Through the Lens

Over the last year, in preparation for our digital archive, we have been trawling through the scans and we thought it would be interesting to take a look back at some highlights from our photographic competition since its inception in 2004. We also hope that this post serves as a reminder for you to enter your photographs for this year’s competition by the 30th of October! See details on how to enter here.

The competition started life as ‘Putting High Brooms and Southborough in the Picture’ and was later reinvented in 2009 as ‘Through the Lens’ as it now continues to be known.

The category of ‘Places’ has consistently received the highest number of entries in the competition and has recorded many recognisable/iconic views which clearly say ‘Southborough’. But the more changeable aspects of our town such as its people, the high street and its events tell us more about how our town has been transforming over time.

Below is a small selection of the entries from our archive, we hope you enjoy reminiscing!

The beauty of St Peter’s in snow, by Albert Dungate in 2009.

2019 student category winner, Freddie Knight, ‘St Peter’s Church Tower’.

The everyday, vernacular photography can tell us more about that point in time than images of well recognised buildings and beauty spots of Southborough. Shops that had been stalwarts of the high street have been photographed in their final days, as you can see from Howes, the Q8 Garage, Wisdoms, and the butchers. A particular highlight in Southborough was the passing of the Tour de France in 2007 which resulted in many entries documenting the peloton as it raced through our High Street.

The End of an Era: Howes of Southborough, 1953-2007 by Rita Scales.

Q8 Creations, London Road, 2007, by Bob Holly.

The Upholsterer: Michael Wisdom, 2006 by Peter Dillon.

Kevin Major: The Final Chop, 2008 by Fred Scales. Major & Sons was a family butcher, previously located on the corner of Western Road and Norton Road, now residential property.

‘A Bold Gendarme’, 2007, by Michael Tayler.

Blurred Colours of the Peloton: Tour de France, 8th July 2007, by Abu Subhan.

The Leaders Speeding Through: The Tour de France, 8th July, 2007 by Olywn Kinghorn.

Now gone: Horse Trough on Sceptre Hill, Southborough, 2013, by Rhys Kinghorn.

The people of Southborough and High Brooms have been sharing loads of fantastic photographs on Facebook, particularly throughout the lockdown period, so get your entries in now! Good luck!

Architectural Scavenger Hunt

Our High Street exhibition opens today and we would like to encourage families over the next two weeks to have fun exploring the hidden details of the past and present of London Road with our Architectural Scavenger Hunt.

There will be a prize draw to win: gift vouchers from Arty Farty Retreat, Pets Fayre, Temper Temper Chocolate and a fine art giclée print of the Southborough High Street Map by illustrator, Elaine Gill (original work to be unveiled from tomorrow at Hardman & Hemming). A prize worth well over £100! So a very big thank you to our local businesses and Elaine Gill for generously supporting this competition. There will be additional prints for sale of Elaine’s map on her Etsy shop coming soon and for anyone looking to purchase the original watercolour map, Elaine has informed us there is space on the map for her to add an illustration of your own house!

For those keen to purchase prints of the illustrations by Southborough CofE Primary School pupils, we will be taking orders soon for calendars and prints-so watch this space!

You can pick up a sheet from either of the Premier Stores (on the Parade or opposite the Library) and also from The House Company and Pets Fayre, or you can download it here.

When you have completed the hunt, please return your sheets to the pink box at either Premier Store and keep your fingers crossed to be the winner!

With many thanks to all the local businesses who have supported our exhibition, without their assistance this would not have been possible.

The Wallis Archive

By Heather Evernden

One of the pleasures for local historians is the unexpected arrival of archive material from people, often strangers, who have cherished family mementoes with links to Southborough. Recently the Society was contacted by Wendy Wallis, now resident in Rugby. Wendy asked if we would like to see the collection of items she had in safekeeping, commemorating the Wallis family.

The archive included the school exercise book of Horace Wallis from 1841 and two of his son William’s books, dated 1866 and 1868. The men were Southborough residents, father and son, born in the nineteenth century, and both educated at what was referred to at the time as “Southborough Free School”. Intriguingly the school address is given as “Southborough, Tonbridge, Kent”.

Horace’s exercise book was used for arithmetic problems. The problems seem to focus on skills useful for book-keeping: Percentages, Profit and Loss, Discounts and Duodecimals. “What is the interest of £257.5s. 1d at 4 per cent per annum for one year and three quarters?” This was a problem Horace tackled which made my head spin, especially as he would not have had access to a calculator. But his working out is calm and measured, beautifully written in ink, now faded to brown, and coming to the correct answer every time.

William Wallis was as skilful with his pen as his father. His copy books are meticulous, recording line after line of handwriting practice. The choice of aphorisms to be lettered is very sobering: “A sinful life is offensive to God;” “Want ever attends sloth”; “No moment is to be lost”; “Kings must all soon die”; “Command you may your mind from play”. Let’s hope William and his peers were not too subdued by these weighty thoughts.

William also had to study practical arithmetic, as his father had done. There are examples in his books of sums calculating weights and measures and also of the wording and layout of model receipts, such as a tradesman might issue. There is also a more playful element to William’s schoolbooks. Page after page is covered with elaborate and beautiful lettering. He experimented with different fonts and styles; some letters are decorated, some shaded or filled with cross- hatching.

Aged 12, William completed what looks like a test piece or maybe a competition entry. He used a sheet of card, about A2 in size, and drew an elaborate pattern of lettering on it, demonstrating a wide variety of different formats. The text reads “Happy is the Youth that findeth Wisdom and the Youth that getteth Understanding”. This impressive piece of work is countersigned by William’s teacher: “July 3rd 1866. W. Spilsbury, Master of Southboro (sic) Free School”.

Lettering ‘sampler’ by William Wallis, aged 12 years, dated the 3rd of July, 1866.

Detail from bottom left hand side.

It was no surprise to read in his obituary that William Wallis grew up to work in a creative trade. He was a builder working with Gallards, who clearly had a talent for design. In addition, he was a chorister and then organist at St.Thomas’ Church. He had been linked with the church since its dedication in 1860. I had already been delighted to find that this talented man had lived in Vale Road, very close to my own home. I was even more delighted to discover that William Wallis had carved the oak choir stalls in St. Thomas’ Church, when they were installed by Gallards, the builders. Sunday, by Sunday I sing from those Choir Stalls, my music resting on the shelf William shaped and carved!

William Wallis out the front of Gallards, presumably in 1912 when the Almshouses was opened to its first occupants. Wallis is the gentleman with the white beard just right of centre.

Civic minded: William was also the Hon. Secretary of the Southborough War Savings Committee during World War 1.

William Wallis’ obituary, 1934.

We would like to thank Wendy Wallis and her family for loaning these fascinating items to the Society and contributing to our understanding of Southborough’s history.

Hazel Dormice Project

Some of the images used by the Brownies to inspire their messages to the dormice.

The Southborough Society are working hard on increasing the biodiversity on our land ‘Doctor’s Meadow’ which adjoins Southborough Common. Aside from all the work Kent High Weald Partnership and its volunteers have done on clearing willow, bracken, holly and other species that had overwhelmed the area, we are keen to improve the local fauna too.

After commissioning the Kent Wildlife Trust in 2017 to undertake a survey of the site, it suggested that endangered Hazel Dormice could inhabit the site and that this should be encouraged. Britain’s dormice population has declined a huge 51% since 2000 and are now predominantly confined to Southern England and Wales.

So to help these little guys out we have initiated a project in collaboration with Southborough Brownies and Cubs to construct nest boxes for the dormice to use in the Spring/Summer. The Brownies and Cubs have created poems that will be inscribed on the base of the nest boxes they make that will be installed soon on Doctor’s Meadow.

The nest box the Brownies and Cubs will be constructing.

We’d like to thank Alsford Timber, Tonbridge for donating the materials to support this project.

Here are a couple of examples of the poems from Southborough Brownies. We look forward to making the boxes together!