Remembrance 2019 Tunbridge Wells

Reflection
For your tomorrow, we gave our today

Reflection
For your tomorrow, we gave our today

Reflection
For your tomorrow, we gave our today

Victorian Immortelle

An object of beauty, even in it's damaged state.

Location: Tunbridge Wells Cemetery

Roses, frozen in time.

About to go on a journey.

Heritage Open Days 2018 Hawkenbury Allotments

Today I have fallen in love- with an allotment.

Adjacent to Dunorlan Park in Tunbridge Wells is an oasis of humming activity.

Humming, because it is full of bees and insects visiting over 300 plots hidden behind a hedge and various locked gates. Plots are marked with various signs, honeysuckle rambling around these outside homesteads.

Today and next Saturday the 15th September you can visit this green and vibrant haven and admire marrows, pumpkins, apples and sunflowers whose heads are turning towards the ground heavy with their seeds.

You will be shown around by knowledgeable Dr. Janet Sturgis.

Beds of  blackberries, cabbages, beetroots in ordered rows are next to vibrant dahlias the size of dinner plates- yes, really that size and damson trees and cooking apples drop their excess fruits onto the grass below to become compost.

Beautiful, each plot individual, unusual forms of recycling and bordering. Raised beds and those just taken over and showing signs of new ownership are fitting tributes to those who sat under an oak tree in 1930 and dreamed of a community space where those who had no gardens could come and grow produce and wear ties on Sundays. Yes, there were and are regulations. No ties need in the 21st century, but maybe someone could start that trend again.

Now it is a place to come and be, to grow plants, vegetables and flowers, to sit in the sun and watch the sky, to talk to your neighbours who share your passions.

We left, talking to those who came to pick their gladiolas, their apples and rhubarb for the Sunday crumble and I took a backward glance and thought how heavenly to have a wheelbarrow and walk through this special place,

 affectionately called the Haha on the edge of this busy town.

There is a waiting list for plots but you can visit this Heritage Open Days.

For details of when you can visit this and other properties in the area please follow this link: Tunbridge Wells Heritage 2018

Processions 2018 and being a Soroptimist

What started as International Women's Day 2018 in Tunbridge Wells with a quickly scrawled placard and a little reenactment costume snowballed into joining with 30,000 women and girls in London for Processions 2018. Processions 2018 This event was taking place in 4 cities across Great Britain at the same time- London, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff.

When I first booked an entry I was not sure if anyone would come with me but as usual the  Soroptimists at Si Tunbridge Wells: Soroptimist International Tunbridge Wells were up for it. So armed with a new banner which is the more permanent fabric design we boarded the train from Tunbridge Wells armed with Ask me why I am a Soroptimist badges and our postcards and there the conversation started and it continued all day.
People were curious- where were we going and what was a Soroptimist? From a little boy who wanted to discuss the meaning of the colours green, white and purple, to the ladies from Australia and Sevenoaks on the number 9 bus from Charing Cross to Hyde Park, who didn't know us or each other, but they did by the end of our journey- we left them with postcards and a wave.We emerged from the bus momentarily pausing to take in our surrounds greeting other women who were dressed in similar colours as if we have known them for ever. From the young girls from Manchester who had left home at 7 am to travel to London to Ruth who was on her own from Norfolk but soon became one of our group. We all momentarily disappeared into a group of vibrant women all milling around the Dorchester Hotel seeking shade under the dappled trees on a Park Lane cleared of cars.

More and more women arrived, with banners and outfits and smiles and we streamed toward pantechnicons to collect our scarves of green, white and violet, chatting all the time, handing out postcards and sharing stories. It was jubilant, expressive, emotional, hot and freeing. We are so lucky to be able to vote, to celebrate that fact and to be actively encouraged by all the organisations who helped make the day so successful. We have come a long way since women (over 30) were first able to vote in 1918 but still have a long way to go and yet here we were being able to shout about it all in major cities, cleared of traffic to make our voices heard.

Being a Soroptimist is about sisterhood, and yesterday felt very positive. We had found our tribe for that day and met some fellow clubs along the way, Soroptimist International Folkestone, St Albans and Sevenoaks. We also talked to nurses, midwives, parliamentarians, feminist publishers, children, girl guides, seamstresses, WI Groups, journalists, jewellery designers, women on Mum's Net and the list goes on.

We saw amazing banners:

Everyone wanted to see

be seen

and heard, others came to support

We all had our quiet moments for reflection

At the end of the non finish line many paid  respects at the monuments to Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett.

Even on the train home, when our costumes and banners were dishevelled the day continued as other participants joined us on the train and we heard their stories of community involvement and research.

Why they had come to spend the day with strangers to celebrate the rights of women all started so long ago by one of the first feminists ,Mary Wollstonecraft with her Vindications of the Rights of Woman.

The train dropped us at Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells and continued to Hastings with women talking and making connections.

A great day and as I took my shoes off and rubbed my tired feet I reflected on one image I had seen, a tiny pebble, picked from some beach by an anonymous person and placed in London with the words suffragette painted on. We are all alone, until we find our tribe. On this day with my Soroptimist sisters we were a group who became a larger collective and together we made a noise and celebrated our rights and dreams for the future. When I became a Soroptimist I had no idea what would happen but so far it has been an amazing journey.
                                                            In friendship.

Cold days & Silver Linings

A crack has appeared in our kitchen ceiling. I had spent anxious times wondering why? Is there too much weight on the floor above? Do I have too many things? (Well, yes is the answer to that!) Today the first question was answered as the crack seemed larger. 

So I pondered out loud, was it possible we had a water leak? 

Yes, it turns out, we have.

A leaking water tank and now no hot water. For how long I don't know.

In my frustration I decided to sort out a few drawers and cupboards and so started with my scarves and as I was refolding the ones I no longer wear to donate to the charity shop, I remembered I had ordered a new one!

Here it is-

The white jiffy envelope revealed the most beautifully wrapped retail purchase I have ever received.A personal card and a double tied ribbon box.

Tissue-wrapped interior

Inside the tissue a glimpse of the contents.

 The silk cascaded over the bed in all its glorious indigo and gold richness and the irony of  situation was not lost on me.

I had been cursing the water and the now urgent need for a replacement water tank and possibly a new ceiling and here I am about to wear water!

This scarf is a based on a photographic impression of the water reflection of the Golden Hinds rigging against a blue clouded sky.

  

I also received this book for Christmas- How to Tie a Scarf

So I am off to play with my gifts I had put to one side in the busyness of everyday life and remember that old cliche- every cloud has a silver lining.

In this case- they are gold.

Thank you Linda Pocock

In search of Angels

This year, 2018, I will be visiting local cemeteries and churches in search of the beautiful, the interesting and the poignant. First stop is St Peter's Church Southborough. In the corner near the boundary wall I found what I believe is the only surviving Angel within the grounds. In Memory of Clara, she is framed by beautiful orange lichen, or Xanthoria parietina. British Newspaper Archive research reveals that on the 16th May 1875 Clara, the 'beloved wife of George Delves' died at Grove Lodge, Southborough.

Belgians Refugees in Tunbridge Wells 1914

Extracting Detail from Newspapers on http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Following on from the Weekes advertisement for British Toys for British & Belgian Children, I continued to study the rest of the newspaper (Kent & Sussex Courier, Friday 27 November 1914) to see what else could be found relating to Tunbridge Wells and its Belgian refugee connection.  Music seemed to play a part in building up a sense of patriotism with general benevolent acts of fundraising toward the war effort in general being evident. The Tunbridge Wells Opera House, built in 1902, was the centre for all things musical.

      

Figure 1, Tunbridge Wells Opera House, Photochrom.Co.,Ltd. London, 1905.

  The concert involving Clara Butt and Kennerley Rumford (her husband, a baritone) was mentioned twice in this edition of the Kent & Sussex Courier.

         Figure 2, Kent & Sussex Courier, Friday 27 November 1914, p.4.

Extracts of interest: ‘The programme includes items which appeal to our pity and to patriotism…’

                                          

        Figure 3, Kent & Sussex Courier, Friday 27 November 1914, p.4.

Madame Clara Butt (1872-1936) would later become a Dame. A renowned contralto singer she was involved with many concerts raising money for the Red Cross and other charities.

Here is a You tube link to Madame Clara Butt ‘God shall wipe away all tears.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4pDz84Yfng

                                            

                Figure 4, Kent & Sussex Courier, Friday 27 November 1914, p.5.

Transcript:

‘COURIER’ TOBACCO FUND

We shall be glad to receive contributions of eighteen-pence for the Special Xmas Boxes to be sent to soldiers at the Front …’

One of the subscribers was the Opera House:

 ‘TWO POUNDS TEN SHILLINGS.

Opera House (per Mr. Harry Ball) Profits on sale of Fred Elton’s song. ‘Bravo, Little Belgium!’

Here is the text of Elton’s song:

                   Bravo! Little Belgium, it’s proud we are of you

                  Bravo! Little Belgium, you’d the pluck to see it through

                  Hats off to Little Belgium,

                 You’re a fighting race sublime!

                Your flag is still unfurled

                 In front of all the world

                And we’re with you all the time.[1]

 John Mullen (2011) suggests music hall songs were for ‘uniting the British [sic] nation and its allies’[2]

                       

Figure 5, The Opera House as it appears today without the statue of Mercury upon its dome. 

So these entries can be interpreted as contributing to the town’s general feeling of support and friendship towards all war efforts and refugees by extension of this attitude.

Perhaps this community project could look at reviving performances of these songs?[3]

I like to imagine this cherub-like statue from the roof-line is watching all the 21^st Century developments with great interest. I wonder at all the events and people he has observed over one hundred plus years.

                                      

                                        Figure 6, Dome detail of cherub.

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[1] Andre de Vries, Flanders: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 17.

[2] John Mullen, ‘Propaganda and Dissent in British Popular Song during the Great War.’, Discours autoritaires et r´esistances aux XXe et XXIe si`ecles, Centre Interlangues, non pagin´e, (2011), p.6. <https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00682095/document>[accessed 4 March 2017]

[3] This link suggests Fred Elton’s song is out of copyright:

 <http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33213543?selectedversion=NBD27400316>

 This blog first appeared on University of Kent Community project, Royal Tunbridge Wells Belgian Refugees 1914-19