Are you curious about the statue of the young pretty Red Indian girl at the top of the page?
Well we are based nearly three miles from St George's church in Gravesend where this statue stands in the churchyard, about 200 yards from the waterfront (the River Thames at this point is quite wide and is rapidly turning into the estuary).
The statue commemorates Princess Pocahontas who was buried in the chancel of the church on March 21st 1617. Although made more famous today by the Disney cartoon film she was in fact a real person, a native American Indian and a daughter of a great chief. As a very young teenager she fell in love with a 27 year old adventurer, Captain John Smith and undoubtably saved his life. This Captain Smith had left London in a tiny 100 ton ship with two other even smaller vessels on December 19, 1606 passing Gravesend just a few hours later. The weather was absolutely atrocious and for almost six weeks the ships had to shelter from wind and storm in "The Downs" the sheltered area just around the heel of Kent at North Foreland where even today the cross channel ferries still shelter from bad weather. Eventually on May 13, 1607 these vessels landed in the new world and established the first English settlement in Virginia called Jamestown after King James. Pocahontas was later deceived by the settlers into believing that John Smith had died. She subsequently married John Rolfe and she came to England with him where she was fêted by London society. Intending later to return to Virginia, she took ill with pneumonia or possibly tuberculosis and unfortunately she died soon after boarding ship and was buried in the chancel of St George's church (the chancel was normally reserved for the clergy or very notable parishioners). She was only 21 or 22 years old when she died, still a very young woman. Gravesend was an important port at this time (it still is the home port for all the pilots in the Thames Estuary). As Gravesend churches come within the diocese of Rochester cathedral the register of Pocahontas burial is available on Medway City Archives ( http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/).
There is a very good account of the life of Pocahontas on www.apva.org/history/pocahont.html if you are interested. Another very interesting and informative account written by one of her descendants is on http://pocahontas.morenus.org/. The website of St Georges church also has a good account of her life together with a photo of the Burial Register on http://www.stgeorgesgravesend.org.uk/The_Story_of_Pocahontas.pdf
The statue at the top the page was presented to St Georges church by the Governor of Virginia in 1968 and is a replica of the statue in Jamestown, Virginia, USA. Also in the church are a memorial tablet and memorial windows.
A bit more about Gravesend and environs.
Gravesend is in the county of Kent, the bottom right-hand corner of the UK, the most south easterly county in England and the one nearest France and the rest of the continent of Europe. Prior to AD 43 and the arrival of the Romans this county was a kingdom in its own right, ruled as a separate nation by its own Celtic king. Even the name of its border to the north, the river Thames is Celtic and thus is very old, in fact it is considered to be the second most ancient name in England - and the most ancient name is? - "Kent". In AD 368 a very mysterious people, the Attacotti plundered much of Kent. This tribe was reputed to include cannibals and to speak a language quite unrelated to any other European language but very little seems to be known about them. The Romans had brought German mercenaries over to Britain before AD 400 and these Angles and Saxons obviously encouraged others of their homeland that Britain was a good place to be and for the next few years many Angles and Saxons arrived in England, many of the Saxons settled in Kent, the Angles settled mostly north of the Thames. Kent in those days was still considered a kingdom and the King of Kent would frequently be sufficiently powerful to govern London as well and in AD 604 King Ethelbert of Kent erected St Pauls Cathedral in London (not the beautiful Wren Cathedral but an earlier version). Gradually London, doing what it has always done well, trading, became more rich and powerful and became a virtual City/State.
Kent was always a rebellious kingdom and then subsequently a difficult county with the motto "Invicta", which means 'Unconquered'. This refers to the very difficult time the Kentish Men and then the Men of Kent (there is a difference) gave to William the Conqueror (Guillaume de Normandie) after he had vanquished London in 1066 and then turned eastwards back towards the coast. William eventually signed a treaty with the men of Kent in 1067, quite possibly on the site of the later Stone Castle (a couple of hundred yards north east of BlueWater Shopping Centre) but if not there almost certainly within about 2 miles of there.
Gravesend is on the southern bank of the River Thames approximately 23 miles from central London and about 55 miles from Dover. On the other side of the Thames opposite Gravesend lies Tilbury where from the fort on the river bank Queen Elizabeth I in 1588 made her famous speech as she rallied her troops before the Armada when she said "I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too".
Gravesend lies very close to the Roman road Watling Street which travels from Reculver (on the north Kent coast between Herne Bay and Margate) to Canterbury and then in a pretty straight line right into London roughly at Westminster where the river Thames could be forded at low tide and then on to North Wales. Although usually referred to as a Roman Road, Watling Street is actually a very ancient trackway far older than the Romans, used by the Celts, but it was the Romans who paved it over and got the credit for it.
The main London to Dover road that was used for centuries until the 20th century actually veered off the roman road to pass closer to the old part of Gravesend based on the river front. Travellers on horseback or travelling by stagecoach towards London diverted off Watling Street a mile after crossing Rochester bridge over the Medway. After climbing the ridge of the North Downs at Strood they took the direct route towards Gravesend where perhaps horses might be changed, soon to rejoin Watling Street a few miles further on at Dartford. There must have been a distinct advantage to do this as this road through the southern part of Gravesend was a Turnpike (a toll road). This road is still called Old Dover Road. The original roman road, Watling Street just south of Gravesend became for some centuries just a very straight country lane. This changed around 1922 when as a result of Gravesend's growth this straight country lane was upgraded to become a bypass for the town.
When I first moved to Kent from my birthplace and youth in East London, Watling Street from Canterbury as far as Greenwich was also virtually the same as the A2 trunk road which was now the main Dover Road. Over the years the trunk road has been completely upgraded and often moved a few yards or sometimes a little more, from it's original route as Watling Street, although the route of the original Roman road is still quite clear on a map right up to about Greenwich Park (where the Meridian is and the London Marathon is started). Each time the road is moved the excavators unearth more Roman remains. They have recently moved the section of the A2 nearest to our home, less than a mile away. This section has been moved only about 100 yards to the south for some reason that seems a little obscure to me but the team of 50 archaeologists have unearthed many interesting finds during the project. Evidence of settlements from 3,500 years ago just a mile or two away makes you wonder just what life was like around here back in the Bronze Age. Interesting "High Status" Roman burials were also discovered complete with a wide range of grave goods interred with the deceased.
The A2 near Gravesend is currently a dual carriageway partly of three lanes and partly of four lanes in each direction, built to broadly motorway standards. The three lane section has been moved in 2008 from the line of Watling Street, a hundred yards or so in a southerly direction where it lies virtually adjacent to the Eurostar railway line (now called High Speed 1) which runs from central London to Paris (and various other locations in France and Belgium). The Eurostar trains going past just here are travelling relatively slowly at around 135 mph as they accelerate away from a sharp bend but they speed up considerably (up to 186 mph or 300 km/h) as they travel to the Tunnel under the English Channel (or La Manche if you are looking at it from the other side). Once past the 23 miles of sea there is about 180 miles of Northern France to cover to the Gare du Nord in Paris. In just two hours and one minute from when I see these stylish trains passing locally they are arriving in Paris or Disneyland or even less time to Brussels or if their destination is Lille they will be there in only about an hour and a quarter. Although these times seem quite fast, on March 3, 2007 the French made a record speed attempt on their new TGV line from Paris to Strasbourg with a souped-up TGV and achieved an incredible 574.8 km/h which is 357 mph and is the fastest yet obtained for a railway on wheels (the Japanese magnetic levitation train managed 4 mph faster but doesn't travel on wheels). To put this achievement into perspective, just consider this - a passenger jet airliner leaves the ground at approximately half the speed of this TGV.
Our local interest in this continental link is strengthened by the new Ebbsfleet International Station about three miles from here and two miles from Gravesend. To enter this site the railway line had to burrow under the existing A2 trunk road which is right on the route of Watling Street. This was an absolute goldmine for the 30 archaeologists who found more than 150,000 objects during the period of just over two years. These included 80 Celtic coins (the Celts lived here 150 years before the Romans arrived in AD 43), 2000 Roman coins, a large number of brooches (Saxon and Jute) and a huge Saxon sword on the site of a Saxon cemetery. Interesting website on the Eurostar link is www.raeng.org.uk/news/publications/ingenia/issue17/Bechtel.pdf
This new line through Ebbsfleet Station and then under the Thames, travelling through East London, passing close to the site of the 2012 Olympics and then into a completely renovated St Pancras Station in London started on November 14, 2007. Just five days later Ebbsfleet International Station opened for traffic with 7 trains daily to Paris stopping at Ebbsfleet, 5 trains to Brussels and 4 to Lille and of course the same number of each on the return. As a result the number of trains stopping at Ashford International Station has been dramatically reduced.
The opening of the new International station has prompted a change of name for the local football team. In 1890 Northfleet United fooball club was formed and 3 years later another club, Gravesend United started. Just over 50 years on the two clubs amalgamated at Northfleet, using the existing Northfleet colours of red and white and now known as Gravesend and Northfleet FC but always known locally as "The Fleet". This was of course an abbreviation of the name "Northfleet" but was particularly appropriate as the football pitch lies adjacent to the River Fleet only yards away from Ebbsfleet where it runs, or ebbs, into the Thames. The new International station is so close to the football ground it must have obvious that a change of name to Ebbsfleet United was imperative - but it will still be known as "The Fleet". The change of name has obviously made an impact on the team - The Fleet played at Wembley in the 2008 cup final on May 10, 2008 - and WON THE CUP - really well done lads!
Alright then, it's not too bad and I'm not sleepy yet, maybe I'll read a bit more
The continental connection for the area was further strengthened in 2007 by being a small part of the largest annual sporting event in the world. On Saturday July 7, 2007 the Tour de France started in London. The first day, called The Prologue was around a circuit of central London roads. The second day (Sunday the 8th) was Stage 1 of the race proper and started from The Mall, zooming through the Square Mile of The City, past the Tower of London then over Tower Bridge, through Greenwich and on through Dartford, then half a dozen miles to Northfleet and Gravesend and on to a total of 130 miles around the county of Kent to finish the first stage at Canterbury. As both Rochester and Canterbury cathedrals were built about 900 years ago by the Normans both were virtually on the race line so that the French riders could see the influence their forebears have had on us. The Tower of London, which they also flashed past, also reminds them that at one time they, in the person of William, Duke of Normandy, had their foot firmly planted on the collective English neck. William the Conqueror also called Guillaume le Bâtard (William the Bastard) - referring to his parentage, not his personal qualities, was actually a very good man. He was physically strong and mentally gifted and was a fair and wise king. He brought the Anglo-Saxon age to an end even though the current French media prefer to refer to us, and other English speaking populations, as "les Anglo-Saxons". All subsequent monarchs of these shores carry his blood and are direct descendents of William, including of course our present Queen.
The route through the Medway Towns passed the old Navy dockyard at Chatham where the massive 100 gun Ship-of-the-Line "Victory" was built. HMS Victory (now residing in drydock at Portsmouth of course) was highly instrumental in restoring England's pride at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 by finally destroying the last hope that Napoleon had to invade England. In this battle the English navy led by Nelson proved their absolute superiority over the combined French and Spanish fleets. Within five years the navy grew to about 1000 warships and the "Senior Service" was thus to ensure that England was now impossible to invade and for the next hundred years until the early 20th century was completely world dominant.
Le Tour 2007 is now just a vivid memory. I went down to Northfleet to watch it flash past about 100 yards from where my wife was born and then drove down to Canterbury to see the finish of the first stage next to the old city wall. Very exciting and great to see. I have every admiration for those riders zooming past so fast yet knowing that there is still well over 2000 miles to go before they can stop pounding the pedals once they reach Paris. I found the experience really interesting. Although no cyclist myself (I'm too fat and lazy) the whole spectacle was great to watch but tricky to understand, the Beeb have a really good explanation here. The race is accompanied by hundreds of cars, both official and team, many with their roofs packed with spare bikes. The racers are shaperoned around very efficiently by a large contingent of French motorcycle policemen. These are delightfully different from our British police. I'm sure that they must be quite a hit with the ladies, they seemed to be picked for their good looks, and they ride in well-fitting breeches, short shirt sleeves, open face helmets, sun glasses and usually big smiles. Not a single ugly fluorescent jacket visible on them - 'ealth and safety is obviously not allowed to spoil anyones enjoyment in France.
Back to Gravesend - the town was a particular favourite for Londoners after 1815 when a steam packet service was started to Gravesend from London each weekend. This was the paddle-steamer Marjory, built in 1814 up in Scotland on the Clyde, the first steam powered vessel on the Thames. By 1840 Gravesend had some 20,000 visitors each weekend and over a million visitors had enjoyed it's gardens and baths and entertainment. By 1870 there were some thirty seven stage coach lines passing through Gravesend and pleasure boat trips from London were taking place every day of the week. For some strange reason Gravesend is frequently the hottest place in the UK, possibly to do with the winds blowing up and over the North Downs which lie eight or nine miles to the south of the area and then increasing in temperature as they descend (perhaps a mini Föhn effect wind). The Victorians must have been a lot smarter than we think.
One Victorian of note was a certain Charles Dickens who lived and wrote locally in Chalk,
Cobham and Higham and indeed died at home in Higham at Gad's Hill Place, right
on the old Dover Road. Whilst there Dickens completed "Great Expectations"
and "A Tale of Two Cities" and died in the dining room in 1870 with
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" still unfinished.
The city of Rochester, just a couple of miles to the east of Higham celebrates
Dickens presence locally and has colourful Dickens weekends where many locals
attend in Dickensian costume (the next one is 5th and 6th December 2009). A number of the
buildings in Rochester feature in Dickens' stories. The village
of Cobham near to Higham is a beautiful
little place with plenty of ancient history, a thirteenth century church and
a lovely little pub called the Leather Bottle. Dickens used to walk to Cobham from
his home and and give readings in the Leather Bottle and indeed featured this
pub in "Pickwick Papers". Just up the road is Cobham Hall, an impressive
red brick building (that phrase doesn't do it justice), for 200 years the home
of the Earls of Darnley and was once also the home of "The Ashes"
a long time ago when English cricket was able to compete with the Aussies.
General Charles Gordon, probably best known for his exploits in the Sudan (Gordon of Khartoum), first made his name in China (where Britain was trying to force China to LEGALISE trade in Opium !!! ) and after a successful war there, came to Gravesend to command the Royal Engineers in erecting a fort to defend the Thames. He lived here in the town for six years and being a very devout man ran Sunday School classes locally. He was an incredibly generous man and out of his £3000 annual salary gave the majority (£2700) of it to the pensions of local poor people, even for several years after he left Gravesend. Posted back to Africa Gordon was instrumential in helping to suppress the slave trade there, particularly in Darfur. After many successful travels Gordon finally was sent back to sort out the problems of Africa and eventually met his fate at Khartoum, being killed and beheaded only two days before help arrived from England. Another example of a small man having a huge influence on the world in which he lived (he was only five feet five inches tall but a giant in stature).
During Victorian days London was virtually capital of a quarter of the planet and the port of London was by far the busiest in the world. It is difficult to visualise now just how important was Britain's place in the world in Victorian times. Around 1860 Britain produced more coal than the rest of the world put together. The same was also true for iron. We produced two thirds of all cotton goods in the world. These facts seems inconceivable today. Gravesend's importance grew as it was such an important stopping point on the Thames which was by now receiving ships from around the globe. The Thames itself is very interesting and there are a number of fascinating websites on it (I particularly liked www.thames.me.uk)
A few years ago Gravesend amalgamated with it's much larger neighbour, Northfleet and several smaller village areas (including Cobham, Chalk and Higham) to become the modern conurbation of Gravesham. This name is actually very old and is the name by which Gravesend was known in the Domesday Book. At this time (1086) Gravesham belonged to Odo (William the Conqueror's half-brother), who was Bishop of Bayeux (in Normandy of course) and Earl of Kent. Three hundred years later in 1380 French ships sailed up the Thames, sacked the town and took off most of the inhabitants. King Richard II granted the remaining citizens of Gravesend the privilege of being the only people to be able to transport passengers by river into London in an effort to restore wealth to the ruined town. All subsequent monarchs renewed this privilege which exists right to this day. This privilege is called Long Ferry and ran from Gravesend to Billingsgate. The standard boat was called a wherry. This was a slim craft of twenty two and a half feet carrying up to five passengers and pulled by two oarsmen referred to as wherrymen who had a reputation for being rather uncouth. I hope the present citizens of Gravesham are not considered thus. Modern inhabitants of Gravesend are are pretty cosmopolitan lot. In addition to the Kentish locals there are many, like myself, of Londoners who have moved "out of town". There is also a large number of people of Asian origin, mostly very friendly Sikhs who have been here for several generations. This community are now building an extremely impressive new temple in the town. Also in the past couple of years there have arrived many young people of Eastern European or of Balkan origin.
Although Gravesend is an old town there are very few really old buildings. Most of the old town was centred on the river front and the majority of buildings were timber built. Much of the local trade must have concentrated on shipping and would have involved the storage of ropes and sail cloth, pitch and paraffin and candles, masts and spars and deck timbers, all highly combustible. It seems feasible that they may have even stocked gunpowder. In 1727 a massive fire devastated most of the town including St George's church where Pocahontas was buried and this was followed by a several more, although less serious, fires a few years later.
Northfleet was heavily associated with shipbuilding and the cement and paper industries. Many of the East Indiamen were built in Pitchers Shipyard in Northfleet but shipbuilding ceased in the late 1800's. The area is mostly one of chalk downs and from Roman times this chalk was extracted and used for making cement. In the mid 1800's a much improved material, Portland cement was first commercially produced at Northfleet Creek and the oldest surviving cement kiln in the world can still be seen at Northfleet. There is still an enormous cement mill in Northfleet, taking chalk from the hills surrounding the site and taking clay from Essex in a pipeline under the Thames from Thurrock on the opposite, north bank of the Thames. This six kiln mill is scheduled to stop for ever around now. The large shopping centre BlueWater, surrounded by high chalk cliffs, is built on the area that was the source of much of this chalk. Paper was also made in a number of mills in the area, from newsprint destined for the presses of Fleet Street just 21 miles away, to specialised papers and to tissue papers for facial, toilet and kitchen wipes.
Nothing to do with car airconditioning of course but if you found any of it interesting I am grateful.
John Orford AMSOE AMIRTE AffIMI
If you have noticed my surname I must have a brief mention of another castle with Norman credentials. This is Orford Castle on the coast in Suffolk. Building was commenced in 1165 and was completed just eight years later and was used as a royal residence. At that time it was a very strategic part of the defence of England but the sea changed all that by leaving the castle some way inland. All that remains now is the keep but that is 90 feet high and very impressive and worth a look if you are visiting this fascinating coastline. See www.visitsuffolkattractions.co.uk for photos of the castle but this small town itself is also well worth a visit as it is very attractive and seems stuck in a timewarp. Bring your binoculars if you come as this remote part of the coast right up past Aldeburgh and Southwold to Kessingland has lots to see with many exotic (to me) sea and wading birds.
Using the website www.spatial-literacy.org I can see that the main incidence of my surname in the 1881 census was in Suffolk as expected so presumably my male antecedents came from the town of Orford and may even have helped (probably reluctantly) to build the castle.
The guy who built this castle was Henry II who must surely have been one of the most important monarchs we ever had. As a Norman (although born at Le Mans) he spent at least half his life in what is now France as he reigned over a vast territory of what is now modern France mostly to the west, extending right down to what is now Spain, as well as the whole of England and part of Wales. The southern part of his domain was acquired partly by his marriage to his extremely feisty wife Eleanor of Aquitaine but in this age when marriages were frequently of convenience these two actually fancied each other and together were a powerful combination. With such a huge, powerful kingdom he was not very popular with the French king (Louis VII) who had a much smaller territory based in Paris. Louis really expected Henry, as his vassel, to be subordinate to him so Henry had to humour him a bit, especially as Eleanor had previously been the French king's wife. Henry was in France as usual when he perhaps accidentally precipitated the murder of his friend Archbishop Thomas à Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral. Nevertheless he is chiefly memorable as one of the founders of English Common Law with magistrates, juries and judges and by the time he died in 1189 England was the best governed state in Europe. Henry's son Richard the Lion Heart (Coeur de Lion) was another king who was hardly ever in England yet he had great PR and it is his statue on horseback which stands just outside the Houses of Parliament and he seems to pop up in every Robin Hood film anyway. But it really was his father, Henry II who was the superstar, intelligent and physically strong, enormously energetic, almost hyper-active, forever hunting with falcons or hounds or involved in other sports. Henry was able to inspire people, he had the first stone bridge built over the Thames (Old London Bridge) that survived all the fires in London and became the longest surviving bridge in Europe when it lasted 622 years until just 5 years before Victoria came to the throne. Henry virtually rebuilt the enormous Dover Castle. And he commissioned Orford Castle.
Just a thought - if we hadn't lost all of Henry II's continental possessions in the later Middle Ages what a great soccer team England would have now.
Now, who would have thought that reading a website about car air conditioning would give you ammunition to answer correctly the very first £1M question on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire'?
That's it folks. You can go to bed now.
Quote: "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." Mark Twain
The last page is concerned with people living out of the area we try to cover