed carriages, the most famous in living memory being ‘The Pride of ...
Reference: WH0960
This picture shows trench digging for laying water or sewage pipes in the late 1930s. When the sewer was built from Westerham to the outlet at Dartford in the early 1880s, twenty-three miles of trench had to be dug by manpower alone. No tunnel boring equipment was available at that time, so the sewers were ...
Reference: WH0948
In February 1882 the Darenth Valley Sewerage was finally connected to the West Kent system at the Dartford outfall… But all was not good with the new main sewer through Brasted and Sundridge… The Board minutes for 10 March 1884 record: SUNDRIDGE VENTILATION – Mr Hennell being attended at the meeting stated that as recommended by the ...
Reference: WH0969
These mantles would have been an off-the-shelf item at Evenden’s ironmongery beside the King’s Arms in the early 1900s. Formed on a ceramic base, what became the mantle was a fine fabric bag, made from rayon or silk. The fibre was impregnated with metallic salts and when the mantle is heated in a flame, the fibre burns ...
Reference: WH0970
June Ingram reflected on her families involvement with the Gasworks “…around 1950 when I was about six, my parents moved from Granville Road into the Gasworks Cottage. Mr and Mrs Herbert had been there for some years as he was manager of the works. Westerham was by then on a piped supply of town-gas from ...
Reference: WH0972
Alongside his ‘day-job’ running the Herald Steam Printing Works, printing Hookers Almanack and the Westerham Herald newspaper, Charles Hooker was Secretary of the Westerham Gas and Coke Company who ran the gas works. This would provide added income but along with that would go added responsibility. However, for all businesses at the turn of the ...
Reference: WH0943