Kent Family History
Society Happenings

This page will be used to provide short reports on happenings at special meetings or events held by the Kent Family History Society which might be of interest to some overseas members. However, the page will not be used to cover regular meetings which are properly reported in your issues of the quarterly journal and therefore, there might be some time between changes to this information.

woodnesborough, June, 1998
At the Gillow's Memorial, Woodnesborough - June, 1998
© P.E.Blanche 1998

First of all, my apologies for the quality of the above picture but the light was fading fast by the time we reached Woodnesborough, our third stop on this "Churchyard Tour" hosted by Peter Ewart, a local historian and regular speaker at the Canterbury Branch meetings. Peter is the individual facing the camera and can be identified by the blue line positioned over his head.

The tour and talk given by Peter emphasized the interesting information that can be obtained about some individuals by just digging a little further under the surface (bad pun!), rather than just accepting the basic information which is shown on original grave stones.

For examples, Peter gave an interesting insight into the lives and eventual deaths of three individuals in the Churchyard at St. Clements in Sandwich including a member of The Buffs who was drowned in The Stour at the beginning of WWI.

After leaving Sandwich the procession of member cars first travelled to Ash where we were give a very interesting talk about the one-time local Vicar (and cricketer - Peter seems to have quite a thing about cricket!) while most unfortunately, trying to compete with bell practice at the same time. From Ash we all followed along to Woodnesborough to visit the "Gillows" memorial at the Church of St. Mary the Blessed Virgin. Here Peter focused on a member of the Gillows family (who also happened to be a keen cricketer at one time!) that had been murdered by another member of the local community and the circumstances surrounding the susequent trial.

The final stopping place was SS. Peter and Paul where we were shown the position of the graves of two unidentified victims of a disaster at sea in Victorian times. This happened when an Australian bound ship was struck by another ship while it was at anchor in the Channel during bad weather. The ship which was carrying a heavy load of steel for the railways together with many emigrants who would have worked on that railway sank quickly with the loss of most of the passengers and crew. Many of this were found on the Kent beaches in this area for some time after the event. Personally, I was wondering how many genealogists might be searching for family connections that might have been passengers on such boats that never finally made it to Australia.

It was a really interesting evening and taught all of us, how much can be gleaned from what might at first appear to be a fairly inconspicuous headstone.

Then we went to the pub!

[Please Note: The Canterbury Branch has made a video recording of the tour and or a tape of the event. Please contact the society for a copy. I'm sorry I don't know the prices of these items].

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