Sentinel hythe 8 may 2017 in a5

Hythe

Your magazine May 2017

This newsletter is compiled and edited by David Cowell who is totally responsible for content.

If you do not wish to receive these newsletters please email UNSUBSCRIBE to him at david@davidcowell.net

Support your local Farmers' Markets

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31 Farmers Market

Art and Craft Market

Great range of bread, pies, biscuits, fruit & veg, meat, eggs, cheese and charcuterie, fish, cakes and quiches, preserves and chutneys and confectionery (stall holders may vary between markets).

REAL F

D. REAL CL

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Shop Local. www.sandgatebusiness.org.uk

Sandgate Library is open Monday to Saturday 9:30am - 1:00pm (closed Wednesday) For more information call 01303 248563 (mornings only) Sandgate Library, James Morris Court, Sandgate High St. CT20 3RR

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r ou y r fo y e r t da dia

July 21 - July 23 CT21 5AS Hythe

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W. MARTIN LTD. PET & GARDEN SUPPLIES 73 Cheriton High St.Folkestone.CT19 4HE PET FOODS & ACCESSORIES HUTCHES & RUNS ALL GARDEN REQUIREMENTS Large range of wild bird foods Seeds, bulbs, compost & fertilizers Vegetable & flower plants Concrete ornaments For a great pet and garden shop near you give us a call today on: 01303 275 223 or email wmartin4@btconnect.com

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In a village church

D’Arcy Trinkwon The celebrated international concert organist St Mary’s Church, Elham Friday 12 May

7.30pm

TICKETS £12 including a glass of wine & canapés Available at the door or in advance from Pat 07792 479973 or Tony 07752 1421067

“The supremely gifted organ virtuoso D’Arcy Trinkwon.

His subtle yet magisterial command of the instrument was spell-binding” THE ORGAN

“for anyone needing to be converted to organ music”

“one of the truly great artists of his genre”

THE MUSICAL TIMES

MÜNICH MERKUR

The distinguished musician D’Arcy Trinkwon began his musical career as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral under Allan Wicks. Alongside his concert career, he is the Organist of Worth Abbey and Organist to the University of Sussex.

Find out more at darcytrinkwon.com

elhamchurches.com 6

I am delighted to inform you that three electronic editions of The Sentinel are now published.

We now produce a Sandgate, Hythe and a Newington version each month.

If you would like to receive a copy of any please email me at: david@davidcowell.net and put the name of the version you require ie The Sentinel Hythe or The Sentinel Sandgate/ Hythe etc in the subject line.

Hythe Farmers’ Market takes place on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month from 10am until 1pm.

In the Methodist Church Hall, Chapel Street, Hythe,

No job too small

Parking is available nearby.

For more information call

Please call to discuss your needs

(01303) 266118 or 268715

To advertise in three The Sentinels with circa 3580 targetted readers and growing please email me at: david@davidcowell.net for a rate card.

Thank you.

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Hythe Environmental Community Group

Bring your surplus seeds & plants to the Town Hall.

Swap for something else and take that away.

Saturday 29th April

10 am – 12 noon Town Hall UndercroC, High Street, Hythe

For more info: Hythe Environmental Community Group hytheecg@yahoo.com # 07 808 402 477

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Ticket prices [Friends] Saturday 10 June 7.30pm £21 & £15 Saturday 22 April Primavera Chamber Ensemble 7.30pm £12 [£10] Mozart – Flute Quartet in C, K285b ‘Fiddle and Faff’: Haydn – Symphony No 101 in D Christine Adams ‘Clock’ arr. Salomon Brahms – Piano & Lissie Bayford. Quintet in F minor, Op 35 Traditional and own songs with accompaniments on violin, double bass, accordion and nyckelharpa Saturday 29 April 7.30pm £12 [£10]

Thursday 22 June 12 noon [L] £7 [£6] Just2 Harp Duo: Karina & Adel Wilson Internationally acclaimed awardwinning harp duo, play variety of music to include traditional, classical, Scottish, contemporary and jazz

Saturday 24 June 5.00pm £7 [£6] Verano Quintet: Ben Uden, Richard Williams, Phillip Scott Moore, Guilmant – March on a theme of Handel Adam Young (guitarists) & Stanford – Sonata No 2, Op 151 Emmanuel Webb (violin) AwardDuruflé – Prélude et Fugue sue le nom winning local young musicians d’Alain, Op 7 perform exciting repertoire from Widor – Symphonie VI, Op 42 No 1 Thursday 11 May 12 noon [L] £7 [£6] South America, Spain and elsewhere Robert Drury ‘Guitarra Romantica’ Light lunches available in church after Daniel Cook (Sub-Organist Westminster Abbey)

lunchtime concerts indicated by [L].

Prices (unless otherwise stated): Evening and afternoon concerts £12; lunchtime concerts £7.

Discounted prices for Friends of St Leonard’s Church: Evening and afternoon concerts £10; lunchtime concerts £6.

Tickets available from Brandon’s Music Shop, 55 High Street, Hythe

CT21 5AD (01303 264429) and at church door prior to each concert.

Tickets for some concerts may be bought on-line at http:// www.friendsofstleonardshythe.org.uk/ Programme.html.

Free admission to those under 18 in fulltime education.

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You can always tell when the summer starts lurking on the horizon because the boats suddenly appear on the Hythe Canal although Allen Upward, the guy who manages the operation in partnership with Shepway District Council, tells me it is anything but magic following a winter of refurbishment. Tell everyone, friends, work colleagures and family, what a great facility this is and details can be found at: www.electricboathythe.co.uk.

KEVIN Plastering & Building Services Painting & Decorating Wall & Floor Tiling All aspects of building work undertaken Kevin 07948045255 Free Estimates

Fully 10

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The Historic Houses Association (HHA) represents over 1,640 of the UK's privately and charitably owned historic houses, castles and gardens. These are listed buildings or designated gardens, usually Grade I or II*, and are often outstanding. Many are considered to be iconic symbols of Britain's unique heritage.

Around 500 of these properties open their doors to visitors for days out, special tours, school visits, film locations, weddings and events, or as memorable places to stay. 24 million people a year visit HHA Member properties and there are over 45,000 Friends of the HHA. Members range from iconic stately homes such as Blenheim Palace, Highclere Castle, Castle Howard, Knebworth House, Longleat and Burghley House, to more intimate houses such as Traquair in Scotland, Treowen in Wales and Belle Isle in Northern Ireland. Most are still private family homes.

The Association was established in 1973 to help owners conserve these wonderful places in the interests of the nation and carries out important lobbying, advisory and marketing work on behalf of Member properties.

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ÂŁ11.00

Concessions available at most performances

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www.aridzonaawnings.co.uk For the finest German engineered awnings and glass rooms Installed by a Kent based family company.

Call Sam Ruddle for a free survey on 0330 6600949

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Š Sue Cowell

This was our fruit and veg box from Ushers this week, tailored just for us - wonderful.

If you have any photographs of the area either current or past do send them to me by email and I will feature them in future editions.

Paul worked at Crundens and since its closure has provided this excellent service.

If you just have prints do drop them round to Clyme House (see back page) and I will scan.

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I am researching the history of Tynwald House in Hillside Street Hythe and would be most grateful if you could pass on anything you may know about the property. It is now a residential home for the elderly but has been a private dwelling in the past with owners such as Admiral Hall-Thomson and Charles Dynely Twopeny who was Mayor of Hythe between 1919-1922.

Thank you. david@davidcowell.net

If you have any photographs of the area either current or past do send them to me by email and I will feature them in future editions.

If you just have prints do drop them round to Clyme House (see back page) and I will scan and return them.

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Military Hythe - a haven

by David Cowell Its strategic position on the coast facing the narrowest stretch of water to the European mainland has always made Hythe a significant defence location. Prior to 43AD, the land to the south of the River Thames was under the control of the Atrebates tribe who were pro Roman and supplied their legions in Gaul (France) with iron. Under instructions from the Emperor Claudius and the command of Aulus Platius, the Romans conquered this country and built the port of Portus Lemanis that nestled at the foot of Lympne Hill, thus establishing the areas strategic importance and its military significance. Aulus Plavius became the first governor of Roman Britain. lt is hard to imagine but this area running westward had a very different vista to what we see today and W. S. Miller wrote of a huge impenetrable forest that stretched from the sea right up to Porchester, from east to west 120 miles or more. It was 30 miles wide and the River Limene flowed out of it. Close to Portus Lemanis was the small fishing village of Hudanflent - a haven by the estuary - which would later be contracted to Hede, Hethe, Hyta or Hythe; a haven or landing place.

As soil poured down from the high ground via the many springs and streams that flowed into the Limene, the harbour started silting at a rate of seven feet each year and, although it was in existence for centuries, slowly the coastline receded and, in the Saxon period, Hythe became a harbour. ln the 3rd century the Romans constructed a series of sea forts along the coast and one was called Stutfall Castle and remains can be seen to this day some showing clear indications that it was indeed sited on a harbour.

Remains of Stutfall castle at the foot of Lympne Hill

The Romans were credited with building the Rhee Wall that runs from Romney to

Appledore and which started the process of reclamation and the formation of the Romney Marsh although some historians challenge this. This south east coast is probably the most history rich area of Britain and all the aforementioned groups landed here giving it the nickname of the invasion shore. The origins of the Cinque Ports and Two Ancient Towns are 19

unknown but consist of Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, Sandwich, Winchelsea and Rye and it is believed they were established by Edward the Confessor in the early 11th century before the Norman Conquest, Hythe being the central port. They were created to protect the south east coast line and provide war ships to the sovereign and Hythe’s contribution, based on wealth, was five ships, 105 men and 5 boys. In her book The Cinque Ports and 14th century map of the Marshes (blue text and lines Romney Marsh, Margaret added by the author of this article) Brentnall says "In the past centuries the people of the Port and the Marsh had two characteristics in common - their spirit of independence and lawlessness" "this", she continued, "led to the portsmen's taste for piracy and the marshman's enthusiasm for smuggling".

By the 4th century the Roman withdrawal from Britain had started and following their departure the island was attacked by Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Fisians.

The Hythe port did not suffer the intensity of raids by the French experienced by other south coast towns but according to Edward Hasted in his The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (1778–99), a French fleet approached Hythe in 1293 and landed 200 men, but "the townsmen came upon them and slew every one of them: upon which the rest of the fleet hoisted sail and made no further attempt".

View of Hythe ca. 1830, showing the military canal and four Martello towers near the shoreline.

Source: Ireland's History of Kent.

This stretch of coast seemed to have fared better than most in seeing off potential attacks but it was in the late 18th century that the Napoleonic threat reached its pinnacle and it was in reaction to this that the Martello 20

Towers and Hythe Canal were built and the barracks to provide a permanent military presence.

In the first year of the 19th century, Lord Horatio Nelson visited Hythe to personally supervise the defence requirements needed to repel a French attack and from that time onwards this coast assumed a war like appearance. The troops of the Royal Staff Corp were instructed to build the canal and it was described: Contiguous to the western extremity of Hythe is a handsome range of brick edifices erected by the government for the reception of the Royal Staff Corps permanently stationed there, and …..called the Staff Barracks. Besides the officers’ apartments there are accommodations for about 300 men, and various comfortable rooms for married soldiers. Near the spot is also a pleasant and commodious house occupied by the Quarter Master General and the Commandant of this respectable Corps, the whole opening towards the south west, being backed by the heights of Saltwood.

A temporary barracks, known locally as the Wagon Train was sited in the area between the Duke’s Head and where the Scanlon Bridge is now.

These housed the drivers of the horse drawn wagons used on the canal construction. What is now the Hope Inn was their canteen and a number of buildings in that area were used for military purposes.

Completed in four years in 1808, the canal was created by the use of pick and shovel only. Stretching for a distance of 22 miles from Seabrook to Appledore the canal was designed not only to provide an obstacle to invaders but also allow the lateral movement of troops by barge.

The journalist, farmer and politician, William Cobbett, cynically said of the canal in his work Rural Rides “Here is a canal……to keep out the French; for, those armies who had so often crossed the Rhine and the Danube, were to be kept back by a canal, made by Pitt, thirty feet wide at the most!”

In the same publication, Cobbett was equally scathing of the Martello Towers that were built at the same time saying ”I had baited my horse at New Romney, and was coming jogging along very soberly, now looking at the sea, then looking at the cattle, then the corn, when, my eye, in swinging round, lighted upon a great round building, standing upon the beach. I had scarcely had time to think about what it could be, when twenty or thirty others, standing along the coast, caught my eye; and, if any one had been behind me, he might have heard me exclaim, in a voice that made my horse bound, the Martello Towers by ---------! Oh, Lord! To think that I 21

should be destined to behold these monuments of the wisdom of Pitt and Dundas and Perceval! Good God! Here they are, piles of bricks in a circular form, about three hundred feet (guess) circumference at the base, about forty feet high, and about one hundred and fifty feet circumference at the top. There is a door-way, about midway up, in each, and each has two windows. Cannons were to be fired from the top of these things, in order to defend the country against the French Jacobins!

I think I have counted along here upwards of thirty of these ridiculous things, which, I dare say, cost five, perhaps ten, thousand pounds each; and one of which was, I am told, sold on the coast of Sussex, the other day, for two hundred pounds! There is, they say, a chain of these things all the way to Hastings. I dare say they cost millions. “ The tower’s and canal’s military significance ended in 1815 after Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium and the latter, with an annual maintenance cost of £2000, was considered by some a ditch and permanent liability to the War Office.

The army’s general issue weapon was a smooth bore flintlock musket called a Brown Bessie, which had a questionable trajectory, and it took time to load the ball into the barrel. However improvements in design and manufacturing saw the introduction of the bullet in the mid 19th century.

This meant that the Infantry regiments could be issued with rifles such as the Enfield but training in their use was essential so the School of Musketry was formed by Viscount Hardinge, Commander in Chief of the British in 1863 and based in Hythe and consisted of a Commandant at £200, a Captain at £100 and a Subaltern at £80 per annum, together with three Staff Sergeants at 1 shilling per day in addition to their regimental pay.

The School of Musketry

Sergeant-Major Instructors with students 1860 22

It is said that the first Commandant, Colonel G. C. Hay, used to fire from Hythe churchyard at a target a mile away on the beach; it is uncertain as to the accuracy of his aim. Another of his party pieces was to snap shoot from the hip at 100 yards, always, apparently, scoring within three foot of the bull.

The Staff Corps left the town in 1815 and were replaced by the 29th Foot, 11th and 6th Regiments and one or two companies of the Rifle Brigade and detachments of the 50th and 30th Regiments. In 1919 it became the Small Arms School.

The School was so successful that others were opened around the country and in our overseas colonies based on the Hythe model and it continued to operate extending its weaponry to include machine guns until 1968 thus bringing to an end the towns military associations although annual memorial services continue to remind us of the important role played by Hythe in the defence of the realm.

This article first appeared in the second edition of Hythe Life

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If you have any comments to make about this publication please do email me. I would be very interested in the things you like and the things you don't like and the things you'd like to see included.

Thank you.

If you would like to submit an article or letter please email it to me.

I will print almost anything as long as it’s not libellous, racist or unkind.

Name must be supplied but can be withheld if requested.

Please put your articles etc in plain text or Word and images should be in .jpg, .tiff or .png.

My contact details are: Address: Clyme House, Hillside Street, Hythe, Kent CT21 5DJ Mobile: 07771 796 446 Landline: 020 3239 5828 (via Skype) email: david@davidcowell.net