Northfleet History Group - 6th November 2018 Meeting Report.
Local Trams
On Tuesday 6th November we welcomed Bob Poole, who gave us a talk on the history of the local tramway system. Horse trams first appeared locally in 1881 on a route between Gravesend (St James’ Church) and Northfleet (Huggens College) and, apart from a brief experiment with electric traction in 1889, horses were used until the system was electrified and greatly expanded in 1902. The trams were housed in a new depot behind the Bridge Inn in Dover Road East. The former depot and stables on the Hill were demolished and the present Catholic church was built on the site. The trams were replaced by buses in 1929 when the whole system was taken over by the Maidstone & District bus company.
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Northfleet History Group - 2nd October 2018 Meeting Report.
"The Belgian Royal Family"
Melanie Gibson-Barton joined us at our October meeting, to give a talk on the Belgian Royal Family. Melanie lives in Dymchurch, but also has a home in Belgium and has acquired an impressive amount of information about the country, which she has come to love. She described her talk as a tale of murder, madness and mayhem, which was a pretty accurate description of the various twists and turns in the family history of Belgian royalty, set against a background of intrigue, romance, violence and war. This fascinating talk could have formed the plot lines of several fictional novels! It offered much more of interest than perhaps its title might suggest and once again proved the old adage that fact can indeed often be stranger than fiction!
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Northfleet History Group - 4th September 2018 Meeting Report.
"The R.N.L.I. at Gravesend"
Our first meeting in St Botolph’s church hall after the summer break was held on Tuesday 4th September, when over 100 members were given a presentation by Ian Smith, helmsman at the Gravesend Lifeboat Station, concerning the search and rescue work carried out on the River Thames by the volunteer crews of the RNLI. This very informative and interesting illustrated talk, interspersed with short video clips, gave a real insight into their work in saving lives at sea. Ian had very kindly stepped in at short notice to replace the advertised talk on Victorian London, which had to be cancelled due to the speaker being taken ill.
After the tea interval, Lynda Smith joined us to give a short presentation on her new book about Victorian entertainers in Gravesend, which has just been published by the Gravesend Historical Society.
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After the tea interval, Lynda Smith joined us to give a short presentation on her new book about Victorian entertainers in Gravesend, which has just been published by the Gravesend Historical Society.
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Northfleet History Group - 5th June 2018 Meeting Report.
"Romance of the London River"
Tony Farnham gave a presentation entitled 'Romance of the London River'. Tony first started work on the river as a young boy on the famous Thames barges, which were the lorries of years ago, carrying all kinds of cargo from coal and cement to hay, which was needed in large quantitites in London and other cities to cater for the thousands of working horses. He showed a large number of pictures of the barges, many of which he worked on as a boy, as well as other scenes of life on the river. An interesting talk, which took us back to a bygone age, when the River Thames was crowded with shipping of all kinds.
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Northfleet History Group - 1st May 2018 Meeting Report.
"Cobham - A Kentish Gem"
Popular local historian Christoph Bull joined us to give a talk on Cobham, which he described as a Kentish gem. Although the village is very close to Northfleet, and therefore quite well-known to us, Christoph uncovered various facts about the area, of which many of us were unaware. He also spoke about Cobham Hall and its owners, which included cricket-loving Ivo Bligh and the story behind the famous "Ashes", and of course, he also mentioned the strong association which the village - and especially the "Leather Bottel" inn - has with Charles Dickens. A very interesting and informative afternoon.
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Northfleet History Group - 3rd April 2018 Meeting Report.
Even More Local Pictures
At our meeting in St Botolph's church hall on Tuesday 3rd April, over 90 members welcomed Sandra Soder, the Hon Secretary of the Gravesend Historical Society, who showed us another selection of historic local photographs. This time, she reminded us, in particular, of the various inns and taverns, of which there were many in years gone by. Her presentation brought back memories for many of our members and was very well received.
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Northfleet History Group - 6th March 2018 Meeting Report.
THE STORY OF BLETCHLEY PARK
Luckily, the ‘Beast from the East’ weather system which had brought so much snow during the previous week, had departed at the weekend and we had much milder weather for our meeting in St Botolph’s church hall on Tuesday 6th March, when Ian Thomson joined us for a talk on the wartime role of Bletchley Park, the headquarters of the codebreakers. This was a fascinating insight into the work of the people there, whose biggest challenge was solving the mysteries of the Enigma encrypting machine used by the Germans. It has been said that the astonishing work carried out there, shortened the war by at least a year.
Our Annual General Meeting was due to take place after the tea interval, but due to unforeseen circumstances, this had to be postponed and will now be held after the interval at our next meeting, which is on Tuesday 3rd April.
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Our Annual General Meeting was due to take place after the tea interval, but due to unforeseen circumstances, this had to be postponed and will now be held after the interval at our next meeting, which is on Tuesday 3rd April.
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Northfleet History Group - 6th February 2018 Meeting Report.
LOCAL JOURNALIST
Once again it was almost standing room only in St Botolph’s church hall, when nearly 100 members came along to our meeting to hear Brian Portway’s tales of his time as a journalist on the Gravesend Reporter. Brian explained how things have changed from the days before computers, when he would ride out on his motor scooter to collect stories in shorthand which he would then have type out on his typewriter. These would then have to be retyped by a linotype machine operator, producing lines of metal type, which the compositors would then have to arrange in metal frames, making sure everything was locked in tightly to prevent any type spilling out. At first, flatbed machines were used but these gave way to rotary presses for which a flexible mould of the metal type had to be transferred on to a curved cylinder for printing.
Brian showed examples of the many local events he attended, bringing back memories of significant local news items such as the opening of the new Northfleet cement works in 1970. He also reminded us of the paper’s many well-known writers, including Joyce Taylor who produced the women’s page and others such as ‘Longshoreman’ with his tales of the river scene, not forgetting the photographers and artists, most famously Mickey Durling, who contributed to the paper when it was a truly local institution, being entirely produced in Harmer Street, Gravesend.
Brian told how the whole building would shake when the massive press was started up at the rear of the offices and how its publication was eagerly awaited by local households every Thursday, who relied on it for all the local news and gossip.
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Northfleet History Group - 2nd January 2018 Meeting Report.
"SERVING MY TIME AT EVERARD'S"
Unfortunately, the speaker we had booked for our meeting in St Botolph’s church hall on Tuesday 2nd January notified us that she was unable to attend due to illness, but the situation was saved at very short notice by our vice-chairman, Stan Martin, who put together a presentation entitled “Serving my time”, the story of Everard’s, the Greenhithe shipping company and Stan’s early working life with the firm. His tales of life there as an apprentice in the 1950's were very nostalgic and a reminder of what life was like in local industry all those years ago. Stan also spoke about the various ships owned by the company, which were famously given names ending in ‘ity’, including the ‘Antiquity’ which was reckoned to be so named because it had been on the stocks for such a long time! He also mentioned the part played by the brave crews of Everard’s merchant fleet in the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940. Everard’s was, of course, well-known for its fleet of barges, particularly the ‘Sara’ and ‘Veronica’ which were very successful competitors in the annual Thames barge races. After the tea interval, Stan was again on his feet, to show a selection of advertisements of shops in our local area from the 1950's, bringing back memories of many half-forgotten retailers who were once so familiar to us all. A bravura performance by Stan before a very appreciative audience!
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