Barbara Ryan's memories

Post date: Sep 15, 2014 7:44:13 PM

WATERINGBURY MEMORIES

From around 1930 (when aged 10) I was a regular visitor to Wateringbury, staying for a week during the school holidays with my Uncle Walt and Auntie Lizzie at their home in Station Road (now Bow Road) on the opposite side of the road to the Phoenix Brewery. I lived at Cherry Orchard Way (just off Tonbridge Road) in Maidstone.

Walter Pearce (Uncle Walt) worked at the Brewery (which I recall visiting with him), firstly for Frederick Leney & Sons Ltd and then Whitbread’s following their takeover. By all accounts he was a very practical, hands on, individual – if the required tool for a particular job was not available, he would make one. In time, he became boss of the Engineering Department.

He always had a car – the first I remember (I think it was grey) had a dicky at the rear to accommodate two extra passengers – not much fun in the rain! Later, with a bigger car, I recall a family weekend camping in Dymchurch where a friendly farmer let us use his field. As the car seats could be laid flat, I slept in the car with my mother and Auntie Lizzie. My father and Uncle Walt were under canvas positioned alongside and fastened over the car in a tent like arrangement, as seen in the accompanying photograph. Uncle Walt is on the left with my parents on the right. The car must have been a familiar sight in the village in the mid 1930’s – can anyone identify it?

On another occasion he rented a bungalow in Dymchurch for two weeks, allowing various family members to visit. It must have been a favourite location for he also talked about buying a bungalow there, until WW2 intervened.

Soon after the War started, two soldiers were billeted with them in their attic. One of this pair was from South Wales serving with the Royal Corps of Signals.

He died in 1949, aged 64, and as a mark of respect staff lined up outside the Brewery as the funeral procession passed.

Walter’s mother, Katherine Salmon, was born in Stedham (Sussex). Her name appears in the 1871 census as a housemaid in Chelsea. Four years later she married George Dawson and they settled in nearby Brompton. They had two children - Alice and William (my father, born in 1880). As a coachman George Dawson was out in all weathers and he died the following year from pneumonia. The 1881 census, taken just nine days later, shows the newly widowed Katherine staying with her married sister in Maidstone. I understand William Pearce saw Katherine alighting from a train at Tovil station with her two infant children. They were to marry in 1884 and have six children – five sons and one daughter; the first born was my Uncle Walt.

George Henry Pearce, their fifth son, enlisted at Maidstone in December 1915 and was mobilized into the 12^th Battalion of the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) on

1 February 1916. He went to France on 3 July and was posted to the 7^th Battalion on 13 July. He was wounded on 1 October 1916. In March 1917 his mother contacted the War Office “I am writing to ask you if you can give me any Information regarding my Son Pte G Pearce 12118 7/Royal West Kent, who has been Missing since the 18 Nov 1916. If he is Prisoner of War I think we should have (heard) from him before now. Trusting to hear from you soon. Your Obedient Servant, Katherine Pearce. Pelican Farm, Wateringbury, late of 22 Tovil Hill, Maidstone.”

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission show date of death as 18 November 1916 – the last day of the Battle of the Somme – whilst War Office records note that death was formally acknowledged on 13 December 1917 (nine months after his mother’s enquiry).

His name is recorded on the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval (one of 72000 men with no known grave), the biographical database held at Thiepval Visitor Centre, the Great War Memorial in St John the Baptist Church, Wateringbury and in the WW1 Memorial Booklet produced by the Church.

One oddity is that the CWGC record shows the parents address as 3 Medway Terrace, Nettlestead. Katherine’s letter was sent from Pelican Farm and it was this location which I visited many times with my parents on Sunday afternoons (buying winkles from a handcart) and at Christmas.

Olive Hilda Pearce (known as Hilda), the youngest child and only daughter, married Frank Kitchener Jukes (known as Bob) in 1925. Her brother Walter may have used his influence at the brewery to secure the tenancy of the Harrow Inn for them. I visited this beerhouse on many occasions but stayed on the private side of the property. I don’t recall how long they stayed in the village, but with WW2 underway Bob worked for Short Brothers in Chatham and then Swindon when the firm relocated.

My mother, Edith Ethel Seaton, was born at Mill House, East Farleigh in 1884. Her mother Caroline was the daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Allcorn - Edward owned a successful ironmonger’s business in Maidstone. Caroline’s husband, George Seaton, was born in Lochmaben, Dumfries-shire (a few miles north-west of Gretna Green), one of a dozen or so children whose family were mainly involved in agriculture. George appears to have had other ideas and travelled 300 miles south to Kent.

George and Caroline married in 1879, but the first Wateringbury reference is the 1911 census when their address is shown simply as Wateringbury. By this time he was the ‘Gas Man’ at Barham Court. I understand he retained his Scottish accent and celebrated Hogmanay in the village, returning to Scotland once a year to see his family.

My father was widowed in 1911 (there were no children) and then in 1916, aged 36, he was conscripted into the Sherwood Foresters (the Notts and Derbyshire Regiment) - a long way from home in Kent. It was the same year that his half brother George Pearce went missing in France. On his return to Wateringbury after the War he stayed with Uncle Walt and Auntie Lizzie - his first action was to see that his uniform was burnt (a health hazard).

Meanwhile, my mother worked in the kitchen at Barham Court. During the Great War it served as a Convalescent Home and I remember a photograph she had, showing some of the patients and staff. Uncle Walt lived close to George and Caroline Seaton and knew them well. My mother would have been a regular visitor and Lizzie Pearce claimed that she was the matchmaker in introducing my parents to each other. They were married in June 1919.

Katherine Pearce (my paternal grandmother) died aged 80 in 1931 at the Harrow (beer house), Old Road. I was 11 years old and remember visiting her grave in Wateringbury a few days later. It was covered with flowers and someone (probably Uncle Walt) took a photograph, which I still have. Husband William Pearce (83) died six years later and is buried in the same plot.

On one memorable occasion near to Barham Court, returning home to Maidstone with my mother from a visit to Nettlestead on the hourly Maidstone & District bus from Tunbridge Wells, a low flying Doodlebug (V1 Flying Bomb) passed in the opposite direction. This must have been Thursday 24 August 1944 (the parish church website records how a V1 landed at Wateringbury Place at 7.25 pm that evening causing considerable damage).

I joined the WAAF in 1942 and spent most of my time at RAF South Cerney in Gloucestershire. It was here in 1944 that I met my future husband; we were married in 1946 at Nettlestead and then moved to Lancashire.

I revisited Wateringbury Cemetery last year and with the help of Parish Clerk Sue Cockburn and the photograph, found the site. Uncle Walt’s grave is nearby and I was surprised to see that it was unmarked. After the visit I met Terry Bird, who invited me to record some of my Wateringbury experiences. I hope these add to the history of the village.

Barbara Ryan (nee Dawson)