Bridge & District History Society

 

ANNUAL PROGRAMME 2023-24

There is an entrance charge of £4 for each talk - which are held in Bridge Village Hall starting at 7.30pm

SEPTEMBER 21st: CHAIRMAN’S REPORT by Alan Walton
“CANTERBURY SINCE 1500, A CHANGING SOCIETY” DOREEN ROSMAN

This talk charts 500 fascinating years in Canterbury’s history. It describes how major events from the dissolution of the monasteries to the Second World War, its aftermath and beyond, changed the lives of its citizens. The later expansion of higher education and tourism was about to bring further change, giving the city we know today.

OCTOBER 19th: “FOUNDING AMERICA, AND THE MAYFLOWER VOYAGE” MARTIN CROWTHER

Martin will explain the religious intolerance and upheaval of the 16th and 17th centuries in England. The persecution and martyrdom of Radical Christians - called the Separatists - created a desire for a new start in a place where they could set their own conventions. This led to a group we call the “Pilgrim Fathers” planning a new start in the New World.

NOVEMBER 16th: “SMASHING UP THE CATHEDRAL” PROF. JACKIE EALES

There were two key periods of image smashing in Canterbury Cathedral when medieval windows, statues, altars, textiles, books and manuscripts were defaced or destroyed. First in the 1530s during the Reformation and a century later during the English Civil Wars. Jackie will consider why such images were seen as offensive and will make parallels with the toppling of statues of Stalin and Lenin and the objections to statues of slave traders in more recent times.

DECEMBER 21st: SOCIAL EVENING: “GHOST STORIES” WITH GEOFF DOEL

In his essay “Christmas Ghosts,” Charles Dickens mentions “Telling ghost stories round the Christmas fire and other good comfortable things.” Geoff will explore Christmas ghosts through stories, songs and old traditions.

The Committee invites you to join them in the Village Hall for a pre-Christmas social with complementary mulled wine, sausage rolls and mince pies.

JANUARY 18th: “CARVE THEIR NAMES WITH PRIDE” JULIETTE PATTINSON

Using personal accounts, official documents and film, the talk examines the role of the 39 female members of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) that worked with the Resistance in WW2. Juliette follows their story into the infiltration of occupied France, exploring their operations and, for some, their arrest and incarceration in concentration camps. She also looks at their post-war portrayals.

FEBRUARY 15th: “THE POWERS BEHIND THE THRONES - WOMEN OF THE FIRST MILLENNIUM” IMOGEN CORRIGAN

Many think that it was only in the 20th century that women came into their own. The truth is that our Anglo- Saxon sisters had a surprising freedom in law. They could own land, make wills, sue and be sued. In this talk we discover the influential woman of the first thousand years AD.

MARCH 21st: “THE PILGRIM INNS OF CANTERBURY” DAVID GILMOUR

Pilgrimage was an important part of medieval Christian life and one of the most popular pilgrimages was to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. David’s talk will encompass all the Inns used by the pilgrims, but concentrate on “The Checker of the Hope” where it is believed Chaucer’s pilgrims stayed.

APRIL 18th: “THE BATTLE FOR CAEN HILL 112” FRED ROSS

Hill 112 saw one of the most brutal battles of WWII, following the D-Day landings in 1944. The talk follows the experience of local veteran Gunner Albert Figg who campaigned for a memorial to his colleagues who fell during this battle which achieved a major breakthrough for the Allies in securing Normandy and eventually winning the war.

APRIL 25th: SPRING SOCIAL at the Red Lion

Our traditional Christmas Social is moved to the Spring. You are reminded that you need to have subscribed to the Society beforehand if you would like to attend.

MAY 16th: “HISTORICAL MAPS OF CANTERBURY” Dr. ALEX KENT

The new Historical Map of Canterbury was published by the Historic Towns Trust in 2021 in a joint venture with Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Canterbury Christ Church University. This talk explains the cartographic aspects of bringing this new visualisation of the city to life and outlines the plans for its future.

JUNE 20th: A GUIDED AFTERNOON WALK AROUND FAVERSHAM

A guided walk around England’s oldest market town following in the footsteps of kings and queens. Faversham is home to nearly 500 listed buildings, with architecture spanning many centuries and picturesque Abbey Street, which has been described as “One of the finest medieval streets in Britain.”  

The tour will bring the town to life with tales of murder, royal visits, civil war, tax avoidance and much more. 

Annual General Meeting

The first meeting of the year will be preceded by a short Annual General Meeting. This will be an opportunity for you to have a say in what you would like the Society to do for you.

The Society Accounts are on the web site

www.bridgehistory.org.uk

Membership

There is no charge for Membership. Members join by subscribing on the web site:-

www.bridgehistory.org.uk

Newsletters with advance notice of the next events will be sent out by email to all who subscribe.

Bridge and District History Society

The Society was formed in 1995 to promote interest in aspects of local history in and around the villages of Bridge, Barham, Bishopsbourne, Bekesbourne, Kingston and Patrixbourne.

The evening meetings are informal and sociable and include refreshments. Transport and/or escorts can usually be arranged with other members living nearby.

On trips by member’s cars, those without transport can usually be accommodated in spare seats. Please contact the organiser of each event for arrangements. Please contact any Society officer or committee member if you need any help.

Committee

Chairman: Alan Walton

Secretary: Jenny Vye
Treasurer: John Corfield
Alan Barber
David Gilmour
Rosemary Whatley
Viv Pritchard
Joan Hill

Bridge & District History Archive and Oral Histories now on-line

During the lockdown, members have been busy scanning documents from the History Archive so that they will be available to view online. Good progress has been made and you can see the results these in the Archive section.

Also fascinating are the Oral History interviews which have been compiled in the last few years.

Bridge & District History Society was formed to promote interest in aspects of local history in and around the villages of Barham, Bekesbourne, Bishopsbourne, Bridge, Kingston, Littlebourne and Patrixbourne in Kent.

Each year we arrange a programme with a mixture of talks on topics of historical interest and visits to historical places, some of which are only possible to visit in pre-arranged groups.

Talks in the past have included Jane Austen in Kent, Nelson in Kent, Old Ramsgate, John Tom of Bossington Wood, The Star Hill dig at Bridge, The City Gates of Canterbury. Richborough Castle, The Domesday Book, The Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, The Green Man, Stained glass windows in Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury’s medieval hospitals, Bekesbourne Aerodrome, Soldiers of the First World War, Victorian Herne Bay, Bourne Park House, Higham House and Medieval Manuscripts.

This is a small selection of the many talks we have enjoyed over the years. As well as talks our visits have included Bourne Park House, Denton Court, Provender, Cobham Hall, Dode Church, Ypres, Lambeth Palace, Tenterden Railway again a very small selection of the many visits. We also arrange film evenings where we have shown films of Bridge in the 1930s, films of Canterbury in the 1940s, and a selection of old films of Kent.

Our current programme, which runs from September to July, is on the programme page.

A Membership application form is on the membership page.

Our evening meetings are informal and sociable and transport can be arranged if required. For those without cars we offer seats in member’s cars for the visits.

Information on the Society can be obtained by from the Secretary - email: [email protected]

 

St Peter's Bridge

High Street, Bridge

Bourne Park

 

PLEASE DO NOT contact the Society for genealogical information:

Bridge History Society does not hold any records regarding the family histories of Bridge residents nor any record of burials in the churchyard.

ALL historical parish council records have been transferred to the Kent County Archive in Maidstone and all church records to the Cathedral archives.

NB: From 1830, there was a workhouse in Union Road (now The Close). The local registrar lived at 10 Union Road and, in order to spare the embarrassment of relatives, workhouse residents were often recorded as living at that address.