Bright Gospel Services are (D.V.) held… In Brethren parlance D.V. stands for ‘Deo Volente’ meaning ‘God Willing’
Reference: WH1074
Diversity was still the name of the game in the early years of the twentieth century – if you were a fruiterer, greengrocer and nurseryman you would likely have a horse and cart, so there’s extra money to be made – you could also be a carter!
Reference: WH0436
1923 was the first year Timothy Osbourne Weller had advertised electric light installations which was a bit late, but there might have been sound thinking there as this was the year that the voltage was changed from 115 volts to 220 volts resulting in lighter gauges of cable being required. It is interesting that the first ...
Reference: WH0971
In the early 1900s Frederick John Meadows was the publican at the George & Dragon. Unmarried, he ran the hotel with his mother, his sister, three servants and Florence Lockwood, his hotel manageress. By the early 1920s Meadows had started a business as Jobmaster and Carman, employing returning men from the Royal Army Service Corps Mechanical ...
Reference: WH0964
Charles Aubrey Botley had his Nursery and shop beside Quebec House at the bottom of Vicarage Hill. The shop, which Gwen Smith remembered for its “long white marble counter and gleaming scales” is the distinctive low building with carved wood lattice-work window, called ‘Darenth’ today. As a nursery-man’s shop this dates back to the mid-1860s ...
Reference: WH0437
Edwin John Hollingworth rented his nursery site beside the Market Field from the Knipe estate, owners of The Grange. He was a fruiterer and florist selling from his shop sited where the Post Office is today (2018) and would be the man to go and talk to for gardening advice between the Wars. Clearly a ...
Reference: WH0434
This advert speaks for itself and appeared in the Westerham Herald all through 1917… Before the need to supplement the world of work in all disciplines, the few women who had worked within retail, had been confined to millinery and haberdashery – even drapery and hairdressing had been part of the man’s working world. Certainly ...
Reference: WH0982
The International Stores was a popular grocery shop in Westerham between the Wars and beyond into the early 1970s when the group was absorbed by British American Tobacco and many outlets closed. It was sited in the left-hand side of what is currently ‘Ruach Kitchens’ in Market Square. June Heath remembers local shopping “…apart from Woods ...
Reference: WH0981
For many years a tenant farmer on Squerryes land, Jack Steven ran the largest dairy farm in the district. Curiously, the Steven men and the Greenlees, both longstanding farming families in the area were related and both had their roots on Scottish soil. In 1951 Force Green Farm was the province of Jack Steven, Squerryes Home ...
Reference: WH0953
It is interesting to note that even in 1890, local nurseryman Arthur Jeffkins was claiming Darenth Nursery to be the oldest in the district, being over 100 years old then!
Reference: WH0420
Interesting to note that alongside being the contractor for the Sewers in 1879, John Bingham was also contractor for the town’s Water Well in 1880 and for the expansion and rebuilding of the Gas Works in 1882. The Herald from June 3rd 1882: The Gas Company are making some extensive alterations to their works, to enable ...
Reference: WH0933
This rather quaint advertisement appeared on the back of the Westerham Herald newspaper in 1883 and clearly shows where John Cattell’s business was sited, next door to the Grasshopper on the Green. Local nurseryman and seed grower Thomas Wm. Edmunds, purveyor of Cattell’s seeds quotes in the 1899 edition of ‘Wolfeland: a handbook to Westerham ...
Reference: WH0433
Four generations of chimney sweeps worked out of the same house in Post Office yard – all of them called John! Geoff Hoath “…I remember the sweep was Mr Newman. He‘d do it all by hand, always in the morning, but you could set your clock by him. If he said he would be there at ...
Reference: WH0950
This advertisement from Benjamin Quittenden in the 1915 edition of Hookers Almanack quotes that John Cattell had established his seed growing business in 1799.
Reference: WH0435
This curious ‘advertisement’ appeared in the Westerham Herald in the early 1900s, clearly attempting to smooth some troubled waters. It starts by promoting that he, Charles F. Cattell, is the son of the late great nurseryman John Cattell, but then proclaims that the nursery site is remote enough to grow speciality stock and keep them ...
Reference: WH0432
Founded in 1912 the ‘Westerham Fanciers Association’ drew members from those that kept chickens and other fowl for show and breeding purposes. The President of the association was Alexander Owen Wolfe-Aylward, himself a direct descendant of James Wolfe’s uncle, who had in 1914 taken over with his wife as custodians of Quebec House, a position ...
Reference: 0043
This aerial photograph taken circa 1947 shows the railway with the ‘Buffer Depot’ of a large Nissen Hut and several sheds just visible under the wing-strut of the plane. Buffer Depots were where rationed food supplies, building materials and fuel were stored. An important element of the branch line’s social and commercial history, depots such ...
Reference: WH0115
Churchill Secondary School The School was first opened as ‘Westerham County Secondary School’ in September nineteen forty-nine. On July 5 1950 the School’s new Flag, based on the Warde family Coat of Arms was flown for the first time in public, and the first Westerham Secondary School Sports Day was held at King George’s Field. July 26 of ...
Reference: WH0806
This poster appeared in the Westerham Herald in 1917. It was the start of what would become the Women’s Land Army, and many women found they preferred to work closer to home, in the fields and on the farms rather than having to travel to factories, laundries, brickyards etc,. all of which had previously been ...
Reference: WH0983
The lads are standing in what had originally been ‘Newton’s Nursery’ which was on the north side of London Road stretching down to South Bank. This was the first of the towns’ nurseries to be closed around the time of the first World War.
Reference: 0044