Our next meeting – Monday 14th March 2022 at 8pm

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Our next meeting at the Jubilee Hall, Horton Road, Horton Kirby is a talk by Mary Smith (former Head of Maidstone Grammar School for Girls) called “A Schoolgirl’s War”, explaining how the school coped during WW2, charmingly illustrated with watercolours by the then art teacher Helen Keen. The school’s air raid shelter was found a few years ago and is now open for schools to visit and see what it was like having lessons in a shelter.

Our calendar for the rest of the year is as follows:

16th May Martin Heard – Artists of World War One
11th July Steve Hookins – Bits that Don’t Fit
12th Sept Melanie Gibson-Barton – Madness, Murder, Mayhem – The Belgian Royal Family
14th Nov AGM, followed by a short talk, then our Cheese & Wine social event

Visitors are always welcome at our meetings

Forthcoming events

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Thanks to Covid-19, our society is unable to hold any events for the time being, although we are reviewing the situation regularly and intend to resume our meetings as soon as we can.

We currently hoping to hold our AGM on Monday, 9th November 2020, at the Jubilee Hall, Horton Kirby.

Newsletter 140 – March 2020

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The start of our 2020 season gave us Steve Hookins performing his talk “Doing our Bit”. Steve has a fantastic collection of WW2 badges worn by civilians that showed what organisations they worked for during the war. From the wide variety of organisations, both local and national, that had their own lapel badges, cap badges, and cloth badges, badge manufacturers may well have had a very profitable time in WW2. Whilst dressing as a man who helped repair potholes in the roads after air raids (that had no badge), Steve gave us a number of impersonations using his broom as an essential prop, keeping us all amused. He had kindly brought in his badge collection to show us, and it attracted a great deal of attention after the talk.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 9th March at 8pm in the Horton Kirby Jubilee Hall, when Christoph Bull is going to give us a talk entitled “Dartford Rural Rides”.

Our 2020 schedule:
18th May            Murder, Madness, Mayhem – the Belgian Royal Family – Melanie Gibson-Barton
13th July             Up the Junction (Old Swanley) part 2 – Keith Whitworth
14th Sept           Leeds Castle – Ann Kneif
9th Nov              AGM followed b y a short talk and Cheese & Wine

The new book “Horton Kirby and South Darenth – Yesterday and Today” will be available at our meeting if you have not purchased your copy yet.

Newsletter No. 139 – December 2019

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Our last meeting was the AGM, and although we did not manage to come close to our record of 3 minutes, it was under 10 minutes, and we did co-opt a new committee member – Stephen de Winton.

Stephen then kindly gave us a short talk about his research into Sutton’s longest serving vicar – John Hallett Hotham – who spent all his career in the parish and made major changes in the parish, including the building of the church at Swanley Village, as well as building Sutton’s school. Afterwards we held the traditional Cheese & Wine evening.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 13th January at 8pm in the Horton Kirby Jubilee Hall, when Steve Hookins is going to give us a talk entitled “Doing our Bit”, about the roles carried out by some of the Home Front’s unsung heroes during WW2.

Our 2020 schedule:
9th March      Dartford Rural Rides – Christoph Bull
18th May        Murder, Madness, Mayhem – the Belgian Royal Family – Melanie Gibson-Barton
13th July         Up the Junction (Old Swanley) part 2 – Keith Whitworth
14th Sept       Leeds Castle – Ann Kneif
9th Nov          AGM followed by a short talk and Cheese & Wine

The new book “Horton Kirby and South Darenth – Yesterday and Today” will be available at our meeting if you have not purchased your copy yet.

Newsletter No 138 – September 2019

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Wilf Lower gave us a very entertaining and well-illustrated talk “Lost Empires – the last days of Music Hall and Variety” at our July meeting. Wilf grew up surrounded by actors and entertainers as his mother ran theatrical digs of a very superior kind in Chatham, at a time when theatrical land ladies were legendary for their petty rules and appalling cooking. We were given a brief history of the Music Hall and Variety from the Victorian era to the dying days of the Theatre Royal in Chatham (it eventually closed when the electricity was cut off with an unpaid bill of over £300 in the 1950s). Wilf’s home life influenced his career as he ended up working for the BBC, although not as a performer, instead he worked in Scenic Operations.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 9th September at 8pm in the Horton Kirby Jubilee Hall, and our speaker will be Terry Moyle talking about “Fun with Family Trees”. As an aside, there will also be a large number of free back copies of the Who Do You Think You Are? magazine available at the meeting.

Our 2019 schedule:
11th November        AGM & Talk by Stephen de Winton followed by Wine & Cheese

And finally, our 2020 schedule
13th January            Doing our bit – Steve Hookins
9th March                Dartford Rural Rides – Christoph Bull
18th May                  Murder, Madness & Mayhem – the Belgian Royal Family Melanie  Gibson-Barton
13th July                    Up the Junction (Old Swanley) part 2 – Keith Whitworth
14th September       Leeds Castle – Ann Kneif
9th November          AGM, Short Talk followed by Cheese & Wine

Newsletter No 137 – July 2019

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Our May meeting was another thought-provoking talk by Christoph Bull about the Great War from the German perspective. Christoph is of English / German parentage, with his grandfathers’ fighting on opposing sides during the Great War. We were given some background about Kaiser Wilhelm II and the (relatively) new country of Germany, and then Christoph told us about the impact on the ordinary German and the problems they faced during the war, with acute food shortages (thanks to Allied blockades) and restrictions on raw materials. The Germans had to give up eating sausages during the war as the casings were used to make the gas bags for Zeppelins (and it took the guts of 250,000 cows to make a Zeppelin).

Our next meeting will be on Monday 8th July at 8pm in the Horton Kirby Jubilee Hall, and our speaker will be Wilf Lower talking about “Lost Empires – the last days of Music Hall and Variety”.

Our 2019 schedule:
9th September                          To be confirmed
11th November                         AGM & Short Talk followed by Wine & Cheese

Newsletter No. 135 – March 2019

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The first meeting of the year was another excellent presentation by Steve Hookin, and this time he told us about the role that women played in World War One at the Arsenal, Woolwich. With help from one of our members, Steve told us about the recruitment process that women went through (apparently it was thought that blue eyes indicated good eye sight!), the dangers they worked with (the chemicals turned them yellow), and showed us items related to their work, including a very heavy bomb fuse.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 11th March at 8pm in the Horton Kirby Jubilee Hall, and unfortunately, our advertised speaker, Tony Farnham, is no longer able to present to us. Instead, Keith Whitmore of the Swanley History Group, is going to give us his talk “Up the Junction” which shows what Swanley used to be like (pre Asda and the 1970s shopping precinct).

Our 2019 schedule:
20th May                The Kaiser’s War – Christoph Bull
8th July                    Lost Empires – the last days of Music Hall and Variety – Wilf Lower
9th September      To be confirmed but will be a talk by one of our members
11th November     AGM & Short Talk followed by Wine & Cheese

John Woodhead has been busy on the society’s facebook page, posting then and now pictures around the parish. These are attracting a lot of comments, as we hoped, but if you are interested in seeing these pictures but are not a facebook user, please let John or I know, and we can give you paper copies so that you can give us your memories.

Our Peace was won by the Men who Fell – Horton Kirby’s War Memorial

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Our Peace was won by the Men who Fell – Horton Kirby & South Darenth in the Great War

As has been frequently mentioned in our recent newsletters, the Society has now published our latest book.

This book looks at what happened in both the villages during the Great War and also features all the men mentioned on the War Memorial in St Mary’s Church, Horton Kirby as well as the men listed in the “Farningham Homes for Little Boys” Roll of Honour, also housed in St Mary’s Church.

Copies cost £6 (£5 for History Society members) and can be purchased from the Parish Office at the Village Hall.

If you are not a local resident but would be interested in purchasing a copy, please contact Sarahvlewis@yahoo.com.  First class postage will cost approximately £1.90 per copy.