New Books
The Medway Valley: a Kent landscape transformed (England's Past for Everyone)
Andrew Hann
Phillimore & Co Ltd. ISBN: 978-1860776000; ISBN-10: 1860776000; £14.99
In 1750 the lower Medway Valley, the area between the towns of Maidstone and Rochester, was firmly part of Kent’s ‘Garden of England’. A century later, this tranquil, agrarian landscape had been transformed into a hive of industry and commerce, through the emergence of papermaking, cement manufacture, brick making, brewing, ship and barge building, seed crushing and engineering. The lower Medway Valley became synonymous with the production of Portland cement, stock bricks and the steam engines of Aveling and Porter, yet, by the end of the Second World War, much of this industry was gone. ‘The Medway Valley: a Kent landscape transformed’, the first Victoria County History publication in Kent for over 75 years, charts this cyclical story of landscape change. It explores how the quiet, rural landscape of a collection of eight riverside parishes around Rochester was dramatically transformed during industrialization, before returning to its formal rural state. This volume traces the impact of industrial development and decline on the valley and its people. It details changing patterns of work and society, the creation of new settlements and the pivotal role of the river in all aspects of village life reflecting two centuries of change and upheaval.
Another Whitstable Trade: An Illustrated History of Helmet Diving
John Bevan
As early as 1856 Robert Stephenson MP, then President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, remarked at a meeting chaired by Isambard Kingdom Brunel:
“Nothing had so much contributed to extend and facilitate marine engineering, as the invention of the diving dress.”
Coming from so great an authority and only 27 years after the original invention of the diving dress, this was a truly major proclamation.
The birthplace of the diving industry can be traced back to the harbour-town of Whitstable, on the north Kent coast. This ancient watering place has prospered for over two thousand years from a naturally-occurring resource - its rich oyster beds. It was Charles Dickens who first penned the title “Another Whitstable Trade” when he wrote about how Whitstable had also developed the profession of helmet diving and held a virtual monopoly on the trade at the time. Knowledge of the novel technology inevitably leaked out however, and spread all over the world. The present global diving industry, including the diving companies operating offshore helping to recover the oil and gas reserves, owes its existence to the enterprising divers of Whitstable. Even space travel has only become possible through the development of sophisticated astronaut life-support systems, the evolution of which traces back through high-altitude flying to diving life-support equipment and ultimately back to the divers of Whitstable.
Even Robert Louis Stevenson (pictured on the dust jacket) dived in the novel equipment whilst attempting to follow in his father’s footsteps as a marine civil engineer.
Sandwich: the 'completest medieval town in England', a study of the town and port from its origins to 1600
Helen Clarke, Sarah Pearson, Mavis Mate and Keith Parfitt
The Sandwich Project was set up in 2004 to study the standing architecture, topography, archaeology, and documentary sources for this medieval town. Supported by English Heritage, its aim was to give equal weight to the different disciplines, consolidating the findings in a single publication. The medieval churches, hospitals, public buildings, gates and walls, together with about one hundred domestic buildings dating between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries have been newly surveyed, analysed and illustrated; documents have been studied anew, both for information about the built environment and to shed new light on the economic, social and administrative history of the town; earlier archaeological interventions have been reassessed and there has been some new fieldwork. By using all these sources, new discoveries have been made about the origins and development of Sandwich and the town has been set in a wider context - as one of England's most important trading ports in the Middle Ages and as a Cinque Port.
This well-illustrated book of over 350pp in full colour is to be published by Oxbow in March, price £35.00. It is offered at the special price of £25.00 to KAS members if ordered on the enclosed order form, on which all details are provided.
Faversham: A New History
Edward Crow
A transcription of Edward Crow's mid-19th century manuscript by Peter Tann
Edward Crow (1784-1867) was a Faversham silversmith and watchmaker; he was Mayor in 1837. He was also an antiquarian and historian. Towards the end of his life, he produced, in two large handwritten volumes, his History of Faversham and the adjoining parishes of Davington, Ospringe and Preston. Together they represent the most comprehensive history of the area ever written - running to over 400 pages. This history is now available for the first time to the general reader. It is presented in CD format (you'll need to be able to read a pdf. file). This not only reduces the cost of publication, but the word search facility is better than an index. Put in the name of a place or person, and if they existed in or before 1850, there's a good chance Crow mentions them. Or try a search on a theme, such as 'gunpowder', 'the Creek', 'Roman remains', or 'the Guildhall' for example, and be surprised by the information Crow provides. Peter Tann has transcribed Crow's manuscript and has written a useful introductory essay. Arthur Percival has added an essay on Faversham historians through the ages.
Price £15.00. Available from the Fleur in Preston Street, Faversham, or from History Research, Ashton Lodge, Church Road, Lyminge, Folkestone, Kent CT18 8JA, email: history.research@btinternet.com, tel: 01303 863286. Please add £2.00 for P&P. Cheques payable to Peter Tann.
BELOW: Faversham c. 1830. The house with awnings to the right is Crow's house, where he conducted his business and wrote his book, crossing the road to the Guildhall opposite for meetings of the Wardmote.