Live Music From The Chillbillies At The Crown

Top band the Chillbillies will be playing the BBQ afternoon in the Crown garden on Saturday the 13th of July.

It all kicks off at 3:30pm and runs through to 6:30pm with a Disco afterwards from 8:00pm till late.

Entrance to this superb afternoon of live music is free !

Please come along.

Chillbillies website  here

Ann Marie

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News From The Friends of St. Mary’s Church

Cream Teas

and

Bell Ringing

and

enter our Photographic Competition

  

Please accept this invitation from the Trustees of the Friends to a Cream Tea at the church on July 20^th from 2:00pm till 5:00pm. Weather permitting we shall serve teas outside. A modest charge will be made.

On the afternoon there will be an opportunity to be taught how a church bell should be rung. You may wish to make a donation for this enjoyment. The church bell ringers may also invite you to join them on a more permanent basis.

You may have already read of our 2013 photographic competition. This church opening will give the opportunity to the enthusiast to take the winning picture? Full details of the competition will be available on the day.

If you want a short guided tour of the church we have printed guides to use or you can be accompanied.

This is intended to be a fund-raising event for ‘The Friends’ and you will be invited to become a member. The Friends exists to support the upkeep of the church building which has been in existence for at least 700 years. It is a highly value historical asset in our Parish - your support for this event will help in that aim.

Gerry Lewin - Chairman

Tel: 01634 366113 Email: lewing135@btinternet.com

R.S.V.P. [to assist with catering numbers]

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Upchurch Best Kept Garden 2013 - FINAL REMINDER

All gardens in the Parish that can be viewed from the front of your home will judged on Saturday 27^th July. The judging takes place without interviews with the occupants - so if you are shopping or on holiday you garden will still be judged!

Prizes are awarded for:

• Firstly a garden which is predominately growing flowers.

• secondly a garden which is mixture of flowers, trees and or shrubs.

and

• Finally for those with only a small or no front garden the judges will assess and hanging baskets or flower troughs.

• The Overall Winner will look after the Barbara Webb Memorial Trophy for one year.

Prizes for the above will be presented at the Upchurch Horticultural Society Show during early September in the Village Hall. 

This year the prizes are sponsored by the Upchurch Parish Council and The Brown Jug - if you would also like to be a sponsor [in cash or in kind] the please contact me.

Gerry Lewin
Tel: 01634 366113 or Email: lewing135@btinternet.com           

On behalf of the Upchurch Horticultural Society and the Parish Council.

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Upchurch Guides Strawberry Tea

Upchurch Guides are holding another Strawberry Tea on Wednesday the 10th July at Upchurch Scout Hut, 7:00pm til 8:30pm.

The proceeds will be split 50/50 between Breast Cancer Care and Upchurch Guides equipment fund.

Raffle prizes include:

Family ticket to Windsor castle
2 x Family tickets to go ice skating at the Ice bBowl
2 x 2 games of bowling at Hollywood Bowl- Rochester
1 week Roko health club membership
Several Splashes tickets available
2 adult tickets for The Rare Breeds Centre
And lots more smaller prizes

All welcome, please come along and support us.

Tracey Snellings

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Upchurch Parish Council - Paddock Project Update Public Drop In

The Parish Council are holding an informal drop in session in the village hall on Thursday 27^th June, 7pm – 9pm to meet with residents who are interested in the plans being drawn up for rejuvenating the Paddock now the lease has finally been renewed.

Areas Under Consideration

• • Work to enhance the vegetation in and around the Paddock
• • Play equipment for children of all ages
• • Provision of seating area(s)

Traffic Calming and Parking Problems

Also for information and discussion we will have the newly acquired Speedwatch Equipment on display and would like to hear from residents about ideas for traffic calming and parking solutions.

If anyone is interested in working with the Council on either of the above, please either pop in and chat to us and give us your contact details or if you are unable to make it, contact the Clerk on: 01634 363906 or Email: clerk@upchurchpc.kentparishes.gov.uk

ALL RESIDENTS ARE WELCOME

Upchurch Parish Council

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Upchurch in the 1950s

In the last decade where Upchurch retained a small rural village character and where most people knew each other, the 1951 census showed that the population numbered 1,400 compared with 2,398 today. Only Drakes Close, built just after World War Two, existed as a housing estate until more appeared during the early 1960s. The Labour Hall, the Vicarage Rooms, the Old Forge and the Infant’s School were used for social events while oasthouses fields or orchards were located on the sites of Marstan Close, Crosier Court, Church Farm Road, The Poles and Bishop Lane. Thatched cottages still existed at Wetham Green and Ham Green and Wakeley Brother’s seventeen acre hop garden stood on the site of the present golf course and offered employment to local women during the hop picking season. Farms offered fruit picking during the summer months.

With a village centre a little different to today but without so many parked cars, a row of shops opposite ‘The Crown’ included Fred Clemons newspaper sorting business and W.H. Hales butcher’s, managed by Dick Hales. A grocery store owned by E.A. Lock & Son, now ‘Terry’s’, stood opposite while Albert and Kitty Stewart managed ‘The Crown.’ The Upchurch Stores owned by E. G. Neame was located in The Street opposite the church. Teddy Neame initially managed the post office later followed by Cliff Wanstall. Opposite the post office the Co-op came into existence as a grocery store and provided work for village girls while on the top right of Forge Lane stood an oasthouse, an Elizabethan barn, a forge, Church Farm Cottages and an orchard with a pond. These were replaced by the Church Farm Housing estate during the early 1960s.

Several people brought goods to the village for sale which included Mrs Barling who supplied milk from Bayford Dairy Farm, Ethel Barnes who delivered groceries from her Otterham Quay grocery store, a mobile fish and chip shop, a Betabake van with bread and cakes and a Corona lemonade truck. Ernie Hart from Lower Rainham sold fruit and vegetables from a horse and cart and a council refuse truck toured the village every week with a group of dustmen including well known locals Fred Carlton and George Bond who collected the village trash.

David Wood.

Reverend Hugh Clark served as village vicar for most of the decade followed by Reverend Bradshaw in 1959. During the same period Eric Gransden played the church organ and continued as the main village builder and captain of the cricket club, while his father Charles Gransden and Mr A. Costen served as church-wardens. Police constable Murray regularly patrolled the village on his bicycle, Miss Roberts and Miss Broughton served as headmistresses of the Infant’s School and Holywell School respectively while school governors included Cecil Bishop, Cliff Wanstall and Teddy Neame. Cecil Bishop from Horsham Lane continued to play a major role in local council affairs. 

The village carnival took place for the first time in 1952 with Inys Hales as Carnival Queen and the Upchurch Marathon started in the same year with Trevor Sifleet and Pat Atkinson winning the men’s and women’s events respectively. Coronation celebrations also took place in 1953 while the Great Flood submerged parts of the Ham Green peninsular and Twinney in February 1953. Upchurch Football Club shared Piwit field with Upchurch Cricket Club in Poot Lane but moved to the recreation ground in 1957. 

Well known village characters included Ellen Boast, Alice Ball and Tom Sifleet from the Street, Queenie South from Horsham Lane, Milky Bill from Forge Lane, Podgy Edmonds from Twinney, Elsie Waters from Oak Lane, Charlie Clark, Thelma Hepton and Annie Bronger from Gore Bank and Johnny Boast and his grandmother Emily Wigley from Chaffes Lane.

Car owners in the village were far fewer than today so many people had to rely on the 39 bus service which functioned from early morning until late at night between Lower Halstow and the Medway Towns. This allowed residents a social life outside the village.

Plans were made to construct a village hall for the first time and meetings took place throughout the decade to discuss this. The Village Hall Committee met in February 1956 to view plans to convert an Upchurch oasthouse into a village hall but the cost proved too expensive so the plans were shelved. It wasn’t until 1961 that the building finally appeared. 

Overall, Upchurch remained a small and pleasant village during the 1950s, much more rural, quieter and smaller than today.

About David:

David Wood was born and raised in Upchurch and is able to write from personal experience about many people and aspects of the village and of changes that have taken place over the years making ‘Memories of Upchurch’ a very readable book and a detailed historical study of the village. David's book ‘Memories of Upchurch’ is available direct from David on:  david3702001@yahoo.co.uk  or from us here at Upchurch Matters.

price £12 + p+p £2.

David Wood

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