In 1926 the Westerham Women’s Institute staged a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at Squerryes Court. The play, in five acts, was produced by Mrs Granville Streatfeild with incidental music composed and conducted by Miss H. Lubbock. Some key roles were as follows Julius Caesar, Mrs Strolger Calpurnia, Mrs Grace Mark Anthony, Mrs Streatfeild Brutus, Mrs Brown Cassius, Mrs Bowles Metellus Cimber ...
Reference: WH0322
The Mothers’ Union was founded by Mary Sumner in 1876. Herself a mother of three children, it was the birth of her daughters first child that drove Mary to found the organisation to support women of all classes in their role as mothers, in affiliation with the teachings of the Anglican Church. In 1896 the ...
Reference: WH0317
As with all church-affiliated bodies at that time, the Mothers’ Union took great pains to remain ‘apolitical’ in their activities, but in times of war, religion and politics can get pretty close, as shown with this publicity flyer for 1916…
Reference: WH0316
The Mothers’ Union held an annual service at Saint Mary’s Church each year, where they would ask for God’s blessing on their Union. It was not uncommon for the Lord Bishop of Rochester to attend and preach the Sermon.
Reference: WH0315
All looking rather gloomy and unloved, the goods shed, crane and station building opposite the Crown Hotel. The railway lasted eighty years, while the Crown just about made its centenary before it too, was closed and pulled down. June Ingram “…there was a long bus strike in the late 1950s and I was at the Tech ...
Reference: WH0178
During the early 1960s there was an attempt to reopen the line by a body who formed themselves as the Westerham Valley Railway Association. Here we see two members of the ‘ganging team’ working on a plate-layer’s trolly in 1962.
Reference: WH0180
This and the following five photographs depict the closed brach-line at Westerham between 1962 and 1964. A rather dismal scene.
Reference: WH0172
Seen here in the late 1950s and standing close to the slip road up to Brasted station, this overbridge carried the single track of the Westerham Valley Railway over Station Road. Today, standing in its place is a six-lane overbridge carrying the M25 motorway.
Reference: WH0179