WILLESBOROUGH

Willesborough is a residential suburb, on the eastern side of Ashford, in the county of Kent.
The South Willesborough Dykes area, on the west bank of the River East Stour, is an area of sheep fields drained by dykes. The area is designated as the South Willesborough Dykes Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI). The dykes continue on the east side of the River East Stour and among the residential areas, and a tributary stream (Aylesford Stream) runs between Newtown and South Willesborough and into the East Stour. The smallest ditches dry up completely in summer.

The South Willesborough Dykes are important in terms of the geology of the area, being in the river floodplain and in supporting neutral, wet grassland species, along with Willesborough's Aylesford Green and Boys Hall forming part of the Ashford Green Corridor, although public access is otherwise limited

Boys Hall was built by Thomas Boys in 1616. Its grounds are part of Ashford Green Corridor while the manor house is now an hotel.

The suburb is known for its 1869 windmill near Hythe Road, and St Mary's Church on Church Road, which has one of the oldest ringing bells in Kent.

I have also included here the Old Railway Works, and Newtown, which was built to house the railway workers.

St. Mary the Virgin church. Very difficult to get good pictures of the church as a whole, because of the preponderance of yew trees! But I tried my best......

St Mary's is a shared church used for worship and community, open seven days a week and with a significant 1000 year history.

There is a reference that Pope Clement V in 1075 supplied chrism oil to the church at a cost of 7p per annum. However, it is thought that the church may date from Saxon times when a Saxon, in the time of King Alfred called Æthelfurth, left land of Willesborough to the Abbey of St Augustine.

The church remained in the possession of Augustine’s Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries when it was settled on the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. The west wall of the south aisle is thought to be an example of very precious early Saxon masonry.

The base of the church tower is dated 13th century with a fine shafted west doorway and lancet window on the southern side. There is a ringing chamber and eight bells in the tower with a Victorian clock above (with two external clock faces) which chimes the hours and quarters.  There are medieval scratched sundials on the inside of the south door to the porch which were used by the clergy to determine the time for matins. 

Just outside the west door, is this unusual and quite impressive grave memorial. I don't have much information about it yet, and the writing is almost illegible. However, I will investigate it, along with the internal memorials.

The main sanctuary decorated for Remembrance Day

The organ with its brass plaques, detailing thae names of those lost in WWI

The north chapel and sanctuary

Beautiful tiles surrounding the altar

In the south chapel - once built as a chantry, is a huge memorial to a Victorian grandee with wonderful mutton chop beard! The chantry was restored in 1868 when a new high Victorian style memorial in marble featuring the bearded and moustached face of Charles Warton was installed.

George Andrews, former churchwarden, lived at Dunn's Hill House in Hythe Road. I believe this was the Grade II listed house that became Ashford Nursing Home, where my late mother saw out her final days.

Here lyeth the Body of William BROOK of this Parish, Gent. who departed this Life the 12th of September 1707 in the 36th Year of his Age.

Charles Alfred Manktelow, Lance Corporal 2/4th. Battalion, Army number G/15694, Royal West Kent Regiment, who fell in action in the Holy Land on 8th. May 1917 Age 35.

Charles was born in 1882 in Marden, Kent. He married Daisy Sharpe in 1909. He lost his life in an air raid in Palestine.

This brass with its three battleaxes, is all that remains of the one translated from the latin below 

In Obitum Johannis HALL Generosi et Johannae HalL, Uxoris ejus. quo rum, primo, obijt haec 9 Die Maij Anno Salutis 1580. Deinde, Ille, 7 Die Octobris 1605. cum. Nonagesimum circiter ageret Annum./Hic Tumulo gelido requiescunt Corpora bina,/Umim quae fuerant, per Sacra Vinc’la Dei./Fermè Nomen et unum, Joannes, ac Joanna,/Hall, quos sejunxit Mors truculenter Seme./Mitior ast solito nunc hos conjunxit in Unum,/Et dedit his rursus compare Sorte frui./Omnibus haec eadem Lex est, Moriemur et Omnes,/Omnibus et Letho dabitur esse pares./Qui legis haec, Juvenis, Vitae Memor esto futurae;/Qui legis ista, Senex, Nil Meditare prius.

Commander John Waterman, R.N. John Waterman entered the Navy, in April, 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol,, on board the Minotaur 74, Capt. Chas. John Moore Mansfield; in which ship he served in the Mediterranean and on various parts of the Home station, until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 15 July, 1809 – under the flags at different times of Admirals Cuthbert Collingwood, John Child Purvis, Sir Chas, Cotton, Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, and Henry Edwin Stanhope. He was present in her as Midshipman at the battle of Trafalgar 21 Oct. 1805, and in the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807. From 21 July, 1809, until 26 Sept, 1811, he served in the North Sea and on the coasts of Africa and Ireland in the Dauntless 18, Capts, Joseph Wittman and Daniel Barber. This was his last appointment. He accepted the rank of Commander on the Retired List 4 April, 1848.

Memorials to the sister and nieces of Charles Warton, whose magnificent memorial stands in the Sanctuary.

And what of the churchyard, you say? I don't generally poke around amidst the graves, as most of the interesting ones are so old and badly worn, they're hard to identify. If there is one that is noteworthy, I try to locate it , but otherwise....nah.

However, this one, worn and illegible as it is, has a sad but quirky story attached to it. 

About 2 Yards South East from the Entrance of the Church Porch is an Ancient Altar Tomb, on which the following Inscription was scarce legible abt. 30 Years ago when luckily, the details were recorded, and is now quite gone.

"Here lyeth entombed the Body of William, The Second Son of Michael MASTER, Esq. He, living a Btchelour’s Life to the Age of 28 Years, came to an untimely Abel’s Death. He was Honest of his Word, Well Beloved, and Respected of all. Elizabeth the only Daughter of John HALL, Mother and Mourner for so great and incomparable a Loss, hath erected this Monument, in Expectation of a Joyfull Meeting in the Resurrection of Souls."

The story is that the Above said William MASTER was killed, on his Wedding Day, by his Brother, who was also in Love with The Bride.

The William Harvey pub. There is a full piece about William Harvey on the Ashford page, so I won't repeat it here. The Inn that bears his name is not far from the William Harvey Hospital.

I've yet to visit it when it's open, but no doubt I will at some point! Meanwhile - 

The pub gained a Grade II listing on 24 September 1951. The pub is obviously named after William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, who often stayed here.

The building is a 15th to 16th timber-framed building with the 1st floor overhanging on brackets. On the south-west front the 1st floor has been refaced with curved tiles and on the north front with red brick and tiles. The remainder is plastered. Tiled roof in 2 hips. 3 casement windows. Some traces of original window openings are still shown. The south east front has a gable with a pendant and below it a small 4 light bay window on each floor with wooden mullions.

There is more information on the Dover Kent Archives, here:

The William Harvey

Ashford Railway Works

Ashford railway works was a major locomotive and wagon construction and repair workshop in Ashford, Kent. Constructed by the South Eastern Railway in 1847, it became a major centre for railway works in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After years of decline, it closed in 1982.

South Eastern Railway

Ashford locomotive works was built by the South Eastern Railway on a new 185-acre (75 ha) site in 1847, replacing an earlier locomotive repair facility at New Cross in London. By 1850 over 130 houses had been built for staff (called Alfred Town by the railway but New Town by everybody else). The works employed about 600 people in 1851 increasing to about 950 by 1861, and around 1,300 by 1882. A carriage and wagon works was opened on an adjacent 32-acre (13 ha) site in 1850. The works led Ashford to be the largest industrial town in east Kent.

South Eastern and Chatham Railway

On 1 January 1899, the railway entered into a working union with the London Chatham and Dover Railway, forming the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). Each antecedent company had its own locomotive works, but Ashford was larger than Longhedge works and so became the principal locomotive works for the new organisation. The latter facility was gradually run down and converted into a subsidiary works. The N class 2-6-0 locomotive was first constructed at Ashford in 1917, using a design by Richard Maunsell.

Southern Railway and British Railways

Following the grouping of the SECR with the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway to form the Southern Railway on 1 January 1923, most new locomotive and carriage design and construction was transferred to both Ashford and Eastleigh Works. Ashford continued to operate both building and servicing locomotives and wagons until well after the nationalisation of the railways to form British Railways in 1948.

The locomotive workshops eventually closed on 16 June 1962, the last locomotive to be repaired at Ashford being the N class-2-6-0 no. 31400 on 9 June. The wagon works continued for a further two decades producing continental ferry vans, Freightliner vehicles, merry-go-round coal hopper wagons and the Cartic4 articulated car transporter. It became one of British Rail Engineering Limited's main wagon works, but as trade declined, primarily the construction of wagons for export markets, it operated on an ever-decreasing scale until it closed down in 1982.

The site has sat derelict since closure. However, on the other side of the railway lines beyond where the line turns towards Canterbury, stands a new depot for servicing the Hitachi Javelin trains that run on the HS1 high-speed line.

At one time there was a plan to convert the old railway works into a film studio complex, but it has stood derelict for several years now, and apart from the clock tower and the wheel works - both of which are listed buildings - will probably be demolished to make way for housing.

The end of the works (In more ways than one)

The Grade II listed clock tower

Incidentally, the gentleman in the picture is my husband, who was born and grew up in South Willesborough, and who worked on the railway in Ashford and Tonbridge for 48 years

Newtown

Between the railway works and the village of South Willesborough, the Railway companies built a new town to house their workers. By 1850 over 130 houses had been built for staff (called Alfred Town by the railway but New Town by everybody else). The works employed about 600 people in 1851 increasing to about 950 by 1861, and around 1,300 by 1882. 

The name Newtown stuck, and hardly anybody now has ever heard of Alfred Town. Along with houses, there is a large playing field and green space, a pub, a smattering of shops, a school and a bath house.

As to the Victorian Bath House, it has been converted into apartments. The exterior remains almost untouched, as it should. It is indeed a very handsome building