Book #16 Faversham Through Time

Faversham Through Time by Robert Turcan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My wife and I spent an enjoyable mid-week break last week at The Sun Inn, Faversham, a town in Kent just four miles from my birthplace. Faversham Through Time is a delightful social history of this charming, medieval town. King Stephen and his wife Matilda put Faversham on the map with the construction of a massive abbey, a building larger than Rochester Cathedral and for a brief time the town was the capital of England. The abbey suffered the same fate as so many during the period of the dissolution of monasteries.

Faversham is recognised as having been the cradle of the gunpowder industry. Explosives from the town's factories were used at Trafalgar and Waterloo. Today, Faversham is famed for its brewery industry. Britain's oldest brewery, Shepherd Neame, has its headquarters here and hops are still farmed locally.

Faversham retains its old-world pace of life and communal strength. Looking at photographs in the book with comparisons taken around 100 years ago with present day, it is evident that little has changed over the last century or so. I like that. Faversham is a beautiful place and this book is an exemplary record of the town and the persons who helped to make it what it is.

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Location, Location...

The cottage we have booked for a late September break is situated at Rye Harbour and overlooks Rye Harbour Nature Reserve . Perfect for autumnal walks and bird-watching. One other bonus: Harbour Lights cottage is just a few doors away from the William the Conqueror pub, a Shepherd Neame house.

Shepherd Neame is Britain's oldest brewer, based in Faversham, Kent since 1698 and brews a range of quintessentially Kentish ales including Spitfire  Bishops Finger and Master Brew as well as award-winning lagers, including Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Asahi. Being a Man of Kent and a lover of fine ales I find this most acceptable.

All I need to do now is tell my wife....

A Priceless Typo

I have to share this because I cannot stop giggling. My brother wrote in his very popular LJ blog:

"....I then looked around Folkestone town centre and got somewhat distracted by the different pubs and ended up doing nothing else. It soon became the early evening so I took a bus back to finish the evening with a mystery shop at The Leading Light pub in Faversham. I had an Aberdeen Anus steak washed down with a glass of the house red and a pint of Wantsum Turbulent Priest...."

The typo missing "g" was soon pointed out in comments from other LJ readers but the helpless laughter had started. I have to try and stop thinking about it to curb the sudden and spontaneous outbursts of body shaking.....!

Swale Villages Through Time

In my quest for books about the county and area of my birth I came across this gem - Swale Villages Through Time by John Clancy.

Many parts of Britain are renowned for the 'chocolate box' quality of their pretty villages, but rarely do people include Swale in North Kent, a delightful rural area known as the "Garden of England". Swale extends from Rainham in the west to Faversham in the east, Maidstone in the south to the Isle of Sheppey in the north, covering an area of some 280 square miles. It takes its name from the waterway that separates the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent. The village where I was born, Teynham, is featured in this delightful book.

The fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Swale's villages have changed and developed over the last century. A taste of how country life used to be is captured in old postcards and pictures and provides me with a journey of pure nostalgia. It reminds me of carefree summer days when I worked on my uncle's farm during the school holidays in the 50s, picking apples, plums and cherries from trees that could reach 40 or 50 feet in those days, unlike the dwarf trees seen today. I remember my uncle effortlessly carrying and positioning 60 rung ladders up these trees, that we would climb up carrying baskets to place the harvested fruit in. We had not heard of Health and Safety in those days!

It was a simple life and very rewarding. To sit beneath a tree and open a flask of tea, unwrap some 'doorstop' sandwiches, enjoy lunch followed by a 'roll-up' cigarette was untold enjoyment. It was hard work for poor pecuniary reward but satisfying none-the-less.

This book about the Swale area of Kent provides me with a journey back in time when I was young, naive and above all content with my life. My youth is a distant memory but I am still content.....