Rainham Kent Photos & Information
In a recent issue of Action Forum, there was a query about The Lord Stanley Pub. I have received a number of calls about this and the information received is summarised below.
Bob Barnes' grandfather took over the Lord Stanley in 1913. It was initially a pub and general store, similar to an off licence today. It was located at the bottom of Windmill Hill opposite Otterham Quay caravan site where a new bungalow now stands.
It was converted to a private residence but burnt down around 1980.
A picture of the pub can be found in the Meresborough Books publication, "Photos of Old Rainham", 1983 and also in "Gillingham, Then and Now" by John Guy, 1981,available from Rainham Bookshop.
HOW WAS BERENGRAVE LANE SO NAMED?
By Freddie Cooper, December 2001
I am fortunate in having some of the notes of the late Mr W.J. Smith, and Mr Stuart L. Jelley who both wrote about the history of Rainham. The former will be remembered by older residents as Headteacher of the Council School in Solomon Road who then took over the new Senior Boys’ School in Orchard Street when it opened in 1933. The latter was a proprietor of a large outfitters shop on the corner of Pudding Road, now the restaurant, whose father Edwin Jelley with Marshall Harvey developed that area of Rainham Mark which bears their names. [note the original article by Freddie refers to Edwin Jelley but the shop photo shows it spelt as Jelly)
In one of Mr Smith’s writings he explained the origin of various place names including Berengrave which he said took its name from the ‘Berens’ family who were well known in Kent. I had no reason to doubt its accuracy until I recently examined a map dated 1801. This was fairly small scale and the roads were not named but the one which continued to the river directly opposite to the one leading to Bredhurst and Wigmore showed a ‘Burying Grave’ about a quarter of the way down the lane and the words spanned both sides of the road. I emphasise that this was small scale but the wording is just south of a ‘link’ to a road which I take to Bloors Lane and presume to be the present pathway.
The rather unusual description may or may not have significance because Roman burial grounds are marked on later maps as ‘Roman Cemeteries’ as is the one just east of the road to Motney Hill where many valuable articles were found, some of which are said to be in Eastgate Museum, Rochester. This was distinctly separate from the seven Roman burial urns found on the Saltings to the north of Rainham Creek between Bartlett Creek and Nor Marsh in January 1881 which contained human remains.
On the other hand, the Manor of Queencourt comprised some 485 acres of arable, pasture and marsh land, much of which was either side of Berengrave Lane, with a water mill beside Rainham Creek ‘at the end of a little lane to the east of Bloor’s Place’, probably now Motney Hill Road. There were about 36 acres in Upchurch and Lower Halstow. With the exception of ‘Berengrave House’ and 30 acres the rest of the property was sold by Mr ‘Squire’ Walter and his sisters to various purchasers in 1900. Berengrave Lane was known to many older residents as Walter’s Lane, and the Squire owned various other properties in Rainham, including The Parsonage. Going back into history the Manor was given by Queen Alianore (sometimes Eleanor) wife of Henry III to the Master and Brethren of St Katharine’s Hospital in 1273. This was to re-establish a charity to support six poor bachelors and six poor spinsters. I do not know if the institution still exists but last century its title was The Royal Hospital and Collegiate Church of St Catherine providing schools for boys and girls, a guild for past scholars, and a chapter consisting of a master, three brothers and three sisters. The Queen’s nurses had a house and offices there.
I’ve strayed somewhat from the origin of the name of ‘Berengrave’ but I have tried to show that this was a very important area somewhat independent of the village, although only four houses are shown as built in the lane up to 1901, a lot of workers must have been employed. The population of Rainham in 1801 was 722. On the other hand I did wonder if a ‘Burying Grave’ might have been placed remote from the village when residents were afraid of infection during the Plague. This seems unlikely in such close proximity to the Manor House but perhaps others may cast light on the subject. So many place names have been corrupted over the years that I can quite easily see how ‘Burying Grave Lane’ became ‘Berengrave’ but I’m afraid that readers must decide!
The present Berengrave Lane is very different from that which I frequented as a young boy in the early 1920s. It was then a very eerie road at night with no pavements, the wind howling through high overgrowing trees and only three single mantle gas lamps from the top down to the railway line. If you reached Berengrave House you’d hear footsteps on crackling brittle dead holly leaves and then suddenly the old donkey would start braying which made an already nervous youngster take off. There was also the popular legend about the headless horseman who galloped down the lane at midnight. If I had known that there was also a Burying Grave lower down I’d have been petrified!
P.S. I have been reminded that some older readers consider that the main house in the Lane should be spelt Berengrove and not Berengrave, so I consulted Mr Peter Sargent at the Map Shop who, having checked with the Ordnance Survey Agency, found that the five maps issued between 1878 and 1933 showed the residence spelt with an ‘a’ but those issued in 1938 and 1959 (just before it was demolished) had an ‘o’. The current map shows the Council ‘plant area’ off Bloor’s Lane as Berengrove Nursery. Cozenton Farm, which was next door to Berengrove? House, was described as Corzenton on the Deeds in 1888 whereas the map of 1891 shows it as Cozenton. There is an area at the bottom of Blue Bell Hill called Cossington which probably had the same origin.
Many roads and place names have been changed over the years, even the village itself has apparently been Rygingaham, Raegingaham, Raenham, Raynham, Reinham, and Renham before getting to Rainham.
Freddie Cooper
COUNCIL ACQUIRES EAST HOATH WOOD
by Freddie Cooper
A recent newspaper report indicated that 25 acres of East Hoath Wood is to be ‘transferred’ to Medway Council on April 1st 2003. Although the area has been available for use by residents for as long as I can remember, the report indicates that safety work and fencing etc costing in the region of £60,000 is necessary before the woods can be used for recreational purposes.
It is said that the woodland, mainly sweet chestnut and oak, supplied wood for shipbuilding as far back as Nelson’s time and although I cannot confirm that, it is obvious that this area, together with much of the land in the vicinity, was owned by the War Department a century ago. East Hoath Wood is bounded on one side by Hoath Lane, and to the east by the gardens in Edwin Road. The path, leading from Durham Road which comes out opposite the stile giving access to the Darland Banks, has become a very popular walk over the years. I don’t remember these woods containing very large trees like those in the Parkwood area, where there were some magnificent oaks and beeches, but then my woodland roaming ended 70 years ago. I imagine that Hoath Wood, like most others, was regularly coppiced because chestnut was so useful and profitable as a crop for the purpose of chestnut fencing, which was later superseded by plastic covered chain-link wire. I remember three wood yards in the Rainham area alone; there was Stan Huggins in Wakeley Road, Alf Warner in Maidstone Road and then Glovers in the Wigmore/Maidstone Road area, and until very recently Woods in Bredhurst. I must check to see if ‘Woodreeve Cottage’ is still in the loop section of Mierscourt Road.
The boundary between the Milton Rural District Council’s area and Gillingham ran south from the A2 along the line of the rear garden fences on the western side of Edwin Road and it then formed the ancient boundary between East Iloath Wood and Mark Oak Wood. This was the parliamentary boundary when Rainham was part of the Faversham Division and Adam Maitland was our MP. Rainham’s Parish Council administered the area from the river to Bredhurst. This boundary line at Rainham Mark turned sharply westward for about 200 yards from near the Hop and Vine public house and then turned northward to the river, running roughly parallel with Twydall Lane. I believe that this was the boundary which divided ‘Men of Kent’ from ‘Kentish Men’, for Edward Hasted, in his description of Rainhani in 1798, says ‘the whole of this parish is in the division of East Kent which begins here and the adjoining parish of Gillingham westward is wholly in that of West Kent’. It has always been my view that this is the origin of ‘Men of Kent’ and ‘Kentish Men although it was necessary to identify it more e~ the River Medway was chosen as the boundary 1908 map clearly shows that the land immediately to the east of Hoath Lane back to the boundary II cleared, presumably by the War Department, to the point roughly where the present factories c and much of the remaining area including Edwin Road, Marshall Road and all of the area to the was woodland. An area of Platters Farm, which reached by the track immediately opposite the Pump Lane on the A2, had been cleared and was used as orchard land.
I presume that East Hoath Wood was purch the Health Authority soon after its creation in when it was obvious that the area would need district hospital. Nothing happened for many but in the earlyl96Os some of us in local gove realised that St Bart’s and All Saints’ hospitaL totally incapable of serving the area in a satisf manner, so we pressed for the use of the Roya hospital which had then been recently vacated now known as the Medway Maritime hospital following the recent extensions is apparently considered to be adequate as the permanent di hospital, so the site at East Hoatb Wood is sw requirements. Some time ago the Regional Hc Authority applied for permission to develop tl for housing, but planning permission was reft presume that they have now decided to union area which has become a liability and probabl inadequate for a district hospital anyway.
I notice on reference to the plan that the wood type area between Hempstead Hill and Hoath was at the early part of the last century called Scrubs’, which is new to me. This area too, the best of my knowledge, is also owned by the Healt Authority as it was the site of the Alexandra 1 for infectious diseases, which although littlei quite a history. Infectious diseases were very prevalent in the early part of the l900s and in small isolation hospital was built on the site occupied by the Municipal Buildings in Cant Street, Gillingham. Smallpox was one of those diseases which many people feared and most were vaccinated on the arm and we bear marks to this day, because the small vaccination has grown until some are now about two inches across. However, in 1901 a man named Mallen was visiting the area and contracted smallpox which caused consternation because they did not wish to keep him at the newly created isolation hospital in Gillingham and sent him out to a caravan and tents in the Hempstead area where the population was still sparse. Unfortunately, Mallen and several others died from the particular outbreak, and it became apparent that a more permanent isolation hospital was necessary for Gillinghan,. Scarlet fever and diphtheria were vety common at the time and Rainham patients needing hospitalisation were sent to Keycol hospital as we were still part of the Milton Rural District Council’s area. The triangular piece of land between Hoath Lane and Hempstead Hill which comes to a point near the roundabout was owned by Mr R. Batchelor, the artesian well engineer who lived at Darland House, and he donated the land to the Gillingharn Local Board (the predecessors of the Council) on the condition that it was used for health pusposes and the isolation hospital was named Alexandra. 1 presume that the covenant has restricted its use, which is possibly why it has remained unoccupied and to some extent derelict, with a supporting wall down Ilempstead Hill which may become a liability for its maintenance. The hospital was erected on the northern side of the road which went from Hoath Lane down to the bottom of Hempstead Hill a long time before the tunnel was built. This was a prefabricated metal hospital (corrugated iron) purchased from Humphries Isolation Hospitals at Knightsbridge. It was opened in 1902 and closed in 1940 when it was prepared for emergency use during the war, but I understand was never used. Greens of Brompton demolished the hospital in the 1970s and the land seems to have been unattended since. It may be that the welcome donation by Mr Batchelor 100 years ago is now a liability to the Regional Health Authority
Freddie Cooper
WATTS THE CHEMIST , Rainham Kent
Action Forum, July 2002
Among the archives of Watts the Rainham Chemist, whose name can still be read above the boarded-up shop in Rainham High Street, are several books dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Two contain the notes made by different members of the family as they studied for their pharmacy qualifications. These books both begin with lectures on botany and elementary chemistry, the first page in one case being headed ‘Special Short Notes on Pharmacy. Minor Lecture No. 1’. The lectures, ending with No. 59, are recorded in a soft-back school notebook, but the student’s attention was not always wholly engaged. Beneath the page entitled ‘Lecture 7’, on practical dispensing, is written ‘A lecture far too long, of facts (too) well-known to write’. And inside the back cover the owner has practised the signature ‘R. Watts’ many times. A second, hardback, notebook which is un-named has similar notes on the sante course of lectures, dated 1885, and also includes ‘Practical Notes on Photography’.
Robert Watts was the nephew of Henry Watts, a widower, who had been in business as Chemist and Druggist in Chatham High Street from the mid-nineteenth century. In 1881 Henry had two apprentices, Robert, aged 17, and Frank Dixon, who was 16. Robert stayed with his uncle at the shop near the bottom of Hamond Hill for at least ten years. but by 1899 he had taken over the premises of George Andrew, Chemist and Druggist. They were at No. 126 High Street, Rainham, next to the ‘Waterman’s Arms’, and opposite Ivy Street. For many years a gas lamp standard, with ‘Watts Chemist’ painted on the glass enclosing the light, stood outside. During the early part of the twentieth century Watts also acted as an insurance agent. The heading of a partly-used duplicate book makes it clear that he was now fully qualified: ‘Robert Watts, Dispensing Chemist (by examination)’.
Of more general interest are two volumes in which have been collected recipes for the wide variety of products sold by a Victorian chemist — not just medicines, but ink, fly glue, hair pomades and tonics, ginger beer and lemonade, label varnish, curry powder, Nubian blacking and lavender water. Many of these have been cut from papers and stuck in, others are hand-written. Some have been crossed through, perhaps because a more effective ‘chilblain specific’ or ‘remedy for warts’ has emerged. Medicines for sick dogs, sheep, cows and horses play a significant part. The earliest note dates from 1842, but other hands have continued the collection beyond 1880.
Photo of Watts the Chemist shop in 2001 (centre of the shot with red WATTS on green sign)
This ‘Cure for the Ague’ is never known to fail if taken regularly:
Powder bark
Ground black pepper
Salt
Tartar
Snake root powder
Poppy syrup
Treacle sufficient to form an electualy.
This was to be taken every four hours ‘when the fit is oft’. The compiler remarks that for ‘wealdy wemen and children’ the snake root should be omitted. Also preserved is a counter prescription book, which opens in August 1900, from the Rainham shop At the front is an index of account customers, with details of the medicines which were frequently required by them. Then begins the record of what was dispensed each day, occasionally with marginal notes — ‘heart shaky’; ‘tuberculous glands’; ‘slight sunstroke’. By 1912 prices are sometimes added: 1/-was standard. After this date the book has been used only intermittently; in 1919, in 1922 for a while, then in 1936. About ten prescriptions were dispensed daily, each transaction carefully numbered.
After the 1950s fewer and fewer medicines were mixed on the premises, and the prescriptions read ‘tabs’ of branded products, such as ‘Dequadin loz(enges)’. From 1960 the inclusion of the name of the doctor becomes more frequent, and when the record ends in the early seventies, by which time perhaps 50% of all prescriptions are for ‘the pill’, it is always noted.
According to a street directory of 1954/5 there were by then two other Chemists in Rainham, Fenwick’s at 31 London Road and Hickmott’s at 85 London Road, while Watts remained at the original site. The section of the A2 known as London Road at that time extended as far as ‘The Cricketers’. Watts the Chemist finally closed about twenty years ago, as the trading centre of Rainham moved west and other pharmacies, closer to doctors’ surgeries, flourished.
RAD
THE CHANGING FACE OF RAINHAM
By Freddie Cooper, Action Forum November 2002
It was encouraging to see so many residents at Joe Ennis’s slide show depicting ‘Old Rainham’ and I was pleased to answer questions afterwards. I wonder if the obvious new interest in the history of our locality is being adequately catered for by present organisations. Many properties have been lost in the High Street and many more are likely to be fundamentally changed or demolished as residential development replaces business premises so I checked with the directory to compare the area depicted in most of the slides around the turn of last century.
The population of Rainham in 1901 was 3,693 (probably around 40,000 for the same area now), employment was mainly in agriculture and brick or cement making, farming was in the doldrums and many residents were very poor as they were not paid for production lost due to inclement weather and most families had many more children than now. It was a make and mend society and few would travel outside of the village for purchases so Rainham shops would have provided every need and there was plenty of competition.
The High Street, going east, started at the Cricketers on one side and The White Horse opposite, all properties to the west were then in London Road and, like many of our roads at that time, neither were numbered so postmen had to quickly learn where everyone lived. The advertisements in Kelly’s Directory of 1908 give, perhaps, the best explanation of life just nine years before I was born and emphasise the origin of two of the most influential inventions of our time.
That for The White Horse quotes telephone number 10 and shows pictures of both a horse drawn charabanc for outings and a brake to transport residents or to collect commercial travellers from the station by appointment. It obviously took advantage of the new motorised travel as in addition to providing ‘Livery and Bait Stabling’ it also had a ‘Motor Garage and Pit’. The proprietor was Mr Charles Adie whose son Leigh succeeded him and I believe that grandson Ron continued later. Prior to the Adie’s Mr Sayer was ‘mine host’ and it was he who, it is said, planted a chestnut tree in front of the Church to commemorate the birth of each of his children.
The Cricketers had no advert in Kelly’s but that in The History of Rainham (Kent) by Edwin Harris published in 1917 was equally interesting. The proprietor Mr C.W. Shaw had taken oVer from Mr Harry Charles Taylor and advertised that it was ‘Home from Home’ and ‘the place to spend a pleasant holiday’. This hostelry also had ‘Stablmg and a Motor Garage’.
Mr Arthur Tucker, two doors down from Pudding Lane, was Watchmaker Jeweller and Optician and he advertised ‘table and pocket cutlery’, with ‘private room specially fitted out with the latest appliances for sight testing’.
Freddie Cooper
Subcategories
Historical tales Article Count: 3
Historical tales
Rainham Life Article Count: 10
Rainham Life
Local Events Article Count: 48
Local Events
Photos Article Count: 143
Photos
Action Forum Article Count: 234
Action Forum is a free monthly magazine that is distributed to the Rainham area covering Wigmore, Parkwood and Hempstead as well. This archive covers old copies of the magazine dating back to its initial publication in 1969 and give a fascinating glimpse into life in Rainham over the last 50 years.
Link to Article Index - Action Forum Index - Photos and Articles from 1969 onwards