steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
Essay on Kent's role in slavery & abolition campaigns
Not 'radical', but seeing what you said about Welling, I thought I'd put in a couple of maps to show how the historic border (extent) of Kent has moved progressively Eastwards (smaller) as the Metropolis expanded and administrative arrangement were changed to reflect that.K Bullstreet writes about his being part of the opposition to a big NF demo in Maidstone in 1984. There was a time where Welling / Bexleyheath (sites of big anti-fascist actions in the late 80s and early 90s) would have been considered Kent (until the 1920s, probably).
Welling United's badge is still the Kent white horse, and they weren't formed until the 1960s. People often write about the frayed border between Essex and London, the same can be said about Kent and London, as the debate about Bromley above shows. Being in Bromley a fair bit it does have that 'borderland' feel about it.
Maybe this?View attachment 297010
im curious about this moat now
nice, yeah i know that spot really well - imoften up and down that hill (Ringers Road)Maybe this?
Towards the end of October 1830 there had been widespread uproar in the countryside in the southern counties. Thousands of farm labourers, who had seen their jobs and wages at risk owing to the advent of more modern farm machinery such as threshing machines, began to protest and to sabotage equipment.
These protests developed into riots in some parts of the countryside and the problem had become so dire that a Special Commission was eventually set up to try to ensure any guilty parties could be traced and punished. The events became known as The Swing Riots, named after a mythical leader, Captain Swing.
On December 17, 1830, two brothers William and Henry Packman, aged 20 and 18 years, were found guilty at Maidstone Assizes of setting fire to a barn belonging to farmer William Wraight of Blean.
Despite finding the brothers guilty, the jury recommended the judge, Mr Justice Bosanquet, should show mercy – the boys had been led astray by others, including another man, John Dyke, who hailed from the nearby village of Bearsted. The judge, however, took a dim view of the crime – in his view the boys were obviously guilty and nothing he had heard at the trial would induce him to leniency. The brothers, and John Dyke, were sentenced to hang within days.
And so it was, on December 24, William Calcraft was waiting to dispatch the three unfortunates on the heath at Penenden. A huge, largely sympathetic, crowd had gathered by the time the three prisoners arrived in a heavily protected wagon from Maidstone Prison. As the wagon approached the gallows, the prisoners, seated on their coffins, dolefully surveyed the scene. One of the Packman brothers was heard saying to the onlookers: ‘That (the gallows) looks an awful thing!’
Throughout their trial the Packmans had faced their fate quite stoicly and it was not until they witnessed John Dyke being prepared for execution that they truly showed any emotion. Meanwhile, Calcraft was no doubt under pressure to show how well he could handle a multiple hanging before such a huge crowd.
Once all three had been guided up the steps of the scaffold, they were each invited to address the onlookers. The chaplain, in a low tone, said to Dyke: ‘Now you have come to the worst and there is no chance of escape, do tell the truth.’ To which Dyke replied loudly: ‘I am innocent and Hewitt and his wife (who had given evidence against him at the trial) have sworn falsely against me – mind the ninth commandment!’
The Packman brothers had already admitted their guilt but, before the nooses were placed around their necks, they claimed an accomplice named Goodman had urged them to set fire to the barn. Henry Packman faced the crowd and declared that a man named Bishop – who had given evidence against them at the trial – had encouraged them to burn the barn. Bishop had turned King’s Evidence at the trial and, according to the judge and jury, had, in fact, been more guilty than the Packmans.
The Packman brothers, having addressed the crowd, turned to each other and shook hands. Henry and John Dyke had their hands tied behind them but, for some reason, William’s hands were not tied when Calcraft began to place the white hoods over the heads of the three men. Before Calcraft could place the noose around William’s neck, William tore off his hood, declaring that he wished to see the faces of the crowd.
Moments later, all three men were hanging by the neck. After their bodies had hung for an hour, they were cut down. The Packmans’ father removed their bodies for burial at Canterbury. Dyke was later interred in the graveyard of the Church of the Holy Cross at Bearsted. On the gallows, John Dyke had indeed been telling the truth. Today, in the churchyard where he is buried, there is a plaque inscribed with the words: ‘This tree marks the grave of John Dyke, who was hanged for rick burning in 1830 at the last public hanging at nearby Penenden Heath. Subsequently it was found that he was not guilty of the crime’.
Yeh weirdy cults are generally over the border in Sussex, traditionally round east grinsteadI know that, as a weirdy religious cult, it doesn't really fit the "radical Kent" narrative... but you've got that fairly long established Bruderhof community near Robertsbridge. I remember they always used to get on and off the train in the days when I regularly travelled between London and Hastings. They were all very nice and were often handing out leftish, ecological and anti-imperialist type flyers. They kind of remind me of something out of Luther Blissett's "Q" book.
Yep, notably Saint Hill Manor.Yeh weirdy cults are generally over the border in Sussex, traditionally round east grinstead
Aye, isn't that the scientologists in East Grinstead. Anyway, I've just checked and Robertsbridge is actually in East Sussex The Bruderfof do have a Kent community in Nonington (wherever that is). Anyway, they seem a lovely bunch. Pity about all the god bothery stuff and the horribal schmatte.Yeh weirdy cults are generally over the border in Sussex, traditionally round east grinstead
I think Nonington is near Canterbury somwhere.Aye, isn't that the scientologists in East Grinstead. Anyway, I've just checked and Robertsbridge is actually in East Sussex The Bruderfof do have a Kent community in Nonington (wherever that is). Anyway, they seem a lovely bunch. Pity about all the god bothery stuff and the horribal schmatte.
Nonington = (ex)coalfield territory.Aye, isn't that the scientologists in East Grinstead. Anyway, I've just checked and Robertsbridge is actually in East Sussex The Bruderfof do have a Kent community in Nonington (wherever that is). Anyway, they seem a lovely bunch. Pity about all the god bothery stuff and the horribal schmatte.
There was a time where Welling / Bexleyheath (sites of big anti-fascist actions in the late 80s and early 90s) would have been considered Kent (until the 1920s, probably).
As has been said many time before, much of the outer London confusion about addresses results from the failure of postal delineation to keep pace with these administrative changes; hence people in LB Bromley having 'Kent" addresses. It makes sense historically.
Penge is an oddity
good findsHarsh justice in Folkestone: repression against opponents of World War I
A short account of the severe sentence handed out to anarchists in Folkestone just for flyposting anti-war posters.libcom.org
This one sounds like it could be really interesting:
KCC versus the homeless: the King Hill campaign
1966 pamphlet about the struggle of a group of homeless families in Kent against the local county council. Jointly published by Solidarity and Socialist Action, it contains four extra pages added in 1967 with an update about the families being successful.libcom.org