EXTRACTS FROM BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
No 143 August to September 2008

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SOCIETY EVENTS and NEWS	FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH	TOWN AND AROUND
PLANNING MATTERS	SOCIAL HISTORY	HYTHE FESTIVAL

SOCIETY EVENTS and NEWS

There are only 25 or so places left for the HCS Autumn Lunch on Saturday 11^th October. It costs £14.00 per person so please send your cheque, payable to Hythe Civic Society, to Mr. D. Amans at 4, The Maltings, High Street, Hythe, CT21 5AB.

It will be at Hythe Bowling Club at 12 noon for 12.30pm and Michael Howard QC MP will speak on “The Highs and Lows of being your Member of Parliament”. The Menu is:

ASPARAGUS in PARMA HAM with HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

LAMB SHANK with MINT GRAVY & VEGETABLES

[VEGETARIAN OPTION SHOULD BE ARRANGED IN ADVANCE]

HAZLENUT CRÈME BRULEE PYRAMID

CHEESE & BISCUITS with GRAPES

COFFEE and MINTS

Our next series of Talks will start on 14^th October and your copy of the full 2008/9 Programme is being delivered with the Newsletter, or click here for a web listing..

Please make a special note that these talks will be held in the Assembly Hall of the Hythe Bay Church of England School in Cinque Ports Road where full meeting facilities and adequate car parking are available. A map and further information are also enclosed with the Newsletter, or click here to open a pdf file with detailed information.

We are, of course, sad that, due to increasing audience numbers, we have had to leave the URC hall where we have always been made most welcome. We are not deserting them completely as they have kindly agreed to let us use that location for our Christmas Open Evening to be held this year on 9^th December.

HELP URGENTLY NEEDED

Please could you spare half an hour, once every two months, to deliver about ten Newsletters in the Spanton Crescent and Turnpike Hill area?

Anne Woodward, who is in charge of distribution, would be most grateful to anyone who feels they can help. Please contact her on (01303)268109

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FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH

The following concerts have been arranged and will all commence at 7.30 pm. Tickets will be available from Brandon’s in Hythe High Street or at the door.
On 2^nd August, concert organist Nigel Ogden will make a welcome return visit and on 6^th September there is a performance by Simply Opera who will perform Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” and a selection of Handel’s arias. On 27^th September, Omri Epstein will give a piano recital.

SOCIAL HISTORY

A Riddle Solved?  The theory goes that the Church of St Leonard was built around 1080, soon after the Norman invasion, on a site alongside the previous Parish Church (of St Edmund?)  Forty or so years later, being not large enough for the town’s growing population, St Leonard’s was extended in width and length, and the older church incorporated – it became, in fact, a Transept on the North side – with a fine Norman doorway, which can now be seen in the Vestry, which was added, possibly as a decorative enhancement to the original entrance later in the 12^th Century.  At some point thereafter this entrance doorway was bricked up on the outside, and plastered over on the inside.  And so it remained until the major renovations of the 1870’s, when it was unblocked.  It does seem strange that after hundreds of years during which it became half buried in soil from the hillside it suddenly became necessary to open up an extra doorway into the Church.   Why?

The answer may be to be able to accommodate the military garrison.   There was actually a shortage of space in the Church for the worshipping population of Hythe in those distant days.  Large box pews had been installed at private expense in the 1600’s and were permanently rented out to families; indeed, when you sold your house, your pew went with it, so servants, those of no local address, and charity children, had to be fitted in elsewhere, usually on plain benches as befitted their lower status.  Galleries were added in the 18^th Century between the columns over the side-aisles, and across the back of the church (where the organ pipes are now) and in 1783 additional pews were installed at the West end ‘for the accommodation of maid servants’.  There were soldiers living in the Hythe Barracks too, and in 1826 the Garrison Commander was asking for space for them, but ‘the decided opinion of the parishioners [was] that there could not be found sufficient room to accommodate them without much inconvenience to the congregation’.  (In other words, ‘It’s Tommy this an’ Tommy that, an’ ‘Chuck him out, the brute!’)

The General Officer Commanding the Hythe and Shorncliffe Garrisons was not to be put off, and appealed directly to Lord Palmerston, then ‘Secretary at War’. He, with unusual tact, wrote persuasively to the Vicar, and the Parish Council relented, and admitted ‘70 men to each of the Services on the Lord’s Day’.   Then in 1853 the new School of Musketry was established in Hythe and more space still was needed for the weekly Church Parade when the soldier students and their instructors marched behind a Band along Military Road and up (we guess), Church Hill, then step-less, and clattered into St Leonard’s.  Perhaps it was then they were allocated to the North Transept, well away from those maids; it is often still called the Soldiers’ Chapel, where are remembered on the plaques around the walls many of their comrades lost to mutinous sepoys, enteric fever, cannon ball or lightning strike.  So many young lives, many of them trained at the military School here, lost in the service of Empire. 

It is surely not coincidence that that outside doorway on the N.Transept wall was unblocked (and the Saxon arch uncovered) just when there was need of a new entrance: it stood (before the 1959 Vestry was added) on an outside wall and so created a private way-in for the Church Parade, with the least ‘inconvenience’ to the families in their pews – that is to say, an appropriate social distance was maintained.

(Based on an article. by Mike Umbers, in the Saint Leonard’s Parish Review dated August 2007.)

 The Hythe Recorder of 1908 has provided a few more clues to life 100 years ago. Of particular interest in view of what is happening this year in China and here in 2012 is the fact that 1908 was the year of the first London Olympic Games. This was mentioned in a letter (presumably published in most newspapers) from Lord Desborough, President of the British Olympic Committee, appealing for donations “to provide medals, badges, and diplomas, as well as to entertain in a manner worthy of this country all those representatives – athletes, judges, and committees – who it is hoped may take away the pleasantest recollections of their visit to England” How surprising that such things were down to voluntary contributions rather than Government expenditure! He goes on to express the hope that the youth of the 22 countries (only!) taking part will get to know each other better and appreciate each other more – a pious hope indeed in view of what took place a mere 6 years later!

At the end of May there was a State Visit by the President of France who was welcomed to Dover by a fleet of 50 Naval ships including 12 cruisers and 14 battleships! (More of a warning than a welcome, perhaps?) For 4 days there were no less than 19,000 British and French sailors in the town! 120 schoolchildren from Hythe National Schools were taken to see the fleet anchored off the port. 

There was also a revival of a team game called “Goal Running” with fixtures arranged against Ashford, Smeeth, Dymchurch and Burmarsh. Described as “an essentially Kentish game” one report describes a practice run “attended by about 22 enthusiasts enjoying a very close match, only one stroke separating the scores… There were several very interesting and exciting runs to the boundaries and the club seems to have found another “deer-foot” in [Mr] Stone. Neither side showed a great tendency to “come out”……….” What on earth was all this about – can any of our readers enlighten us? 

In June an extraordinary accident to a dustman was reported. He was emptying bins at the School of Musketry when the edge of his spade caught a cartridge which exploded, the bullet striking him between the eyes and glanced across his forehead into the air, inflicting a serious flesh wound. Lucky not to have been killed outright this was the third major accident in which he had been involved! Health & Safety where were you?

The Territorial Army is celebrating its Centenary Year in 2008. We are indebted to the office of Lord Lieutenant, Allan Willett CMG for the following notes excerpted from their information pack.

The great historian of Kent, Edward Hasted, wrote two centuries ago:  ‘A privilege…claimed by the men from Kent…is that of being placed in the vanguard of the army….which right was granted to them on account of their gallant and noble behaviour in the encounters between the Saxons and Danes, long before the Conquest…’

Kent alone was not conquered by William the Norman and right down through the centuries to today we have a wonderful record of volunteer military service and of seeing off would-be invaders.

Throughout that time until 1908 the Lieutenancy played a key role in raising Kentish forces and organising the defence of the County and a century ago the Territorial Force – later called the Territorial Army – was formed from the Yeomanry, Militia and Rifle Volunteers.

It would take a book to record the service and exploits of Kent’s Territorial soldiers, many of whom made the supreme sacrifice in World War I and their tough Kentish spirit lived on during World War II.

One outstanding example is the epic story of the 4^th Queen’s Own Royal West Kents who fought off the Japanese surrounding them at Kohima for 16 death-defying days. The unit, only 438 strong, held an entire Japanese Division at bay and stopped the invasion of India. Remarkably, it was the only TA infantry battalion that fought all three of our major wartime enemies, the Germans, Italians and Japanese, on three continents.

Another extraordinary example was that of Kent Fortress Engineers, a TA unit that sent groups of soldiers across to France at the time of Dunkirk and after, to blow up oil refineries and depots along the coast of Europe. More than 2,000,000 tons of oil was denied to the enemy and its destruction had a major effect on the decision not to invade England.

Kent’s Territorial Army soldiers also played a vital part in facing down the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War and the thread of service continues through to the important contribution they are making today in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The TA used to be known by some as a force of last resort. It is now the force of first choice. The unit names may change and today the numbers may be smaller, but our TA soldiers are of the same tough Kentish stock.

Numerous events are taking place throughout the County but the highlight will be a parade and thanksgiving service attended by General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, at Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday 6 September for all serving Territorials and for veterans who have served over the years.

The TA in Kent comprises the 3^rd Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment which has its headquarters at Canterbury, with a rifle company in Rochester and a platoon at Dover. There are two Royal Engineers bomb disposal units based at Rochester and Tunbridge Wells. The doctors, nurses and support staff of B Medical Squadron are based in Ditton, and in nearby Maidstone there is a Royal Logistics Corps petroleum unit while Ashford is the home of 133 (Workshop) Company, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. 

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HYTHE FESTIVAL

Annual subscription for HCS membership is £8 per household .
We are on the Web : www.hythe-tourism.com/civic
You can also reach us at: www.hythe-kent.com/societies1
You can e-mail us at: hythecivicsoc@tiscali.co.uk

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