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.

High Street

As our contribution to the Heritage Open Day Weekend we are proud to be able to exhibit the wonderful work created by Southborough C of E Primary School. Their work will, appropriately, be on display in the shop front windows of The House Company on the Parade for both weekends (and up during the week if you are passing by).

To complement the illustrations, we will also be displaying archive images of the early 20th Century high street and a new work by illustrator Elaine Gill, in the window of Hardman and Hemming, bespoke tailors, along with images of shopfronts and advertisements from the same era in the window of Pets Fayre.

A sample of the displays for the ‘High Street’ exhibition.

We would like to thank Tracy (The House Company), Stuart & Stuart (Hardman & Hemming) and Sarah (Pet’s Fayre) for generously giving up their shopfronts and creative expertise for the display of the exhibition. We would also like to thank Woodwork, The Early Grey, Blooms, Henry Paul Funerals , Hardman & Hemming, Pet’s Fayre, Arty Farty Retreat and Elaine Gill for generously supporting us.

There will be an architectural scavenger hunt to encourage families to look more closely at the hidden details along London Road, all entries will be placed in a prize draw to win a high street themed prize.

More information about the scavenger hunt will be posted next week-so watch this space!

To download the Tunbridge Wells Open Days Booklet, click here. Or visit the website here.

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!