Reports of our 2012 talks
FEBRUARY 2012 - IGHTHAM AT THE CROSSROADS
The name Ightham comes from a Scandinavian gentleman called Erte, and "ham" meaning a homestead, said Jean Stirk, one of our two speakers, as she opened the talk. She explained that the village was important as it lay on a major crossroads. It was also a military road from Oldbury hill fort. Jean Stirk and David Williams aim to publish a book in 2013, on the complete history of Ightham and also aim to gather an archive for those wishing to do further research. Their lively and well researched talk was a taster of what is to come from their book.
Jean Stirk continued speaking of how their information was being gathered not only from archives but also from recent years. There were stories from residents of life in this rural village of farmland, hops and orchards. There were several ghosts and seven murders to date. One village character made his own coffin which he used as his bed. Ightham industries were brickmaking and quarrying for Ightham stone,that has a unique green tinge to it.
David Williams illustrated his talk with photos and maps of the ancient parish boundaries and trackways - Pilgrims Way, Oldbury trackway and the coaching road. Much has been written about Ightham Mote and Oldbury hill fort but the village too has an interesting historic past. In the village street there are three medieval houses and the church has Saxon stone and a Norman window, as well as fine monuments - the Cawne monument (1340) and two Selby family monuments. It has two fine houses outside the village, Ightham Mote and Ightham Court, the latter where the James family lived from 1575 for several generations. The Wesleyans began meeting at a house called Double Dance in 1845 until a chapel was built in 1848. Many of us have a patchy knowledge of Ightham's history but our speakers made this into a colourful patchwork.
This year will see a market and fair in Ightham, invoking their ancient charter of 1300. We all wished them success with their forthcoming book.
V.Dussek
Some of us will remember the evocative smells of toffee, malt and gas that characterised old Maidstone.
Imagine pouring boiling toffee from vats into buckets by hand, then placing the buckets in trays of Medway river water to cool. Our speaker, Andrew Clarke, described how Sharpe's slab toffee used to be made. Sharpe's was founded in 1876 and later built a new factory in Sandling Road. He spoke of the old Maidstone family firms, namely Sharpe's, the four breweries and Clarke's furnishing store, which was his family business. All these were illustrated with delightful black and white 1920-1930 photographs and postcards from his father's collection.
Since deliveries were made originally by horse and cart, the Whitbread grey horses that pulled the brewery drays were a well-known sight in the town. There were photographs of the quaint, vintage delivery vans that were used in the 1920s. Trebor bought Sharpe's but destroyed all previous documents relating to the business. The four small breweries, of which Fremlins was the most famous, were bought by Whitbread and Courage. Nearer home, The Star & Garter at Basted was a formerly a Style & Winch public house and the Red Lion in Plaxtol belonged to Isherwood, Stacey & Foster, both Maidstone breweries. Clarke's furnishing stores was founded in 1929 by Andrew Clarke's grandfather and grew to a cover three floors. They championed the pioneering range of G-Plan furniture, famous in the 1950s. Sadly a huge fire destroyed the building in King Street in 1995 but a new store was built on the site of the old Sharpe's factory in Sandling Road.
Andrew Clarke's talk reflected the demise of family businesses in Maidstone, and now seen in many other parts of the country.
David Gurney made a display of photographs and artefacts of old Plaxtol businesses, from our archives.
V. Dussek
Copyright: Plaxtol Local History Group 2012