Letters
Berengrave Local Nature Reserve
Dear Editor
I am a member of The Friends of Berengrave, whose function is to try and keep the Berengrave Local Nature Reserve open to the public and investigate its history. The site is owned and managed by Medway Council as part of Riverside Country Park but due to cut backs has suffered some neglect, hence the forming of our group.
We found a map dated 1934 of the chalk pit which showed the layout of the wash ponds, light railway track and a building. The site was started in 1911 and sold in 1927 to another cement company, which went bankrupt in 1931 with the site being asset stripped around 1934. We asked Medway Council for permission to try and locate the building and other features as the only visible items were eight concrete blocks and two wash ponds.
The building proved to have been a timber framed shed clad in cement asbestos sheeting which had a concrete floor laid after its construction and clearly shows the layout of the walls. A 5ft-deep cement lined sump had also been excavated which seems to have housed the boiler and steam engine. We have recovered some of the smaller cast-iron artefacts (listed on www.friendsofberengrave.btck.co.uk) but none of these carries any makers name or patent numbers. The largest piece is a single cylinder water pump which had been repaired during service and was not sold during the stripping of the site, this also has no I.D. The pump is in the compound at Riverside Country Park.
We had a visit from Jim Preston in July 2009 who gave us some ideas as to how these plants worked. It might help our investigations if any KAS members have done similar work on the local cement industry, common in the Medway area. Do any pictures exist of the site from the early 1900s? I can be contacted on frasen.miller@hotmail.co.uk.
Fraser Miller
Vice-chairman Friends of Berengrave
Sevington Court
Dear Editor
My mother is the direct descendent of Robert Goulding of Sevington Court, granted a coat of arms in 1617. The coat of arms was ‘Argent a cross voided between four lions passant gules’. The family appears to have moved to Letcombe Regis in Berkshire, where Robert’s only son, Henry, married in 1630.
We are trying to find out why they were awarded the coat of arms (my mother is possibly the heiress to the coat of arms) and why they moved. Did they have a disagreement with the king? Sevington Court was purchased by Sir Radcliff, physician to James I from the Goulding’s.
Robert Goulding senior lived at Sevington Court. Robert Goulding junior (Henry’s father) was Mayor of Maidstone in about 1620 and was one of the Maidstone jurats from 1617-1621. He died in 1623, owning the lease of Allington Castle and Longsole Park. He left a widow, his fourth wife Mary, and Henry, not quite 21. Henry was therefore cared for by his uncle Henry Goulding, (Robert Goulding junior’s brother) who lived in Dover. I think the whole family had connection with the Virginia Company and America’s first settlements. There is a reference to a Robert Goulding being the Treasurer of the Inner Temple in London in 1598. This certainly fits with the family history.
If you are able to provide any information, please email samantha@samantahlee.co.uk.
On behalf of Mrs Lee (formerly Golding)