Letters and Research Requests

For the last four years, I have been researching the history of Tunstall, Kent, seeking to build on the work of Edward Rowe Mores (1780) and Arthur Adair Midwinter (1937). I am still working on the material available at the Centre for Kentish Studies and Canterbury Cathedral Library (I still need a lot more time with the Hales Papers!) and have a few references to follow up in the British Library.

Suggestions as to other sources I should explore would be most welcome, as would any references to Tunstall that members have come across in unlikely places (e.g. Wills, Correspondence, or Diaries). In addition to this general request, can anyone help me with the following:- 1. Are there any living descendants of the Rev. George Bridges Moore, Rector from 1837-1885? Are there any Moore family papers anywhere, or papers (including correspondence) of his son-in-law Archibald Scott Robertson, sometime Secretary of the Society? 2. 'Hales of Kent' by the late Col. Hailes is a Ms. work in the Beaney Library at Canterbury. Sadly it contains no references as to sources consulted. Does anybody know the whereabouts of Col. Hailes' working papers? 3. Gore Court House was a boys' preparatory school in the latter part of the 19th century, and the first decade of this. To date, I only know of one former pupil - 'Bomber' Harris; can anyone supply the names of others, please? 4. Mr. Midwinter's book says Tunstall House was a Young Ladies Boarding School in the 1790s, but I can find no evidence for this. Hasted (Addns. to Vol. VI) says Mr. Whitfield Breton was then living there but his name does not appear in Land Tax records. If this is the Whitfield Breton of Kennardington, does anyone know if he was ever a Schoolmaster, or why he was in Tunstall in the 1790s? 5. Woodruff in 'Canterbury Diocesan Records' said 'Number 1 Register had been transcribed by the Rev. E. Cookson of Ipswich.' Can anyone tell me the whereabouts of this Transcript? 6. 'Funstall used to have a model of the church, in a glass case, as it was before the Victorian restoration (it was mentioned by Iggulsden). About 1949-50 it went to Canterbury on loan for some sort of exhibition. The daughter of the then Rector tells me that despite many requests by her father for its return, it never came back to the parish. Extensive enquiries at the Cathedral and other possible locations in Canterbury have failed to locate even a trace of it. Any suggestions? I will gladly refund postage to anyone who writes on any of the above matters.

Brian Turner