July News from Upchurch Horticultural Society - From the Potting Shed

Sponsored by Upchurch River Valley Golf Course Ltd

July hopefully means that summer really gets going with long warm days that run on into the evening. This allows time for pottering around in the garden doing the little jobs and keeping everything looking at its best as the garden reaches its peak. It is also the time for garden parties and BBQs or just sitting on the patio, when all the hard work to get this far pays you back. It’s all about maintenance now, deadheading, weeding, trimming and pruning, watering and feeding to get the best out of your fruit, vegetables and flowers.

Take a regular crop of fruit and vegetables as they come available, re-sow to fit in a second crop particularly salads but avoid picking any more rhubarb as this will exhaust the plant prior to winter and result in a poor crop next year. If you have a surplus of herbs just pick and dry them for storage in glass jars or simply freeze them for later use. Keep battling the pests and diseases which can cause so much damage. I tried an organic pesticide this year which was not very effective so the black fly has infested the broad beans and the aphids are curling up the apple and plum leaves. Provado is on order from Amazon, so returning to chemical attack and can’t arrive quick enough. I do my best to be organic but sometimes it just doesn’t work well enough.

Another area where I resort to chemical attack is when it comes to weeds. Where possible I dig them out and compost them as some weeds are more nutritious than the vegetables we keep and eat. However, when weeds sprout from the gaps and cracks in paving or get established in the lawn it’s time to look for that dedicated sprayer or watering can that has WEEDKILLER written on it with an indelible black marker. That’s right… the one that doesn’t get used for anything else and gets a good rinse afterwards.

Weedkillers come in all shapes and sizes but rest assured that 1L bottle of WEED OFF from the garden centre is the most expensive way of clearing your weeds. It is so much cheaper in the long run to buy the concentrate and dilute according to the instruction on the packaging. A lot of weedkillers contain Glyphosate which is highly effective for dealing with the driveway but this will kill everything so avoid it on the lawn. My favourite is SBK, available from Amazon, and will finish off tree stumps if required but again do not use on the lawn. When it comes to lawns it gets a little more complicated as you do not want to kill the lawn, but there is no single weedkiller that will deal with all lawn weeds. Yarrow for example, is difficult to clear and needs 2 or even 3 different weedkillers combined to be fully effective.

Yarrow.

The active ingredients fall into two categories, Group 1 MCPA and 2,4-D and Group 2 Dicamba, Dichlorprop and Mecoprop. You need to ensure that you have at least one weedkiller from each group.

So enjoy your garden through the summer, the hard work is done until clear up time in the Autumn. To quote Charlie Dimmock “if it’s not fun you are not doing it right” so time for a beer and to figure out exactly what Charlie was talking about.

We are always looking for new members and try to encourage a fun attitude towards friendly competition. So if you want to grow your own fruit, vegetables and flowers or even enter any of the 3 shows we hold each year, then please get in touch, we would be happy to hear from you.

If you are interested in becoming a new member, (all ages are welcome), please contact Rosey on: 01634 377812 (evenings) or Email: rosemary@ringwoodaccounting.co.uk

Sean Barry - Upchurch Horticultural Society

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Temporary Road Closure - Iwade Road, Newington

Temporary Road Closure - Iwade Road, Newington, Sittingbourne - 22nd - 29th July 2019.

It will be necessary to close part of Iwade Road, Newington, near Sittingbourne, planned from Monday 22nd July 2019 with estimated completion by 29th July 2019.

Iwade Road (also known as High Oak Hill) will be closed in the general vicinity of Edwins Place.

Access to the remainder of Iwade Road continues from either direction up to where the road is closed, but there will be no through access during these works.

The alternative route for through traffic is via Wardwell Lane, Vicarage Road, The Street, Sheerness Road and Basser Hill back to Iwade Road.

The closure is to enable UK Power Networks to carry out works to provide a new electricity supply.

Due to the nature of these works, it will not be possible to re-open the road outside the working hours.

There is a slight chance that the works may over-run for such reasons as adverse weather conditions or unforeseen engineering difficulties.

The UK Power Networks 24 hour number is: 0800 783 8866

Website: www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk

The Kent County Council Highways helpline is: 03000 418181

For details of roadworks, see: www.roadworks.org

Kent County Council - Highways, Transportation & Waste

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The Former Muddies Huts in Shoregate Lane by David Wood

If you had walked down Shoregate Lane towards the river during the first half of the twentieth century you would have seen a row of wooden chalet style dwellings situated on the right hand side almost opposite the cottage and nursery on the left. These were known locally as ‘The Muddies Huts’.

The dwellings are believed to have been constructed by a local barge company as rented accommodation for their employees towards the end of the nineteenth century. During that period barges were a common sight transporting goods such as agricultural products and bricks along the river. Shoregate and Twinney Creeks were locations where barges came to load or unload goods.

Joyce Bass from Drakes Close remembers visiting her aunt Maud Seamer at one of the dwellings during the 1940s. She says, “There were four wooden houses painted black. Each had a sloping roof, a chimney, two rooms comprising a bedroom and a kitchen and an outside toilet at the bottom of a long garden. An open fire and a kitchen boiler were used to heat the properties.”

Initially, the residents had river related jobs such as bargemen and clay diggers but as time passed farm workers and others lived there. The national census for 1901 shows that the dwellings were occupied by John Seamer, a manual worker and his granddaughter Elsie, George Seamer, a brickmaker, his wife Mary, their daughter Maud, a farm worker and sons Fred, Arthur and Edward. Maria Baker and her son Jonathan and Mary Houghting and her daughter Lilian lived in the other two dwellings.

During the war some residents left home to fight in the conflict. William Seamer served as a civilian stoker on a tug named ‘Desire’. Previously he had worked as a clay digger on the river. He perished in the war along with his son Edward who served as a stoker on HMS Turbulent and had worked as a bargeman before the war. His other son Albert who served as a stoker in the Royal Navy survived along with brothers Arthur and Fred Seamer who also served in the Royal Navy. Albert’s brother Charles who had joined the army in 1909 had an arm amputated after getting wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans on the Western Front. George and Edward Seager remained as residents at the dwellings during the war and were employed as manual workers in the Ham Green area.

During the 1920s Maud Seamer and her mother Mary, Sarah and Charles Crane, Arthur Seamer, Alf Tassell and Fred Anderson resided on the site, followed by Albert Seager, Arthur and Daisy Sharp and Ebenezer and Lilian Webb.

Joyce Bass from Drakes Close recalls the residents who lived in the dwellings during the 1940s.

“Ebenezer Webb and his wife lived in the first house and Maud Seamer lived in the second. She worked for farmer Alf Clark as a tractor driver and she dressed in male working clothes with a jacket and baggy trousers. Mr Plumb lived in the third house along and Frank Woollett, a former pub landlord from Eastchurch lived in the fourth house.”

The Seamer family were the longest resident family at the properties. Maud Seamer resided in Shoregate Lane for her entire life while Ebenezer Webb and his wife lived there from the 1930s until the early 1950s.

‘The Muddies Huts’ were eventually demolished during the early 1950s and the site incorporated into surrounding farmland belonging to A Hinge & Sons, The wooden dwellings are long gone but descendants of the Seamer family continue to reside in the village.

About David

David Wood was born, raised and still lives in Upchurch today. He is able to write from personal experience about village life and the changes that have taken place over the years, making ‘Memories of Upchurch’ a very readable book and detailed historical study of the village.

David's book, ‘Memories of Upchurch’ is available direct from David at: david3702001@yahoo.co.uk or from us here at Upchurch Matters.

Price £12 + £3.50 postage and packing.

David Wood

Poolside Bar & Courtyard Music Nights 2019 - July to September at Upchurch River Valley Golf Course

Jenny Giles - Upchurch River Valley Golf Course

Telephone: 01634 360626

Website: www.rivervalleygolf.co.uk

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Temporary Road Closure - Yaugher Lane, Hartlip

It will be necessary to close Yaugher Lane, Hartlip from Monday 1st July 2019 for up to 5 days.

The road will be closed at the junction with Meresborough Lane.

The alternative route is via Meresborough Lane, Meresborough Road and Matts Hill.

The closure is necessary to enable SGN to carry out works to supply a new service.

This notice applies when the relevant signs and barriers are on site and is valid for a period of no more than 5 days.

The Kent County Council Highways helpline is: 03000 418181

For details of roadworks, see: www.kenttraffic.info

Kent County Council - Highways, Transportation & Waste

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JCB Stolen - Newington

Hartlip, Newington & Upchurch Ward

Crime Number: 46/120784/19

At 3:33am on Monday 24th of June, a JCB was stolen from Persimmon Homes, Watling Place, Newington High Street, and abandoned in a field 7 miles away.

If you have any information that could help investigators please contact Kent Police on telephone number 101 and quote the relevant crime number above.

For more information on crime prevention visit: www.kent.police.uk

Kent Community Messaging

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