Northfleet History Group - February 2013 Meeting.
SCANDALS OF KENT AND SUSSEX
We were again pleased to welcome a large number of members and visitors to our meeting in St Botolph’s church hall on 5th February when writer Chris McCooey entertained us with some very interesting and amusing tales, which he promised would be sensational, salacious and sad. He did not disappoint.
He told us about some of the sensational deeds of the smugglers who were ruthless in the pursuit of their illicit trade and went on to describe some of the salacious affairs which have scandalised polite society, but perhaps the biggest scandal of them all was the horrifying practice of forcing small boys through openings no more then nine inches square to sweep the soot from chimneys. Many of these little children did not survive into their teens because of the respiratory diseases they contracted. Surely this was the saddest scandal of them all.
After the tea interval, our chairman, Ken McGoverin reminded us of some of the nostalgic events and pastimes of recent memory, from the invention of the crystal set radio in the 1920's up to the Festival of Britain and the arrival of television in the Teddy Boy era of the 1950's, which was very entertaining.
Our next meeting is in St Botolph’s church hall on Tuesday, 5th March at 2pm, when Wilf Lower will give a presentation entitled ‘Lost Empires’, which recalls the last days of music hall and variety theatres, following which, on 2nd April, Carol Harris will give a talk entitled ‘Women of World War 2’, describing what the women of Britain did on the Home Front and how they helped to win the war.
We were again pleased to welcome a large number of members and visitors to our meeting in St Botolph’s church hall on 5th February when writer Chris McCooey entertained us with some very interesting and amusing tales, which he promised would be sensational, salacious and sad. He did not disappoint.
He told us about some of the sensational deeds of the smugglers who were ruthless in the pursuit of their illicit trade and went on to describe some of the salacious affairs which have scandalised polite society, but perhaps the biggest scandal of them all was the horrifying practice of forcing small boys through openings no more then nine inches square to sweep the soot from chimneys. Many of these little children did not survive into their teens because of the respiratory diseases they contracted. Surely this was the saddest scandal of them all.
After the tea interval, our chairman, Ken McGoverin reminded us of some of the nostalgic events and pastimes of recent memory, from the invention of the crystal set radio in the 1920's up to the Festival of Britain and the arrival of television in the Teddy Boy era of the 1950's, which was very entertaining.
Our next meeting is in St Botolph’s church hall on Tuesday, 5th March at 2pm, when Wilf Lower will give a presentation entitled ‘Lost Empires’, which recalls the last days of music hall and variety theatres, following which, on 2nd April, Carol Harris will give a talk entitled ‘Women of World War 2’, describing what the women of Britain did on the Home Front and how they helped to win the war.