Issue 17, Spring 2020 Some of the local history books follow- ing covering, labelling and barcoding. Catalogue Transfer Project Update on phase 2 progress Kent Archives and Local History service staff [left-right] Soniya, Pippa, Anne and John, hard at work in the Archive searchroom covering local history books. As advertised in the Winter 2019 edition of the Archives@Kent newsletter, Kent Archives closed to the public for two weeks from 9-26 December 2019 so that we could make further progress with the second phase of our catalogue transfer project. In order to prepare our archive and local history collections for our online document ordering system, we need to ensure that our collections are as accessible as possible. For the archivists, this meant checking the structure of our existing electronic catalogues to identify any errors that would prevent them from displaying correctly online and render them unorderable. Over the two weeks we were able to check and correct over 1500 catalogues. This left us with a further 1345 catalogues left to check, although we have already managed to reduce this to less than 1100. Meanwhile, the rest of the team concentrated upon preparing the rare book collection. Our initial target was to cover, barcode, label and locate 1350 rare books. In fact, during the two weeks we covered and barcoded an additional 1500 local history books, repackaged and barcoded 700 pamphlets and located a further 1100 rare books. We still have a lot more work to do to prepare the local history collection for online ordering, namely barcoding and locating 404 oversize rare books, approximately 55 more boxes of pamphlets, 29 more bays of the main local history collection and 24 more bays of the oversize main book collection. When this work is achieved, it will open up our fascinating local history collection to many more users. Newly Catalogued Collections at Kent Archives Search these and other records using our online catalogue Hamilton House School, Tunbridge Wells, and West Farleigh Cricket and Football Teams, 1929-2000 [U4133] Hamilton House Girls' School was founded in 1860 in Tunbridge Wells and had closed by 1971. In 1936, the School moved to Speldhurst. This collection consists of copies of the school magazine, ‘The Hamiltoni- an’, covering the periods 1929-1938 and 1965-1968; a school reunion brochure from 2001; postcards de- picting the pupils performing Shakespeare plays; and two full school photographs from 1930 and 1934. The school magazine offers an insight into school life, recording news from Old Girls of the school, including births, marriages and deaths; school events and prize-giving; the results of examinations and games; and accounts of school trips from a period when this entailed visiting the South Eastern Gas Board or local elec- tricity showroom in Tunbridge Wells! A trip to the South Eastern Gas Board recorded in the 1967/8 edition of The Hamiltonian school magazine [U4133/1/1/29]. Also donated with the collection were photographs of West Farleigh Cricket XI, 1936-2000, and West Far- leigh Football XI, 1935-1936. Kent Small Schools Association, 1987-2004 [U4165] Kent Small Schools Association was formed in 1986 to support those schools in the county that had less than 100 pupils (later 150 pupils). The Association initially ran twice-yearly conferences in the autumn and summer terms which covered staff training needs and teaching techniques, whilst providing invaluable net- working opportunities. The frequency of the conference was later amended to once a year as attendance reduced due to the pressures faced in sustaining small schools. The Association also maintained close links with counterpart Associations in other counties, including Devon, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Derby- shire. This collection contains AGM minutes and committee minutes; annual conference programmes; survey re- ports; and newsletters. The Association was wound up circa 2005 but unfortunately no minutes survive to record this decision. Additional Charing and Local History Society Collec- tions: Title deeds for 30 High Street, Charing, 1715-1834, and visitors’ book for The Swan Hotel, Charing, 1880- 1919 [U3648 addn.] These documents supplement the existing Charing and District Local History Society Collections and include title deeds relating to 30 High Street, Charing with accompanying transcripts, and letters and wills relating to members of the Hutton and Barwick families and other Charing residents. Also included is a visitors’ book from the Swan Ho- tel, Charing, covering the period 1880-1919. It includes entries from various bicycle clubs that visited the Hotel, often with the crest of their club drawn next to the entry, as well as many doodles added by travel- One of the illustrations contained in the lers. Visitors’ Book of the Swan Hotel, Charing [U3648/Z57]. Reminiscences inspired by the visitors’ book for The Swan Hotel, Charing, 1880-1919 [U3648/Z57] Helen Wicker, Archive Service Officer Archive collections contain significant social and cultural records that can be evocative of both personal and collective memory. The newly-catalogued visitors’ book from the Swan Hotel, Charing, represents just such an item. In this article, retired fourth-generation auctioneer and surveyor, Michael Peters, tells us about how entries in the visitors’ book relating to his paternal grandfather, Hedley Peters, recalled family memories. As a keen local historian involved in the production of books on Sittingbourne’s High Street and East Street, he al- so demonstrates how these entries elucidate the networks that underpinned the town’s business and social communities. Michael Peters’ memories: 25 August 1882 P. H. Bishop and H. Peters, Gore Court B. C. and B. T. C. – en route from Coventry to Margate – stopped for breakfast which was thoro’ly en- joyed after run from Maidstone. Sept. 27 1882 The five undersigned Members of the Gore Court B. C. enjoyed a jolly tea after a heavy run on the Faversham and Canterbury Roads – H. P. carved bread in his usual style. G. G. Crapnell – Captain P. H. Bishop – Hon. Sec. Hedley Peters Frank Peters F. G. Parrett My paternal grandfather, Hedley Peters, is first mentioned in the two entries above written in 1882. The Clubs are the Gore Court Bicycle Club of Sittingbourne and the Bicycle Touring Club. My grandfather was a keen cyclist. He owned a penny-farthing, which, on one occa- sion, he rode all the way up Boughton Hill – non-stop! We have a photograph of him standing proudly beside the bike. Later on, he was noted as being the first cyclist in Sittingbourne to have pneumatic tyres. It is amazing that my grandfather and Phil Bishop were cycling from Coventry to Margate, stopping for breakfast at Charing ‘after run from Maidstone’; that must have been quite a journey. The comment in the second entry on 27th September 1882 – ‘HP carved bread in his usu- al style’ – intrigues me. I wonder what ‘his usual style’ was?! Phil Bishop, as Honorary Secretary of the Gore Court club, wrote both entries in 1882, which is confirmed by comparison with his sig- nature. He was employed by Sittingbourne's registrar. The two fami- lies were very pally; in later years, he was my grandfather's Lieuten- ant in Sittingbourne Fire Brigade. I can identify almost all of the other signatories in the entry. Frank Peters was my grandfather's younger brother; they worked together in the firm founded by their father John Peters, auctioneer and house furnisher. Fred Parrett was editor of the Isle of Thanet Gazette from 1909. As the local recruiting officer for the Buffs, it might have been Hedley Peters with his penny-farthing and ca- he who recruited my father in 1914. I regret that I cannot identify the nine friend [private collection of Michael Peters]. 1882 captain of the Club, Mr Crapnell, but there was a lady of that sur- name living in Sittingbourne in 1908. Reminiscences inspired by the visitors’ book for The Swan Hotel, Charing, 1880-1919 [U3648/Z57] 7th May 1915 After many weary years, we were reminded of our youthful escapades [?!!] See Page – 1882 &c. &c. but came again to see ‘The Swan’ and enjoyed a cup of the beverage which cheers. (? loud cheers) Eggs ad lib: Grandma had 3!! [A thing of the past] Annie E. Easton Hilda M. I. Ind Hedley Peters Lizzie M. Peters The handwriting of this later entry tells me that it was made by my grandfather. Hedley and Lizzie were my father's parents. In 1915 they would have celebrated the 25th anniversary of their marriage. My grand- mother’s father was Henry Packham, one of the founders of Wills and Packham bargebuilder and brickmak- ers. Annie E. Easton would have been intrigued to visit the Swan at Charing. In 1881, she and her husband Dan had moved from Ashford to Sittingbourne, where Dan established himself in business. Dan's business thrived. His son, Montague, bought John Peters's business from my great-uncle Frank; evidently the fami- lies had been friendly for many years. Noting the jocular reference to ‘Grandma’ I can confirm that, by 1915, Annie Easton's son Monty had produced at least one of his two sons, both of whom went into the family busi- ness. Hilda M. I. Ind was Monty Easton's sister (and Annie's daughter). She had married Dr Charles Ind. In 1915, in the middle of World War I, I note the ‘ad lib’ that Annie Easton had devoured three eggs, and the subsequent pencil comment ‘a thing of the past’. Rationing was introduced from 1918 to counter increasingly severe food shortages in Britain. The Swan Hotel in Charing High Street that my grandparents visited is no longer in situ. However, evidence that the village was a cyclists’ stopping-point remains.