SPRING 2006

400th ANNIVERSARY OF THE WELLS * * * DUDLEY, 3rd LORD NORTH Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006

Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society

Objectives:

1. To stimulate public interest in 2. To promote high standards of planning and architecture in the town 3. To secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic or public interest.

Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society is supported by AXA PPP healthcare

Front Cover: Some of the new ‘Burgundy’ plaques - can you identify the notable residents they are celebrating? (see page 6)

2 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Intro Happy Birthday... It has been gratifying the way that organisations in the town, led by the Borough Council and supported by the Courier, have come together to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Wells, even if some members of the Society still think that we are being ten years premature. In this issue, I have tried to concentrate a little on the first one hundred years, not to repeat the history, which I am sure you all know (and if you don’t, John Cunningham will be happy to sell you a book) but to highlight some of the buildings and the characters from that era. If there are any buildings or characters from the second, third or fourth centuries, which you think we should feature in future issues, then please let me know. Fantastic... At last things seem to be happening on the Ritz cinema site. The new owners have been identified and are seeking permission to start demolition (see page 4). It must be sad for the shopkeepers along the perimeter of the site, but at least in future we will be spared the sight of TanFastic, which was nominated by David Wright in 1997 for a Desolation Award. I love David’s description of the shopfront: “fetchingly decorated in primrose and lilac (colours which in my view should be restricted to primroses and lilacs)”. On Place Names... I’m sure that all of you have at some stage been interested in the derivation of place names, and how the experts can uncover the most unlikely information from them. You might even have read JK Wallenberg’s books on Kentish names. I wonder what Wallenberg would have made of Court Royal - the house that until recently stood in Frant Road. Here is the real story, told to Peter Miall by a friend who grew up there: Until the early years of the last century the house had been called Broadwater Cottage but additions and extensions in the late nineteenth century created an imposing house which bore no resemblance to a cottage. For a long time the family felt that the house should be renamed but could not think of anything appropriate. One day, after the subject had been discussed at length when the family were gathered for tea, Peter’s friend, playing in the garden, found her way to the potting shed where she saw an imposing lawn mower with the name Court Royal cast into the handle. Need I say more? Meetings you may have Missed... To all of you who were worried about my statement in the last Newsletter - I only meant that I was going to get rid of that Heading, not the meeting reports themselves. Sorry about the confusion. p CJ 3 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 From the Planning Scrutineers The new owners of the Ritz would eventually be acceptable. We cinema site, Rydell Properties Ltd believe that a review of the town’s (who seem to be owned by an Irish Conservation Areas is now required, company based in Cork), have to safeguard buildings such as this. requested a change to the conditions There was a happier result when attached to the granting of permission an application for a replacement for the development of the site. The shopfront to 18 Crescent Road was condition stated that demolition could rejected by the Council. The proposed only begin once a contract for re-design involved a lower stall-riser reconstruction had been signed. The and the loss of the recessed doorway. company is seeking to begin demolition This shop housed the municipal as soon as possible. There are museum between 1918 and 1928 (see arguments both for and against this picture opposite). request. On balance we felt it would The council has unfortunately be better to allow demolition, ridding approved an application for a new us of this eyesore, provided that proper garage at 10 Broadwater Down. safeguards were imposed - to reduce Although not visible from the road, we the disruption caused by the demolition felt that the quality of the proposed itself, forbidding the use of the cleared building was quite inappropriate for this site for car-parking or other temporary important site. commercial benefit, and ensuring that We also responded to a proposal the site is then hidden by suitably for a 2 storey warehouse extension to designed screens. Sainsbury’s. We are concerned about We are concerned that there may any building along the line of the old be a further attempt at the demolition railway track, which one day might of 7 Amherst Road, the attractive need to be restored. house with tall chimneys at the junction There have been further of Woodbury and St Johns Road applications for new houses in Forest (picture in the Summer 2004 Road. The area is becoming notorious Newsletter). In rejecting an appeal as an example of the impact of poor against refusal of an earlier application, planning guidelines - its latest the planning inspector based his/her appearance was in the Sunday Times decision on little more than a of March 26th. TWBC seems unable technicality, implying that development to do anything about it. p CJ 4 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006

18 Crescent Road - home of the municipal museum between 1918 and 1928.

Photo by permission of TW Museum.

Society News

PR Person Needed The new committee has reviewed would like to take on this role (without the roles and responsibilities of its necessarily being a member of the members. We have identified the need committee), please contact John for a PR Manager. If any member Cunningham or Gill Twells. The Quarry Road Drinking Fountain Brian Senior continues to press the evidence, ownership must have passed Council for action on the drinking to TWBC on its formation. Bryan has fountain at the junction of Camden and reviewed the estimates for repair work Quarry Roads (see Winter 2004 and believes that a great improvement Newsletter). The fountain was could be achieved at a cost of perhaps presented to the Corporation in 1896, £1,500. The Society is offering £250 and, in the absence of any other towards this. Consultation over Future Retail Strategy The Council has announced that it will have had the development of the plans to consult the residents over a Cinema site and probably the future retail strategy. However this will extensions to the RVP. It seems to us not take place until 2008. By then we that we need this consultation now. p CJ 5 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Burgundy Plaques - the first tranche We are very pleased that the The first ‘tranche’, of eleven plaques, Borough Council has decided to selected with the assistance of the recognise some of the distinguished Local History Group, is already in residents of the town by introducing a place; and will have been formally scheme of ‘burgundy’ plaques unveiled by the time you read this. I (burgundy having been chosen wonder whether you were able to because it is part of our civic identity identify the eight on the front cover - like the rubbish bins and cctv masts). (see bottom of page for the answers).

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A Thomas Bayes (mathematician) - 69 Road B Humphrey Burroughs () - Jordan House C Decimus Burton - inside the Victoria Arch D Richard Cumberland (dramatist) - Cumberland Walk E Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding - No 1 Calverley Park F EM Forster - Earls Road G John Mayo (physician) - Mount Ephraim H Richard ‘Beau’ Nash - Pantiles I Thomas Nye & Thomas Barton (Tunbridge ware) - Mt Ephraim J WM Thackeray - Thackeray’s House K HM Queen Victoria - Hotel du Vin A further two tranches are planned. If you have any suggestions as to who

should be included please contact Brian Hayward (TWBC) or Chris Jones.

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6 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Calverley Bandstand

Members of the Society have structure built in 1926 when the expressed their concern at news that Grounds were opened to the public. the bandstand in the Calverley Grounds This was destroyed by an incendiary is to be demolished. But it is not a bomb in September 1940. The roof particularly old building. It is the rather was replaced in the 1960’s and the sad remains of a much grander foundations and floor are now in need

of repair. This could cost around seemed to afflict this country between £100,000 and TWBC is thought not to the 1920’s and 1950’s. be keen. Philip Whitbourn has proposed, And yet, isn’t a bandstand, set in a privately, that the bandstand be well-maintained municipal park, the restored (see above) to mark the 400th archetypal symbol of a resort town, a anniversary of the town. The mark of civic pride. There were Executive Committee believes that it originally bandstands in the Grove and should be replaced by a new, multi- Grosvenor Recreation Ground, but purpose structure, capable of more these were swept away in the wave versatile and frequent use. p CJ of helplessness and self-hate that

7 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006

Chairman’s Letter by John Cunningham This is a new feature for the Newsletter, which I hope will become a regular item. It is intended as a means of letting you know the main issues facing the Society and also what your Executive Committee has been doing. The biggest current issue is of course what is happening to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. As you all know, the Council received a somewhat damning assessment from the Audit Commission in 2003, which has lead to a number of major changes in personnel and policy and attitude to consultation. The then-Chief Executive took early retirement and a new Chief Executive, Sheila Wheeler, joined in September 2005, just five months ago. The ‘new broom’ seems to be sweeping very clean. Already a new management structure is being introduced and in the process, a number of senior Officers will be leaving in 2006. Of course, it will take time for their replacements to settle in, so we can expect that 2006 will be a period of flux in TWBC. Coupled with personnel changes, there has been a change of heart in the Council, and particularly among Councillors, towards the idea of consulting the inhabitants – the ratepayers - about Council policy and proposals. Since early 2005, there has been a plethora of consultations with both what is in jargon called ‘the stakeholders’ - the many organisations in the town - and the general public. There has been a whole series of Fora on different topics relevant to the town. Possibly the most important and active has been the Town Forum, which started in July 2005 and which covers the ‘unparished’ parts (i.e. those without representation through a Parish or Town Council) of the Borough, which are essentially the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells. It has often been said that our Civic Society in the absence of a separate Town Council for Royal Tunbridge Wells, fulfilled this role in many ways, but we could not of course claim to represent everyone. The Town Forum is equally unelected and includes about 50 organisations (mainly Residents’ Associations) including ourselves. We give it our full support and take an active part and with the others, give of our views. Whether the Town Forum has any influence on the Council has yet to be seen. It’s too early to say. It could be all window-dressing; it might however be a positive, pro-active influence. Only time will tell. But those of you who have memories of the Community Forum which flourished in the early 1980’s and then withered away, may be forgiven if you feel you’ve seen it all before. 8 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 The other issues on which your Executive Committee is keeping a close eye, can be summarised as: • The redevelopment of the Ritz cinema site • The proposed further development of the RVP Shopping Centre • The restoration of from its economic doldrums • The outcome in practical terms of the Local Plan Inquiry. • The application of Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1987 to derelict properties and sites • The Review of existing Conservation Areas and proposed new ones. • The issue of street lighting/street furniture and street signs, as highlighted by Ptolemy Dean at the recent Conservation Awards. • The proper celebration of the 400th. Anniversary of the Discovery of the Wells. • The provision of Plaques on the houses of notable residents • The further development of Heritage Trails in the Town • The further development of the Heritage Open Day Scheme • The redevelopment of the Victoria Cross Grove in • The resuscitation of and Happy Valley, two highlights of the Town in Victorian times. All of these issues, together with the much greater consultation now taking place with TWBC, take a great deal of your Committee’s time and I would urge members to volunteer to the Hon. Secretary to be involved in dealing with these issues. Other parts of the Society are also very active. The Local History Group reports sales of about 2,000 Commemorative Fourth Centenary Calendars, and 1,300 copies of ‘400 years of the Wells’, the new history of Tunbridge Wells; and Bryan Senior has sold some 700 bone-china Commemorative Mugs. All of which is good, not only for our image and visibility in the Town, but for our coffers as well. Finally, news about our Garden Party in July. The current Mayor, Cllr. Jenny Paulson-Ellis and her husband, Jeremy, have very kindly offered us the use of their garden at Broomlands, Broom Lane, on Saturday, 22nd. July. More details of this later.

9 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 400th Anniversary Celebrations Free Water on the Pantiles ? One of our suggestions for the 100 by James Scholes, on behalf of anniversary was to provide free water KCC, to be distributed to schools in and from the spring on the Pantiles. around the town; and 48 by Ron Unfortunately the Council didn’t Weedon, the next Mayor, so that each agree. However they have authorised Councillor can have a copy. Our thanks the purchase of some of our books: to both. Events TWBC has set up a web-site: chosen by residents to tell the story of royaltunbridgewells400.info to the town. King Charles the Martyr has advertise the various events planned been running a series of special for the year. I counted at least 37 for concerts since January, which will the months April to June. On Sunday conclude with a performance of 23rd April there is a St Georges Day Handel on the Pantiles on 25th June. Celebration on the Pantiles and on There are open-air picnics, dances, art, 17th and 18th June there is a visit by sport and lots of music. Please have a the Mayor of , with look, and if you don’t have access to performances by the Wiesbaden the Internet, I am sure that the Symphonic Brass Ensemble. From information is available at the Town early July the Museum will be Hall and Tourist Information. presenting a collection of artefacts Dover ? Australia ?? Talk about jumping on the band- anniversary this year, and so is wagon. I see that the Port of Dover Australia. What have we started? is also celebrating its 400th Tunbridge Wells Tells I wonder if you have ever come It aims to collect 400 accounts of what across ‘blogs’ - personal journals it is like to work, live or play in the written on the web for the world to town. Each account must be no more enjoy, or to ignore. One of these blogs than 400 words. Why don’t you have led me to a web-site called a look, or better still, send in a Tunbridgewellstells.blogspot.com, set contribution. p CJ up to celebrate the 400th anniversary.

10 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 1606 and All That

We complain these days that history isn’t taught as it used to be, that children don’t learn dates as we did. But dates in isolation are not very instructive - to understand an event one needs to be able to put it into its context. So what was the context when young Dudley stopped off for a drink on his way home from Eridge? What was going on in the world of 1606? • January 31st - execution of Guy Fawkes - by hanging, drawing and quartering - not a pretty sight, but a reminder that , like most of Europe, was in a period of religious turmoil and regime change. This was to lead to the devastation of central Europe in the Thirty Years War - 1618 to 1648. • Two years earlier King James had ended the twenty year war with Spain. Spain was still the wealthiest European country but the gold and silver flooding in from South America were to bring inflation and bankruptcy. • The end of March - First Europeans (Dutch) landed in Australia. Holland was to become the chief trading centre of Europe for the next 50 years. First shipment of tea to Europe by Dutch East India Co. in 1609. • April 12th - Use of the Union flag (Union Jack) proclaimed. • In Italy Galileo built himself a telescope and identified four moons of Jupiter (1609) but alongside the development of science there was an increase in trials for witchcraft. The ten witches of Pendle were hanged in 1612. • Population of England in 1606, about 5 million. The population of London may have been about 200,000. 33,000 of these are said to have died in an outbreak of the plague in 1603. The plague returned to London in 1608. • December 20th - Three ships left London to establish a colony in Virginia. The first years were perilous, though the introduction of tobacco in 1613 led to its eventual success. Dudley was an investor in the Virginia Company. • December 26th - first recorded performance of King Lear. Shakespeare also completed Macbeth during 1606. • Between 1601 and 1613 the East India Company made 12 voyages to India, seeking trading rights from Jahangir (fourth Moghul Emperor). The first English trading post in India was established in Surat in 1612. Jahangir’s son, Shah Jahan, built the Taj Mahal. • In 1606 Britain was approaching the coldest part of the ‘Little Ice Age’. The winter of 1607/8 was particularly severe. p CJ 11 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 So what did the Stuarts do for us?

Well, obviously, if it hadn’t been for Thomas Janson. The conditions of the the Stuarts there wouldn’t have been lease were very precise - the walks a Tunbridge Wells at all. What I were to remain open to all, and the actually mean is: what is there in buildings were to be restricted to Tunbridge Wells today that has shops, booths and rooms for coffee, survived directly from Stuart times? drink and games. There were to be no (‘Stuart times’ being defined as the dwellings or lodging houses, first hundred years - 1606 to 1706). presumably to avoid competition with The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is the lodging houses in itself. that quite a lot has survived. Part of the lower walks was allocated The answer is surprising because to coaches, perhaps an indication that for most of that period the Stuarts did Tunbridge Wells already had a problem very little building. When Henrietta with traffic congestion. Maria visited in 1629, she stayed in a The original houses will have been tented camp on Bishop’s Down; and of wood, and many were destroyed in when Charles II and Katherine came a fire of 1687. That, however, only in 1663 they stayed in Mount Ephraim provided the opportunity for a more House. There is mention, in 1636, of comprehensive development, including two ‘passing houses’ on the Walks - a colonnade. When Celia Fiennes necessary conveniences if you were visited in 1697 she described the row drinking the recommended ten pints of of shops on the right-hand side, selling the Waters each day. But these were toys, silver, china, millinery and a not significant buildings, and, despite curious wooden ware. Opposite them, the levelling of the Walks and the shaded by high trees was the daily planting of a grove of trees in 1638, market. There were two large Coffee there was no real development for Houses and two rooms for gambling. another forty years. She described the colonnade as looking In about 1676, Thomas Neale, who like a piazza. had married a rich widow and bought And although there has been a himself positions at Court, acquired the constant cycle of renewal since then, manor of Rusthall. He negotiated with the layout of the Pantiles is pretty the freeholders and, in 1682, was able much unchanged - the Upper and to grant a fifty-year development lease Lower Walks, the Market Square, the on the land around the Walks to a narrow cuttings through to the 12 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Common. Many of the current buildings have timber frames dating from that period, the ones around Bath Square, nos. 7, and 8 to 16, probably being the oldest. No. 48, further along, still has its original columns (see right). Our second gift from the Stuarts is the Church of King Charles the Martyr, described by the chapel was completed a second Simon Jenkins as having ‘quaint subscription was opened and the urbanity’. Look at the church (or chapel doubled in size, more or less to chapel as it was then) in Kip’s its current shape. The ‘altar’ was engraving of 1719, and compare it with moved along to the centre of the NE the view today from the Pantiles. It is wall and the seating remained facing instantly recognisable. Look inside, at that way. Some time in the 18th the plaster ceilings, the nearer one century, however, a pulpit was raised done by Doogood in 1690-96, the on the NW wall and the seating, that farther by Wetherell in 1679-80. But down the centre at least, was turned then look at the seating, and the to face that direction. Finally in the general layout, and ponder, for this late 19th century the SE wall was church has had more twists and turns opened up to allow the construction of than a Dan Brown thriller. a chancel and more ornate altar on that The original chapel, built by side. The seating was turned through subscription and opened in 1678, was 180 degrees to face SE. rectangular and half the size. It was The church has traditionally been effectively that part of the current described as the ‘cavalier chapel’ - as building that lies beyond the large presenting a High Church alternative central pillars. The altar / communion to the more puritan worship on Mount table was over towards the left, and Ephraim. The truth may be a little more the seating faced NE. Four years after complex than that. John Fuller has

13 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 reviewed the subscribers list and the dedication of the Church to the found that of nearly 200 MP’s named memory of King Charles. In records there, only 24 could be described as and memoirs from the 17th century the High Church, while 33 were known building is always referred to as just to be Dissenters. There were also ‘the Chapel’. The first written record Roman Catholic subscribers. Fuller of the name Charles the Martyr is from has even suggested that the original 1733. It seems unlikely that the name purpose of the building was not would have been first used at this time religious at all, but just somewhere to - well into the Georgian period when shelter from the weather when outward display of Jacobitism was visiting the Wells. risky. So when was it first used ? We Another traditional story is that the don’t know. church was built on the land of three If you were of a suspicious mind, parishes: Speldhurst, Frant and you might consider it too much of a , and that a border stream coincidence that the Pantiles ran beneath the building. This story development, the chapel subscriptions, was the cause of problems in the early and our third inheritance, the opening 19th century when a rector of up of South Frith estate, all happened Speldhurst sought control over at about the same time. You might smell appointments to the church. It sounds the presence of property developers. rather unlikely. Whatever the reason, in 1684, the There is another mystery - over Countess Purbeck, formerly Lady Muskerry, started selling leases on the South Frith estate. The estate covered much of present- day Tunbridge Wells, to the north of the Pantiles and to the east of London Road. Between 1684 and 1696, 33 leases were let. What we have left today from this

14 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 activity is the layout of Mount Sion, Road, and Thackeray’s House (see where many of the buildings are of opposite); and the Grove. The Grove Stuart origin: Sion House (no 15), Nash was one of the remaining parts of the House (nos 23 - 29), Jerningham South Frith estate. In 1703 it was House (nos 18/20, Fairlawn House placed in trust by John Villiers, son of (no 22), Ivy Chimneys (no 28), and Countess Purbeck, to be “continually Berkeley Place, though most of them preserved for a Grove and Shade and now have a Regency, Georgian or Walks” for the benefit of local Victorian exterior; houses up the side inhabitants. And it has been. p CJ of the Common: Jordans, 69 London ... and who was Lord North? by John Cunningham

It is somewhat paradoxical that the discoverer of ‘the Wells at Tunbridge’ probably never fully appreciated what he had done, nor claimed any special credit for it. His only published work, ‘A Forest Promiscuous of Several Seasons Productions’ is a collection of his writings over 25 years, and runs to some 330 pages. Yet the only reference to the discovery is a margin note on page 129 which reads: ‘The use of Tunbridge and Epsam waters, for health and cure, I first made known to London and the King’s people; the Spaw is a chargeable (i.e. expensive) and inconvenient journey for sick bodies, besides the mony it carries out of the Kingdome, and inconvenience to (i.e. undermining of) Religion. Much more I could say, but I rather hint than handle, rather open a door to a large prospect than give it’ But who was Dudley, the third When he died he was succeeded by Baron North? He was a nobleman, a his grandson, Dudley, as third Baron. courtier and a poet. His great Dudley matriculated at Trinity grandfather, the first Baron (c1504 - College, Cambridge in 1597 when he 1564), had been a lawyer working for was 15, but never took a degree. He Thomas Cromwell, and had been able married young, aged 18, against his to speculate in monastic properties. mother’s wishes and just a week His grandfather, the second Baron before his grandfather’s death in (1531 - 1600) grew up at Court and November 1600. Although they was a life-long friend of Queen remained married until his death, he Elizabeth. In 1564 he retired to manage always maintained that he had married their country estates, though he did too young and he blamed many of his fight at the Battle of Zutphen in 1586. later troubles upon this hasty action.

15 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 No sooner was he married than he Masques and Tournaments, such as took off for an extended tour of Europe the investment of Prince Henry – without his wife, Frances. In June (Charles I’s elder brother who died in 1601, he was a volunteer soldier at the 1618) as Prince of Wales in 1610. But siege of Berck (now in the Pas-de- he was never very successful as a Calais, but then part of the Spanish courtier and was never appointed to Netherlands). But he must have any Court office and by the 1620s, he returned sometime because his son and had withdrawn to his Cambridgeshire heir, Dudley, later the fourth Baron, estate. He spent much of his time in was born in October or November the country composing poetry and 1602. After the birth, he seems to have dabbling in music. He kept a composer departed once again for Europe, in the house and it was said that the returning by the summer of 1604. It servants were chosen more for their would have been on one of these two musical talents than for their tours that he visited Spa in the efficiency, or honesty. He organised Ardennes and first saw Chalybeate concerts at home, with his children, water, but the precise date is not grandchildren and servants playing and known. It was also on one of these singing. In 1645, he caused to be tours that he dosed himself with treacle published what is widely called A to protect himself from the plague, a Forest of Varieties, a collection of precaution which he later asserted had poetry and essays written by him over ruined his health and possibly was the the previous fifteen years, but which cause of his recuperation with the actually has a much longer title. (It was Bergavenny’s at Eridge in 1606. to be republished in 1659 with even Throughout much of his life, North more poems and essays.) suffered extended bouts of ill-health. North, as a member of the House He admitted to suffering from of Lords, attended Parliament when depression and part of his therapy for called (which was increasingly this was to be extravagant. His limited infrequent as the reign of Charles I income, said by him to be only £600 a progressed) and generally took a year, was blighted by too much building moderately sceptical view of the on his Cambridge estate and by King’s proposals. He favoured the spending too much at Court – a desire Petition of Right in 1628; he advocated to keep up with his peers, in both the peace with the Scots in 1640; he metaphorical and literal sense. He favoured moderate reform of the was a frequent performer in Court Anglican Church; and accepted the

16 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Covenant; and on balance was a Parliamentarian. So much so that for a short while, he was Speaker of the House of Lords in 1648. But the proposal to try the King for treason was the turning point for North. On 28th. December 1648, just one month before the King’s execution, he and other peers pleaded with Cromwell against such a drastic action and on 2nd. January 1649, he was in the House of Lords when it rejected the Commons’ resolution for Charles’s trial. After the King’s execution on 30th. January 1649, North returned to Kirtling, where he remained until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, when he returned relatively chance discovery of the to vote for the restoration of the House Wells in 1606, we would probably not of Lords. He died at Kirtling on 16th be living in such a pleasant, attractive January 1666, aged 83. and convenient town. And then where All of which suggests that he was would we be? So, despite his a man of intelligence and creative comparative lack of awareness of the talent, but not of the first rank; a man significance of his discovery, we owe who, at least in his youth, was sensitive him a lot. to peer pressure in both meanings of An apposite addendum. After the word; an inquisitive man who, at Dudley, the North family continued to least in his youth, wanted to learn and make their contribution to British experience; a man who was given to history. In particular, his great-great depression and ill-health; a man of grandson (the 8th. Baron) was the Lord moderate views with somewhat left- North who was George III’s Prime leanings for his time, but nonetheless Minister from 1770-1782 and who is fundamentally a traditionalist and widely, but unfairly, blamed for the loss conservative. of the American Colonies. Following All the above may not seem very his resignation in 1782, he retired to relevant to the inhabitants of Tunbridge Tunbridge Wells, and lived on Mount Wells today, except that without his Sion. p JC

17 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Local History Group News

Next Local History Group Monograph The Local History Group drawings done for the first Ordnance Committee has been working since Survey in 1799, and perhaps to include before Christmas on its next some aerial photographs. Monograph - a rather exciting project John Cunningham is leading the to produce an atlas of historical maps project,with specialist support from of the town. The atlas, at A3 in size, Geoffrey Copus, Sue Brown and Ian will be much larger than our previous Beavis. Daniel Bech has also been publications but will be the same high involved, in scanning some of the 19th quality, with full-colour laminated century maps, which allows him to cover. We hope to include some fifty clean up the backgrounds and remove to sixty maps of the town, ranging from the lines and creases caused by the the sixteenth century up to the current folds in the original. time. The maps will show the We are currently aiming at a development of the Pantiles, Mount publication date in early September, Sion, the Calverley estate, and the and a retail price of £11.95. enormous growth of the town in the If anybody has an old map of the 19th and 20th centuries. We hope to town that might be suitable for be able to print some of the maps in inclusion, please contact John colour, including some interesting field Cunningham on TW 534599. Heritage Open Days Heritage Open Days last year were attended by representatives from an improvement on the previous year, Southborough, Rusthall, and Somerhill. but something short of a complete The campaign is led largely by LHG success. For 2006, TWBC has asked members, particularly Jane Dickson the Civic Society to handle and John Cunningham. They plan to arrangements, with the promise of approach thirty five possible sites in the logistical support and £1,000 for hope that perhaps fifteen will agree to advertising and materials. We have participate. Anybody else wishing to accepted on condition that other help with the arrangements would be organisations join in. welcomed. The first meeting to plan this year’s Heritage Open Days this year run event was held in February and was from September 7th to 10th.

18 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Change of Start Times for Meetings At least one of our members misunderstood the times. It always turned up at the Town Hall at the was a bit confusing having LHG talks adverised time for our talk in February starting at 7:30 and Civic Society talks and found the main door locked and starting at 7:45 or 8. So we have nobody in attendance. So he went decided to standardise, and start all away again, assuming that he had talks at 7:45. p CJ Tunbridge Wells in Literature

Martin Davies wrote to me last I was also interested in Martin’s year. He had been watching ‘Bleak reference to presents from Tunbridge House’ on BBC and was sufficiently Wells. The sale of souvenirs and enthused to re-read the book. In Chapter 4, set in Mrs Jellyby’s chaotic home, he found a reference to “a mug with ‘A Present from Tunbridge Wells’ on it”. He wondered whether this would be a real souvenir from around that period (1852-3 when the book first appeared) or a fairly early example of the traditional lampooning of the town (cf Wilde’s ‘Importance of Being Earnest’, EM Forster, et al.). His letter Photograph by permission of TW Museum was particularly timely as I had just presents had long been an important finished reading Arnold Bennett’s ‘Old part of the local economy. Not only Wives’ Tale’. There is a point at which the sale but the manufacture too, and Sophia is trying to persuade her sister not only, it seems, of ‘presents from to travel, and says “I’ve always Tunbridge Wells’. This label (see understood that TunbridgeWells is a above), which I found in the Sprange very nice town indeed, with very Collection in the Museum, suggests superior people, and a beautiful that we produced presents from other climate”. Clearly a lampoon, this time places too. Gravesend, by the way, from 1909. So, a challenge to our was described in 1820 as having cold members, to identify when the town’s and warm baths and agreeable views. name was first used in this way. p CJ

19 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Recent Meetings

Cleaner Neighbourhoods by Gary Stevenson TWBC With its world-wide fame for being His talk included a ‘Little Horror ‘disgusted’, Tunbridge Wells has Show’ slide presentation making his changed over recent months, audience aware that there is hard-to- becoming more proactive in tackling disguise grot in our pretty town. Gary, the things it dislikes. being born in Tunbridge Wells told us With new attitudes come new that he too felt that the town had words, and ‘grot spot’ has arrived in declined over recent years. The Royal the Tunbridge Wellsian Dictionary of Tunbridge Wells Town Forum, of Slang. The Civic Society asked Gary which the Civic Society is a leading Stevenson, Head of Environmental member, has created a register of Services of Tunbridge Wells Borough places in need of improvement and Council to explain to its members what Gary indicated that the Council intends this is all about. After all, he is the to deal with all reports which come in, professional with responsibility for from whatever corner of the town. such things. A change from the grotty pictures Gary accepted the invitation (or was Gary’s invitation to us to do more should that be ‘challenge’?) and put about recycling. He said that even his audience into such a passionate though the whole borough had made mood that questions were thrown at progress over recent years, much more him before he had even finished his could be done. New schemes will be introduction. He said that he was the introduced soon and we might not only messenger for a Council that was not have bottle banks and paper containers in denial, but one that fully accepted to fill, but will be able to ease our that things have to change. It was an consciences a bit, by putting our plastic evening where graffiti, chewing gum, into boxes too, for a better use than litter, abandonned trolleys, fly tipping, just landfill. dog pooh and even dropped condoms Regretfully Gary informed us that were to be the main topics. Gary told at present the commercial world us that new enviro-crime enforcement cannot be forced into recycling and that officers had been recruited and Royal valuable resources might be lost if pubs Tunbridge Wells will soon get a cleaner and shops do not participate in such look. schemes. p DB

20 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Recent Meetings - contd

Impressions of Tunbridge Wells by Greg Clark MP Greg Clark, our new MP, has but simply that there should be no spoken to members of the Executive presumption in favour of it, thus Committee on a number of occasions. allowing the decisions to be taken by In February he spoke, and listened, to the local planning authorities. He other members of the Society. explained that he had called for figures He seems a very pleasant young from the ODPM on the percentage of chap, though one feature of his talk ‘brownfield’ development that was was a bit disconcerting. If you closed actually in back gardens, but had been your eyes, who could imagine that it told that these figures were not was Tony Blair talking - the intonation, collected. He was therefore trying, the accent, even the words, were the with supporters in different parts of the same. And then when you opened your country, to put together some statistics eyes, you saw that he has the same on this, which could then lead to a more hand movements as well. meaningful debate. Be that as it may, he made a lot of During the Question and Answer sensible points: about protecting the session that followed, he confirmed quality of life here in Tunbridge Wells, that he was not impressed by local bus by ensuring, for example, that graffiti services. He felt that they should be is tackled immediately; about the much more frequent, better advertised, nonsense of the A21 being little better and that children should not be required than a country lane; about the need to pay full fare - as they currently are for more visible policing. At one point during the morning busy period. he got dangerously close to saying that He said that he was not in favour we needed to be tough on the causes of moves towards regional government of crime. - it was too remote and not democratic; Of course what we wanted to and he would like decisions on, say, the hear was news on his Private positioning of telecommunications Member’s Bill for the Protection of masts to be taken locally. Private Gardens, which should Mr Clark seems to be much more proceed to a Second Reading in May. involved in the life of Tunbridge Wells He emphasised that he wasn’t calling than either of his predecessors. p CJ for an end to back-plot development

21 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 Recent Meetings - contd.

Kent Characters by Chris McCooey Remember when you were at chest of drawers. Infants’ School? That part of the day, Another character was Denys just before going-home time, when you Eyre Bower of Chiddingstone Castle. would all sit cross-legged around the Bower was a bank clerk who built up teacher, and she would read a story? important collections of Egyptian, It was a bit like that listening to Chris Japanese and Jacobean memorabilia McCooey. We weren’t actually sitting during the 1930’s. In 1956 he borrowed cross-legged, some of us probably £6,000 to buy Chiddingstone Castle, couldn’t do that anymore, or if we did, though he had no real money of his we’d never be able to get up again. own. The following year he formed But it was the same feeling of calm, an attachment with a much younger an opportunity to relax at the end of woman calling herself the Countess the day, as Chris spoke quietly, without Grimaldi, though she was actually the notes, but with a frequent twinkle in daughter of a Peckham bus driver. the eye as he made an unexpected When she broke off their engagement point in one of his stories. he threatened to shoot himself, but Some of his characters were well- accidentally shot her instead, and then known to us, like Beau Nash; some tried to kill himself. He was sentenced less so, like Percy Powell-Cotton of to life imprisonment. He was released Quex House near Canterbury. Powell- in 1961 following the efforts of a Cotton was a big-game hunter and his solicitor called Ruth Eldridge. She and collection of stuffed animals is open her sister, Mary, then helped him to to the public today. Not especially restore the castle. politically correct you might think, but Chris is a writer. He lives in these are only part of a much larger Southborough. His first book collection of meticulously documented “Despatches from the Home Front”, animal specimens, which forms a was based on the war diaries of Joan valuable resource to zooligists. Chris Strange, sister of Kathleen, a long-time described the slightly surreal picture member of this Society. of one of these specimens, the He also told us about Dorrit carefully preserved skin of a Giant Waterfield, a GP who worked in Sable, being kept, neatly folded, in a Pembury in the 1920’s and 30’s. She

22 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006 was a keen gardener and, having to the top of her car. In Pembury she attended a local birth, would always was known for her particular care in ask if she could collect the ‘gubbins’ - the treatment of alcoholics. Chris the nutrient-rich placenta was a explained that he felt it a honour to be wonderful fertiliser. During the war able to write about people like Dorrit. she volunteered to work in London, In doing so he is doing a service, not where she would drive around the only to their memory, but to the bomb-sites with a mattress strapped preservation of local history. p CJ ‘Jake’ Jacobs 1918 - 2006 When I was a young graduate I was employed by a major multi-national manufacturing company. As graduates we were supposed to bring fresh new ideas and enquiring minds. I think I must have been a disappointment to them. About six years ago a new member joined the Committee of the Civic Society. He did what I was supposed to have done: he questioned our assumptions; he asked why we did things the way we did; he suggested changes. I’m afraid that, generally speaking, we ignored his suggestions. Nobody likes bright young minds suggesting change, even a bright young mind with a lifetime’s experience behind it. And what an amazing life Jake Jacobs had. He was born and educated in London, passing his finals as an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute in 1939. He served in the Intelligence Corps in the Near and Middle East during the war, and later as a Bimbashi in the Sudan Defence Force in Eritrea and North Africa. After that the life of a City broker held little appeal, and he joined the Colonial Service in East AFrica. He married Patricia, a professional pianist, in Kenya in 1951, and then served for 14 years as a District Commissioner in northern Uganda. That period came to an end when he was asked by Milton Obote to stand as a candidate for the opposition party in the pre-Independence elections. He became an academic instead. He was seconded for four years to Makerere University, and then worked as Visiting Fellow or Professor in a number of venues in Africa and North America. He eventually served for ten years as Director of Studies at the prestigious Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. After that he held various consultancy posts across the world for organisations such as UNICEF, IBRD and WHO. Jake came to Tunbridge Wells in 1997. Even then he refused to slow down. He joined the Friends of Dunorlan and the Civic Society. He collected oral history for the Museum of Empire and Commonwealth. In 2000 he was elected as Guild Master of the Civic Guild of Old Mercers. Jake never stopped being interested - in everything and everybody. We shall miss him. p CJ

23 Civic Society Newsletter Spring 2006

Forthcoming Events

Meetings start at 7.45 on the second Thursday in the month (unless otherwise stated), in either Committee Rooms A and B or the Council Chamber within the Town Hall. Please remember to bring your membership card. Visitors are welcome. Apr 13th An illustrated talk by Gerry Harris: ‘The stained glass windows designed by Chagall at Tudely Church’. (Please note that for health reasons we have had to switch the talks planned for March and April. The talk on Sarah Baker, by Avril Ebbage, took place on March 9th. )

May 11th A talk by Laurence Burnett, PFI Manager for Tunbridge Wells & Maidstone NHS Trust on the progress of the development of the new Pembury Hospital.

May 15th A talk by Carl Openshaw, Chairman of County Cricket (Mon) Club, on the history of cricket in Tunbridge Wells (title to be confirmed). NB Local History Group meeting - all welcome.

June 8th An illustrated talk by Richard Filmer: ‘Traditional Kentish Building Materials’.

July 22nd Annual Garden Party. By kind invitation of the Mayor, Jenny (Sat) Paulson-Ellis, and her husband, Jeremy, at their home in Langton Green. Details in the next Newsletter.

Editor Chris Jones, 52 St James Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN1 2LB Tel 01892 522025 (evenings and weekends) Email [email protected] Membership Secretary Frances Avery, 16 Great Courtlands, Langton Green, Tunbridge Wells TN3 0AH Website www.thecivicsociety.org The views expressed are those of the named author or of the editor and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Society. Published by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society.

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