Winter 2009
Autumn 2009
Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society Newsletter Local History Group
Kent History Federation Annual Conference 2010 The Local History Group will be hosting the 2010 conference of the Kent History Federation. This is a one-day event of talks and walks, to be held on Saturday 8th May, in the church of King Charles the Martyr. The morning session will comprise lectures on the general theme of the development of Tunbridge Wells from resort to residential town. The speakers will be well-known to members of the Society: • John Cunningham on The Origins and Nature of Tunbridge Wells • Philip Whitbourn on The Impact of Decimus Burton • Ian Beavis on Tunbridge Ware: the First Tourist Souvenir? In the afternoon there will be a choice of walks and visits, led by members of the Local History Group or by colleagues from other local societies. • The Pantiles (led by Blue Badge Guides) • Mount Sion • The Common • The Buildings of Decimus Burton • Dunorlan Park • Woodbury Park Cemetery • Spa Valley Railway and High Rocks Tickets for the event cost £7:50 which includes coffee and tea in the morning and afternoon. A buffet lunch will be provided, in the Church Hall, for an extra £7:50. If you would like to order tickets please contact Chris Jones on 522025, or John Cunningham on 534599. Please note that there is an extra charge for the Pantiles walk, and the trip to High Rocks, to cover the extra costs. We would also like to hear from anybody who would like to help us on the day, looking after our guests from local history societies in the rest of Kent. Helpers will of course not have to buy a ticket, or pay for their lunch.
Front cover: A reminder of last Summer,- green and harmonious - Salomons 2 www.thecivicsociety.org Contents
Personally Speaking ... 4
From the Planning Scrutineers by Gill Twells ... 5
Chairman’s Letter by Alastair Tod ... 6 The Calverley Bandstand ... 8 An update on the situation from Alastair Tod. Another Wimbledon Champion? ... 9 Chris Jones follows up an intriguing story. The Past is a Foreign Country ... 14 Charmian Clissold-Jones on changing standards of behaviour. The Delights of Victorian Scrapbooks ... 16 Geoffrey Copus relishes old press-cuttings. The Restoration of Frindsbury Barn ... 18 Putting Faces to Names - Christo Skelton ... 19 Summary of Financial Activities ... 20 Annual General Meeting ... 21 Obituary - Myrtle Streeten ... 22 Future Events ... 23 Forthcoming Events ... 24
Editor: Chris Jones. 52 St James Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN1 2LB Tel 01892 522025 (evenings and weekends) Email [email protected] Secretary: Christo Skelton. 4 Caxton House, 19 Mount Sion, Tunbridge Wells TN1
1UB. Tel 01892 513241 Email [email protected] Autumn 2009 Newsletter 3 News & Views
Personally Speaking
by Chris Jones
Local History Group... It might appear that the Local History Group is taking over the Newsletter, with the number of pages dedicated to its activities and interests. The answer lies in the hands of those Civic Society members who are interested in other things - if you would suggest topics for future non-historical articles, or, better still, provide the articles themselves; then we would be very happy to include them. Sad Losses... When I first joined the committee, some ten years ago now, one of its more powerful personalities was Myrtle Streeten, always strong in the defence of the town’s heritage, particulary the Grove and the Common. I didn’t realise that in earlier years she and the Society had occasionally been on different sides of the argument. In his obituary of her on page 22, Philip Whitbourn explains the difficult path she felt she had to tread between her own views, and the need, as a Councillor, to remain neutral. There have been other recent losses amongst our membership: Mary Woodruffe, who was Programme Secretary during the 1980s and more recently a founder member of the Local History Group, working with Philip Whitbourn on the production of his Decimus Burton monograph; Richard Storkey, expert on the town’s cinemas and theatres, who led guided tours around the Opera House duing Heritage Open Days; and Anthony Du Gard Pasley, a member from the very early days, and a renowned garden designer, writer and lecturer. (Anthony it was who used to term ‘Bereavement belt’ to describe Tunbridge Wells. Sadly only too true in recent weeks.) Happier News ... Jane Dickson has produced her third book of walks in the series ‘Beyond the Pantiles’. This one covers Mount Ephraim, Boyne Park and London Road. As before, there are excellent colour photographs by Harry Fenton. Price £4.50. Guy Hitchings has asked me to explain that his book on the stained glass in Speldhurst Church, reviewed in the last Newsletter, is also available from Waterstones, and from Speldhurst Post Office. You can also order it by post from Mr Hitchings, at Spring Bank, Speldhurst, TN3 0PD, for £3.74, to include p&p. Please make cheques payable to ‘Guy Hitchings’. CJ
4 www.thecivicsociety.org From the Planning Scrutineers by Gill Twells
Recent Decisions Refused A proposal to build a new detached house between Brook Cottage in Upper Cumberland Walk and the disused railway. Refused A proposal to replace, with uPVC frames, the top floor timber- framed windows of the building at the acute corner of Mount Ephraim and Culverden Street, opposite the TN4 pub. Refused A proposal to erect a new 2-bed house in Tunnel Road, attached to the house, no.30. Pending The proposal to enlarge the Tesco Supermarket at Pembury. Pending The proposal to “Stop up” the existing Public rights-of-way which were discovered to exist within the Cinema site requires the Sec. of State’s approval. This is delaying the decision by the Borough Council. Approved The amendment to provide two “walkways” within the redevelopment of the Cinema site (as a substitute for the Public rights-of-way) which will be locked shut at night but open to the public during the day. The implementation of this proposal is obviously dependent upon the Sec. of State’s approval to the “stopping-up” of the Public rights-of-way. Approved A proposal to replace derelict garages in the rear garden of 21 and 22 Eridge Road with a new single house. We commented that we considered this original garden - directly beneath a high bank supporting the Spa Valley railway - should remain undeveloped. So we are disappointed with this decision. New Proposal We have just viewed a proposal by Kevin Spencer, of the Brew House Hotel, to convert no 7 Nevill Street, the end house of the terrace, from a shop with residential use over, to hotel use, ancillary to the Brew House Hotel. The ground floor would contain 2 gym rooms with 5 bedrooms above - the top one, in the roof space, having parts of the roof-space each side which would contain ventilation equipment. Work on this conversion has already been started so this is yet another “Retrospective” application by Mr. Spencer. We have yet to discuss this proposal at an executive committee meeting and agree a suitable comment. Newsletter Autumn 2009 Newsletter 5 Chairman’s Letter
Tunbridge Wells December 2009
It was no great surprise to hear that Tunbridge Wells Council’s Chief Executive Sheila Wheeler is moving on after less than four years in post. During that time drastic changes have taken place at the Town Hall, with many staff departures and the Council moving from a rating of ‘Weak‘ in 2004 to one of ‘Excellent‘ in March 2009, a rating shared with about a fifth of local councils. Ms Wheeler has certainly left her mark on Tunbridge Wells, and we wish her well in her new post at Somerset. Much has been said about the ‘Excellent‘ rating. It is worth a look at what the Audit Commission found. Our Council was 65th out of 388 councils in the proportion of indicators improved, and was one of only 12 in the country in the top category for ‘value for money‘. In 57% of indicators Tunbridge Wells fell in the top quartile of councils. Customer satisfaction with planning was rated at 69% and with refuse collection 65%. Good, but not brilliant, in terms of the yardstick, you might think. But it is also worth looking at the yardstick. The Commission judges performance on measures which can be reduced to numbers to enable comparisons between councils. To read its account is to enter a strange world, part PR, part bean-counting, and sometimes obscure. Surely some of these words come straight from the Council itself? ‘The Council continues to focus on delivering improved outcomes for local communities, linked to its overall ambitions. The Council’s Strategic Plan 2007/10, sets out under four key priorities what the Council, with its partners aim to achieve‘ (sic) (Inspection letter para. 17). But ‘Performance compares with the best nationally for the top five per cent of earners from (black and minority) communities and for people with disabilities. However, it compares with the worst performance nationally for the top 5 per cent of earners who are women‘ (ibid para. 29). The changes at the Council have not been uncontroversial in the town. The opening of the Gateway has been well received by users of its services, but has left the Town Hall like a beached whale. The concentration of executive power in a small cabinet has slashed the responsibility of other councillors, even via the increasingly active select committees. Meeting Whitehall targets for plan- making and handling planning applications we feel has tended to supplant
6 www.thecivicsociety.org initiative and dialogue in this most sensitive area. The contracting-out of many functions puts a new stress on specifying and managing contracts, at which our record has been, well, mixed. Plans, policies and priorities have multiplied, each with requirements for consultation and reporting. One routine management paper on which we commented was said to be based on customer service commitments, national priorities, Kent priorities, the Sustainable Community Plan, the Local Strategic Partnership, the Public Service Board and delivery groups, and Vision2026, leading to priorities and an Action Plan. This paper panoply multiplies costs, diffuses control, and makes public involvement a shadow play (let alone the effect on the rain-forest). It may perhaps be necessary in the course of a revolution, without needing to become a way of life. These changes have occurred in some degree everywhere, but were more sudden in Tunbridge Wells because of the previous administration’s relative innocence of the new techniques. The Chief Executive post is now advertised at £109,000, and the Council is intent on making an appointment by mid- December. Meanwhile the Conservatives‘ Caroline Spellman has announced their intention to abolish local authority chief executives with primary legislation to be introduced in their first year. What the Tories intend instead is not yet clear, but one option is universal directly elected mayors with executive powers: this option has been adopted already by about a dozen authorities in England. (The Conservatives are said not to favour this because of the risk of ‘1000 Borises‘). Another option would be to return power to elected members and reinforce the traditional distinction between councillors who take decisions and officers who advise. We have become seriously concerned about the delegation of decisions (to officers) and the interpretation of rules (by officers) fettering the ability of members to represent their electors. The Society is scrupulously non-partisan (and also does not forecast the outcome of elections), but after such upheavals in the last three and a half years it would seem wise to pause and review the functioning of our Council before committing us to another such high-powered chief officer. There is an obvious danger that such a highly paid post will be seen as a useful (short) career step, with a premium on ticking Whitehall’s boxes and change for change’s sake. One could innocently speculate that what Tunbridge Wells needs now is a phase of patiently picking up the pieces, developing skills, and making relationships work. Alastair Tod Autumn 2009 Newsletter 7 News & Views
The Calverley Bandstand An update from Alastair Tod
It is now clear that the Council intends to seek permission to demolish the bandstand without any replacement other than a level surface which might support a temporary fabric-roofed structure in future. This is a complete reversal of the plan discussed with the Civic Society and the Town Forum in the spring. More importantly the plan defies the freely expressed wish of those who responded to the Courier petition. The present bandstand is not unsafe – the Council’s own surveyor only reported it ‘could become unsafe‘. The base could be reinforced. The post-war top structure has limited use and life, but it could be replaced with an inspiring permanent structure suitable for many types of performance. The Civic Society does not advocate restoring the original elaborate design but we do want to see a traditional landmark recreated in Calverley Grounds, and lively events making use of it. There are resources available for a worthy replacement with public support – and the Council originally promised to facilitate this. The Society will strongly oppose demolition. AT
The East Peckham Silver Band playing in Calverley Grounds during the summer.
8 www.thecivicsociety.org Local History
Can Tunbridge Wells claim another Wimbledon Champion? Chris Jones follows up an intriguing story We all know of the links between Bengal civil servants, and those with Tunbridge Wells and Virginia Wade, private incomes. the last British winner of a Wimbledon At 14, Herbert went off to school at singles championship. But did you Repton in Derbyshire; and later to know that we can claim a men’s singles study at Edinburgh University - though champion as well, albeit of a somewhat he was not an academic student and earlier era? did not graduate. By 1871 he was back Herbert Fortescue Lawford was in Calverley Park Gardens and born in Bayswater in 1851, but was described in the census returns as a brought to Tunbridge Wells at the age ‘broker’s clerk’. He was obviously of six, and grew up in Calverley Park following in his father’s footsteps and Gardens. The family home, see below, three years later was admitted a was probably new when they moved member of the Stock Exchange. In that in: today it is split into four flats. year, 1874, the family left Tunbridge Herbert’s father, Thomas Acland Wells. Lawford, was a stockbroker, one of the The 1870s saw the adoption by the few ‘working men’ in a neighbourhood English middle classes of lawn tennis, favoured by wealthy widows, retired taking the place of croquet which had
The Lawford home in Calverley Park Gardens. The area had been earmarked for housing by Decimus Burton in 1828, but was not actually developed until the 1850s Many of the houses were by William Willicombe, highly respected Tunbridge Wells builder. Newsletter Autumn 2009 Newsletter 9 Local History
been popular in the 1860s. Both games end of June, and powered through to demonstrated the Victorians’ love of win the knock-out competition at novelty, and their drive to organise and Wimbledon in July. The Times claimed codify the world. Both also benefited that he “has attained great proficiency from technological advances: the in the art [of lawn tennis]. There is no development of the lawn-mower, end to the variety of his service, his earlier in the century; and, in the case delivery is full of force, and he plays a of tennis, of vulcanised rubber, for the most tiring game for his opponent”. manufacture of balls that bounced. The tournament, however, was The All-England Croquet Club at arranged slightly differently in those Wimbledon adopted the new game in days. The knockout competition was 1875, and in 1877 held the first simply the first stage - the winner was Gentlemen’s Singles championship. then required to challenge the previous Herbert competed in the 1878 year’s champion for the championship tournament and did very well. He proper. In this match (see below) finished fourth - out of 33 entrants - Lawford lost in four sets to John and won 4 guineas. The following year Thorneycroft Hartley. The Times he was beaten in the first round, but reported that Lawford “throughout had he did much better in 1880. He had the sun in his face” which suggests that won the Prince’s Championship at the in those days they didn’t change ends.
The 1880 play-off. The chap in the foreground is almost certainly Hartley - Lawford always wore knickerbockers when playing tennis.
10 www.thecivicsociety.org The 1881 semi- final. Lawford, on the left, against William Renshaw.
Hartley was a Yorkshire clergyman straight sets, only to be brought to a who went on to become Rural Dean halt by a Renshaw. He was essentially of Ripon. a baseline player with a powerful Lawford reached the semi-final of return of service, and it took him a little the knockout competition in 1881, but time to master the volley at which the was beaten by William Renshaw (see Renshaw’s excelled. above). He reached the fourth round It is interesting to note that although in 1882, but was knocked out in the The Times stated in 1879 that lawn first round in 1883. In 1884 he won tennis had “steadily insinuated itself the All Comers Prize, ie the knockout into public favour”, it allocated only competition, but was then beaten by five lines to reporting Renshaw’s 1884 William Renshaw the reigning victory over Lawford. In the same champion. It was perhaps unfortunate issue it gave thirteen lines to the (Real) for Lawford that he was competing at Tennis championship at Lords, won by the same time as the Renshaw brothers, the Hon Alfred Lyttelton, footballer, William and Ernest, who dominated cricketer, and later Colonial Secretary. the game in the early 1880s. Lawford In 1885 Lawford won the Irish would typically power through a championship and was again winner
tournament winning his matches in of the Wimbledon All-Comers Prize. Autumn 2009 Newsletter 11 Local History
time had thirty lawn tennis courts - and electric lighting - a measure of how far Tunbridge Wells was failing to compete as a resort. Slazenger & Sons, ‘manufacturers of every requisite for lawn tennis’ advertised the ‘Lawford’ racquet that year: “a new shape this season, and specially adapted for a rapid game”. It had a longer handle and smaller head, and its very rigid tension gave a quicker return of the ball, though “it is not so well adapted for screwing purposes” (?). It seems, though, that Lawford had anticipated Slazenger in the commercial possibilities of the game. A judge in the High Court of Justice in June 1885 awarded an Lawford won the Irish Championship three years running - 1884 - 1886. injunction against Slazengers - a rival manufacturer had already registered In the fourth round he had defeated the Lawford’s name two years earlier. American, HJ Dwight - Americans had Lawford was again beaten by first competed the previous year. William Renshaw in the 1886 playoffs, Lawford was, however, again defeated but finally achieved the championship by William Renshaw in the play-off. in 1887. William Renshaw had As The Illustrated London News sprained his elbow so was unable to explained “the invincible Mr W defend his title. The winner of the Renshaw once more won the knockout competition would therefore Championship ... from the almost become champion. Lawford defeated invincible Mr H.F. Lawford”. There Ernest Renshaw in five sets, 1-6, 6-3, were 4,000 spectators that year. The 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Despite the scores, The Irish Championships attracted even Times declared the match “less exciting bigger crowds, probably because the than had been anticipated” - Renshaw, venue was more central. There were it seems, was not up to his usual form. also tournaments in Bath, Buxton, Ernest Renshaw got his revenge in Cheltenham, Eastbourne and 1888 beating Lawford in the playoffs.