This steam railmotor number 3 from Kitson of Leeds was introduced to the branch in April 1906, and seen here waiting at Westerham. In conjunction with the introduction of the railmotor, an unstaffed halt was built at Chevening accessed from the roadbridge by a steep flight of steps. Chevening halt had a short platform but ...
Reference: WH0112
Following the reception, Mr. and Mrs Streatfeild were driven away in a motor-landaulet delightfully bedecked with white ribbons to the carriage handles and wheels, en-route to Southampton where they would board the steamer to their honeymoon destination on the island of Madeira.
Reference: WH0664
From the Herald newspaper: ‘…it is worthy of mention that the handsome three-tier wedding cake was made by Mrs. Stratford, cook at Squerryes Court.’
Reference: WH0665
Gaily dressed horse-drawn floats pass the Constitutional Club in Sundridge on a wet summers afternoon in 1933.
Reference: WH0703
The Swan Brewery was at the foot of Hosey Hill
Reference: WH0249
1897 was the year that Ben Bushell bought and closed the Swan Brewery at the bottom of Hosey Hill, so this compliment slip will date from before that time. At that point the Black Eagle Brewery took on the trading style of Bushell, Watkins and Co., though William Watkins did not stay very long. On ...
Reference: WH0242
There are many records of ‘stack-fires’ around the Westerham area as in any farming community, and some records for house fires, but probably the most serious fire Westerham has ever seen broke out at the premises of Edward Evenden’s ‘West Kent Motor Works’ during the night of July 1st 1910. From The Herald Saturday July ...
Reference: WH0218
…The greatest danger emanated from the Town side of the building, adjoining the old brewery malt kiln, and it was towards this spot that the firemen directed their unrelenting zeal. Working from three hydrants on the high pressure main, the brigade played on the fire with five branches. Fortunately an ample supply of water at ...
Reference: WH0256
The Swan Brewery was at the foot of Hosey Hill, the subject of a take-over bid in 1897 by B.C. Bushell of the Black Eagle Brewery at the west-end of the town. The somewhat truncated boiler-house chimney of the Swan can still be found in a gated development which was built on this site in ...
Reference: WH0250
This advertisement appeared in the first edition of ‘Hookers Almanack’ in 1864, the year before John Watkins retired
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This rustic advertisement was printed in the second edition of ‘Hookers Almanack’ in 1865. That was the year that William Finnis Watkins’ father John Watkins (senior) retired.
Reference: WH0252
The little Swan Coffee rooms seen on the edge of this photograph were the subject of swift table-turning performed by William Finnis Watkins in 1882. The Westerham Herald of September 1st 1882 tells of the building of The Crown Hotel opposite the railway station, to be owned by Watkins and Son of Westerham’s Swan Brewery, sited ...
Reference: WH0182
Ellen King enjoys the sunshine with her daughters Eva and Ethel outside ‘The Cottage’ next door to ‘Roseville’ in the High Street. All the houses on this section of the High Street were owned by the Black Eagle Brewery in the early 1900s.
Reference: WH1055
This view looking west down the High Street has a dream-like quality to it, without a soul about. The photograph is badly stained giving a fog-like look with a gloomy sky, but it was actually taken mid afternoon on a sunny day as revealed by the shadows on the facade of Winterton House on the ...
Reference: WH1047