Fires in Marden

A fire in the barn at Jewel House highlights the difficulties of first contacting the Norwich Union Fire Office agent who then has to send to Maidstone. The Kent Fire Office engine arrived half an hour later. The barn was insured but was rented by two farmers who were storing peas, wheat, hay etc. inside but not all the farmers had insured the contents.

A similar incident highlighted the difficulties of fires in rural areas when it was discovered that there was a fire on a farm at Nettlestead. When they contacted the Fire Office it was found that they had gone to fight another fire in Marden. Afterwards new rules were going to be made so that Maidstone always retained equipment and men to fight another fire.

Prompt assistance of neighbours was essential. At one fire "Mr Noakes of Marden rode express to the Norwich Union Office in Maidstone for the engine and performed the journey of eight miles in five and twenty minutes." At another fire in Sheephurst Farm operations had to be suspended through lack of water until additional pipes could be procured from Maidstone to reach some ponds.

The above notes bring to life some of the activities of Marden over 150 years ago. We cannot learn what life was really like for everyone but these stories submitted to the newspaper add an extra dimension to the other information being gleaned from other sources.

The History of the Norwich Union is very interesting.

Norwich Union was founded in 1797 in Norwich, when 36-year-old merchant and banker Thomas Bignold formed the "Norwich Union Society for the Insurance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire", a mutual society owned by the policyholders who received a share of the profits. This in turn became known as the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Office. In 1808 Thomas Bignold established a second mutual, the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society. The Fire Society demutualised in 1823 when it absorbed the Norwich General Assurance Company. In common with many insurance companies against fire loss, they operated their own fire brigades to protect (only) the society's policyholders whose buildings were identified by "fire marks". It was not until 1929 that the Fire Society gave up its last private brigade, in Worcester, to the municipal authorities. (Edith Davis)

Can you help?

Our Member, May Hammond is asking for volunteers to join her group of voluntary Hospital Drivers. You don’t have to join a rota; just give whatever time you have available. As you know, Marden with its poor bus service is not easy to get from, for hospital appointments if you have no car. The hospital is not always able to provide transport and taxi fares can be as high as £50.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT TO THE AGM - 2007

Good evening everyone and welcome to the AGM. I doesn’t seem like a year has passed since our last AGM but it obviously has or this wouldn’t be the AGM and there wouldn’t be cheese and wine for you to enjoy later. The quicker I get on with this, the sooner that will be.

As ever, the Society has enjoyed a full and interesting year of meetings, concentrating on the things that the Society is all about — amenity, local history, and our local environment, whether of the countryside such as with Fred Booth’s talk on ‘wild in town and garden’ last March or built, such as Vic Gash’s fascinating and unique story of Kent Peg Tiles or Rod Le Gear’s reminiscences of Chislehurst Caves. Yes, for those of you who missed this talk they are manmade.

I am certain our programme for 2007 is just as exciting and enticing and well worth forsaking a warm fireside for in winter or lazing away a summer dusk in the garden to come to our meetings. As they say in the commercials, if you haven’t enjoyed it, please tell us; if you have please tell other people and encourage them to join.

Behind the scenes, your Committee continues to be active in the issues we were founded for: commenting on inappropriate developments for example, where this year the proposed landfill site on the Marden/ Goudhurst border is a case in point.

We have also been active in promoting the Village its attractions. If you haven’t already seen them we have a new set of Marden Mugs, this time in bone china. They’re just £5 each or £20 for the complete set of 4 different designs; an ideal present. I am particularly grateful to Jane Stevens for the work she has put in, in getting these to production and, of course, to local artist Vic Simmonds who did the design.

Also not to be missed are the all new set of Walking Guides produced by the Marden Walking Group, an independent group from us but one which we have been pleased to support in spirit and financially. And we still have about 2,000 notelets for those of you that haven’t forsaken letter writing for e-mail.

Lastly, I would like to give a huge thank you to all the Committee who have worked hard on behalf of the Society over the year. In doing so, and without wishing to give offence to any of the other members, I would thank Edith Davis now 18 years our Secretary and Peggy Skelton, who with her husband Joe, and others, founded the Marden Society in 1977. It is down to their commitment to the Society and the well being of the Village generally that we are still going strong. Many English batsmen in the recent Ashes series would love to have been 30, or even 18, not out!

Thank you all for your continued support

Garden BirdWatch

Having told you that I had come to the end of the official list of Garden Birds, I have discovered another listing, which shows a few others. So my bird this time is one that I have only personally seen three times all in the same area of Marden. In the conifers at Jewell House in Albion Road.

This is the Goldcrest, Britain and Europe’s smallest bird. Goldcrests are all-year visitors to our garden. In early April their song can be a regular feature. But often the songsters can be difficult to locate as they flit restlessly in the foliage of a windbreak of lofty cypresses. The song is so high-pitched, that the frequency may be only heard by anyone with perfect hearing. This can make it a problem spotting this tiny bird that is rather inconspicuous in the very tops of lofty conifers and where recognition by song is most useful. They can be seen hanging upside down before flitting from spray to spray, each craning its neck and carefully examining every needle, but spending only a moment at each.

In close view and against a dark background such as their favourite trees, the Goldcrests are attractive little creatures. Moss green above and creamy-white below, the plumage is set-off by two features: a double whitish wing-bar and the crest. In both sexes the crests takes the form of a 'parting' down the centre of the crown. Displaying to the hen, the flame and gold crest features of the male are fully exposed. At the same time wings are drooped and body plumage puffed-out.

It has been observed that for a bird that rarely seems to fly any distance when under observation, and for its size, the Goldcrest migrations are very impressive. In the autumn of 1993 the arrival of these migrants along the north Norfolk coast was on a massive scale. Many hundreds arrived especially during mid-October. The tiny bundles of feathers (each about half the weight of a blue tit) were much in evidence as they squeaked their way inland through hundreds of gardens.

The species name is regulus regulus; it nests in the thick foliage of conifers. Ball of moss held together by spiders’ webs and suspended from a branch. 7-10 white brown spotted eggs. End of April to early June. Two broods.

EDITH DAVIS

Marden Mill

Or, correctly at its foundation, Pattenden Mill, is recorded as far back as 1629. That is the earliest recorded date that I could find in the Archives at County Hall, although we know that a Mill existed in the 15th century, possibly a Fulling Mill. During 1984 I was doing some personal research at archives and out of idle curiosity I looked at the 1895 Kelly Directory with entries on Marden. I was surprised to see that Marden Mill was no longer in business. The farmhouse was occupied only by Alice Hammond and some boarders. I was intrigued by that fact because when I worked on the transcription of the Marden Census of 1881, Marden Mill was an important concern and owned by Henry Hammond. He is shown as owning 300 acres and employing 12 labourers. Compared with other farms that number of workers was quite large. There was only John Day at Plain Farm who employed more. Twelve labourers and three boys and his acreage was less at 261. I know now, that Marden Mill was one of the many farms that were hit by the new transatlantic trade in corn etc. that brought such poverty to rural lives in the late 19th century. During several weeks of my own research, I made time to look more closely at the history of Marden Mill.

The 1629 reference to the Mill is only in passing in a document relating to the purchase of land between Stilebridge and Pattinden (sic) Mill. In fact land in the area of the Mill was often changing hands. Another document dated the 12 October 1649 also gave details of the sale of a piece of land between Stilebridge and Pattenden Mill. Of course this could have been anywhere along what we now know as Underlyn Lane and Hunton Road but it does indicate that the Mill was a well-known landmark.

A document dated 10 May 1703 is very detailed. I copied down the exact wording as follows: -

“For the sum of £22 from Thomas Proby, yeoman of Hunton, Kent to Peter Austin, yeoman of Marden. One piece or parcel of woodland commonly called or known as Bramble Wood containing the whole by estimation 3 acres, more or less situate lying & being in the Parish of Marden. To the west of the Queen’s Highway from Style Bridges to a certain Mill called Pattenden Mill now in the tenure or occupation of the said Peter Austin”. The said Peter Austin is elsewhere named Austen. He is named in further documents relating to the ownership of Pattenden Mill during the 18th Century, more of which in a future edition of the Parish Pump.