Dartford Document Rescue Department (D.D.R.G.!)
by Sharon Mitchell D.D.A.G.
During 1983 and 1984, Dartford District Archaeological Group was told of some waste paper that was to be thrown out, so, because the recycling of paper provides a large proportion of the Group's funds, a van was dispatched to collect the waste from a local estate agent's office.
The paper came from the cellar and storage areas in the office, and had been neatly stacked for collection. It was discovered that some of the stacks consisted of Auctioneer's Catalogues and sale documents, while elsewhere were bags of maps, all covered in a generous layer of dust. Upon closer examination, it was found that some of the maps were quite old, and so instead of going into the paper store for sale, they were put into the Centre and sorted out.
The first papers studied consisted mainly of catalogues, belonging to an Auctioneer who worked from the premises during the last half of the nineteenth century. The earliest document related to the sale of furniture and effects from a house in Vansittart Terrace in Greenwich Road, and dated the twenty-sixth of September, 1848. Others referred to sales of such varied materials as timber, stock, crops and omnibuses, personal effects of local traders, and several related to the large estates, such as those of Colyer-Ferguson and Russell Stoneham. In total nearly four hundred sales were represented by these catalogues, and it took a great deal of time to sort them into general areas according to the location of the goods, and then put them into chronological order within the areas. They were then carefully listed, and the list was copied several times. Attention was then turned to the maps. A hand-coloured example was found, depicting Stone Marshes near Dartford, and dated 1796. There was also a map, made on vellum, of Hall Place, Bexley. This was dated 1768, and complemented two other maps of similar age already in the possession of the Museum, now based at Hall Place. This map, along with all other documents relating to the Bexley area, were eventually donated to the Museum. This was also the case with the other papers - they were all donated to the relevant local library, or placed into the care of the Kent Archives Office. Something which came to light is of interest to Northfleet residents - the original pen-and-ink design for the poster published to advertise the Springhead Gardens and Watercress Beds, a tourist attraction during Victorian times.
No sooner had these maps left our Centre, than a further amount was sorted out by the estate agents, and we again rescued them. These proved to be maps of the North Kent and outer London areas, the oldest being dated 1834. This time there were about 300 maps, and they underwent the same processes of sorting and listing. Those of extreme interest were also photographed, and then, as before, donated to the relevant authorities. These maps were accompanied by several large storage boxes of paperwork, which relate mainly to the war damage in Dartford. These boxes have yet to be sorted, but a cursory glance through them has revealed a sale document relating to the properties of the Fleet Brewery Company, which was located at Dartford and operated from the 1780s until 1865. This document included floor plans of the Public Houses in the brewery's possession, some of which are still in use today.
The sorting of the documents is time-consuming, and largely has to be carried out to fit in with other Group activities, such as digging and lectures, but it is pleasing to think that they are now in safe surroundings, and accessible if any local historians wish to refer to them. This opportunity would have been denied them if they had not fallen into the hands of the Group's paper recycling team, to whom thanks are due for spotting the potential of the papers.