Bethersden
Bethersden maps (2 available)
Map of Kent
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Bethersden books (30 available)
- 3 photos on Bethersden appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Bethersden
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Bethersden and Kent
Bethersden memories
Read and share memories of Bethersden and Kent inspired by Frith photos
Lovelace family
I am searching for any references or memories relating to the LOVELACE family
I am told there was a Lovelace Place and a Lovelace Chapel in the Roman Catholic church. If any person has any such knowledge, please contact me via this site.
Contributed by Joyce Wightman
Kent memories
Lovelace family
I am searching for any references or memories relating to the LOVELACE family
I am told there was a Lovelace Place and a Lovelace Chapel in the Roman Catholic church. If any person has any such knowledge, please contact me via this site.
A memory of Bethersden contributed by Joyce Wightman
Hop Picking
I used to go to Little Chart Farm, Pluckley as a child, being born in the East End in 1946. My memories are of freedom and adventure, long, happy carefree days spent in the beautiful Kent countryside, for a few weeks each summer. My aunt and uncle Ivy and Tom Smart had a wooden hut on the farm and my parents and I used to join them for a holiday. The picking of hops was a hard, thirsty and dirty job, their hands were stained green and smelt strongly of the hops. We kids used to explore, the surrounding area, scrumping apples from the orchards, and being chased by then farmer, visiting the spooky ruined church, of which there was supposed ...read more here
A memory of Pluckley contributed by alexandra mustin
Flying Horse
My parents Bryan and Margaret Hills-Johnes had the Flying Horse pub for a couple of years after he left the Navy 1958-60, I was around 6 yrs at the time and used to play with the Tilleys and Blacks. The car park across the road was a vegi garden where fresh produce was included in Mum's food. Eating lunch at the pub was a novelty because of the stigma about the 'wife's' cooking! but it was soon very busy. I learnt to write and spell on the dart board's blackboard, I went to the kindy at Headcorn by local M&D bus every day on my own, the school was behind what is now the Post Office /store and I still have ...read more here
A memory of Smarden contributed by Rod Hills Johnes
Extracts From Bethersden & Kent books
Now only a hamlet, this village was once well-known for the quarrying of Bethersden marble; apart from being used locally, it was used for interior work in both Canterbury and Rochester cathedrals, and in a number of local medieval churches. Before modern road surfaces spread to the countryside, Bethersden had the reputation of having the worst, most boggy roads in Kent.
An extract from from"Villages of Kent Photographic Memories".
A typical village of the Kent Weald, with its weatherboarded cottages clustered round its green, Bethersden was once famous for its paludrina marble extracted from the local clay and consisting of the fossilised shells of a freshwater snail. It was used to adorn the cathedrals of Canterbury and Rochester.
An extract from from"Kent Living Memories".
The good road surface seen here contrasts with the situation in the 18th century. Then, the well-to-do of the area
used to have their coaches drawn by oxen in order to negotiate safely the boggy roads, which in bad weather were
reputed to be the worst in Kent.
An extract from from"Hythe, Romney Marsh and Ashford Photographic Memories".
The church is close to
the photographer, yet he
is obviously in a rural
location. This shows how
comparatively small
Ashford was a century
ago. Will growth on a
similar scale take place
over the next hundred years?
An extract from from"Hythe, Romney Marsh and Ashford Photographic Memories".
This photograph was
taken a century ago, and
a world away from the
same road today, which
seems at times like a
public motor-racing
circuit - it is now part of
the Ashford ring road.
Again we see attentive
pedestrians, and manure
going to waste in the roof!
An extract from from"Hythe, Romney Marsh and Ashford Photographic Memories".