Newspaper Stories 1910-1914 - Hartley-Kent: The Website for Hartley

Go to content

Newspaper Stories 1910-1914

History > Newspaper Stores 1900 - 1939


28 Jan 1910 General Election - Dartford Kent & Sussex Courier
Conservatives from Tunbridge Wells bussed into Dartford to campaign in election


01 Feb 1910 General Election - Dartford South Eastern Gazette
Conservatives gain Dartford Constituency with a majority of 817


25 Jun 1910 Hartley House sale Times
"Hartley, Kent.  400 feet above sea level.  Within easy access from town.  One mile and a half from Fawkham Station on the main line of the SE & C Railway, by which London is reached in less than 40 minutes.  Valuable freehold properties, comprising:


Lot 1 - Hartley House, a comfortable house of moderate size with stabling, gardens, orchard, containing together 3a 1r 4p, in a bracing and healthy locality.  With possession.


Lot 2 - a small villa residence known as Bay Lodge, with good garden etc.  Let on lease at £16 per annum.


Lot 3 - Brick built Cottage, blacksmith's forge, garden etc.


Messrs Cobb at the Mart, Tokenhouse Yard, London EC on Friday, July 1st at 2 o'clock precisely."



29 Aug 1910 Wanted Advert Chelmsford Chronicle
Business wanted by Sheppard of Grafton House, Hartley


09 Sep 1910 Oddfellows' Centenary - Dartford District Celebrations Gravesend Standard
"Members of the Independent Order of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows are this year celebrating the centenery of their order, for which is claimed the proud distinction of being the largest and soundest friendly society in the world, possessing as it does over 1 million members, and a capital exceeding £13,600,000.  The members of hte Dartford District of the order, not to be behind their confreres in other parts of the kingdom, on Saturday celebrated the centenary by the holding of sports and a fete, at which were present all those in the district who are actively associated with the movement locally, in addition to visitors from a distance.  The Dartford District comprises some nine lodges, these, together with their membership, being as follows: Garden of England (Bexleyheath) - 127; Hope of Dartford (Dartford) - 400; Lesney (Erith) - 238; Hope of Eynsford (Eynsford) - 109; Sons of the Darent (Farningham) - 102; Pride of the Thames (Greenhithe) - 117; Hearts of Oak (Hartley, Longfield) - 171; Pride of Stansted (Stansted, Wrotham) - 45; and Good Intent (Sutton at Hone) - 247; total membership 1,555.


With regard to the financial position of the lodges in the Dartford District, this is a matter upon which the members have every reason to feel gratified, as their sick and funeral funds amount to between £24,000 and £25,000, while their total assets exceed £31,500, money which, thanks to the business ability of the men who have directed the affairs of the several lodges, has been invested, not only in a thoroughly sound manner, but in a way which brings to the lodges a very satisfactory rate of interest.  The invested capital and interest combined give ot the Order in the district a security which is a guarantee that those who join this great friendly society locally can do so resting assured that every undertaking given in the actuarial tables in the matter of benefit will be discharged to the uttermost.  It is in this fact that the members of the great Manchester Unity, Independent Order of Oddfellows, are able to rest satisfied in the proud consciousness that when the glamour of some, not friendly, but benefit - societies had passed away, their own Unity, like the Ancient Order of Foresters, and one or two other societies of a like nature, will remain as a living demonstration that strict actuarial valuation, based solely upon the contributions of the members, is the only safe policy in such matters, and that even though for a time they may by some be passed by for that which presents a more glittering appearance, yet in the end they will remain unshaken, and enjoy the confidence of those who make provision for sickness and old age.  Those present on Saturday included ... Bro W J Davis JP (Chairman of the Dartford UDC), Bro Walter Scanes (Provincial Grand Master of the Dartford District).... A Blackwell, past provincial grand master (Secretary of the Hearts of Oak Lodge, Longfield)...." lengthy report of speeches etc.



24 Oct 1910 From Office Boy to Station Master Hastings Observer
"Battle residents will be pleased to hear of the success of Mr Frank Norman of Clive Villas, who has been appointed stationmaster of Fawkham, a station between Chatham and Swanley.  Mr F Norman, who commences his new duties in January, was a scholar at Battle Schools, entering the service of the SE and C Railway Company as an office boy.  As time went on he rose to relief clerk, and then relief stationmaster, the latter position having been held by him for the past 18 months."


20 Dec 1910 General Election - Dartford South Eastern Gazette
Liberals gain Dartford with a majority of 234


04 Feb 1911 West Kent Hunt Times
West Kent Hunt to meet at Hartley Manor


22 Apr 1911 New Use for House Refuse Preston Herald
"Even house refuse is, it seems, following the general law of change.  Previous to October 1906, states Mr Arthur Harrison, the borough engineer and surveyor for Southwark, the house refuse of the district was taken to the country depot, screened and sorted, and the ashes sold to brickmakers, the refuse being partly burned and disposed of in various ways.  Owing, however to the increased use of gas cooking stoves during the last few years, it was found that the nature of the refuse had changd, adn did not produce sufficient ashes to pay for hand screening.  Accordingly, Mr Harrison decided to crush the refuse without sorting it, producing by this means a species of manure, which, it is said, saves annually to the ratepayers some thousands of pounds."


11 Jul 1911 Happy Villages London Standard
Happy Villages' description of Small Owners Estate at Hartley


11 Oct 1911 Seek Vacancy Eastbourne Gazette
Cowman (head) seeks situation, early riser, abstainer, understands oil engine and all machinery, 9½ years in present place, age 42, near school. Apply J Marchant, Fairby Farm, Hartley, Longfield, Kent. [Mr Marchant was living in one of the cottages near Hartley Green.  He would have been one of the people evicted by Small Owners Limited when they bought the estate, because they wanted to sell them.  As he had 5 children he clearly would need a school close by.]
"

24 Oct 1911 The Automatic Landowner Evening News
""The Automatic Landowner - the Mecca of the Small Owner"" It was an English day.  A day of autumn compromise.


There was a blunt softness in the air, because across the Kentish downs the wind met no resistance, and was good-tempered accordingly.


The Darracq hummed smoothly along.


We could of course, have trained it straight to Fawkham Station, but we wanted to see what our neighbours were like.


The 1.37 from London Bridge had run us to Dartford in 30 minutes with only one stop.


The 'Bull' - memorable to lovers of Pickwick - was having its front elevation repaired, and was of no interest to us at the moment.  We were faring for Fairby Farm, and could do no more justice to the splendid open road than to skim over it, noting the presence of good breaking up gravel in the soil of the fields and ignoring the romance of a ruined Roman Villa to our right.  Because after all, we were concerned with the present - with its beneficent alloy which we term promise for the future.


A short cut through Fawkham Station over a stile, and we were tramping the good brown loam, over the protesting heads of young turnips (at this time of year!) up a slope crowned with woodland.


Here a hard, dry path revealed itself, carpeted with acorns.


Mr H pointed to a curly monarch on our left with scarse a leaft unmoored from its anchorage yet.


""What would you give for that oak in your garden? £5? £10?""


""Yes, and be glad of it.""


The Valley Road


Leaving the wood we stood before long on a shelving slope with a wide view in front of us: undulating land leaning gently to a valley road, with flaming beeches in the middle distance, and away off in a hazy dip, more trees in diminishing masses.


""There is Fawkham Church just below, and a little to this side of it is the site of Fawkham Castle - an ancient keep now belonging to the legends.  Here where we stand would be a fine take off for your aeroplane: plenty of room, no chance of dangerous currents, and open to the west and south. A few acres would serve your turn - ""


""The last aeroplane I had was a ____ ""


""____ But this land"", went on Mr H, ""is almost too good for a mere jumping on and off place.  It is meant for a permanent alighting ground, with kisses at the front door, and tennis on a lawn and pottering about with a dibber and pruning hook and watching goldfish in a pond - just here, say.""


""Well the friend I told you about has lately been married, and is thinking of coming to the country in order to be free from noise and the least suggestion of business.  This place is not far from the City, as the train flies it is as near as Hampstead or Brixton.  I know you told me so, but I came along to see for myself. What my friend wants is my report of the best 2 acre plot you have got, and it's your turn now.""


We located this plot, but I shall not indicate it.  I will just mention that it included a bit of woodland, whether for appearance in the front or quiet enjoyment in the rear pleasance, I decline to say - and a delightful uninterrupted view.


I took out a chart.  Some people might call it a meaningless scrawl, but if you had drawn it yourself you also would refer to it as a chart.  Then I came to grips with Mr H.


""These are my friend's instructions.  First, as to the a house, he doesn't want anything reminiscent of the City; it must be, er, redolent of the soil __""


""In other words, a cottage.  We will make him a plan, free, to any style he desires__""


""With a billiard room?""


""Yes""


""And a motor shed?""


""Yes""


""And, let me see, a poultry run?""

""Yes.  We have an expert - that rare thing, a scientific farm manager - who will both provide the poultry and given him three weeks' lessons in the art of keeping them for both


Pleasure and Profit


""And the eggs, I suppose there will be eggs?""


""If he will put himself in the hands of our manager and is willing to take poultry seriously, he could pay for his two acres in two years, out of the poultry and what he takes out of the land.""


""Oh! Will he have to work?""


""No need to.  But 10 to 1 this Fairby air will seduce him into doing it. And you can't worry about business while you are gardening.""


""Most true.  Personally, I confine myself to looking on at the gardening, and I know I don't think about business then.  I can only think what a silly way the other chap has of doing things.""


""Your friend can choose just how he will have his land laid out.  A well known firm of designers will make him a plan free, flowers here, for instance, vegetables there, fruit trees over yonder, or he can keep the garden for flowers and vegetables and take a portion of an orchard.  One of hte orchards we have is full of 5 year old trees and the price of the land would include the trees in their present perfection.""


""Can you advise as to suitable furniture?""


""We will not only advise but supply, if your friend wishes - and at practically wholesale prices - the kind of furniture that seems to me eminently countrylike and homely.  The sort of thing you pay dear for, as a rule, simply because it is both artistic and appropriate, but of course you friend will choose what pleases him.""


""In a sentence - your friend simply tells us what he wants and we supply it.  Land, house, plotted garden, poultry, furniture; and if he buys now the best can easily be ready for him by the summer - the ideal time, of course, for a country life.""


""And for health.  By the way, the water ____""


""Is company's water.""


""The roads___""


""Council road frontage wherever he selects.""


""Access to town easy enough""


""There is a splendid service of trains.  You can get to the city in 37 or 50 minutes, according to your choice of train, both morning and evening. There are even theatre trains from Victoria, Holborn Viaduct and St Paul's at midnight, reaching Fawkham about 12.50.""


""Tell him that, in order to make the first year at his cottage more memorable, we will present your friend with a season ticket to town which will hold good to the end of June 1913.  We do not offer free trips to prospective buyers; this free season ticket is only for householders on the residential section of Fairby Farm.  We make the offer as one means of settling the land quickly.""


""It is possible he may come down and check my report.""


""He can do it this way; occupy all the morning with business, take the 1.37 from London Bridge to Dartford, and motor from there.  He could have an hour on the estate, 315 acres you know, get the 4.15 from Fawkham, and be back in the office to wind up business.  Or he could devote midday to the matter; take the 11.20 and return by the 2.46.""


""How do your plots work out in shape?""


""We give, to an acre plot, at least 100 feet of frontage and about 400 feet of depth, for £120 to £130 the acre.  If you work out the latest offer I know of anywhere else you find the 20 feet frontage and 100 feet depth ome ou at £2,500 per acre - and more than that.  Our local rates, again, are very low, about 4 shillings in the pound.""


""And suppose my friend, as we rather think he has, has got rid of most of his immediately available cash over his recent celebration___""


"" We are providing for any such case.  We will take 25 per cent down, and the rest can be paid next year or in 5 years or in 12 years, with a modest 5 per cent on the balances.  As you need hardly be told, all the money he pays is so much to the good, nor lost forever as in the case of rent; in fact, if he chose to avail himself of the 12 year period he would be paying less than rent and making hte place his own all the time.


Aladdin's Lamp


Really, seeing how easy it all is, he could hardly do better if he had Aladdin's Lamp!  We are the slaves of the ring and lamp.  Utter your wish - tell us what you want  - and you become automatically a landlord!""


This majestic wind up dazed me for a time, and we next drove slowly round the farm, Mr H pointing out everything with a modest, no not exactly a modest pride; merely the statistical kind of pride of the man who knows that what he is talking about is a good thing without the possibility of question.


We now took in the features of the land appropriated for small holdings - land into which, I was told, thousands of pounds have been put in fertilisers.  Certainly the look of it was decidedly promising; rich, dark land with a sufficiency of gravel for aeration.  As a sample of fertility, Mr Hu pointed to a field of standing brussels sprouts.  There was £600 worth in view, he said.


I saw a dozen or so of labourers' cottages on the estate; Fairby Grange, which did not pass with the land; orchards mature, and one lovely stretch of 5 year old beauties, trees so regular that one might expect see them labelled 'With care! From Noah's Ark Limited.'  This particular orchard is to go at £100 the acre.


The farm buildings, apart from the cottaage, cost some £2,000 and it is here that lessons will be given in dairying and agriculture.


""We will take the small holder's milk and separate it and make the cream into butter for him, if he likes.  If his produce, in fruit, vegetables, poultry, and the rest, is good enough, we will introduce him to a connection with hotels or institutions who must have the best, and with our methods and organisation we can always supply the best.


We are in the midst of


A Specially Fertile District


as you can see for yourself.  As for poultry, Orpington is not for all, to give an example.  Let the smallholder send us his produce; our manager will see to the rest.  Freedom from trouble again, you see our very object, one of the leading features which make our proposition different from any other.  That is the idea of the season ticket and of making you a home complete.""


""And the price for this agricultural land?""


""From £32 per acre, and you can buy from 1 to 50, every acre with a hard road frontage.  We have 218 acres set apart for the smallholders; the residential sites account for 97.  That is a council school we are passing.  Grammar schools you can get at Rochester or Chatham, not far.""


""Grammar schools remind me of golf.  I don't know why.""


""There are links at Gravesend, 4 miles away.  At Rochester is the Royal Medway Club.""


""Golf suggests church - naturally.""


""There are three within a few minutes: Longfield, Hartley and Fawkham.""


""Coming once more to the agricultural land, I notice that most of it is turned.""


""Yes, cultivated right up to the date we transfer it"".


""You have certainly thought the matter out very thoroughly.  I see no flaw in the proposition.""


""My dear sir, we knew from the first what we were looking for.  It is the bare fact that we examined or considered hundreds of estates before we pitched upon Fairby Farm.""


""Well you have partly verified our claim that your friend can do the business in half a day.  We shall catch the 4.15 badk to Town (we could have taken an earlier train at Fawkham), and a short talk in our office in our office over cottage plans, garden plotting and selection of furniture would relieve him of all trouble.  He would simply await our note to the effect that his cottage was ready, furnished and aired, the garden laid out, and the hens clucking out there are eggs, fresh eggs, for tomorrow's breakfast.  Let him ask for me at the offices of Small Owners Limited, in Temple Chambers, Temple Avenue, London EC.  I shall be pleased to see him, whether he is quite ready to proceed or not.  Let him ring up 13183 Central or he can call upon our surveyors, Messrs Leopold Farmer and Sons, 46 Gresham Street, EC.""


I am asking my friend accordingly to meet Mr H.  I believe he will thank me next summer at 'Woodland Cottage' Fairby Farm.


John Dalma"



24 Oct 1911 Small Owners Advert Daily Express
"Do you want a garden or smallholding?


At Fairby Farm, Fawkham, Kent, 37 minutes from town.  This estate is being arranged on the new idea of colonisation - producer and consume on the same farm.


Acre sites on the residential section adjoin the station, have charming views, company's water, and no road charges, with a FREE SEASON TICKET (lasting till June 1913) for every householder on the residential seciton.


Small holdings on the agricultural section have council road frontage.  Land in splendid condition.  Many buildings have established orchards with a FREE COURSE IN PROFITABLE POULTRY KEEPING for small owners on the colony.


EASY TERMS OF PAYMENT


Ask for these booklets (A) Fairby Farm, Fawkham, agricultural section illustrated; (B) Fairby Farm, Fawkham, residential section illustrated; (C) To Own or Rent, from the smallholder's point of view; (D) What Small Owners Ltd Do, business methods applied to small holding.


From Small Owners Limited, Temple Chambers, Temple Avenue, London EC."



28 Oct 1911 Small Owners Description The Globe
Description of Fairby Estate by G H Humphries


01 Nov 1911 Small Owners Description Shields Daily Gazette
Description of Fairby Estate by G H Humphries (also appears in other papers)


02 Dec 1911 Small Owners Trademark Times
Smallowners v Pearson, name of the paper


19 Jan 1912 Small Owners Advert Poultry World
Smallowners ad "A new calling - if you are sick of town.  If you dislike office work.  Get back to nature" (p543)


27 Jan 1912 Gravesend West Street Railway Kent Messenger
TJ Symons of Mile End Green writes to support northfleet UDC's request for railbus between Fawkham and Gravesend, would like halt at Mile End Green Bridge


03 Feb 1912 Miss Baker Cresswell Kent Messenger
Death of Miss Baker Cresswell of Old Downs after long illness.  Funeral at All Saints followed by burial in Northumberland.  She was well esteemed in district


03 Feb 1912 Ash Primary School Kent Messenger
Mr and Mrs Meyers teachers at Ash school dismissed for allegedly striking Florrie Webb (5) with a cane and rubbing salt in her mouth.  They put different interpretation on events.  Florrie had been placed with her sister Jessie (main witness) by Dartford Guardians with Mrs Jenkins of Turners Oak.  They called Jessie later in front of all the class and told them she was a liar.  At that point she retracted her statement.  Couple had worked there 30 years, NUT supports their case.


09 Feb 1912 Longfield Halt Station Gravesend Standard
Northfleet District Council: "The clerk read the following letter from the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Company which he had received in reply to the council's request for additional railway service:- 'Dear Sir - I am in receipt of your lettr of the 24th January suggesting the establishment of a railcar service between Fawkham Junction and Gravesend West Street Station, with halts at Dover Road and Fawkham Junction, and in reply, I have to say that the question has already been fully considered, but having regard to all the circumstances, I regret being unable to recommend that the outlay required to give effect to the proposal should be incurred by the managing committee, at least, at the present time - Yours faithfully, F H Dent, general manager.'


The following letter on the subject was also read:- 'Dear Sir - The inhabitants of the parish of Hartley desire to support the efforts of your council to obtain greater facilities of railway transit between Gravesend and Fawkham, and a letter has been forwarded to the South-Eastern Railway Company to that effect - Faithfully yours, Major M Hildebrand (chairman, Hartley Parish Meeting).'


Councillor Symons said he had received several letters from people who welcomed the idea.


The chairman said a refusal was qualified by the last sentence of the company's letter."



10 Feb 1912 Fire at West Yoke Farm Kent Messenger
Fire at West Yoke Farm, home of J Haygreen, barn, lodge, stable and straw stack destroyed.  Workers from neighbouring farm saved hay stacks.  Horton Kirby Fire Brigade arrived after 25 mins.


10 Feb 1912 Miss Baker Cresswell Kent Messenger
Funeral of Mrs Baker Cresswell, widow (77), at All Saints.  Pall bearers were her personal servants Messrs Keen, Elliott, Remington, Atkins and G Elliott.


23 Feb 1912 Win a farm at Hartley Poultry World
Greatest ever prize competition for poultry keepers announced.  Details fo comptetion on p771 to win 4 roomed cottage and 2½a farm.


05 Mar 1912 Stock Sale at Fairby Gravesend Standard
"Hartley, near Fawkham - Within a few minutes' walk of Fawkham Station, on the main line of the SE&C Railway.  Messrs Cobb will sell by auction on the premises, on Wednesday March 6th, 1912 at 11am precisely (by order of T Morton esq, who has sold the farm), the whole of the live and dead farming stock on Fairby Farm comprising 9 young and powerful cart horses, pony, 10 dairy cows and heiffers, 9 fat beasts, 2 calves, 174 Kent ewe and wether lambs, 3 spring market vans, waggon, 7 dung carts, bullock cart, milk and hay floats, liquid manure cart, 2 iron water barrels on wheels, 9 ploughs, 2 self binders by Massey Harris, 3 mowers by Hornsby, 2 hay sweeps by Cottis, hay elevator and horse gear by Innes, potato sprayer, potato digger, 3 hay rakes, horse hoe, 8 brakes, rolls and harrows, tree sprayer by Drake and Fletcher, troughs, gates etc and other agricultural implements and effects, including harness and office furniture.  Luncheon will be provided by ticket, at 1 shilling per head.  Catalogues may be obtained at the place of sale; at the Lion Inn Hartley; of D L Pattullo esq, Orpington; and of Messrs Cobb, Land Agents and Surveyors, 61 and 62 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC and Higham near Rochester."


09 Mar 1912 Ash Primary School Kent Messenger
Meyers v Hennell and other school managers for injunction in high court against sacking.  G Day only manager who did not sign dismissal notice


15 Mar 1912 Win a farm at Hartley Poultry World
30 candidates already


16 Mar 1912 Ash Primary School Kent Messenger
Meyers v Hennell no injunciton granted but school managers allowed them to stay there until case decided.  Plaintiff claimed bruises to Florrie, who was deaf, were made by foster parents, also that 625 out of 630 parishioners had signed petition in their support (pointed out Ash's population was only 600!)


16 Mar 1912 Conservative Meeting Kent Messenger
Mr Foot Mitchell at Conservative meeting held at Longfield School


16 Mar 1912 Ash Telephone Exchange Kent Messenger
Ash telephone exchange open always now


05 Apr 1912 Win a farm at Hartley Poultry World
Circulation up thousands thanks to Fairby competition


06 Apr 1912 Dartford Board of Guardians Kent Messenger
Dartford Board of Guardians election - Longfield - Fortunatus Lynds 64, James Martin 51


12 Apr 1912 Gravesend Hospital Gravesend Standard
Acknowledgements include Mrs Alice Lawson, Old Downs, Hartley, for books and papers for the patients at the infirmary and toys for the children.


20 Apr 1912 Ash Primary School Kent Messenger
Ash Vestry - 30 attend - protests in favour of Meyers


20 Apr 1912 Titanic Sinking Kent Messenger
Titanic - list of Kentish people affected


21 Apr 1912 Old Downs Sale Gravesend Reporter
Sale of furniture at Old Downs by executors of Mrs E D Baker-Cresswell


27 Apr 1912 Titanic Sinking Kent Messenger
Titanic - bandmaster Mr Hartley was a member of Mr Scoma's band at Rosherville about 4 or 5 years ago, conducted in Mr Scoma's absence


27 Apr 1912 Unfit Horse Kent Messenger
George Day of Longfield fined 6s and his employer Albert High of Longfield fined £1 for working a gelding in unfit state


04 May 1912 Titanic Sinking Kent Messenger
Longfield to hold Titanic relief concert, led by Doris Cowlrick


10 May 1912 A Triumph of Cooperative Organisation Poultry World
A triumph of co-operative organisation - picture feature on Fairby (pp 56-57)


11 May 1912 Ash Primary School Kent Messenger
Ash School case before Mr Justice Eve in Chancery Division, argument over appointment of school managers


18 May 1912 Ash Primary School Kent Messenger
Ash School case - judge finds for defendants.  County council upholds the dismissal.  Doctor said Florrie was "timid and sensitive".  The intimidation of her sister and mother by the plaintiffs was an aggrievating circumstance.  They dismissed petition by 196 parishioners asking for leniency whatever "technical" offence committed, saying it was way more serious than that and that the school had received poor reports for years.  Letter from Rev Hennell read out.


25 May 1912 Ash Primary School Kent Messenger
Ash School Case - motion of censure of managers passed 41-0 at vestry.  Mr Meyers writes to defend himself


31 May 1912 Win a farm at Hartley Poultry World
Drawing of prize poultry farm


01 Jun 1912 Property Sale Longfield Kent Messenger
1&2 Station Road, Longfield (occupiers J Sexton, W Heaver) sold for £320


08 Jun 1912 The Telegraph Wires (poem) Gravesend Reporter
Poem "The Telegraph Wires" by W.A.P of Gravesend, last verse "They traverse the earth and the ocean / Embracing Commercial Pursuit / And binding our friendships together / Are bearing practical fruit"


08 Jun 1912 Housing in Dartford Rural District Gravesend Reporter
Poor state of housing in DRDC mentioned, especially Swanley and Sutton at Hone, by Arthur Mee.


20 Jun 1912 Cooperative Strawberries Daily Mirror
"Cooperative Strawberries - Wonderful success of Small Ownership Fruit Growing - Peer's Holding: Fawkham (Kent), June 19 - Tomorrow will be Strawberry Day, and the smallholders on the Fawkham Estate of Smallowners Limited, have arranged a special display of strawberries in the windows of Messrs Fairby's Ltd,. at Knightsbridge  and Kensington, consisting of 4lb baskets of selected fruit picked by the holders of land on the estate.  // They will be sold at 4d a lb, which is below their market value, to all comers.  Fairby's Ltd are the exclusive distributors for the estate.


Fawkham is in Kent, between Swanley and Chatham, and the fruit to be displayed will undoubtedly demonstrate the remarkable success of the cultivators, many of whom have never been fruit-growers till this year.


The aim of the company is to develop the estate of 315 acres on a '5 per cent philanthropy" basis, and as an experiment in cooperative small ownership the success has been outstanding.  // There are 3,000 people on the waiting list, the Daily Mirror was assured yesterday by the secretary and other estates are being acquired for similar sub-division.


Small capitalists or men of business capacity with accessory permanent employment, to which they can travel daily, are the best material.


The speical feature of this scheme is that there is a central farm depot with £5,000 worth of machinery and implements, from which, for instance, a seed drill may be hired, with a man to operate it, at 12s 6d per day, with it 2 acres can be sown in a day.


An isolated smallholder would have to work many days to obtain the same result, or hire at great espense.


A Fruit foreman advises growers about their crops.  One man was warned the other day that there was blight coming on his trees, and was shown how to deal with it.  He did not recognise the signs himself.


There were 12 owners diligently picking strawberries at 3 o'clock this morning for the London market.  Picking continued all day.


One man sells 80lb of strawberries daily at 6d a pound at the office at which he works in the city.


Another man paid £400 for his holding in January.  He has just sold half of his gooseberry crop for £35, and will make £200 this year out of his fruit.


Two great jam makin gfirms have taken respectiely 3 tons of gooseberries and 5 tons of strawberries from the estate since the beginning of this week.  The sales made by the company for holders yesterday totalled £165 - a typical day.


One holder is a bootmaker, and lives upon the profits of his land, combined with his earnings as a bootmaker on the estate.  Another is a chimney sweep, a third is a peer, a fourth a retired marine captain.


A fitth man is a farm labourer, and cultivatees an acre and a half of his own, besides giving help where required to other holders, of course for wages.  His land cost him only £60.  He bought it outright, but need not have done so, and is buying his cottage by instalments.


"Only a very exceptional man can prosper as a smallholder by himself," said the secretary to me today.  "We believe we have solved the 'back to the land' problem by combining the Irish Government land purchase scheme principles with perfect organisation and collective effort."


"A man can pay the whole or part of his purchase money by instalments.  Suppose he has £250 capital.  He can pay £100 down towards the purchase of 5 acres worth £400, and the balance of £300 he will pay off monthly or annually at the rate of £33 a year for 12 years, which includes interest.  He will want £100 to live on for the first year and can stock his land for £50."


"After the first year it will support him.  I know a man who makes not less than £220 a year profit from 5 acres, but he works very long hours, from 6am to 8pm."


"We are not a land development company.  We buy estates which are actually working farm or orchard land, adn purchasers have no pioneer work to do.  Any extra labour required is obtainable in the district - there is no 'foreign' labour.  A very nice house we can put up for £195, which can be paid for by instalments."


"One man here has come back after 24 years in Ontario, and thinks he can do better here.  Another man is sure of making £28 a year out of a single rood by fowls alone."


"Take a man with only £100.  He can have 2 acres of strawberry land and half an acre of arable, which woud cost £146, paying £36 down and the rest in quarterly instalments of 3 guineas each.  He rents a cottage for 4s a week.  The second year he should get £75 in 3 weeks from strawberries alone.  The cost of strawberry farming is under a penny a lb, and any price obtained over 1¼d is certainly clear profit."


Mr Green, a working man owner, told me his 150 fowls had already paid all their cost and were bringing in 10s a week.  He grows strawberries and vegetables also.  His little daughter Hilda, aged 7, and an infant daughter, who were in the Great Ormond Street Hopital last autumn, are now bonny and healthy.  He paid down one-fourth of the cost of his holding of 4½ acres, £375, when he came in January."



21 Jun 1912 Small Owners Picture Feature Daily Mirror
Picture feature on Fairby Estate


22 Jun 1912 Housing in Dartford Rural District Gravesend Reporter
"Dartford Housing Condition - Expert's Amazing Report" (photocopy)


22 Jun 1912 Housing in Dartford Rural District Gravesend Reporter
National press takes up case of DRDC housing. Report by Mr Poplar in Daily Chronicle. Extracts mention Hextable, Swanscombe and Stone.


28 Jun 1912 Housing in Dartford Rural District West Kent Advertiser
Arthur Mee produces schedule of proeprties which he says exemplifies need for enquiry into council's neglect for health.  One in Hartley "Black Lion Cottages - 4 cottages dependent on 1 well, 6 feet from the main water supply.  These houses have privies".


05 Jul 1912 Win a farm at Hartley Poultry World
Mrs George O'Grady mentioned as candidate


06 Jul 1912 Longfield Cricket Club Kent Messenger
Cricket - Longfield beat Westwood by 42 runs (details)


06 Jul 1912 Rev E Smith of Longfield Kent Messenger
Accident to Rev E Smith of Longfield at Green Street Green when he fell off tricycle (photocopy)


{Also mentioned in Kent Messenger of 7.8.1912]



06 Jul 1912 Rev G Bancks of Hartley Kent Messenger
Hartley's Talented Rector (photocopy), Rev Bancks has sold 40,000 ol Harvest of Hives.


[Another article about him in Kent Messenger of 7.8.1912]



26 Jul 1912 Parson Publisher Chelmsford Chronicle
"Mr H Hamilton Fyfe contributes to the 'Daily Mail' an interesting description of 'A Day with the Parson-Publisher,' the Rev Gerard Bancks, rector of Hartley, near Longfield, Kent, formerly curate of Braintree.  He was curate of Braintree when the Rev JW Kenworthy came to the parish, and went from there to the parish church of Windsor to Canon Gee.  Mr Fyfe, travelling in the train, found a farmer engrossed in a small green coloured book called 'The Harvest of the Hives', both written and published by Mr Bancks.  Asked about the book in which he was so interested, the farmer passed it over, 'Wonderful, true and right', he said.  'I lay he knows a thing or two about bees, and I know a bit myself as well.  Kept 'em thirty year.  But there's strange notions in that as is new to me.  Strange that is to get fresh notions my time o'life, but it's so.'


The object of the booklet is to persuade people to keep bees and to show what can be done with honey.  Gathering from the advertisement at the beginning of the book that this was not the rector's only publication, but that he had other works in various edition - one in its fourth, another in its fifth, and a third sold in a 'revised' form to the number of 30,000 - Mr Fyfe began to feel very curious about Mr Bancks, and wrote to 'a most unusual phenomenon' - as author who had reached a large public without the assistance of a publisher - and asked if he might go and see him.  The result was that he spent with him a most pleasant and interesting day.  He found that Mr Bancks's little books have gone all over the world.  He get letters about them from all the corners of the earth, and orders as well.  'Of Honey and its Uses' he has sold 40,000; of 'Mead and How to Make It' and of 'The Production of Vinegar from Honey', 20,000 each.  The vinegar he makes from honey, calling it melegar.


Mr Fyfe tried, too, some home made British wine from Mr Bancks's cellar.  He found the damson wine, in the 11th year of its age, a clear, dry wine, in colour like a generous sherry, most refreshing and pleasant of flavour - far better for him than fortified continental clarets and sherries and hocks; and, of course, far cheaper.  Mr Bancks makes a gooseberry wine too, which in its fizzy state (bottled before the fermentation is over) is declared by ladies to be as good as 'real champagne'.


Thus the writer is led to ask: Why have we neglected for so long the wholesome liquors that can be made from the produce of our own land?  Once they were in common use.  So they might be now.  Every farmer might have his stock of home made wine, as farmers do in wine bearing countries.  It only needs care in the making to supply the table all the year round with a healthful, enjoyable drink, aiding digestion and making glad the heart at the same time.


It is this keeping up of the practice of our great-grandfathers and grandmothers wich partly accounts for the delightful leisurely, yet busy, active but unhasting atmosphere of Mr Bancks's life.  Writing and publishing only represent one side of his activities.  In the garden is a studio where he both paints and photographs.  He is a collector of prints, of china, of old furniture.  He has a good collection, too, of flint arrow heads, sling stones, and other weapons and implements worked by the patient hands of our ancestors in the dim childhood of the human race.  His latest publication deals with 'Man in the Old Stone Age', and gives a lucid summary of the great additions to our knowledge made during the last 60 years.


Mr Bancks began his publishing with a story for children called 'A World Beneath the Waters'.  It was very kindly reviewed, but, as he says, it wanted advertising.  Then it might have had a really big sale.  One cannot get at the big public without advertisement.  The honey pamphlets are different.  They appeal to a special class.  Here is the balance sheet for the first.


(Debit) 40,000 copies at 15s a thousand - £30


(Credit) Sale of 40,000 at 1d each less discounts on large quantities - £150


Profit £120


The Mead and Vinegar booklets cost him £18 each to print, and in either case he cleared about £40.  He does all his own business.  There are no office expenses, nothing whatever but the cost of the books themselves."



30 Jul 1912 Robert Emmett of Fairby Times
Birth of son to Robert W Emmett and his wife Lady Alexandra of Fairby


07 Aug 1912 Rev G Bancks of Hartley Kent Messenger
Feature on Rev Bancks


10 Aug 1912 Crime - obscene words Gravesend Reporter
Albert Rimmington of Longfield fined 10 shillings for obscene words in Dartford Road, Dartford on 15 Jul


17 Aug 1912 Southwark Rubbish Tip Kent Messenger
Dartford RDC - proposal that London boroughs should burn rubbish rather than bring it to district - lost


24 Aug 1912 Meopham Cricket Club Kent Messenger
Meopham beat Chatham Dockyard by 100 runs


24 Aug 1912 Ada Louisa Bancks Kent Messenger
Death of Mrs Ada Bancks after undergoing an operation in London


{Times of 19.8.1912 mentions "Death of Ada Louisa Bancks on 17th, dau of Robert Nisbett, Gravesend vet"]



31 Aug 1912 Longfield Football Club Kent Messenger
Longfield Village Club to form football team, first captain FA Fuller


31 Aug 1912 Longfield Fire Brigade Kent Messenger
Longfield Fire Brigade Ambulance members win 3rd prizes for 4 man drill and artificial respiration at the National Fire Brigade Tournament at Crystal Palace


06 Sep 1912 The Late Mrs A L Bancks Gravesend Standard
"The funeral took place at All Saints' Church, Hartley, last week, or Mrs Ada Louisa Bancks, daughter of the late Dr Innes Nisbett of Gravesend, and wife of the Rev Gerard W Bancks, the Rector, amid many evidences of deep regret.  The service was conducted by the Rev C H Gibbens of Green Street Green.


The chief mourners, in addition to the bereaved rector, were Miss Bancks, Mr and Mrs Nisbett, Mr Suggate, and Miss Alice Deane.  Among others present, who included nearly all the parishioners, were the Rev F W Warland, the Rev H B Hennell, the Rev F B Alcock, Viscount Mountmorres, Mr Hare, Mr Priestman, Mr Jesse Garratt, Miss Hassell and Mrs Eade.  Psalm xc was sung to a chant in a minor key, and after the lesson, the hymn, 'On the resurrection morning', was sung to Turpin's setting, immediately before the coffin was born from the church.  Before the service the organist, Mr Curtis, played 'Blest are the departed', from Spohr's 'Last Judgement'.  There was a full attendance of the choir, and the music throughout was rendered with marked and reverent expression.


A magnificent wreath of magnolias, from the garden of Hartley Rectory, was placed on the coffin, inscribed 'In loving memory, from Gerard and Lulu', and other floral tributes were received from the following: Mr and Mrs Nisbett, the Misses Yate, Mrs and Miss Bancks, the Rev F W Warland, Mr and Mrs Hare, Mrs Trewby and family, Mr and Mrs Wright, the Misses Myer, Mr and Mrs Hatton, Mr and Mrs Webb, Capt and Mrs Lawrence, Mr and Mrs Crook (Gravesend), Miss Lawson, the Misses Bragger, White and Summers, Capt and Mrs Copus, Mrs Alchin, Mrs Thomas adn Mr A E Thomas, Miss Marian Thomas, Mr and Mrs Elliott, the Whitcombe family, Miss Whitcombe, Major and Mrs Hildebrand, the members of the Mother's Meeting, the Viscountess Mountmorres, the Rev E and Mrs Smith, Hartley School, Lady Alexandra Emmett, Mr, Mrs and Miss D Cowlrick, Miss Cowlrick, Mrs Osborne and daughters, Mr and Mrs Forsyth, Mrs Mabe, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Wansbury, Mrs and the Misses Andrus, Mr and Mrs F Cowlrick, Miss Crook, Mrs Thornton, Mr and Mrs Kluht, Miss Harman, Mr and Mrs Eade, Mrs Dunkin, the Hadlow family, Mr and Mrs Auld and others."



21 Sep 1912 Old Downs Sale Gravesend Reporter
By order of executors of Mrs E D Baker-Cresswell. Auction of surplus furniture at Old Downs. 2 rosewood 'Empire' cabinets, ormalou and other clocks, 2 writing tables, one excellent boudoir grand pianoforte by Collard and Collards, 2 settees in leather


09 Oct 1912 George Monk South Eastern Gazette
Swallowed Fruit Stones - Schoolboy's death at Longfield - Jury and the Doctor


At the Gravesend Town Hall, on Thursday, the Borough Coroner held an inquiry into the death of George Arthur Wiliam Monk, aged 10, who died on Tuesday.  Mr W Lowe was chosen foreman of the jury.


Emma Monk, of Hartley Hole, Longfield, identified the body as that of her son, who was taken ill on Friday evening.  He had been to school all that day and then complained of pain.  He slpt all day Saturday and the following night.  On Monday she sent for Dr Lace, of Sutton at Hone, who came on Tuesday, having meanwhie sent medicine and a powder.  When he came he ordered the child's removal to the hospital.  The boy had been eating damsons and blackberries before being taken ill.  Witness expressed the opinion that had the doctor attended when summoned he might have been able to save the child's life.  The doctor lived 5 miles away.


Dr Herbert Temple Williams, house surgeon at the hospital, said the child was brought in early on Tuesday afternoon, in a very collapsed condition, and died about 6 o'clock.  He was too ill on arrival for anything to be done.  Witness made a post mortem and found obstruction of the intestines.  There were some damson stones in the intestines, and the only remedy was an operation.  Had deceased been operated upon on Monday, he might have been saved.


George Monk, a bricklayer's labourer, father of deceased, said when he went for the doctor he explained his son's condition.  Dr Lace told him he had several cases of persons eating sour fruit to attend, and he would come in the morning.


"He has got a motor car and it would not have taken him ten minutes", witness added.


The Coroner, addressing the jury, said it might be difficult for them to understand the action of Dr Lace, but had a proper explanation of the case been given him, he would no doubt have endeavoured to attend the child.  As it was, directly he saw the boy, he appreciated the seriousness of the case.


Eventually, after a long deliberation, the jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony, and added a rider to the effect that had Dr Lace been in a position to attend immediately he was notified, the child's life would probably have been saved.



19 Oct 1912 Crime - Longfield Hill Kent Messenger
William Joyce of Bean fined £1 or 14 days for stealing 10s from George Miles of the Green Man from a basin on the counter


19 Oct 1912 Hartley Social Club Kent Messenger
Founding of Hartley Social Club (photocopy)


19 Oct 1912 Longfield Football Club Kent Messenger
Longfield Football team named for match against Wrotham at Longfield


24 Oct 1912 Small Owners Advert Express
Small Owners Advert


19 Nov 1912 Exedown Reservoir South Eastern Gazette
Mid Kent Water apply to have powers to extend Exedown Reservoir (serving Hartley)


02 Dec 1912 Small Owners Limited Times
Smallowners - problems of marketing of fruit


20 Dec 1912 Longfield Property Sale Poultry World
For sale - FH bungalow, 7 rooms, bathroom, 1a + land £410 cash or £90 cash plus mortgage; bungalow erected with land £50 cash and mortgage.  Parker, Longfield


04 Jan 1913 Hartley Primary School Kent Messenger
Hartley School Treat at Social Club inc lantern entertainment and Xmas tree.  Covered brakes took children from their homes


04 Jan 1913 Longfield Football Club Kent Messenger
1st annual dinner of Longfield FC at the Black Lion


11 Jan 1913 Longfield Cricket Club Kent Messenger
Vote to found Longfield cricket club on land to be given by Mr Robson.  T Rodwell of Hartley present


27 Jan 1913 Farming Experiment Daily Mirror
Correspondent's experiments in using elecricity to kill pests on gooseberries at Fairby


30 Jan 1913 Win a farm at Hartley Daily Express
Poultry World's win a smallholding competition (Johns, Johns Close)


01 Feb 1913 Road Traffic Survey Kent Messenger
Traffic survey at Farnborough on Sun 29th Sept – 276 cars, 100 side cars, 67 motorbikes, 2 motor wagons, 1 steam engine, 79 horse vehicles, 2 horses, 10 hand vehicles, 605 bikes


05 Feb 1913 £1,000 Farm Won by An Irish Woman Irish Independent
"Mrs O'Grady (pictured with picture of Hartley) of Utility Poultry Farm, Coachford, Co Cork, won the prize as a result of an examination in London conducted by oral and written questions on the rearing of poultry and the production of eggs"


07 Feb 1913 Win a farm at Hartley Poultry World
Mrs O'Grady wins farm, details.  Description of prize giving, all candidates went to London Opera House, where her name was announced in interval.


14 Feb 1913 Parish Council Bexleyheath Observer
Dartford RDC - "A letter was read from the Kent County Council notifying the issue of an order increasing the number of Parish Councillors for Longfield from 5 to 7."


14 Feb 1913 Win a farm at Hartley Poultry World
"The Truth about the £1,000 Prize Competition".  PW writes to refute allegations made in other quarters, stating Smallowners donated the house and land in return for free advertising.  They were happy for PW to appear as donors.  Farm will be completely stocked, on the night of the prize giving they asked to purchase another 2 acres from SO so there could be no criticism that the farm was of an inadequate size.  Mrs O'Grady has utmost confidence in them.


14 Feb 1913 Win a farm at Hartley Ballymena Observer
"An Irishwoman, Mrs O'Grady of the Utility Poultry Farm, Coachford, Co Cork, was the winner of a £1,000 poultry farm in Kent in a competition at Anderson's Hotel, Fleet Street, London, on Friday.  The competition was organised by the Poultry World.  Six ladies were among the competitors of whom there were 44.  Two gentlemen sat in front of a table upon which there was a crescent of 25 small globes containing 25 different kinds of poultry food, and each candidate was required to identify the dishes as requested.  Indian corn was easily recognised but few know that a collection of little brown seeds was millet, and fewer still could tell what price should be paid for it.


In the corner by the judges was an oblong wicker basket which imprisoned four defective birds.  One, or possibly two of the birds had to be taken from the basket by the candidate and the defects pointed out.  After this each candidate entered a room where two judges with a plucked chicken, an incubator and an egg tester.  Here his knowledge of the utility side of the profession was examined.  The most interesting competitor was Captain Pearson Webber, who while on service in India, lost his eyesight [He would later visit Hartley with his students from St Dunstans in 1915]  the searching questions in the two examination papers were dictated to Captain Webber; he took them down with a pin in Braille shorthand, and, to the astonishment of the judges, typed his answers on an ordinary typewriter.  In telling the poultry food, Captain Webber's sense of touch served him with complete fidelity.  In two cases in which knowledge of the colour of the birds was almost essential to identifying their breed his lack of sight was a handicap, but in one case, by feeling the texture of feathers, he was able to describe not only the breed and the defects, but also the colour with perfect accuracy.  The candidates came one from each county in the UK and Ireland.  The candidates with their friends attended the London Opera House in the evening, when, during the performance, Mrs O'Grady was declared the winner, and was presented by Mr Ben Natham, the general manager, with the title deed of a farm at Fawkham, Kent, valued at £1,000.  Mrs O'Grady received a great ovation from the audience...." [The farm is now called Johns, John's Close, Hartley]



16 Feb 1913 Small Owners Advert Lloyds Weekly News
Small Owners ad


21 Feb 1913 In Search of Game Bexleyheath Observer
"Henry Canter and Leonard Canter, 3 Stanley Cottages, Darenth, were charged under the Poaching Prevention Act.  PC Abnett said that on January 26th he saw defendants in Rabbits Road, Horton Kirby, coming from Mr Hohler's land at Fawkham.  He searched them, and found 5 rabbits and 6 nets on Leonard Carter.  There were 5 previous convictions for poaching against Henry Canter.  Leonard was fined 10 shillings and costs, and Henry 20 shillings and costs, or 14 days."


22 Feb 1913 Longfield Football Club Kent Messenger
Football: Longfield v Royal School of Mines, one of players for latter was from Royal College of Sciences, another was captain of Hull City (Gordon Wright)


28 Feb 1913 County Council Election Bexleyheath Observer
Nominations for Dartford Rural No 1 District (incl Ash, Hartley, Longfield): Cecil James Hulkes, land agent, Hadlow Place, Tonbridge, proposed by Rev F W Warland and Henry Booth Hohler, Gerald F Hohler and Frederick G Meyers.

George Day, farmer, North Ash, proposed by William Chambers and Richard French, H W Snape, E J Tubb, F Lynds, G T Lynds, A J Miller, F Crowhurst.



07 Mar 1913 Townsmen on the Land London Standard
Mr Hamilton Edwards, Chairman of Small Owners Limited challenges idea that townsmen can't make good farmers.


08 Mar 1913 County Council Election Kent Messenger
County Council – Dartford 1 (inc Hartley.  CJG Hulkes 460; George Day 249


15 Mar 1913 Longfield Parish Council Gravesend Reporter
Longfield Parish Council sue former clerk Walter Robson


15 Mar 1913 Gravesend West Street Railway Kent Messenger
Motor rail service from Longfield to Gravesend to commence in summer


16 Mar 1913 Hartley Manor Sale Observer
Sale of Hartley Manor with history


17 Mar 1913 Hartley Manor Sale Times
Sir William Chance has disposed of his estate of 600 acres near Fawkham, Kent, known as Hartley Manor.  It is intersected by the South Eastern and Chatham main line.  The land, scheduled in the Domesday Book as belonging to Odo, Bishop of Baieux, was originally called Erclei or Arclei.  The lordship of the manor and the advowson to the living of Hartley are included in the sale, which was carried out by Messrs Nicholas.


[also mentioned in Kent Messenger 29.3.1913]



18 Mar 1913 Miss Davies-Cooke Westminster Gazette
Miss Davies-Cooke [owner of Middle Farm] writes to say she is president of the Ladies International Club at Bayswater, which provides accommodation for ladies of gentle birth who are earning their living


21 Mar 1913 Mrs Alice O'Grady Poultry World
Picture of "foster mother" coop for chicks on Mrs O'Grady's farm (?Ireland)


22 Mar 1913 Longfield Station Kent Messenger
AW Beck clerk at Fawkham station promoted


29 Mar 1913 Hartley Manor Sale Kent Messenger
Sale of Hartley Manor Estate, including lordship


25 Apr 1913 Unpaid Rates Bexleyheath Observer
"Small Owners Ltd, were summoned for the non-payment of the following poor rates, made in October last: Fawkham £1 18s, Hartley £11 10s 10d and Longfield £1 10s 7d.  A letter was read from the Secretary stating that the demands were only received on the 15th inst., and the rates had not been paid because of the reluctance of the collector to give them certain particulars as to the rates.  Mr Robson, the collector, said that he had given them all particulars.  Immediate orders were made."


09 May 1913 Measles Bexleyheath Observer
"The county medical officer has approved of the closing of Longfield School, owing to an epidemic of measles in the village."


10 May 1913 Rosa Bleakley Essex Newsman
Death of Rosa, wife of Robert Bleakley, Small owners's manager.  Wreath from Smallholders at Fairby Farm


10 May 1913 Longfield Halt Station Kent Messenger
Local people wanted Longfield Halt built at Pinden Bridge, people from Westwood not likely to walk back to Halt


10 May 1913 Robert Bleakley Essex Newsman
"Sad Death of a Bride -  Funeral on her 25th Birthday


Great sympathy is felt with Mr R W Davies, of Treffgan, Braintree, headmaster of the Council School, in the lamentable death of his youngest daughter (nee Miss Rosa Gwynne Davies), who was married to Mr Robert Bleakley, manager to Small Owners Limited on April 17 last, at Bocking Chapel....  The young couple had returned from their honeymoon, the husband's residence being at Longfield, Kent....  when the bride was compelled to undergo an operation for her eyes.  this was performed at the National Hospital, London, and was quite successful, on Monday, but the patient failed to recover from the anaesthetic, and after remaining unconscious for several hours, during which secondary haemorrhage supervened, she died at 6.30pm......"  Description of funeral, Mr Bleakley was accompanied by Mr George Humphrey, managing director of Small Owners Ltd.  Wreaths sent included those from Mr Hamilton Edwards; London Staff of Small Owners Ltd; Small Owners at Fairby Farm; and from the Farm Staff at Longfield.



10 May 1913 Typists' Uniform Adelaide Journal
"Cotton overalls of a fawn shade have been provided for the girl typists in a Strand office.  It is a revival of an experiment which 4 years ago started an agitated controversy in the ranks of thousands of women engaged in city offices.  At that thime the innovation met with an outburst of indignation, and was solemnly condemned at a conference of girl typists.  The suffrage movement had begun to open the eyes of men to the capacity of women for revolt, and commercial magnates whose nod rocked the prices on half a dozen bourses shrank from a course which threatened to introduce revolution into the office.  One city man who desired a Quaker like sobriety of costume in his office, orders a uniform of brown, with white collars and cuffs, for his typists.  The unexpected happend when he found that his son had married one of them; but those who have seen a recent popular musical comedy will understand that a demure Quaker gown may heighten the fascinations of an attractive girl.  The revival of the experiment has been undertaken by Small Owners Limited of Norfolk Street, Strand.  The new overalls are of a becoming pattern.  The style has been the subject of much anxious care, and a fawn shade was selected as the least likely to clash with diverse complexions.  A neat waist is assured by a belt, and the neck is not too high to conceal a Peter Pan collar or ribbons - the Daily Mail."


13 May 1913 A Million Daisies Pall Mall Gazette
A Million Daisies - Specially grown in England for Today's Decorations


A million daisies (Marguerites) have been gathered from the small owners' farms and sent to all parts of the country for Empire buttonholes and decorations today.  The farms on which they were grown are at Great Leighs in Essex, the Histon District of Cambridgeshire and Fairby at Fawkham in Kent.


This is the first year that hardy English daisies have been grown for Empire Day.  It is a crop that pays the small holder very handsomely, as much as £83 having been made by one grower from an acre.  Last year the daisies grown for the market made more per box than sweet peas  Now that they have become the flower of Empire - the white petals representing the Dominions and the golden centre the Mother country - their cultivation is expected to become increasingly profitable.


For purpose of decoration few flowers, if tastefully arranged, are more graceful.  The novice is sometimes apt to crowd too many in a vase.  Five or six blooms, as a rule, prove far more effective than a crowded bunch.



23 May 1913 Profit from Daisies Daily Citizen
"To be known and recognised as a true patriot it will be necessary to wear a daisy tomorrow.  The daisy, it seems, has been made the flower symbol for the Empire, and tomorrow is empire day.


One result has been quite a boom in the commercial cultivation of the daisy.  'Daisies are of many forms' explained Mr LJ Humphrey, of Small Owners Limited, to a representative of the Daily Citizen yesterday, 'but the ox-eye or marguerite is the most valuable from a commercial point of view.  Smallholders find it a profitable crop, and there are many holdings in Cambridgeshire, Kent and Essex where great preparations are being made for the demand which is anticipated tomorrow.'


'It is a comparatively new industry, and it is interesting to note that the flowers sell much better in the north of England.  The reason is that in the south of England there is so much foreign competition.  But daisy cultivation is getting to be quite a profitable industry.  They pay even if the wholesale price is 1s 9d per box of 48 bunches, but often it is possible to obtain 6s or 7s per box.  The opening up of the industry has come as quite a boon to the smallholder, whose first crop of the year it is.  It is quite common now to see 2 acres of land under daisy cultivation.'"


[The land at Kent referred to is Hartley]



24 May 1913 Land for Sale at Woodland Avenue Beckenham Journal
"To close the estate, as the merely nominal upset price of E£100.  About one-fifth of the cost.


Between the villages of Longfield and Hartley, near to Fawkham Station on the SE&C Railway and about 5 miles from Dartford and Gravesend - The valuable piece or parcel of freehold building land, having a frontage of about 300 feet to Woodland Avenue, together with the wooden buildings; also a piece of freehold land, on the main road (Leading from Fawkham Railway Station to Hartley), and having a frontage of about 63 feet, with the tram car theron used as an outbuilding.  The Land forms part of the Fawkham Park Esate, and is held by Mr John Foster, on an annual Michaelmas tenancy, at the low rental of £13.


Messrs Baxter, Payne & Lepper will sell by auction at the Railway Tavern, Longfield, on Friday, May 30th, at 5 o'clock in the evening (in one lot) the above freehold property.


May be viewed and particulars with conditions obtained at the place of sale; of G L Lepper esq, Solicitor, 72 Mark Lane EC, and of the auctioneers.  Offices: Bromley and Beckenham, Kent, and 69 King William Street EC."  



24 May 1913 Windmill House Kent Messenger
Old Landmark Gone – metal frame of windmill behind Windmill House on road between Dartford and Longfield taken down.  Well known landmark for cyclists


27 May 1913 Newlands Shaw for Sale South Eastern Gazette
"Longfield, Kent.  About 1½ miles from station whence London is reached in under the hour.  'Newlands Shaw', occupying a delightful spot, commanding splendid views approached by a carriage drive and containing 3 reception rooms, usual offices, 3 bedrooms, bathroom (h and c) etc.  Company's water laid on.  Gardens and Pleasure Grounds; small piece of picturesque woodland in all 4 acres.


Messrs Denyer and Collins are instructed to sell the above by auction (unless previously disposed of privately) at the Mart, Tokenhouse Yard, EC on June 18th.  Auction Offices: High Street, Tonbridge and at Tunbridge Wells, and 16 Abchurch Lane EC."



30 May 1913 St Francis de Sales RC Church Gravesend Standard
"At Hartley, last Sunday morning, mass was said at 9 o'clock (the first on Sunday since the Reformation), in the presence of a numerous congregation.  The Oratory is in the Northfleet parish, and is easily accessible now by means of the new service of trains from West Street to Longfield.  Among those present were Col Vaughan, who served during the mass which was said for the late Dowager Duchess of Newcastle); the Baroness von Hogel, Miss Davies-Cooke, Mr McNaughton; New Barn, Fawkham, Meopham and district having representatives.  Father Patrick Ryan SJ, on behalf of Father Hoare, appealed for the spreading of the faith in Hartley.  It is hoped to arrange for Sunday mass shortly.  Meantime service of instruction is held every Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock by the rector of Northfleet."


30 May 1913 Farming Experiment Daily Mirror
Experiments to grow strawberries with electricity


31 May 1913 Gravesend Sufragettes Kent Messenger
Gravesend council refuse suffragettes permission to have stall in market, some councillors spoke in favour, others said no political group had been there before


07 Jun 1913 Woodland Avenue sale Kent Messenger
Property sale – FH building land with 300 ft frontage to Woodland Avenue, together with wooden buildings and a piece of FH land on main road sold to Mr Walter Robson of Hartley for £120


14 Jun 1913 Hartley Cricket Club Kent Messenger
Cricket at Hartley – Hartley 74, beat Ash 42


21 Jun 1913 Hartley Parish Meeting Kent Messenger
Hartley Parish Meeting calls for more mains water.  Present: Mr & Mrs Emmett, Rev Bancks, Maj Hildebrand, Capt Copus, Messrs Braybrook, Johnson, Good, Swallow, Wansbury, Flint, Harris, Dr Welch, Elliott, Tate, Rose, Green, Robson & 40 others


26 Jun 1913 Small Owners Description Express
"Organising Small Holders…..


Mr Hamilton Edwards, the chairman, and Mr G H Humphrey, the managing director of Small Owners Limited, write to the editor of the Express.


Sir, We have been much interest in reading in your today's issue Lord Lansdowne's remarks on small ownership at Matlock Bath, on Saturday.


As a result of our experience in the past few years in facilitating the establishment of smallholdings on English land on a basis of small ownership, we are heartily in agreement with his suggestion to apply the principles of the Irish Land Purchase Act to the English Small Holdings movement.  We feel, however, there is one important point to which sufficient prominence is very rarely given by speakers on agricultural subjects, and that is the provision in smallholding districts of organised farm centres where agricultural instruction, farm implements, horses and casual labour are at the disposal of the small holder.  In our opinion, such facilities are absolutely essential if the small holder is to be successful.


Lord Lansdowne referred in his speech to the success of small ownership on the continent.  This success has been largely due to the willingness of the continental peasant proprietors to combine by means of a system of credit banks and cooperative societies for the purpose of working the land and disposing of produce.  In spite of the considerable attention which ahs been directed by the English authorities to the establishment of credit banks in this country, little or no progress has been made.  Agricultural students, when questioned, ahve come to the conclusion that the Englishman is too essentially individualistic to merge his private business in the somewhat altruistic relationship which membership of a credit bank or cooperative society must involve.


Security Problem solved


the security for a credit bank loan in this country necessitates the personal guarantee of two fellow members of the borrower.  Very few Englishmen would care to make the necessary disclosure of their private affairs, and some other system must therefore be designed to take the place of the facilities which a continental small owner enjoys.  We have found that this want is filled by our system of organsised farm centres, and we write to suggest that the new Unionist land policy should include the provision of such centres as an integral part of their new land scheme.


On our Fairby Farm estate, we have now completed the establishment of the various departments which go to make an ideal central depot.  Established in the centre of the estate, worked by a colony of small owners, it comprises stabling for the horses which are hired out to them, and a farm office, equipped with a telephone, by means of which produce is sold either in our associated retail shops in London or to distant markets where good prices may be ruling.


There is also a jam factory, to which fruit is sold at a price fixed at the beginning of the season.  This for example, obviates the risk of sending strawberries to an overcrowded market, with its resultant loss to the producer.  there are also on hire full sets of farm implements, appliances, baskets and measures.  There are stables, cow sheds and pigsties for temporary accommodation for small owners who desire to keep stock and prefer not to invest capital in buildings until they have placed their smallholding on a profit earning basis.  In addition to these facilities, there is also a club room, serving as a village hall, and containing a reference library of books suitable and useful to the small holder, maps, a barometer, weather forecasts, and a supply of agricultural periodicals.


There is also a general store, from which anything can be bought, worked on a mutual profit sharing basis between the company and the customers.


Loans from Credit Banks


Last of all, there will be established on July 1 the final link in our scheme of agricultural small holding organisation - the credit bank.


The credit bank will lend to small holders on the security of their interest in their holdings, and subject to a report by the farm manager that their holdings are in good order and under profitable cultivation.  these loans will be granted without any sureties, and in dealing with this bank a small holder will be able to rely on the privacy which any customer of ajoint stock bank expects as a matter of course.  No-one except the bank manager and the directors of the company need know from whom he gets the money to buy anything he needs.  // Nobody but the farm superintendent will have any right to advise him on the way to manage his holding and produce profits.


It is by the provision of such centres as these that the small holder movement will be placed on a really sound successful basis.  As far as we ourselves are concerned, we are quite prepared to place all our experience and the whole perfected organisation of the company at the disposal of either one of the great parties.


In addition to the advantages of the small holder which our system gives, a government department would be able to place at the disposal of the cnetre the services of its experts and the valuable records which are always at the disposal of the Board of Agriculture.


Hamilton Edwards, Chairman; G H Humphrey, Managing Director, Small Owners Limited.  June 23."



26 Jun 1913 Small Owners Description Daily Express
Description of Fairby Estate by R Hamilton-Edwards


27 Jun 1913 Cricket: Hartley v APCM Gravesend Standard
"After a week's rest, the APCM team journeyed to Hartley, on Saturday, adn won handsomely by 59 runs.  A late start was caused by a long brake journey necessitated the visiting captain applying the closure with the score at 102 for 4.  This proved to be sound judgement, for Hartley were dismissed for 43, with but 3 minutes to go.  A E Crabbe again batted brilliantly in compiling his 57, receiving good support from F Bex.  The former also bowled effectively, taking 6 for 17.


APCM 102-4 declared (A E Crabbe 57, Day took 3 wickets)


Hartley 43 all out (R W Emmett 4, A Nairn 1, Humphreys 2, T Rodwell 10, Dennis 2, Day 1, Cole 1, Williams 10, Thornton 1, Braybrook 1 not out, T Elliott 5, G Elliott 0, Extras 5)."


[Cricket was notable for the mixing of the social classes, which would have been unusual at the time, the team included the solicitor owner of Fairby (Mr Emmett), farmers (Thornton), builders (Nairn, Braybrook), gardeners (Elliott) and farm labourers (Day), although I note Mr Emmett was chosen to open the innings!]



28 Jun 1913 Fairby House for Sale London Monitor
"AD 1700 - Full of old oak and interesting features


Kent (Beautiful part of the county, within hour of London) - FAIRBY, Longfield - very fine old residence.  Perfect repair; approached by long carriage drive; containg briefly, porch entrance, old world hall, billiard, 3 reception, 11 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, complete domestic offices, capital stabling, motor garage, 3 cottages, finely timbered pleasure grounds, gardens and paddocks about 20 acres.  Electric light; company's water; telephone connected; hunting and shooting.  Close to Catholic Chapel. //  Millar Son and Co will sell the above by auction at the Mart, Tokenhouse Yard EC 15th July next.  Illustrated particulars of auctioneers, 46 Pall Mall SW."



28 Jun 1913 Hartley Cricket Club Kent Messenger
Cricket at Hartley – APCM 102-4 beat Hartley 43.  AE Crabbe for APCM scored 57 and took 6 wickets


04 Jul 1913 Servant Wanted Church Times
General Servant wanted £16-18 wages monthly holiday - Mrs Flint, Bundoran


07 Jul 1913 Small Owners Description Pall Mall Gazette
Description of Fairby Estate by Bevil Tollemache


08 Jul 1913 Small Owners Description Pall Mall Gazette
Reply by Mr Hamilton-Edwards to correct inaccuracies in article of 7/7/13 calculated to do the company harm


13 Jul 1913 Flowers from Fairby Belfast Weekly News
"Honour for Small Owners


The bouquets and floral decorations of the Royal saloon in connection with the visit of HRH the Princess Henry of Battenberg to Herne Bay to open the King Edward VII Memorial Hall were supplied by Fairbys Limited of 17 Buckingham Palace Road, the distributing department of the Fairby Small Owners' Colony of Fawkham, Kent."



26 Jul 1913 Arthur Outred Kent Messenger
Arthur Outred 22 of  Cottage taken to Gravesend Hospital with fractured skull


02 Aug 1913 Whitehill Road Allotments Kent Messenger
Public enquiry into Longfield PC's application to Local Govt Board for £500 loan to buy land between Dartford Road and railway for allotments, burial ground and recreation ground.  Cricket club said they had to play at Horton Kirby.  Man from Longfield Hill against as too far away


08 Aug 1913 Cricket: Hartley v Northfleet Gravesend Standard
"Mr G K Gardiner had fixed up with Hartley for the Monday a double innings match, and this also resulted in a win for the Reds by an innings and 26 runs.  A Wright was again in form, scoring 25 runs and taking 5 for 15.  He was ably supported by W Saville, A Martin and J Williams, the first named doing the hat trick.  Northfleet, who were accompanied by many friends, were ably entertained by the home team, spending a most enjoyable day. //  Hartley 28 all out and 18 all out (Nairn 6 & 0), Rodwell (0 & 2), Dennis (2 & 3), Green (12* & 0), Elliot jun (3 & 0), Day (0 & 3), Applegate (0 & 2), Cole (0 & 0*), Elliott sen (0 & 1), Woodward (1 & 0), Williams (0 & 0), Extras (4 & 7).  In the first innings W Saville took 5 wickets and A Wright 4.  In the second innings J Williams took 5 wickets and A Martin 4.


Northfleet 72 (A Wright 25, Dennis took 4 wickets, Day 3)."



08 Aug 1913 Hartley Court Sale Bexleyheath Observer
"Sale Friday next.  Mr Philip Champion has been favoured with instructions from Major A B R Hildebrand RE who is proceeding to Ireland, to sell by auction upon the premises, as above, on Friday, 15th August 1913, at 12 o'clock, the whole of the live and dead stock and outdoor effects, including 8hp De Dion 4 seater motor car, dog cart, tumbril, 45 head of poultry, 18 ducks, 11 geese, 4 in calf heiffers, nag mare, ditto with foal, stack of meadow hay, the crop of apples as growing on about 4½ acres, and a quantity of surplus household furniture.  Catalogues can be obtained of the auctioneeer, Mr Philip Champion, 5 Market Buildings, Maidstone and Lowfield Street, Dartford"  [Also in South Eastern Gazette 5.8.1913]


08 Aug 1913 An Old Offender Bexleyheath Observer
"William Cooper, of 7 Bath Street, Gravesend, was summoned for using obscene language at Longfield on July 15th.  PC Hannigan said that prisoner was having an argument with his brother, and used the language complained of.  16 previous convictions were recorded against the defendant, and in the last case he was fined 40s and costs for obscene language, on January 13th this year.  Defendant was fined 40 shillings and costs or 14 days."


09 Aug 1913 Fairby Farm Times
Mentioned as one of estates sold, many being broken up


13 Aug 1913 Ideal Weekend Cottages London Evening News
"In delightful country surroundings, 15 old fashioned cottages for sale at prices varying from £100 to £225.  Full particulars and photographs on application to: The Cottages Department, Small Owners Limited, 34 Norfolk Street, Strand WC."


[When Smallowners Limited bought Fairby, this was bad news for the people who lived in the existing properties on the estate, because Small Owners did not want to be landlords, so they would have been evicted so the cottages could be put up for sale.


Ideal Weekend Cottages - Kent, 23 mies from London]



15 Aug 1913 Fawkham Footpath 'Obstructed' Bexleyheath Observer
"Dartford RDC has received information from the Commons and Footpaths Preservation Society, of complaints that the footpath leading from St Mary's Fawkham, to Horton Kirby, had been obstructed.  The District Surveyor has inspected the path, but beyond an ordinary field gate, which could easily be opened, there was not, in his opinion, any obstruction.  He has, however, been instructed to keep the path under observation."


16 Aug 1913 Longfield Football Club Kent Messenger
Longfield FC 1912/13 p 20 w 4 d 5 l 11 f-a 35-53.  Now in Gravesend League Div 2, vice captain J Rich


23 Aug 1913 Ash & District Horticultural Society Show Kent Messenger
Big report on annual Ash & Dist Horicultural Society Show.  Prizes included Desert Apples 3rd H Green of H, Scarlet Runner Beans 4th T Rose of H.  Cttee included from Hartley, Messrs Cromar, Chandler, Robson and Whiffen


26 Sep 1913 St Francis de Sales RC Church Gravesend Standard
"The mission lately given in the Oratory at Harltey by the Rev D Aidendsen MA PhD, DD proved very successful.  His lordship the Bishop of Southwark said mass therin last Sunday morning.  Weekly Sunday services are being arranged.  The service of trains now running betwween Gravesend and Longfield has proved of much use in connection with the establishing of this new centre of religious teaching."


30 Sep 1913 Small Owners Description Daily Mail
Review of Bevil Tollemache book which mentions Fairby


08 Oct 1913 De Mallet Morgan - Monckton Wedding The Sketch
Picture of couple


[They bought The Birches, Ash Road, in 1926]



10 Oct 1913 Mr Clinch Loses a Vote Bexleyheath Observer
Electoral Register Revising Court at Dartford County Court.  "Mr D O Burt (Liberal Agent) objected to the ownership vote of Mr George Clinch, who was on the register as the owner of a piece of land at Longfield.  His objection was that the land was not of sufficient value for the Parliamentary vote.  Mr Clinch appeared himself, and Mr Burt said that ht eland was waste land by the side of the road.  It was not fenced in, and anyone could walk on it.  It was producing nothing per annum to Mr Clinch, and could not be worht the necessary 40s a year.  Mr Clinch said that he had refused £90 for the land, as he considered it was worth £4 or £5 a year to him.  He could let it for agricultural purposes.  Mr Burt said the price of allotments in Longfield was 4d a rod, and if the land was let for allotments it would not bring in more than 10s a year.  After some argument, the Barrister said that he did not think the land was of the necessary value, and Mr Clinch's name was struck off."


22 Oct 1913 Small Owners Description Aberdeen Daily Journal
Review of Bevil Tollemache book which mentions Fairby


31 Oct 1913 Longfield Primary School Bexleyheath Observer
"A petition was sent through the Parish Council ot the Elementary Education Sub-Committee [of Kent County Council] on behalf of 87 children attending the Longfield School, asking for 'a better system of education than our children are receiving, and a schoolmaster appointed to control the school.'  The sub-committee recommended to the Kent Education Committee at its meeting at Maidstone on Monday, that in view of the satisfactory reports that have been received from HM Inspector of the school, no action be taken and that the Parish Council be informed accordingly."


05 Nov 1913 Small Owners Description Yorkshire Post
Review of Bevil Tollemache book which mentions Fairby


06 Nov 1913 Ideal Homes for Artists and Literary Men The Stage
"Two charming country cottages are for sale at Hartley, Longfield, Kent, at £250 and £400 each.  Nice large gardens, company's water and modern conveniences.  Midnight theatre train daily.  Mortgage arranged for either property if desired.  Convenient to London and yet in the heart of the Kent country.  Arthur Barnes, Hartley, Longfield, Kent."


14 Nov 1913 Win a farm at Hartley Poultry World
PW wins £100 in damages for libel over competition, but has to admit cottage hadn't been built then and was only later built on plot selected by Mrs O'Grady.


18 Nov 1913 Sale at Black Lion South Eastern Gazette
"Sale Friday next.  The Black Lion Inn, Hartley, Kent.


Mr Philip Champion has received instructions from Mrs E Wansbury to sell by auction, at the above address, on Friday next, 21st Nov, 1913 at 12 o'clock noon, the useful and well kept Household Furniture and effects and live and dead stock, including 3 cobs, pony, 3 heiffers, sow and 4 pigs, 12 geese, 30 head of poultry, 2 vans, 6 carts and traps, sets of harness, two wood lodges, 4 fowl houses, gent's and lady's bicycles and other effects.


Catalogues can be obtained at the place of sale, and of the auctioneer as above."



21 Nov 1913 Dartford RDC Sanitary Committee Bexleyheath Observer
One case of puerpal fever at Longfield.  DRDC District also had one case of anthrax where the man's life has been saved by an injection of antitoxin at St Bartholemew's Hospital.




28 Nov 1913 Charitable Donation Evening News
Miss A Bunce of Hartley Manor donates £12 to papers fund for toys for poor children


19 Dec 1913 Black Lion Transfer Bexleyheath Observer
Dartford Petty Sessions, Transfer of Licences.  Black Lion Hartley to John William English.


10 Jan 1914 Farm Workers Wanted Kent Messenger
"Wanted men for fruit tree planting, digging etc; good wages and constant work for steady workmen - apply Small Owners Limited, Hartley, Longfield."


10 Jan 1914 Rural Development: A Settlement of Small Owners The Outlook
Rural Development. A Settlement Of Small Owners (By Patrick Perterras.)


Some weeks ago Mr. Tollemache's book, The Occupying Ownership of Land, was reviewed in The Outlook. Exception was taken to some of the author's views with regard to agricultural cooperation, and it was argued that the extremely well-organised group of small holdings at Fairby, to which he refers, though a great advance on the unorganised groups of the past, must in turn be surpassed by groups organised on genuinely cooperative lines. I believe that contention to be incontrovertible. It elms not follow however that the Fairby group is not destined to be entirely successful. There is no reason why it should not become cooperative. Its success indeed seems to be already assured, and it is with sincere satisfaction that I see it tending more and more towards cooperative methods. If, as I believe will be the case, the plan adopted at Fairby proves merely an approach to cooperation through the temporary employment of outside capital on joint-stock lines, co-operators need not object to it. The example may well be one which in similar conditions they might follow. It is said in support of the Fairby plan that when it is proposed to settle men on the land who have little or no experience of either agriculture or cooperation, some kind of paternal administration is essential to begin with, and that cooperation, if later considered desirable by the settlers themselves, will follow. I am not prepared to assert that in the circumstances indicated the Fairby plan may not be the best.


Some account of the Fairby settlement, and the means by which it was brought into being, may be interesting. At the is outset it may be said that the admirable work accomplished at Fairby has been done by Mr. George Humphrey, the present managing director, and his brother, Mr. Leonard Humphrey, the chief agricultural expert and formerly an official of the fa Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.


The estate has recently been added to considerably, and the original number of fifty small holdings will probably be more than doubled within the next few months. When the land was purchased it consisted of fruit-orchards, pasture, and the arable land, all in very good order. The scheme of the syndicate which bought it was to cut it up into small holdings, building a house on each in accordance with the requirements of the occupier. Each accepted applicant was advised as to the class and size of holding most suitable to him and as to the employment of his capital. As a rule a cash payment, but equal to 25 per cent, of the price of the house and land, was, demanded on taking possession, the balance being payable in instalments spread over twelve years. An arrangement has since been made with a building society by which the payments may, if desired, be spread over twenty years. All the sale occupiers must become purchasers either for cash or on the then instalment system. There are no permanent tenancies.


In a central position there is a depot, which is at once the social and business centre of the group. Each small holder over can hire labour, implements, or horses at reasonable rates. Through the depot he can market his produce and buy his requirements. There is a store where domestic necessaries may be purchased; and a credit bank is being established to supply capital, if required, to those who, having invested in the estate, have a sound security to offer. There is also a well-equipped jam factory and fruit-bottling establishment. Skilled technical advice is provided, so that the least experienced men can hardly go wrong and will gradually gain knowledge in a practical school which is always up to date. The deptot also serves the purpose of a dub, possessing a library and common reading-room. Social and business meetings take place frequently. The settlers' wives have formed themselves into a ladies' guild and are already organising a supplementary industry, which will probably take form of carpet-weaving, to be carried on in their homes.


It will be seen that the system makes it especially easy for those who are not adepts in agriculture to set up on the land.


Experience is not insisted on as a qualification. In selecting from the many applicants energy and character are considered far more than technical knowledge, and the wisdom of this course has been completely vindicated. If the settlement had done nothing else, it would have served a most useful purpose in establishing beyond a doubt that, with sound advice and expert guidance at command, the intelligent but uninstructed man who will work may confidently set up as a small farmer and at once become successful.


Fruit and vegetables form the bulk of the output from Fairby. Most of the small holders also keep poultry, though poultry-keeping is not generally recommended to the inexperienced man except as an auxiliary industry. Some pigs are kept and there is a range of pigsties at the depot, where those who have no accommodation for pigs on their holdings may house them for 6d. a week apiece. The only dairying : is done by one settler, who supplies the others with milk, and in doing so finds a sufficient business. The holdings vary in size from two to twelve acres.


I must record, as an example of the manner in which smallholders settled in a group and working together can obtain advantages which individually would be quite out of their reach, the way in which the important strawberry-crop is said dealt with at Fairby. The fruit is gathered soon after 4am, and a motor immediately conveys it to London, where it is on sale by 8am the same day. In the evening any fruit which may remain unsold is brought back to Fairby by the same motor and at once made into jam or " pulped " for winter jam-making. Similar methods are applied to other kinds of produce; and when difficulties arise about the disposal of anything produced on the estate, the matter is carefully thought out by good business brains, and if a solution the is possible it is sure to be arrived at.


So far all the settlers have cultivated almost exclusively in the open, and there is little glass to be seen on the holdings. But the management have just erected a long range of glass for experimental purposes. It is proposed to test various kinds of hothouse crops; and when it has been proved beyond a doubt that any particular form of produce can be raised profitably, the syndicate will be prepared to advance money to settlers to put up the necessary glass for themselves. It may perhaps surprise some readers to know that without any glass a good worker can extract a reasonable living from two acres of ground. It is found that the net is income from that area at Fairby comes to about £70 a year.


It will be seen that the Fairby system provides not merely to the economic advantage of buying or selling in common, but some of the social amenities which co-operation affords. And it is clear that ultimately the settlement can become entirely co-operative. Already it has been decided is to offer the store to a co-operative society consisting of the settlers. I understand that another co-operative society for sale and purchase is contemplated by some of the settlers themselves. And when the original syndicate has sold and been paid for all its land it will have fulfilled its function, and all the central institutions created by it can then be taken over by the settlers.


I may add that a portion of the Fairby estate has been set aside for what are residential rather than agricultural small holdings. Houses costing £800 or £1,000 or more, with two or three acres of land attached, are obviously not intended to be supported from such small landed estates. But it seems very sound policy to associate with the community at Fairby a certain number who do not rely on agriculture for their living. It takes all classes to make up a complete community.


The Fairby system is simplicity itself, and for that very reason its originators deserve the highest credit. Like Columbus with the egg, they have shown how easy of solution a baffling problem may be when approached intelligently. What they have done may be done again, and their system may be applied to many forms of agricultural enterprise. They have rendered a great service to the cause of rural development. They do not profess to be philanthropists, but nevertheless they have brightened the lives and added to the happiness of those who have taken advantage of their scheme.



16 Jan 1914 The Poultry World Prize House Poultry World
The Poultry World £1,000 farm picture of house (2), breeding pens, Orchard pens (LON/205 p 479))


30 Jan 1914 The Poultry World Prize House Poultry World
Ad - Mrs O'Grady winner £1,000 Poultry World prize, offers to pupils at very reasonable fees, tuition all branches, poultry farming, either at Longfield, Kent or Coachford, co Cork.


31 Jan 1914 Potatoes for Sale Kent Messenger
Mr Sale of Hartley Green has 2 tons of chat (baby) potatoes for sale


13 Feb 1914 Football Bexleyheath Observer
"Erith Baptists v Hartley.  Hartley visited Erith in the Dartford League on Saturday.  The Baptist won the toss and elected to kick with the wind.  Very soon the Hartley goal was besieged, and after 10 mintues' play, Blake opened the scoring with a long shot.  Hartley then broke away, but Gill eventually cleared with a big kick, and once again the 'Baps' were pressing.  About half way through this half, Beaton broke through the Hartley defence, and from just inside the penalty area scored no 2 with a beauty, the goalie having little chance.  With the wind against them, the 'Baps' took some time to settle down, but gradually they worked down to the visitor's goal.  Hartley were having more of the game now, but the defence was too strong for them.  Beaton drew the Hartley defence, and passing to Purcell, enabled the latter to put across a nice centre, and Newby scored no 3.  Bong wings, well supplied by Ford, spelt danger whenever they broke away, and from one of these raids, Newby, standing close in, received the ball, and promptly kicked no. 4.  This was all the scoring, and the Baptist gained two pointsby 4-0."


14 Feb 1914 Longfield Football Club Kent Messenger
2nd annual dinner of Longfield Football Club at the Black Lion.  President J Dudley Martin in the chair.


20 Feb 1914 Dartford & District Football League Bexleyheath Observer
Division II table 1 Slade Green Loco (Played 11, Points 20), 2 Stone Invicta (10, 16), Stone Club (7, 11), Wilmington TAS (7, 11), Erith Baptists (10, 9), Stone St Michaels (11, 7), Crayford Invicta Res (9, 5), Hawley Res (9, 4), Hartley (Played 12, won 0, drew 1, lost 11, goals for 3, goals against 71, points 1)


21 Feb 1914 Longfield, Slander Kent Messenger
Sims v Lynds, case of slander at Longfield.  Jury awards plaintiff £5


28 Feb 1914 Cow for Sale Kent Messenger
For sale - half bred shorthorn and Kerry Cow, mother prize winner - £25.  Also Gentleman's phaeton and rick cloth - Pennis House, Fawkham


28 Feb 1914 Horse for Sale Kent Messenger
"Bay van mare for sale, 8 years, quiet good worker.  H Bentley, Hartley, Longfield, Kent."


07 Mar 1914 Black Lion Trading Standards Kent Messenger
"At Dartford, on Friday, Charles English, of Hartley, was summoned for selling margarine instead of butter.  He pleaded not guilty.  Richard Fulkes, Dartford, said that on January 24th he asked for half a pound of butter at defendant's shop at Hartley, and handed the purchase over to Supt Hayward.  the latter stated that he sent a portion of this to the County Analyst, who certified that it was margarine.  Defendant said the young woman who helped in the kitchen made the sale, giving the purchaser a half pound of margarine in ignorance, although there were papers bearing the words "margarine" in letters 2½ inches deep across the front of the counter.  Miss English, defendant's sister in law, said she served the man.  She asked him if he wanted the butter at 1s 4d or 1s 2d.  He asked "Have you any cheaper?"  She told him there was some at 1s a pound.  He said "That will do", and she weighed him a quantity out.  He paid her sixpence, and left the shop - a fine of 5s and costs was imposed."


13 Mar 1914 These Motorists Bexleyheath Observer
"There are still some motorists who disturb the peacefulness of Bexleyheath with furious driving.  At the Dartford Petty Sessions, Harry Robert Rue, 10 Earl's Road, Bermondsey was summoned for exceeding the 12 mile speed limit with a heavy motor on February 12th at Crook Log.  PS Philcox proved the case, and defendant was fined 10s and costs.  For exceeding the 20 mile limit on the Broadway, Bexleyheath, George John Bush, Hartley Manor, Longfield, was fined 20s and costs."


19 Mar 1914 The Fairby Village Farm Ormskirk Advertiser
Successful Small Holdings Experiment


An article which must be of great interest at the present time, when Small Holdings and their creation are so much in the public mind, appears in the March Official Circular of the Central Land Association, from the pen of Mr G H Humphrey.  The scheme, which is here outlined, and with which Mr Humphrey is so clearly associated, is claimed to be the most successful experiment of the kind in this country.


At the outset the writer of the article says it is gernerally admitted that agriculture should employ a larger number of the population of this country than it does at present.  Compared with other European countries, the area under agriculture in the United Kingdom employs barely one third of the number which aa similar area employs in other countries.  It was after investigation of small holdings and small holding societies in this country that the organisation under which Fairby Farm is developing was formed in 1911, Mr Humphreys continues:


"We found that small holdings suffered from lack of capital, and the failure and limited success which are generally associated with the movement is due to this fact.  I came to this conclusion that unless it could be proved that small holdings were sufficiently commercially successful to attract capital just in the same way as in any other industrial enterprise, all the propaganda work which was being done by the societies was to no purpose.


Investigating the price of land, it was found that under the Small Holdings Act 1907, many small holders were paying 50 shillings and some even more per acre, or a rent in many cases 50, 60 and 100 per cent more than the rental farmer had paid for the land as a large farm  But enquiry from some of the large estate agents showed that there were many estates in this country which were as suitable for small holdings as any which were being let for 50 shillings per acre, to be purchased at from £18 to £30 per acre.  Land which would be bought for £20 per acre was as good as that which was being let under the 1907 Act at 40 shillings and 50 shillings per acre.  Here then was an opportunity to prepare a scheme of land settlemen which should prove a sound commercial investment.


A scheme of small holding purchase by instalments was prepared and put into operation with such success that a small farm was secured in Essex, divided up into small holding and rapidly disposed of.  This land was sold to th esmall holders at £27 per acre.  As evidence of its suitability for the purpose, one of the small holders told me at the end of the second year that he had made a return of £50 per acre, and that he expected in a year or two's time to make £70 and £80 per acre nett profit from his holding.  I should mention here that I believe him to abe an exceptionally capable small holder, and therefore his figures are above the average return which may be expected.  But his fact also emphasises that a small holder who knew his beuness chose land which could be sold at £27 per acre, and has done extraordinarily well on it. He has told me that he considers this land equal to much of the land which is offered in Cambridgeshire at £80 and £100 per acre, where the demand for small holdings alone has sent up the price of land.  As had been expected, the success of this samll farm had the result of securing outside coercial capital, enabling the organisation, which had been started by my brother and myself, to purchase Fairby, a property sufficiently large for the development of those ideas of organisation and administration which we deemed essential in any large scheme for the creation of small holdings.


Fairby Farm in 1911 was 315 acres in extent and is situated 23 miles from London on the main Chatham line.  From the agricultural point of view it is a fair type of many farms to be found in this country.  It had been cultivated as an average Kentish farm.  50 acres were under fruit, about 40 acres under market garden crops, 60 acres under pasture, and the rest was farmed with straw and root crops.  The fruit plantations were 5 and 6 years old, and gave us admirable data as to what an established small fruit holding woudl produce.  The farm generally was suitable for almost every form of intensive agriculture.  This area was offered for sale in small holdings in the autum of 1911, and was very rapidly taken up. There are altogether some 60 small holders on the farm, and most of them go in for a mixed semi-intensive form of cultuvation.  With regard to the selection of applicants, as a commercial concern it is not possible to influence these very directly, but our policy has been to encourage rather the better type of agriculturalist and the small businessman than the ordinary agricultural labourer.  Although agricultural experience is of course invaluable in farming, it is not so necessary, and has proved indeed sometimes a hindrance when a man takes up a small holding.


The distinction between small holdings and farming has not been sufficiently defined in the past.  A small holder is not a little farmer, and to be successful has very little indeed to learn from a large farmer.  Niether have we found that the men who win the prizes at the local flower shows and grow the largest cabbages and the finest rhubarb become the best small holders. The important thing fo a small holder to learn is to grow what he can sell profitably, and in this way many men who have had something of a ound business trianing, bu tno agricultural experience, become excellent small holders.  A man who came to use 2 years ago with no experience and took up a 5 acre holding (??? fruit)  last year made £180 nett profit after paying all expenses.  I am persuaded in my own mind that there should be no difficulty in creating hundreds of similarly successful small holders in other parts of the United Kingdom.


In dividing Fairby a basis of ownership was decided upon for two reasons. Firstly that ownership would be more attractive to the commerial poeple we desired to interest, as it would offer a better return on their capital.  Secondly, we found that ownership had much greater attraction for the best small holders than any system of tenancy.  With the Fairby system which is now fairly well know as the 'depot system' of agricultural organisation, we carry on the farm staff, buildings, horses, implements, just as they were conducted under the later owner and farmer.  Most small holders in other districts have a stable, a horse or pony, a cart, a plough [.......................................................................] labour is used to cultvate the farm and to keep all the unsold land in at least as high a state of cultiviation as it was when we took it over.  Similarly, the requirements of small holders wiht regard to seeds, implements, netting, fencing etc are met through the Buying Department. The farm staff is in charge of a foreman who is chosen for his experience of market garden and fruit crops.  In additiona to the use of the buildings as a Depot, ertain portions of them have been adapted to provide the other departments which the scheme includes.  In the Machinery Building there is an efficient oil engine and shafting runs to the chaff cutting machine, root pulpers and oat crushers, also to the Joinery Shop where the window frames and other joinery used in the Building Department for the erection of houses and temporary buildings are made.  Teh power is also used in connection with some of the machinery in the Jam Factory.  With the Jam Factory on the spot the small holder at Fairby is sure of anett market price on his holding which is nearly always better than the nett price that he could expect on an exceptionally good day at Covent Garden.  In connection with the Depot there is also a 5 acre market garden, including a long glass and mushroom house whih is being developed to provide experimental data for the small holders.  It is hoped during the coming year to instal several similar glass houses on the small holdings.  Many small holders would go in for glass were it not for the captial involved.  It is proposed at Fariby to build  glass  houses for the small holders and sell them to them on a deferred payment system over a term of years.


Another development which is also under consideration is a plant for the dessication of vegetables.  This it is considered will deal wiht the surplus of vegetables just the same as the Jam Factory deals with the surplus of fruit.  We have always considered that a small holding colony should not only produce successful small holders, but should promote the prosperity of the district in which they are situated.  That this has been the case at Fairby is very evident.  Under the old system of farming, Fairby in 1910 employed only about 7 men per 100 acres.  Under present conditions the estate is employing 25 men for each 100 acres. The local tradesmen testify to the increased prosperity which they have experienced as a result of the settlement at Fairby.  Even the Railway Company last year considered it advisable to open a new stateion in the district.  With these facts in mind we welcomed the opportunity which arose last year to purchase an adjoining 600 acres, being the Hartley Manor Estate, which in its turn is developing as satisfactorily as Fairby has done.


In conclusion, I consider that we have abundantly proved at Fairby the economic soundness of small holdings and the suitability of the Englishman for intensive cultivation.  Further we have showen that the United Kingdom can offer better opportunities than any of our Colonies to any man who wishes for an agricultural life and is willing to work hard.  Several of the returned Colonials who have settled down at Fairby have made similar remarks to me.  One in particular who approached us 2 years ago would not believe, afeter 22 years' experience in Canada that a living could be made off less than 100 acres of land.  After being assured that 5 acres under our system was sufficient to provide a good income, and with the additional proisse that if he could not make a living from it, we would take his house and 5 acres of land back at the price he paid for them, he decided to settle at Fairby.  Last year he tells me he made £164 nett profit off his 5 acres.  Comment is needless.  What has been done at Fairby can be done in many other parts of the country.  Fairby is the first serious attempt to bring sound finane, business organisation and suitable applicants together, for the extension of small holdings in this country.


With regard to the question of cooperation, I feel sure that ultimately Fairby will become entire cooperative.  Our system of organisation takes the place of cooperation for the time, as the capital it represents provides the implements and organisation for combined working  When, however the small holders have put their individual undertakings on a osund comercial basis, they will know aht they require and jut how far cooperative management will benefit them."



21 Mar 1914 Essex and Kent Road Land for Sale Gravesend Reporter
Plots for sale in Fawkham (probably Kent Road/Essex Road) by Kent and Essex House Land and General Investment Co Ltd


21 Mar 1914 Eggs for Sale Kent Messenger
Chicken and duck eggs for sale - Bassano, The Croft


11 Apr 1914 Longfield Property Sale Gravesend Reporter
Messrs Winnatt - Bungalow and 3 acres at Longfield for sale £1,500


24 Apr 1914 Rev G Bancks of Hartley Daily Mail
The Profitable Bee' letter by Rev Bancks


01 May 1914 Retirement of Police Inspector Gravesend Standard
"Police Inspector A Thompson, who has retired from the Kent County Constabulary after nearly 30 years' honourable service, joined the force on June 24th, 1884, and was first stationed at Hartley, and then at Ash and Greenhithe.  When at the latter town he was awarded a special mark for his meritorious conduct in apprehending two burglars at the Ship Hotel, who had effected an entrance to the premises by means of a ladder.  On January 26th 1894 he was promoted to instructing constable, and appointed to Sutton at Hone, and afterwards served at Riverhead, Westerham, Knockholt and Snodland, being promoted to sergeant on November 30th 1897 when serving at Westerham.  On November 1st 1900 he was appointed to West Malling, and was stationed there until promoted to Inspector on April 1st 1908, and appointed to Sheerness, where he has remained until his retirement."


02 May 1914 Homefield, Stack Lane Kent Messenger
Occupier of Homefield, Stack Lane wants to rent house in Bickley area.


08 May 1914 Dartford Rural District Council Sanitary Committee Bexleyheath Observer
Medical Officer of Health reported 19 cases of Scarlet Fever in the previous month, 3 of diptheria (one from Hartley), and 2 of enteric fever (one of these cases at Longfield attributed to eating oysters).


09 May 1914 Hares for Sale Kent Messenger
Hares for sale - Wood, Woodcroft


09 May 1914 Rev G Bancks of Hartley Kent Messenger
Favourable review of Rev Bancks's book "Harvest of the Hives"


14 May 1914 Treadwell Family Table Talk (Melbourne, Aus)
Engagement of Ruby Treadwell of Fairby, York Street, St Kilda


15 May 1914 Longfield Cricket Club Gravesend Standard
Cricket - Northfleet v Longfield at Northfleet.  Longfield 120 all out, Northfleet 121-9


15 May 1914 Occupation Ownership of Land North Wales Chronicle
"The overemigration of the rural population of Great Britain into our towns and colonies has caused the depopulation of our villages to such a serious extent that England has, at last, turned her attention to the question of the land, this being now one of the chief topics of the day.  Recent events prove tht great changes must soon take place in our land system......."


Fairby Farm Estate: A company was formed to acquire and organise smallholdings, conducted as a money making business, not charity.  The experiment amply justified itself.  Land and buildings were taken on 12 years' purchase system, 25 per cent was paid deposit on taking possession, and this deposit is kept as a reserve in case the smallholder gets behind through inexperience.  The company then return him the 25 per cent, but retain the land, thus helping him to tide over his loss.  So the company is really a credit bank to the smallholder.  The Fairby Farm smallholders have teh enormous advantage of agricultural organisation.  A farmhouse has been turned into a depot, and it is close by.  From this central depot expert advice is given to the new smallholder, giving him every information he requires as tot eh size and division fo the holding, the cottage, amount of capital to be outlayed on the purchase of stock and manure.  this help is so thorough that eveen experience in cultivation was not needed, provided the man had energy and character.  At this depot they have a competent foreman, a poultry expert, and sufficient implements for all the holdings.  The depot cultivates the land not taken, gives them help and advice when necessary, and horses, implements and labour are hired from the depot at a profit to the depot.  The advantage of this to the 50 smallholders now can be gathered from the fact that not one of the 50 has found it necessary to buy a horse or build a stable!  The depot is the social and business centre of teh whole area.  The smallholder buys at the lowest market prices what implements he may want, and sells his produce direct to the big markets.  The produce is sold through the depot to salesmen, who like to buy in big quantities.  Last year the Fairby Farm estate smallholders sent their produce to Belfast, Wigan, the North of England as well as London.  The depot farm manager superintends the carting and packing of fruit, and the preparation of poultry for sale.  Consignments are bulked, saving railway carriage and leaving the smallholder free to devote his time to the holdings.  Compare this with our poor Welsh farmer trudging to market with 2 or 3 fowls, 2 or 3 dozen eggs, and a few pounds of butter!"



16 May 1914 Longfield Cricket Club Gravesend Reporter
Southfleet cricket club fixtures - Longfield (H - 20/6, A - 18/7), Hartley (H - 4/7, A 15/8)


20 May 1914 Small Owners Description Lincolnshire Echo
Detailed description of Fairby Estate


22 May 1914 Hartley Roads Bexleyheath Observer
Dartford RDC - "A letter was received from the Mid Kent Water Company in reply to the Council's complaint as to the defective reinstatement of the roads at Hartley, where water pipes had been laid by the company, stating that they had had their men on the track, on and off, for the last 3 months, and were again sending them next week to patch up the road where necessary.  The Committee had instructed the surveyor to see that the company properly reinstated the road."


22 May 1914 Longfield Cricket Club Gravesend Standard
Cricket - Henley's Athletic v Longfield at L.  Longfield 73 all out.  Henleys 89-3


23 May 1914 Beating the Bounds at Meopham Gravesend Reporter
Beating the bounds at Meopham. L Oliver remmbered doing the same 61 years before. Detailed report


23 May 1914 Hartley a Growing Village Kent Messenger
"Hartley: A Growing Village.  In North Kent, one of the most rapidly developing places of late is Hartley.  It is, indeed almost a village of mushroom growth, for whereas a couple of years ago fair fields surrounded a few houses, today it stands as a village plentifully besprinkled with small detached villas, each hemmed in with a few acres of cultivated land.  the reason for this expansion is the success which has attended a small holding scheme.  There may be various views as to the smallholding movement, but certainly the Fairby Estate (as the new settlement is termed) seems to promise excellently.  The estate covers 1,000 acres, adn to meet the requirements of the 'community' a Roman Catholic chapel is in the course of erection, a new post office installed, and, we understand, one of the London Banks contemplate opening a branch.  The principal feature of the scheme is, of course, the central depot, which is admirably organised to comprise a hub of social and commercial activity.  For recreative purposes, a library and club room are provided, while in addition to a jam factory and fruit bottling department, facilities are afforded on behalf of the smallholders for the purchase of various farm implements.  In short, Hartley is establishing itself as a progressive, enterprising, locality."


23 May 1914 Cottage to Let Kent Messenger
5 bed cottage to let - Barnes, Hartley


30 May 1914 A Smallholders' Law Suit Kent Messenger
"A Smallholders' Law Suit


An action to restrain a nuisance brought by Mr E Hallick of Verbena Lodge, Hartley Green, against the Small Owners Ltd, London, came before Mr Justice Warrington in the Chancery Division on Friday, resulting in a settlement which was announced on Monday.


Mr Hallick, who bought a small holding from the defendants on which to cultivate market flowers, complained that defendants manufactured jam in premises adjoining his land and allowed quantities of black smoke to be emitted from a chimney.  The smoke and soot, he said, spoiled his flowers, rendering them unmarketable.  The price paid for the holding was £275.


In announcing a settlement, Mr Terrell KC, for the plaintiff, said that the defendants would buy back the holding for £450 and pay £150 in respect of costs.  The plaintiff and his wife were prepared to start life again elsewhere, with they hoped, better success.  His lordship sanctioned the settlement and expressed his approval of it." [Verbena Lodge was later called "The Nutshell" and was demolished to make way for Culvey Close]



06 Jun 1914 Longfield Station Gravesend Reporter
Trains from Fawkham 7.40, 8.22, 10.13, 1.15, 2.30, 3.15, 4.31 (NS), 4.33 (S), 5.53, 8.27, 10.41; Sun 8.24, 11.43, 5.20, 10.40


13 Jun 1914 Fire at Kent Road, Longfield Gravesend Reporter
Fire at home of TW Lynds of Kent Road, Longfield. Fire brigade quickly on scene and no-one hurt


13 Jun 1914 Roman Remains at Ash Kent Messenger
Roman remains discovered on George Day's farm at Ash


13 Jun 1914 Ash & District Horticultural Society Show Kent Messenger
Ash and District Horticultural Society choose Mr Johnson of Hartley to judge Ash garden competition because he doesn't live in the parish


16 Jun 1914 Longfield Cricket Club Gravesend Standard
Northfleet v Longfield at L.  Northfleet 157, Longfield 42.  J Rich played for Longfield scored 1 got 1 wicket.  Also G Rich, W & R Heaver


19 Jun 1914 Whose Clothes? Bexleyheath Observer
"George Taylor, no fixed abode, was charged at the Dartford Police Court on Wednesday morning with stealing a quantity of clothing, valued at 15s, the property of some person, or persons, at that time unknown.  PS Binfield said he saw prisoner outside the Railway Tavern, Longfield, on Tuesday night with a bag on his back.  He asked the man if he had been selling some clothes in the public house.  Prisoner said: 'They are my own clothes.  I bought them from a pawnbroker in High Street, Strood.'  Upon examining the bag witness found it contained a lot of clothing.  Prisoner had sold a pair of boots and a suit of clothes to a man named Blake for 4s.  Witness told prisoner he very much doubted if he was selling his own clothes, whether he would let a suit go for 4s.  Prisoner said: 'Well, then, find out where I got them.  I've been in prison every year for 16 years, and I can go again.'  The case was remanded until Friday, in order that further evidence might be forthcoming."


19 Jun 1914 Johns, Johns Close Poultry World
Prize Poultry Farm to be auctioned on 3 July


20 Jun 1914 Ash Road Gravesend Reporter
Surface water at Fairby. Surveyor recommends new catch pit at Fairby and overflow iron kerb be installed by Old Downs private road. Mid Kent water said not to have reinstated road properly after laying their mains.


20 Jun 1914 Woodlands, Ash Road for Sale Kent Messenger
To those desirous of residing in a beautiful part of the county, with a pleasurable and remunerative occupation.


WOODLANDS, HARTLEY


1½ miles from Fawkham Station, 22 miles from London.


A perfectly unique freehold property, comprising picturesque small residence, approached by carriage drive with pretty gardens and lawns in front, and containing 3 reception rooms, kitchen, scullery, 3 bedrooms, bathroom (h & c) etc.  Company's water.  Modern drainage


4 acres thriving fruit plantation.  A part of the property has been highly cultivated for market gardening, and the remainder includes paddock and poultry runs, the whole extending to about 14 acres.


Denyer and Collisn are instructed to sell the above by auction, at the Mart, Tokenhouse Yard, EC, on Friday June 26th at 2 o'clock precisely....



20 Jun 1914 Evening Classes Kent Messenger
Annual exhibition from craft and evening schools held at Maidstone.  "The many exquisite designs of lace afforded some indication of the popularity of this beautiful work in some of the villages of Kent, largely through the efforts of Mrs and Miss Ainger, who have given instruction at 8 centres during the past winter with marked success.  Among the first year students, Miss Edith Rodwell, Hartley, was placed first, her exhibit consisting of some lovely Buckinghamshire lace in course of production..."


27 Jun 1914 Evening Classes Gravesend Reporter
Longfield - fruit farm strike spreading; evening classes at Clubroom


27 Jun 1914 Obituary of William Packman Kent Messenger
Ash - Sudden death


William Packman, aged 74, who had been employed for a number of years by Mr Joseph Thornton, New House Farm, Hartley, died suddenly on Saturday morning last.  He was heard as usual about the house at 6.30am by his sister, Mrs Russell of Russell Villas, Ash, with whom he lived.  Shortly afterwards she heard him calling to come downstairs, and on arriving found him lying prostrate on the kitchen floor.  Dr Smith was sent for, and on arriving shortly afterwards found that life was extinct.  The cause of death was attributed to heart trouble, and the coroner decided that an inquest was not necessary.


[The Packmans originally lived for many years at Hartley Hill Cottage, and William was still employed at New House Farm.]



27 Jun 1914 Evening Classes Kent Messenger
Evening classes at Longfield and Hartley.  Lace weaving class at Hartley


30 Jun 1914 Hartley Cricket Club Gravesend Standard
"The IPM were much too strong for the home team at Hartley on Saturday, both in bowling and batting.  Williams took 4 wickets for only 3 runs, and Lowman 5 for 13, and Hartley were all disposed of for 30.  The visitors only lost 1 wicket in winning, C A Harris and H Bullock doing all the batting."


Hartley - 30 all out (Rodwell 0, Ellerby 3, A Humphreys 2, Dennis 3, Saftin [should be Laftin] 7, Cox 5, H Day 0, F Cox 0, C Haygreen 1*, J Boorman 0, Hodges 3, Extras 6).


IPM 60 for 1 (C A Harris 28*, H Bullock 20*, H Day took the only wicket).



04 Jul 1914 Longfield Church Gravesend Reporter
Feature and picture of Longfield Church; accident at Whitehill Corner


11 Jul 1914 Hartley Cricket Club Gravesend Reporter
Cricket - Southfleet 157 all out; Hartley 60 all out


11 Jul 1914 Small Owners Description London Standard
Bevil Tollemache writes to claim Fairby is a success, a venture he was involed in with G H Humphreys and his brother.  Details


14 Jul 1914 Hartley Cricket Club Gravesend Standard
"Northfleet won by 117 runs, on Saturday, their opposition being Hartley.  T Lincoln and A Stevens batted finely for the winners, but the most remarkable thing about the match was the bowling of A Wenban, his analysis reading 2 overs, 1 run, 6 wickets.  Hartley have a good bowler in A Humphries, and he, bowling right through Northfleet's innings claimed 9 of their wickets."


Northfleet 152 all out (T Lincoln 41, A Stevens 32, W Saville 21, A Humphries took 9 wickets, H Ellerby 1 [prob C H Ellerby]).


Hartley 35 (H Ellerby 0, T Rodwell 6, R Bastills [prob Bartels] 4, A Humphries 5, P Dennis 5, W Braybrook 4, E Holness 0, J Wickens 0, W Cox 1, H Williams 0, E Letchford 1*, Extras 9).



14 Jul 1914 Evening Classes Gravesend Standard
Kent VAD holding classes in Gravesend


18 Jul 1914 Hartley Road, Longfield Gravesend Reporter
Dangerous corner at Hartley Road in Longfield to be seen to by Dartford Rural District Council


18 Jul 1914 Bicycle for Sale Kent Messenger
Mead lady's bicycle for sale £3 15s.  Bunce Hartley Manor


18 Jul 1914 Hospital at Cliffe? Gravesend Standard
Rector of Cliffe offers rectory as hospital and his car for any war


18 Jul 1914 Lt F de Mallet Morgan Framlingham Weekly
Picture of marriage of Lieutenant F de Mallet Morgan.


18 Jul 1914 Hartley Cricket Club Kent Messenger
"Cricket: a feature of Hartley's match with Northfleet [at Northfleet] on Saturday, when they were defeated 152 runs to 35, was the bowling of A Humphreys, who took 9 wickets.  Wenham, for the other side, however, took 6 wickets for 1 run!"


28 Jul 1914 Aircraft at Gravesend Gravesend Standard
For first time in history, Gravesend is visited by aircraft and 2 airships


31 Jul 1914 Dublin Fusiliers at Gravesend Gravesend Standard
Excitement as 2nd batt Dublin Fusiliers marched from Milton Barracks, some caught train in direction of Rochester, other part went to guard Tilbury Docks.  Guns mounted at Purfleet Tower, huge oil storage tanks there an obvious target for aircraft.  Aeroplane patrols from Eastchurch too


31 Jul 1914 Success of Fairby Western Gazette
Success of Fairby


01 Aug 1914 Small Owners offer land for council housing Gravesend Reporter
Smallowners Limited - H G Humphries, general manager, offers land for council to build 20 houses and to guarantee rents for a period of years. Said expansion of fruit industry had led to demand for labour but lack of housing supply


01 Aug 1914 Jennie M Coutts Marriage Kent Messenger
Longfield - wedding of Jennie M Coutts of Thorn, Longfield to Leonard D Durban of Kennington at Southfleet


01 Aug 1914 German Reservists leave England at the Call of the Kaiser Gravesend Magazine
German Reservists leave England at the call of the Kaiser - pictured "leaving their adopted home to fight against it".  Some going willingly but many not, one said he was only going because he feared he'd never see his aged mother again.


04 Aug 1914 German Reservists leave England at the Call of the Kaiser Gravesend Standard
On Sunday 2nd, 1,000 German reservists embark at Gravesend to defend their country.  Most townsfolk silent, as few boos but most felt they were simply doing their duty.  One german said with pride he'd given up a good job and his English wife was accompanying him


04 Aug 1914 Troop Movements in Kent Gravesend Standard
"Gen teams have been passing almost daily through Green Street Green and Longfield, their destination being evidently Maidstone and Canterbury.  Drivers and men fully accoutred, their horses stretching their full stride…"


04 Aug 1914 Reservists Called Up Gravesend Standard
Many reservists called up.  Motor Consumer's Co buses pass through Gravesend with 5,000 gallons of fuel


07 Aug 1914 Outbreak of War in Dartford Dartford Chronicle
Outbreak of war. (Fri 31 Jul) Little excitement in Dartford as gravity of situation became known. (Sat 1) Rail travellers say tunnels lighted and lines supervised for whole length. (Sun 2) Prayers for peace in local churches, some sing national anthem. 40 London buses with seats removed at top seen going through at a late hour, rumours say they were to evacuate women and children from Sheerness. (Mon 3) Bank holiday, more around town than usual discussing the situation, every 2nd person had evening paper. No rowdiness, although as evening wore on knots of young men sang Britons never will be slaves "in tones more raucous than musical"


08 Aug 1914 Kent County Council Employees who Join up Kent Messenger
KCC vote to pay wages of those who volunteer or are called up for 1 month and more at committee's discretion.  Home Office has written to authorise a larger police force.


08 Aug 1914 Reservists Called Up Kent Messenger
Many Gravesend works lose staff as Territorials called up - Post Office 14, APCM 70, Henleys Cables 85, IPM 40, Amalgamated Press 21, Gravesend Police 8.  Big crowd at Clock Tower to hear result of GB ulitmatum delivered by telephone to the North Kent Club.  God Save the King and Rule Britannia sung "with patriotic fervour".


08 Aug 1914 Meopham Rifle Club Members Join up Kent Messenger
50 members of Meopham Rifle Club offer to serve


14 Aug 1914 German Spy' at Farningham Dartford Chronicle
Church Lads Brigade arrests 'German Spy' at Farningham (paper's quote marks)


14 Aug 1914 War is with German Rulers not its People in Britain Dartford Chronicle
Sportsman writes to the paper to urge that ill will to Germany's rulers should not extend to innocent Germans living in Britain. He cites one whose son is a territorial.


14 Aug 1914 What Women can do Dartford Chronicle
"What women can do" they can urge menfolk to serve country, and "unrecorded acts of womanly sympathy and devotion"


14 Aug 1914 Booker - Divall Wedding at Fawkham Dartford Chronicle
Marriage of George T W Booker of Speedgate to Clara Divall of Speedgate at St Mary's Fawkham


15 Aug 1914 Volunteers at Longfield Gravesend Reporter
Longfield hold parish meeting re war: 40 attend, 23 volunteer as special constables, 10 taken on. Schools to be used for Red Cross Work, Stretcher to be bought for Fire Brigade


15 Aug 1914 Gravesend VAD Kent Messenger
Good response to request for help from Gravesend VAD


15 Aug 1914 Volunteers at Meopham Kent Messenger
Meopham - 35 volunteer as special constables, ambulance training being offered, 34 in services and 52 in rifle club, so 121 now assisting their country.


21 Aug 1914 Call to Join Up Dartford Chronicle
Larger advert than previous week to get men to join up


22 Aug 1914 Longfield Special Constables Gravesend Reporter
32 special constables at Longfield


22 Aug 1914 Hartley and Fawkham Special Constables Gravesend Reporter
Small villages of Fawkham (14) and Hartley (16) examples to larger villages in volunteers to be speical constables


22 Aug 1914 Longfield Station Gravesend Reporter
Fawkham Station has become local agent for Reporter


22 Aug 1914 Poem for Peace Gravesend Reporter
Poem for peace (others in the paper at this time in favour of war), extract "For Halcyon days of August have / Grown dark with wintry fears / And smiles that welcomed their approach / Have turned alas to tears".. (by "FP")


22 Aug 1914 Longfield Special Constables Gravesend Reporter
22 special constables now in Longfield


22 Aug 1914 Hartley and Fawkham Special Constables Kent Messenger
Special Constables - Hartley 16, Fawkham 14, Dartford 19, Meopham 51, Longfield 28.


28 Aug 1914 Why every British Hen should be on active servic Poultry World
Why every British Hen should be on active service.  GB uses 12m eggs per day (2m in London alone).  Imports were 21m eggs in 1913, 2/3rds will be disrupted by the war eg. Germany 514,000 Austria 884,000, Russia 11.5m


29 Aug 1914 UK Harvest Kent Messenger
UK Harvest 1914 - 7,799,000 quarters of wheat


01 Sep 1914 Panic Buying Gravesend Standard
Paper refers to panic buying a month before


03 Sep 1914 A Foreigner Arrested Gravesend Reporter
Longfield: "A foreigner arrested": Special constable found Hungarian named Zuga Pop near Hartley on Wednesday evening. Charged with not registering under the Aliens' Registration Act.


04 Sep 1914 A Foreigner Arrested Dartford Chronicle
Conviction at Dartford


Tuesday at Dartford Police Court, Zeina Pol, described as a Hungarian, an old man, was charged with being an alien enemy, who had failed to regiter himself, at Ash on August 30th.


Accused said he did not know that he had to register.


PC Prall said he was called by a special constable on Wednesday night at Haven Hill, where he found the prisoner, who had several papers.  When asked whether he would be tried at this court or not, prisoner said (through his interpreter) that he would like to be taken to London to se Mr Luber and the Acting consul.  He also said he thought the people were going to poison him with tea.


Mr E T Lincoln, official interpreting, said that a book and papers with pictures of two airships were found on the accused, who said he did not know what they were.  "He got these things because he wanted to be arrested."


Prisoner was sentenced to 1 month's hard labour.  [Later the interpreter Mr Lincoln would write that they thought he was a spy but couldn't prove anything, hence the vagrancy charge.]



04 Sep 1914 Football Suspended Gravesend Standard
Kent FA suspends competitions


04 Sep 1914 Artist Wrongly Arrested as Spy Gravesend Standard
Clerk from Gravesend mistaken for a spy and arrested while making a painting of the River Medway as his hobby


04 Sep 1914 200 Join up in Gravesend Gravesend Standard
200 joined up in Gravesend since first call.  59 at barracks on Monday (31/8), 46 accepted


05 Sep 1914 Fawkham Church Collection Kent Messenger
Collection at Fawkham Church for Prince of Wales Relief Fund raises £12.17.10


05 Sep 1914 First Aid Classes at Hartley Kent Messenger
Class for first aid and ambulance to be held in Hartley


05 Sep 1914 Earthworks at Longfield, Hartley and Ash Kent Messenger
"From Longfield, through Hartley and up to Ash, well defined earthworks occur in most of the woods, and frequently the banks are largely composed of flints.  An interesting point is the presence over the earthworks of circular depressions.  They are worth mapping for permanent record"


05 Sep 1914 War at Longfield Kent Messenger
"On Thursday there was another parish meeting for the enrolment as special constables.  Many parishioners have now joined this force, and are engaged during the nights in patrolling the roads and guarding the telegraph lines.  On Friday the ladies of the parish and neighbourhood assembled at the clubroom and formed a branch of Queen Mary's Needlework Guild, electing a committee with Mrs E Smith as president and Mrs Auld as secretary.  They started with a subscribed capital of £10 and are now strenuously at work on garments of various kinds.  Many of the young men of the parish have offered themselves for military service, including Mr CE Smith a son of the rector and two of the sons of Mr Hickmott of Longfield Court."


05 Sep 1914 A Foreigner Arrested Kent Messenger
Case of Tasya Pol - said to have been found by special constable at Haven Hill, Ash.  Given 1 month for not registering as enemy alien


05 Sep 1914 Roman Remains at Ash Kent Messenger
Roman remains found in North Ash


08 Sep 1914 Poem: To the Colours Dartford Chronicle
Poem by CBE "To the Colours" - "The piping days of peace are gone/The bugle calls to war".


08 Sep 1914 Army Recruiting at Northfleet Gravesend Standard
Army recruiters at Gravesend - Northfleet football match.  Only a small number of 400 crowd came forward, 11 accepted


08 Sep 1914 Clergy Cannot be Combatants Gravesend Standard
Archbishop of Canterbury says clergy can't be combatants as incompatible with office


10 Sep 1914 Roman Remains at Ash Gravesend Reporter
Roman remains found at Mr G Day's farm at Ash, 178 pieces of vessel including one with "Martinus F(ecit)"


10 Sep 1914 Longfield and Hartley Special Constables Gravesend Reporter
3 more special constables sworn in at Longfield, 19 at Hartley, 2 more at Ash


11 Sep 1914 Arthur Mee 'Will you let England Down' Dartford Chronicle
"Will you let England Down" big inset by Arthur Mee. If we lose our children will have to speak German, there will be taxes for the Prussian army of occupation. Tells men to join the army now.


12 Sep 1914 Army Recruiting Circular in Gravesend Kent Messenger
Gravesend Recruiting Committee send letter to large number of young men in district.


12 Sep 1914 James O'Neill Inquest Kent Messenger
Inquest on James O'Neill of Gravesend, who was working on Pescot Farm, Longfield for 5 weeks, went to bed in sack at farm, found dead in morning from heart failure.  Verdict - Natural Causes.  Given RC burial by Northfleet priest in Longfield Churchyard.


12 Sep 1914 Pescot Hill Longfield Accident Kent Messenger
Samuel Coad of Dartford in cycling accident on Pescot Hill, apparently braking too fast and going over handlebars, given first aid by TG Lynds and new parish stretcher (cost 30 shillings) brought from Longfield Hill, Meopham doctor Griffiths called and eventually he was taken to Dartford Cottage Hospital.  Dr Giffiths and TG Lynds will be running Hartley classes on alternate weeks


15 Sep 1914 Belgian Refugees Arrive Gravesend Standard
First batch of Belgian refugees arrive at Tilbury


15 Sep 1914 Army Recruiting Advert Gravesend Standard
Recruitment ad."What is your answer to your country's call?


17 Sep 1914 Longfield Roll of Honour Gravesend Reporter
Roll of Honour - Is your name on it. Weekly lists of recruits most without address, but No 2 Company KRGA (Territorials) Gunner E Dust and E Goodwin of Longfield


18 Sep 1914 George Johnson Lecture Western Daily Press
George Johnson lectures on fruit keeping


19 Sep 1914 Army Recruiting at Longfield Kent Messenger
Longfield - "Recruiting - a meeting was held in the Longfield Club Room on Tuesday evening to further recruiting.  The meeting having been opened by a stirring speech and songs, the Recruiting Officer for the Dartford District gave a well reasoned address, pointing out the great advantages of voluntary enlistment over consription, and urging the necessity for a large and efficient army even at the conclusion of the war, when the terms of peace were under discussion.  A lady on the platform made a strong appeal to women 'from a woman to women' begging wives and mothers to encourage their menkind to strive to defend their homes and families, while Canon Gedge of Gravesend, spoke upon the matter from a clerical point of view.  It was mentioned that if Longfield could make up a contingent of only 10 men, a place would be found for them in the West Kent Regiment"  (article elsewhere in paper says meeting was under auspices of Gravesend and Northfleet Territorial Force Sub-Committee.  Speakers - Rev E Smith (chairman), Lt Ivan Firth, Maj Pigou, Rev Canon Gedge, Mrs Firth, Guy T Munford (Sec).  Miss Winifred Firth and Lt Ivan Firth sang patriotic songs.  She also sang at a meopham recruiting meeting where was said to have just returned from tour of the world.  She lived in Gravesend (1911 Census)


[Gravesend Reporter 17.9.1914 said Gravesend Recruiting Committee holds meeting at Longfield Working Men's Club on Tuesday to "stir up right spirit in surrounding villages" (to Gravesend)]



25 Sep 1914 Milton Barracks Gravesend Standard
Record number (1,896) at Milton Barracks


25 Sep 1914 Small Owners Description Chelmsford Chronicle
GH Humphrey, Smallowners history


26 Sep 1914 Roman Remains at Ash Gravesend Reporter
Roman bath found at North Ash 7 by 7½ feet, nearby was deep pond with sides too steep for cattle , it is said it never dries up, possibly fed by springs


26 Sep 1914 Queen Mary's Guild Longfield Kent Messenger
Queen Mary's Guild, Longfield Branch.  60 useful articles sent on 9th Sept, 100 more reading to be sent.  Long list of names of officers and committee.  Thanked by queen, they have QMNG badges for sale at 1 shilling each to raise money.  47 from Longfield have joined up already, if every parish did this Kitchener would have an army not of 1m but 3-4m.


[Also in Gravesend Standard 25.9.1914]



26 Sep 1914 Poem: The piping days of peace have fled Kent Messenger
Frank H Humby (Sidcup) "The piping days of peace have fled / The bugle calls to war! / To check the grim and ruthless foe / To stay that own hand / For right to deal a winning blow / For home and king, for motherland! Etc for 5 more verses


26 Sep 1914 Longfield Football Club Kent Messenger
169 footballers from Gravesend league's 13 teams have joined up including 13 from Longfield in 2nd division


26 Sep 1914 Longfield Parish Council Kent Messenger
Longfield - trouble at Parish Council, meeting called for.  Details of members of Queen Mary's Guild, Longfield Branch


02 Oct 1914 Wake Up Dartford - Dartford's Poor Response to King's Appeal Dartford Chronicle
"Wake up Dartford - Dartford's poor response to King's appeal". Recruiting day only got 8 new volunteers "despite martial music and soul-stirring speeches". Large attendance but young men conspicuous by their absence. MP and other dignitaries attend at Central Park


03 Oct 1914 Army Recruiting at Longfield Gravesend Reporter
47 from Longfield have joined up - 4 times the national average; Queen Mary's Guild at Longfield have donated 100 useful items


03 Oct 1914 First Wounded Arrive at Gravesend Kent Messenger
First wounded arrive at Gravesend


03 Oct 1914 Evening Classes Kent Messenger
Longfield and Hartley - classes at Fairby Club Room - first aid for women (Tues), Cookery (Weds), room lent free of charge by Smallowners.  Day schools reopened on Monday after hop picking holiday; girls go to Dartford Brent School to learn cookery, boys to Southfleet for woodwork.   Frank Pankhurst and Percy Bevan of Longfield survivors of HMS Cressy sinking (see article)


[Also mentioned in Gravesend Reporter 10.10.1914]



03 Oct 1914 Longfield Survivors from HMS Cressy Kent Messenger
Longfield survivors of HMS Cressy disaster back home - Frank Pankhurst, Percy Bevan and Alfred Streatfield.


03 Oct 1914 Longfield Schools Reopen after Harvest Kent Messenger
Longfield Schools reopen after hop picking holiday but because crop is good many haven't returned yet


06 Oct 1914 Army Recruiting at Gravesend Gravesend Standard
Large recruitment meeting at Gravesend.  Paper says it was well organized, oratory good and large attendance.  But disappointing results, just 4 joined Kitchiner's army, and 6 the territorials.  However 850 Gravesenders already in army


10 Oct 1914 Longfield Roll of Honour Kent Messenger
Roll of honour lists 40+ names from Longfield.


10 Oct 1914 Hartley Poultry Farm Sale Kent Messenger
Hartley Poultry Farm, Hartley Kent - within easy distance of Fawkham Station.


Mr  Philip Champion has received instructions to sell by auction, upon the  premises as above, on Friday 23rd October 1914 at 1 o'clock pm, the live  and dath poultry farm stock, comprising:


500  head of pure bred fowls (all Cook's strain direct), including White and  Buff Orpingtons, White Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, Red and Speckled  Sussex, White and Salmon Faveroiles and Indian Game,  60  portable houses and sheds.  Poultryman's living house, portable stable,  5 incubators, 10 foster mothers, fatting coops, a large quantity of  wire netting and stakes.  2 stacks of hay.  Mare, Van and Harness   The very complete and extensive equipment of a new and up-to-date appliances and utensils and a few lots of household furniture,..  [Hartley Poultry Farm was at Fairhaven, Manor Drive.]



10 Oct 1914 Evening Classes Kent Messenger
Adult education at Hartley, classes on Market Gardening and Lace Making (Thurs 5.15pm)


10 Oct 1914 Whitehill Road, Longfield Kent Messenger
Widening of bottom of Whitehill Road in Longfield, telegraph pole moved


16 Oct 1914 Organist will continue to play German Music Dartford Chronicle
HS Pratt, organist and bandmaster of Dartford writes against the idea of banning German music as "silly". Beethoven belongs to the world.


16 Oct 1914 Belgian Refugees Arrive Dartford Chronicle
Belgian refugees arrive in Dartford


16 Oct 1914 Letter from the Front Dartford Chronicle
Leonard Balchin writes to friend in Crayford to say Germans shelled hospital and ambulance.


16 Oct 1914 Belgian Refugees Arrive Gravesend Standard
Hundreds of Belgian Refugees pass through Gravesend after fall of Antwerp.  Most on way to London


17 Oct 1914 Belgian Refugees at Ash Gravesend Reporter
7 Belgian refugees accommodated at Ash in home lent by George Day.


17 Oct 1914 Poem: Now war has broken o'er us Kent Messenger
Kate H Samways (Paddock Wood) "Now war has broken o'er us / And the cry for men is great / Will you stand idly watching / Leaving England to her fate / British men I now implore you / Enlist ere it be too late and 8 more verses


17 Oct 1914 Evening Classes Kent Messenger
many attend market gardening classes in Hartley on Mondays, but numbers down due to war.  Women's and girl's classes well attended


23 Oct 1914 Belgian Refugees Arrive Gravesend Standard
Belgian female refugee escapes to Gravesend, delighted to find husband in hospital there


24 Oct 1914 Longfield Rifle Club Gravesend Reporter
Longfield Rifle club formed


24 Oct 1914 Country Sayings Kent Messenger
Old saying for wheat sowing "Sow 4 grains in a row / One for the pheasant / One for the crow / one to rot / and 1 to grow"


24 Oct 1914 Longfield Rector's Son sails from Brazil Kent Messenger
Longfield Rector's son sails from Brazil to enlist


27 Oct 1914 Gravesend Volunteer Corps Gravesend Standard
Proposal for 200 strong Gravesend Volunteer corps


31 Oct 1914 Rural Development Company Founded Kent Messenger
"Messrs Jordan and Sons, Company Registration Agents, chancery Lane WC, write us that the Rural Development Company Ltd, Fairby Farm, Longfield, was registered on October 14th, to promote the improvement of agriculture by providing small holdings, allotments, and market gardens, for persons desirous of acquiring them.  The nominal capital is £10,000 in £1 shares.  The directors and subscribers (1s each) are Messrs C A Lambton, Hartley court, Longfield (director) and G H Humphrey, Steephill, Fawkham (Company Secretary)."


31 Oct 1914 Roman Remains at Ash Kent Messenger
"Roman Remains


The site of the Roman building at North Ash has now been completely dug over and prepared for planting apple trees, a very appropriate crop for the site of a Roman farm, as the Romans are said to have introduced the culture of the apple into Britain.  It is thought that the walls already laid bare represent only a very small portion of the whole building, and although this portion has been obliterated, yet it is expected that much more of the foundations may be hidden under the strawberries in the next plot, and as the strawberries will be exhausted in about 2 years, and more ground perhaps be cleared for apple trees, it is hoped that more extensive remains may then be laid bare."



31 Oct 1914 Longfield Fire Brigade Kent Messenger
"Longfield and its Fire Brigade - an amusing debate


The parishioners of Longfield met in the schoolroom on Tuesday, with a veiw to adopting, if necessary, the Lighting and Watching Act.  This would empower them to place their voluntary fire brigade under the direct control of the council, and to make the improvements, of which, in teh general opinion of the village, the brigade is in need.  But instead of adopting the Act, it was decided to abolish the fire brigade!


Mr F Hickmott presided, and among those present were: The Rector (The Rev E Smith), Messrs R Forsyth, WF Sandeman, R Gilham, A Robson, J Blackman, J Kirk, J Croak, T Coleman, J Sims, J Calaby, H T Baker, G Hills, R Hales, F Cannon, F Langford, and F Lynds with the clerk ot the council (Mr W Wright).


The Chairman said the fire brigade was formed in 1902, and the appliances at the outset cost £123.  Since then the upkeep of the appliances had cost £33 13s 6d, while the cost of running the brigade had been £231 17s 9d.  The Rector: Against that, what assets have you got in the way of property?  The Chairman: I should not like to say (laughter).  I think thre are two hose carts and a hose.


In reply to further enquiries, the Chairman said the question was: 'Was the cost of running the brigade too great?'  the rent of the shed was £10 a year.  Mr Sandeman: Will these expenses continue under the new authority?  the Chairman: You see, the present brigade is voluntary, and we, as a council have no control over it.  By the scheme we have in hand we shall have one fire house.  Mr Sandeman: It is a long way to Tipperary (laughter) - I mean, from one end of the village to the other, in the event of fire.  I think, in this case, safety lies in decentralisation.


The Rector: If you adopt the Lighting and Watching Act you will have to put up a building of a certain character.  The Chairman: Yes, I believe that is so.  A voice: The cost to be borne by the ratepayers.


The Chairman: Yes.  The next point is to consider the retaining fees, which amount to £12 10s a year.  Under the new system we thought of working the brigade with 5 men instead of 10, and in lieu of retaining fees, to pay each man 1s 6d per drill.  Mr Gilham: They will then be going to a drill every night, and wear our machine out jolly quick (loud laughter).  the Chairman: Oh! There will be a maximum number of drills (renewed laughter).  In answer to the question, the Chairman said about £15 would be spent on the building.  Mr Gilham: We shall never get a suitable building for that sum.


In further remarks, the Chairman said they intended to work the brigade at half the cost by having only half the men.  The Rector: Are you going to keep it on the rates?  The Chairman: Yes, it will be entirely on the rates.  The Rector: Who gets the insurance money paid to the brigade.  The Chairman:  It goes to the committee.  The Rector: Who are they?  The Chairman: I don't know.


Mr Cannon, speaking as a member of the brigade, said that the men at the bottom of the hill, never received any instructions from the captain, and they had lost two of their men.


Mr F Lynds proposed the abolition of the brigade.  Mr Coleman seconded.  Mr Sandeman asked whether they had met to abolish the fire brigade (laughter).  It was necessary to have some apparatus on the spot.  Mr Coleman: The only time we have had a fire in Longfield recently was when we tried to get the brigade together in the daytime.  One man turned up; he was Mr Smith, and for a long time he could not find the key.  When he did find it the fire was out (loud laughter).  A variety of propositons were here made.


Mr Gilham moved as an amendment to Mr Lynds' proposition that they should still have a fire brigade, and not adopt the Lighting and Watching Act, but help the brigade 'out of the threepenny rate'.  The Clerk: That is exactly what we are doing now (laughter).  Mr Gilham: that's all right, but I should like to see a little improvement.  You could improve it without extra rating.  Mr Sandeman: By personal endeavour (laughter).


Mr Gilham's amendment was lost, nine voting against it and five for it.  Mr Lynds' proposition abolishing the fire brigade 'at one fell swoop' was carried by a good majority.  Needless to add, the Lighting and Watching Act was not adopted."



01 Nov 1914 Belgian Refugees at Gravesend Gravesend Magazine
(Nov 14) "Our wounded guests" picture feature on wounded Belgians at Gravesend


03 Nov 1914 Prince Louis of Battenberg Gravesend Standard
Paper supports sacking of Prince Louis of Battenberg, and calls for all Germans and Austrians not to be trusted


06 Nov 1914 Gravesend Volunteer Corps Gravesend Standard
Gravesend Volunteers now have 206 recruits


07 Nov 1914 Ash Road by Fairby Gravesend Reporter
Surveyor reports inlet for taking surface water to the Fairby pond has been improved


07 Nov 1914 Free Zeppelin Insurance Gravesend Reporter
Advert - Daily News offers 'Free Zeppelin and Aeroplane Insurance' £250 if bomb damage


07 Nov 1914 Thomas Schulz of Gravesend Gravesend Reporter
Thomas Schulz of 151 Milton Road writes to say he is not a German, just has German name


13 Nov 1914 Army Recruiting Circular from Parliament Gravesend Standard
Parliamentary Recruiting Committee to send circular to every house asking them to complete form saying who is willing to or already serving


13 Nov 1914 Blackout Blinds Gravesend Standard
"Quaint" blinds appearing to stop lights showing, one pub has tablecloths, doormats etc.


14 Nov 1914 Longfield Rifle Club Kent Messenger
Rifle practice at Longfield.  Paper says claims war will last 3 years are "sensationalist".  Offer of Devonshire House, Meopham, as Red Cross Hospital turned down


14 Nov 1914 Gardening Lectures Kent Messenger
"Gardening Lectures: Mr W P Wright has concluded a course of lectures on Market Gardening in the Fairby Club, Hartley.  He dealt chiefly with root and green vegetable crops.  The lectures have been well attended and much appreciated by the many new agriculturalists who have established themselves at Hartley under the auspices of the Small Owners Company"


14 Nov 1914 Rifle Practice Kent Messenger
"Rifle practice: Although Longfield has sent so many of its sons to join the forces, there are many left at home who are anxious to qualify themselves.  They have, therefore, organised a Rifle club and are practicising on their new range on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.  It is held in connection with the village club, and is having the support of many who in ordinary conditions would have supported the Football club".


17 Nov 1914 Laura Pearson of Longfield Hill Gravesend Standard
Laura Pearson (18) of Shipley Cottages, Longfield Hill, appears before Grays Police Court accused of unlawful wounding of Pt Horace Caller of W Kents.  He said he' chucked her 2 weeks before but she turned up at his base at Purfleet, and cut him with a razor when he went to kiss her.  She told police she didn't care what happened to her


17 Nov 1914 Wounded at Gravesend Hospitals Gravesend Standard
110 wounded from Southampton arrive at West Street Station, 13 go to VAD hospital Yacht Club, 37 to Rosherville Hotel Hospital, rest to General Hospital


17 Nov 1914 Spy Peril Gravesend Standard
"Spy Peril" paper says in 1911 there were 281 Austrians and 1,549 Germans in Kent


20 Nov 1914 Water Supply at Ash Bexleyheath Observer
Dartford RDC "With regard to the water supply at Crooked Billet, Ash, a letter was read from the owner of the cottages, Mr Wild, regretting that the council could not comply with his request, and as he was not able to carry out the necessary work, the cottages would have to be closed.  The Medical Officer recommended that the closure should take place.  Coun Day said they could not afford to close the cottages.  Could not the council lay the water on?  Coun Morgan said it was only a question of £2 or £3 to do it.  He thought the owner was able to do it.  The best thing to do was to let the matter alone.  The owner could not afford to close the cottages, and if they left it alone they would have their way."


20 Nov 1914 Gravesend Volunteer Corps Gravesend Standard
Gravesend Volunteers now have 400 recruits


20 Nov 1914 Hillcrest Longfield Advert Poultry World
Ad for breeding pen and chickens (various) 35s 6d.  Ellerton, Hillcrest, Longfield


01 Dec 1914 Gravesend Volunteer Corps Gravesend Magazine
(Dec 14) Picture of Gravesend Volunteer Corps in civilian clothing.  Value of volunteers discussed but journal thinks more available the better.  Mainly involved in drilling and route marches, no equipment yet.


05 Dec 1914 Hartley Road, Longfield Gravesend Reporter
DRDC has acquired land to widen part of Hartley Road, Longfield


05 Dec 1914 Bee Keeping Course at Hartley Kent Messenger
Course on bee keeping at Hartley by J Garrett.  Needed in light of recent bee disease


[Also in Gravesend Reporter 12.12.1914]



12 Dec 1914 Christmas 2014 Gravesend Reporter
Christmas 2014. 'A humourous forecast by T Jay'.


12 Dec 1914 First Aid Classes at Hartley Kent Messenger
Ladies who studied first aid at Longfield and Hartley shortly to take exams


19 Dec 1914 Longfield Fire Brigade Gravesend Reporter
Longfield parish meeting vote to disband Fire Brigade. Capt G T Lynds determined to see it continue


19 Dec 1914 Wounded Soldiers from Longfield Kent Messenger
Wounded soliders Hannigan and Crouch from Longfield making good recovery.


19 Dec 1914 Christmas at Gravesend Kent Messenger
Christmas at Gravesend


24 Dec 1914 Disengaged Actor Advert The Stage
"Disengaged, Disengaged.  Mr Wilfred Mansfield, Heavy Lead, Hartley Green, near Longfield, Kent."


26 Dec 1914 Fairby Jam Factory Advert Kent Messenger
Fairby Jam Factory wants competent jam boiler


29 Dec 1914 Germans Living in Britain Gravesend Standard
Paper's editorial complains of many Germans in country and says that "rid ourselves of them for good".


© Content P Mayer 2000-2018.  Created with WebSite X5
Back to content