EXTRACTS FROM BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
No 147 April and May 2009.

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SOCIETY EVENTS	FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH	TOWN AND AROUND
PLANNING MATTERS	SOCIAL HISTORY	HELP WANTED

SOCIETY EVENTS.

The Notice of our A.G.M. to be held on 12th May together with the minutes of the last AGM are enclosed herewith.

On Tuesday 14th April John Rees’s talk entitled "Slow boat to China" is an interesting and amusing story of travelling to Hong Kong on a flying boat, and starting work there. On 28th April the speaker is Brian Doorne, a member of HCS who lives in Saltwood, and wrote the HCS book “Hythe Events”. His subject is “Kent’s Waterways and Watermills”

Doug’s outing on 24th June 2009 to Walmer Castle and its Gardens will leave Lydd at 3.00pm and Red Lion Square, Hythe, at 3.30pm. 30 places are already booked so if you would like to go please send your cheque, payable to D.Amans, at 4, The Maltings, High Street, Hythe, CT21 5AB. The cost is £22.00 per head (£17.00 for English Heritage members who must bring their cards) and includes the coach, gratuities, admission to the castle, a guided tour of the garden and supper at The Old Lantern at Martin.

Don't forget to check for the latest news on our website. Among other things, you will find information about future talks, sometimes before it has been published in the Newsletter. Also, if you want "breaking" news from the Society between Newsletters do get on our mailing list by sending your e-mail address to: hythecivicsoc@tiscali.co.uk

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FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH

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TOWN AND AROUND.

Maurice Maisey. Tributes have appeared in local papers to Maurice Maisey, who died unexpectedly on 15th February, aged 81. All mentioned his role as a founder and mainstay of the Hythe Festival; he and the then Mayor, Arthur Kensett, set out the principles behind it in 1992. It was to benefit traders and visitors and townsfolk and it was to be a mixture of fun, sport, culture, music – you name it - and it was to be free or at least cost as little as possible to the public of all age groups. And if that meant getting sponsors, Maurice and his loyal wife Joan - to whom we send our heartfelt sympathy - were there to collect the money.
At a Committee Meeting only days before his death he was enthusing about his latest bright idea – an event for the disabled: Wheelchair Dancing! He was in Michael Howard’s words ‘Selfless, tireless, relentlessly dedicated to public service’.
Maurice was a “Joiner”: a member of the Civic Society, the Conservative Club, the British Legion, President of the Royal Artillery Society, a Private Member of Age Concern Hythe, a Friend of the Hythe Town Concert Band – incidentally, he re-started the popular Sunday afternoon Band Concerts in Oaklands, and ran the programme for many years. As well, he had been a Hythe Town Councillor (sitting alongside Joan), Deputy Mayor and, in 1994, Mayor Elect. Civic Society members may also remember that he chaired the group which produced the Hythe Appraisal in 1997. HCS played a key role in this project which had an input from over 6000 citizens of Hythe – our members distributed and collected questionnaires and processed data.
The 9th Hythe Festival will be Friday 2nd July to Sunday 11th July 2010. Look out for the Wheelchair Dancing!
J.M.Umbers

Age Concern reminds members about the Care Navigator service run by Louise Homewood and announce the appointment of an Information and Advice Officer – Anneli Gower – who is also available for home visits. Both may be contacted on 269602 from 9.00am to 4.00pm. Monday to Friday.

Eaton Lands continues to benefit from the Breathing Spaces Project mentioned in NL146. Nine standard mature lime trees have now been planted as an avenue along the main footpath from Castle Road towards Deedes Close. Two benches have been installed in the northern part of the meadow in amongst the large area of planted whips where 2 footpaths cross. Bluebells have been planted in the quarry wooded area and are already beginning to flower and the wild flower bulbs are also beginning to grow. Some tree surgery work has already been carried out in the wooded area and a number of bat and bird boxes have been installed. There are still a number of whips to be planted and a start has been made to laying the boardwalk on the footpath in the quarry. The Project is now working on the design of waymarkers and interpretation panels which will be erected around the area.

The Friends of the Folkestone Collections. Many HCS members will remember the old Metropole Gallery on the Leas, and the Art Exhibitions and Concerts (especially ‘Coffee and Classics’ on Saturday mornings) held there. In 2008 the Trustees of the Metropole Arts Centre decided to close the Gallery, to sell off the Permanent Collection which had been assembled from the 1970’s by the Friends of the Gallery, and to use the money to purchase modern works. When this came to light, a Public Meeting was called and a case prepared for presentation to the Trustees requesting the Collection – which has strong local connections – be preserved in Folkestone. We can now report that the Trustees have agreed to this, and are to give the custody and care of the Collection to a new association of Friends, and with the help of a generous personal donation from Mr Roger de Haan this has been constituted. Mr Michael Stainer (himself a Friend) has offered long-term storage in The Grand as well as exhibition space in its prestigious public rooms, and The Friends intend to show a selection of works from the 9th of April in the Palm Court., and a fuller Exhibition in the Autumn.
They are asking for support in setting up this new organisation. If you would like to join please ask Mrs Anne Charlier (Tel. 266118).for an application or see the website ( www.folkestonecollections.com  ) where you can also find the joining form. Subscription is £10 per year (£15 for two) The Friends and the Creative Foundation. share the aim of making this corner of Kent a centre of cultural excellence.

The Canterbury Cathedral Appeal was launched in 2008 with a target of £50,000,000 to be spent on the restoration, conservation and development of this superb element of our nation’s heritage. By January the total raised was just about to pass the £10,000,000 landmark - if you would like to make a contribution please telephone 01227-865346.

Sally Chesters writes that the Hythe in Bloom team is, once again, on track to bring colourful floral displays to the town this summer. In the High Street we plan a colour scheme of red, white and blue, with lots of surfinias and geraniums. However, in an attempt to save money – a lot of money – we really need your help, and we are hoping to attract volunteers to assist with watering the troughs in the High Street rather than paying a contractor to do it. A car and a water supply are the only requirements to join the team, so if you can spare a couple of hours for one week only between June and September we should be most grateful for your help. It is not an onerous or difficult task and the more volunteers we can find, the smaller the job will be for each of us. Please call Sally Chesters on (01303) 266118 who will provide full details.
It is also time to thank, once again, the other members of the Hythe in Bloom team: Reg Belcourt, John Langman and Diana Arnold for all their help with planting and maintenance, and their on-going support. On this occasion we should also like to mention Kulla/Legend Signs, based at Newingreen, for repairing one of our sponsorship boards – at lightning speed and free of charge – so that it now looks like new. To replace it would really have cut into our budget for this year, so a huge ‘Thank you’ to them.

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SOCIAL HISTORY

Elizabeth Bowen, the writer, who spent many of her formative as well as her later years in Hythe, was born 110 years ago and her life was celebrated in a biography by Victoria Glendinning (paperback recently re-issued by Phoenix). She was born of a union between the Colley and Bowen families, both members of the “Anglo-Irish Ascendancy”. Her father unfortunately developed regular periods of mental illness which led to her mother, who had some relatives in this area, bringing her to live here at the age of eight. She always retained a love of the town and some of her youthful experiences here are reflected in her novels. Her mother died when she was just thirteen whereupon she was brought up by a series of aunts. Possibly she never fully recovered from this trauma, telling a friend that the worst event of her life had occurred when she was thirteen and her fiction abounds with orphaned children. She attended Downe House the girls’ school then recently established in Charles Darwin’s former home.

After some time at art school in London she decided that her talent lay in writing and began by writing short stories. She quickly came to the notice of the literary establishment, making strong friendships with members of the Bloomsbury set and Rose Macaulay helped to get her first book Encounters published in 1923. She also mingled with younger authors from the Oxford background that she entered soon after her marriage to the education administrator, Alan Cameron. They eventually set up home in one of the Nash terraces overlooking Regent’s Park. Handsome, perhaps, rather than beautiful, she soon became one of literary London’s brightest hostesses while writing numerous novels, travelling widely – with regular Summer visits to Ireland – and enjoying as many parties as possible! She returned to live here in 1963 and bought a small modern house in Church Hill, changing its name to Carbery, after the long-lost Colley family mansion in West Ireland. Her father’s family had a comparable seat, called Bowen’s Court, also razed to the ground after Elizabeth had sold it in 1959.

Her somewhat racy lifestyle tended to conceal her sincere religious beliefs – indeed when the Church of England introduced the “Alternative Service” in the late 1960’s she tried to initiate a protest movement together with the author of an opposing article in The Times. In the end she contented herself with dropping a copy of this into the letter box of Hythe’s “excellent but deluded” vicar and worshiped thereafter at a nearby village church that had retained the 1662 service.
Her work was widely recognised. She was awarded the 1969 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Eva Trout and Doctorates in Literature from Trinity College, Dublin (1949) and the University of Oxford (1952) as well as the CBE (1948).

After the grandeur of her earlier life Carbery, now bearing an HCS blue plaque, must have seemed a rather modest home but, nothing daunted, she continued to entertain her friends on a grand scale – checking them in to The White Hart, dining there with them and even leaving a pile of coins in their rooms to feed the meters of the gas heaters!

The Memorial to Miss Blackmore (1839-1914)
Visitors who toil up the hill to St Leonard’s Church cannot fail to notice the most unusual carved wooden bench standing beneath the churchyard wall to the left of the porch. Many are also glad to be able to rest awhile there before perhaps tackling the steps up to the church entrance. The bench bears a carved inscription: “In memory of Ruth Blackmore 1839-1914”. But what is the history of this bench? Fortunately, inside the church is a small wood-framed newspaper cutting (undated) with the following narrative.

“Miss Ruth Blackmore was one of the best known members of our congregation, and all who knew her loved her. She had many friends among the poor, and was always trying to do good, as far as her strength and means permitted. She lived in North Road, just above the Churchyard, and often used to say when she had been climbing up the long and steep hill from the town, that she would like to be able to provide some seat or rest place near the Church. It was quite usual to see people sitting on the steps of the church porch for want of a better place. Miss Blackmore’s many friends felt therefore that a memorial to her could not take a more appropriate form than that of a comfortable seat under the trees outside the church porch.

The Mayor and Corporation willingly gave their consent for the seat to be placed there. It was designed by Mr. Lorden, jun, Architect, who is now in China, and the work and carving were executed there, and the result is a most handsome, substantial and comfortable seat, indeed it is almost too good to be out of doors exposed to all weathers, so exquisite is the carving, but the wood of which it is constructed is very hard, and will get harder by exposure: it is what is known as Canton Larchwood, and will in a few years turn black like ebony – it is very dark already. The stone legs supporting it are cut out of Soochow granite.
In the centre of the back is a carving which represents the figure of Mercy attended by two children. She is standing on a lotus, and holds an infant in her arms which she is feeding from a long shaped flask or bottle.
The top rail of the back of the seat is carved with the different Chinese emblems of immortality, and the characters, reading in the Chinese manner from right to left, are “ee lu te ping”, meaning “One road great peace”.

The arms of the seat in some cases contain carvings of the mythical “Flo Lo Bird”. Supposed to be an immortal bird which never settles on the earth. It is the emblem of gentleness, and the Chinese say that it only appears for a moment at the birth or death of some good person, and then flies away again. There are some other carvings representing Chinese myths. At each end of the back of the seat are the two lions of Justice and Truth, beautifully and fantastically carved out of the hard solid wood. The lion on the left holds a fretted ball in his paw, and that on the right has his paw on the head of a young lion. In the mouths of both the large lions are small round balls, which are loose, though too large to admit of their being pushed between the teeth, and are thus firmly guarded in the mouth: how did they get there? Were they cut out of the solid wood and left when the lions’ mouths were carved? The whole of the seat is very handsome, and the fantastic carvings very quaint and interesting. It is to be hoped that the public, for whose benefit this resting place is provided, will preserve it from all harm or disfigurement out of respect for the good woman in whose memory it is erected, and in gratitude for her kindly thought for them, which has now been brought to such a splendid practical result.”

Sadly, vandals stole the two large lions by sawing them off the back. The bench also became further damaged and dilapidated over time. However, around the year 2000 Don Whatford (a member of the congregation) took an initiative to repair and reinstate the bench. Its present familiar appearance is shown in the photograph, but we wonder if anyone knows where there may be an earlier photograph or illustration of the bench in its original glory. Also, does anyone know more about Miss Blackmore, who was clearly a well-regarded person in her time?

Brin Hughes

Archives: We are very grateful to Mr & Mrs Marks for their gift of an interesting collection of memorabilia of Hythe, Sandgate & Folkestone.

In NL146 we mentioned the gift of some WW2 news articles about the war in the air. Colin Ellis, the donor, has since told us that the collection was assembled by Pam Ellis (no relation) of Saltwood W.I., while she was a schoolgirl during the hostilities and that it was given to him as a member of R.A.F.A. to look after. Thanks to them both!

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MORE HELP WANTED

As well as our need for some help with planning matters which is still open we would like someone with an interest in local matters to undertake a one-off job for the Editor and create an index to the topics and events covered by the Newsletter over its lifetime. Mike Umbers made good headway on this project when he was Editor and the volunteer would be asked to build on this, converting it to a computer record and completing it for the remaining issues. A great opportunity to acquire a thorough knowledge of the town and its history! Volunteers please contact any committee member.
HCS Member Deryck Weatherall reminds us that maintaining the beauty of our countryside is everyone’s responsibility. Numerous projects are undertaken by enthusiastic volunteers and details are available in the Library or direct from him (Telephone: 260143)

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Annual subscription for HCS membership is £8 per household (Due before the May 12th AGM).
We are on the Web : www.hythe-tourism.com/civic
You can e-mail us at: hythecivicsoc@tiscali.co.uk

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