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The Canterbury &
Whitstable Railway Line
Until now, Simply Whitstable has been very short on
information about the old Canterbury-Whitstable Railway. Brian
Smith has now put that to rights with a fascinating overview
that we have now included on our main menu.
I would like to thank Brian for this item and all the other
historical contrbutions that he as made to teh web site over the
years. They form a basis around which so many discussions
revolve.
Now, to access Brian's latest work.... Click
here.
The Admirable Crichton!
A little while ago, we included pages from the Sir William
Nottidge school magazine (The Quiver).... kindly
supplied by Ken Allen. Amongst other fascinating snippets, Ken's
keepsakes enabled us to discuss a drama production staged at the
school more than half a century ago. The play was The
Admirable Crichton and it all happened in December 1956.
During the week, we received some welcome extra information
on the topic.... thanks to an email from Pam Steward (Jordan).
Pam's message included this gem......
Yes, it's the stage of the school hall.... or, more
accurately, the drawing room
of Loam Hall.... family residence of Lord Loam.
Crichton, the
butler (played by John Stewart), can be seen supervising the
scene from the quiet recess of the French window. Meanwhile, a
footman stoops to serve
drinks to a young aristocratic lady who may already have had a
skin full as one of her stockings has descended below the
knee! Another footman tends a serving table in the
background and the chef (far left) has arrived
from the kitchen to discuss menus with the lady of the house. The rest of the Loam family are spread around the room.
As I explained when commenting on The Quiver, the Nottidge
actually upstaged the British film industry by a couple of
months.... because the most notable celluloid production of the
Admirable Crichton was released in1957. That was when John
Stewart found that he was competing with the elite! The
lead role in the film was played by one of Britain's most
prominent actors - Kenneth More.
The Admirable Crichton tale was written by J M Barrie (author
of Peter Pan) and, under the title 'The Perfect Butler', it
first appeared as a stage play back in 1902. A less celebrated
film version was produced in 1918.
The story is a fascinating one. Lord Loam is outwardly a keen
supporter of equality whilst the butler supports the class
system of the day. However, when the family is shipwrecked on a
desert island, the class system dissolves and a new order
develops based on ability and the need to survive. This
manifests itself in a complete role reversal with Crichton
taking charge. When the family is rescued and returned to Loam Hall, the
social hierarchy is restored and normality returns. Well....
almost! Crichton leaves the family employ and, deep down,
Lord Loam realises that his superficial support for
equality is exactly that.... superficial!
The Barrie story was quite a social statement in 1902. In
fact, the author actually considered making it even more so and
you can see that it would be quite easy to do this with a few amendments. However, in the end, he
decided that the Victorian
upper class simply wouldn't take to anything too
controversial.What a pity!
Of course, by the time the Nottidge pupils trod the boards in
the lead in to Christmas 1956, things had changed a fair bit and
the story was less challenging to a fading class system.
However, there were still many class issues around. Strewth, I
even recall three classes of railway compartment to match the three classes of
1950's society!
Before we leave the subject for the time being, I have added
the names of the actors and actresses supplied by Pam. Question
marks have been used where names have yet to be determined. If you
can add to the annotations, please let us know.
Our thanks go to Pam for taking the time to locate, scan and
email this lovely peice of school history.
Ossie, Car and Flood
Our Flood of '53 section has been a feature of Simply
Whitstable for some years and, from the outset, it has featured
this photo....
It was taken in Belmont Road by Derek Fallon
and kindly sent to Simply Whitstable by his daughter Barbara
Wardle.
Of course, we knew that it showed the secondary flooding
caused when the Gorrell Stream was blocked by sea water. What we
didn't know was who owned the car! That matter was put to rights
a few days ago when Sandra Marvin recognised the vehicle as her
dad's Morris Oxford - registration PKL 566.
Sandra's dad was Cecil 'Ossie' Osborne and some
of our readers may well remember him - particularly if they
lived in the vicinity of Blean or had an interest in motor
vehicles.
Cecil actually ran a newsagents from the family bungalow at
the foot of Honey Hill and collected newspapers from Whitstable -
including the Whitstable Times. It may even be that Ossie was
carrying out those duties when he met the floodwater in Belmont
Road.
Ossie was passionate about motorbikes and cars. In fact, his
hobby was motorcycle racing (including grass track and trials)
and this led him to become a much respected mechanic. Sandra
tells me that many local lads from both the village and
Whitstable called round to have their vehicles repaired for
free. She also mentioned that he was responsible for supplying a
famous Blean motor cyclist with his daily newspaper. That was
renowned racer, Derek Minter, and his exploits have been
discussed in a number of recent entries in our Visitors Book..
The Osborne family had strong connections with Whitstable.
Barbara is a Native and was born at her maternal grandparents
house at 65 Albert Street. Her grandmother's maiden name was 'Rigden'....
and names don't come much more Native than that!
Sadly, Ossie died on 28 March 1964 and is very
much missed. I am sure that this article will bring back a host of
memories for local people.
Reaction to Article about
Ossie....
I expected some reaction to the above article and
the first set of memories come from Bob Court in Oz....
| I read with great interest, the article in THe Chat
Column about Ossie Osborne. When I was a kid, I used to
work for Ossie. What a great guy he was - never lost his
cool, always had a joke and would help anybody.
I used to ride from my house to a lane that I believe
was at Rough Common. There Ossie would be parked and
sorting the papers for us kids to deliver. We used to sit
in the back reading the latest Beano or Dandy comics while
Ossie tied our paper bags to our handlebars (believe me,
when the comics and magazine were included, the bag was
really heavy which made the bike go sideways) and, before
we left, he always had a new joke to tell us, I still
remember a few of them to this day.
We used to love helping him on his round in school
holidays. He would drive while we would jump out of the
moving car and rush up the the letter box. He would
sometimes play a game with us. When we ran back to jump on
the moving car, he would accelerate so we ran faster and,
then at the last minute, jam on the brakes so that we
would miss the car completely or slip in the gravel on the
side of the road. He would just sit there and laugh.
Great memories of a great guy... Can Sandra post a
photo on the site??
Bob |
Thanks, Bob. I have also included your comments
in the Visitors Book.
More on....
The Collegiate....
 As
regular readers will know, we have a permanent article
describing the Whitstable and Tankerton Collegiate School and
the subject crops up quite regularly in our Visitors
Book.
Well, we have now received a fascinating email
and enclosure from Catherine Goodwin.
Catherine is the great, great niece of Frederick
Charles and May Beatrice Sanders (of Oxford) who ran the school
and she has kindly provided this lovely old photo of Frederick.
The photo will now be added to our WTCS article We
also need to make a correction to our article. Until now, we have
used the surname 'Saunders'. However, as you can now see, it
should have been 'Sanders'.
Catherine would like to collect more information
about the Sanders. So, if anyone can help, please get in
touch.
In the meantime, we would like to thank Catherine
for taking the time to scan and forward the photo.
More on....
The Dunelm School
The school's section of our Days Gone By menu
will be getting a boost shortly with articles drwan from past
Chat Columns. This will include the Soderberg School amongst
others.
Following a number of messages in the Visitors
Book, it now looks as if we will be able to add something on the
Dunelm School. Amongst other key details, Joyce Goldfinch named
the school building (ie Seasalter House) and that has enabled us
to locate it on the south side of Tankerton Road between the
junctions with Castle Road and Park Avenue. It is this
building....
Anecdotes contributed to the Visitors Book
include these...
| Certainly remember the school being on the right hand
side of Tankerton Road as one looks towards Tankerton.
There is a lane there now marked Dunelm. As a large
house, it would have had views of the sea. I don’t
remember them, but I may have been in the class taught on
the ground floor.
It had a large garden or ex garden with an air raid
shelter on the Tankerton side. It is logic that it would
have been a 'Prep' school. It would have been the
equivalent to a state Primary school leading up to the 11
plus or whatever one had to have to get into a private or
public school.
I would have been in the first class either because of
age or academic ability.
Patrick
McNeile |
| I am an old ex-pupil starting there in 1949 and leaving
6years later. Dunelm, now Seasalter House, was run by
three sisters. Miss Doris Stephenson was the headmistress.
Miss Gladys taught the mixed infants. The boys left at 7
or 8 and went on to other schools Miss Ivy was the cook.
Seven shillings and sixpence was the price of lunch per
week.
The uniform was green skirt white blouse and green
blazer with badge on the pocket. In the summer, we had
green and white striped dresses. We had to wear a beret in
winter and panama hats for summer.
An extra classroom was added by the use of the old
theatre the Lawn Pavilion on Tankerton slopes opposite the
Tankerton Hotel.
I wonder where other girls are.... Celia Gaywood,
Thelma and Valerie Hunt and a particular friend, Angela
Poulson.
Kind Regards
Joyce Goldfinch |
| Dunelm School was (at least until I left the UK in
December of 1960), on the crest of Tankerton hill. If one
were in the back of the school looking from a window, the
view would have been of the sea (I'm useless with Norths
and Souths). The front of the school faced onto Tankerton
Road and was opposite houses - all very residential at
that time.
I don't know if it ever was a pre-school. My friend at
the time had a young son there and when he left (to come
to the States with his mother), he was almost eight and I
have the feeling students stayed until about age
ten/eleven.
I well remember the dark green uniform.
Rosemary Gilbert |
| I recall the school cap was green with a red circle on
the top. The uniform was introduced in 1945. When the war
ended, every student was given a large certificate, that
looked better than a PHD, signed by the King celebrating
the end of the war. It was an old country type house and I
am fairly certain that it was run by two old ladies.
Patrick
McNeile |
Now.... can anyone add to this information?
Reaction on Dunelm School...
Joyce Goldfinch has prompted Agnes Jones to write
from Somerset....
| I am replying to Joyce Goldfinch's comments on Dunelm School and past
pupils. My mother, Celia Gaywood, had very fond memories of her school
days at Dunelm and often talked about them.
I have a photograph of her
at school there. Unfortunately, my Mum died on 31st October 1999. I am
sure she would have loved to know that you still remember her.
Agnes Jones
Peasdown St. John
Somerset
24 March 2008 |
Thanks, Agnes. I am so sorry to hear of the death of your mum but glad that she is
so fondly remembered by her friends. I have replicated your message
in the site Visitors Book to ensure that Joyce spots it.
Harbour
Garage...
Recent discussions in the Visitors Book have
centred on the the old harbour lands bteween the harbour's east
gate and Beach Walk. Part of the area gave rise to Harbour Garage
and that prompted Jackie Evans to forward the following photo
taken from the garage forecourt looking towards Wetgate Terrace.
I always reckon that Simply Whitstable is as much
about people as it is about history and that's why I always enjoy
my messages from Jackie. Let me give you an extract from her email
to show how she has dated the snap....
| I've attached a picture taken from the garage forecourt
- me on the left, Ann Coleman on the right. How did we
manage to cycle with the gathered skirts that concealed
several layers of net petticoats?
I think the photo must have been taken in about 1960 as
I had started to drive by 1963 and pencil skirts were all
the rage then. Also we were in flat shoes, which had
superceded the stilettos which had been in fashion in the
late fifties - and, yes, we cycled in those too! If you
blow up the picture, you can read the sign which says
"National" and "Open". No other clues,
other than thinking it was called the Harbour Garage.
Jackie |
Now, Jackie! Page 2 of this week's Chat Column
includes some of my old family photos. I can't date them
accurately unless someone can analyse the clothing. As some of the
ladies seem to have had flying saucers landing on their 'eads, I
am hoping that it won't be too difficult.
Reds on the
Up....
Just a quick update for Whitstable football fans
living abroad. Yesterday (Saturday), the Reds achieved a super 3-2 away
victory at promotion contenders Dulwich Hamlet and
that lifts them away from the relegation zone. They are now seventh
from bottom and on the verge of ensuring that they will retain
their hard earned Ryman League status.
The Ryman league results and details can be found
at the following web site....
http://www.isthmian.co.uk/
When searching the site for latest information,
remember that Whitstable play in Division1 South. The
club web site can be accessed at...
http://www.whitstabletownfc.co.uk/
May Day Appeal
As regular visitors will know, our front page has
carried an appeal on behalf of the Oyster Morris as they need a
little bit of help to man road blocks just for a an hour or two
during Whitstable's May Day celebrations.
It's not a massive or lengthy task and it can
dovetail with watching the event. Details can be be viewed by clicking
here. If you can help, please contact Megan Taylor at....
Thank You...
On behalf of everyone, I would like to say thank
you to all the people who contribute to Simply Whitstable. In the
last few weeks, we have received a lot of material and offers of
yet more. I will try to catch up with it all asap!
It really is amazing how much effort our readers
are willing to put into the site and how much feeling there is for
Whitstable.
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