Swanley History Group – October 2018 meeting
The gremlins were out in force at our October meeting! The computer said “No!!!” so Esme could not deliver her presentation ‘Eve’s Kingdom’ – The Story of Hextable House and The Horticultural College - and who would have believed that we were all wilting with the heat in October because the air conditioning was not working!
Valiant Keith Whitmore came to the rescue with his collection of photographs and other memorabilia of life in Hextable in bygone times. Hextable House, built around 1664 possibly on the site of an earlier building, did feature in Keith’s presentation. A vacancy to tend the grounds brought Keith’s grandfather down south from a mining town in Durham in 1929. We viewed photographs showing Keith’s father and aunt who also worked at the mansion posing outside their cottage in the grounds. Several views of The Avenue of Limes were shown, the trees of majestic height. Some have had to be replaced in recent years.
Apparently Hextable was chosen for the site of The Horticultural College because this was the sunniest place in Kent. The College was founded in 1889 by Arthur Bond, accepting male students only for the first two years. After that women were able to attend but were not permitted to gain certificates available to the male students. The annual fee was £80. Keith showed several slides of students working in the grounds, in the classrooms and in the science laboratory (now in use by Hextable Parish Council and Hextable Heritage Society).
We admired photographs of other substantial houses in Hextable and nearby including Northbank in Rowhill Road and Southbank in College Road (used as student accommodation), The Lodge on the corner of College Road and St. David’s Road, Haven Cottage in Main Road which was destroyed by a bomb in 1945 and Five Wents House. In 1904 journalist and author Arthur Mee bought a house called The Datcha in Rowhill Road from the Tweedy family. He changed the name to Uplands. The building was split into two, St. David’s and Ivanhoe at a later date. The Home for Little Boys, later known as Furness School, dominates the skyline in some of the photographs.
It is evident from the collection how many different shops and businesses there were in Hextable. There were nurseries in every direction as well as haulage contractors, drapers, grocers, greengrocers and general stores. Because Arthur Mee objected to using the village post office, which sold alcoholic drink, he had his own post office built! The building in College Road is now a café.
We were amused by a series of road safety photographs from 1929 showing Arthur Mee in his grand limousine, his daughter on her bicycle and a horse and cart demonstrating some do’s and don’ts in otherwise empty roads around Hextable. Times have certainly changed since then.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser.
The gremlins were out in force at our October meeting! The computer said “No!!!” so Esme could not deliver her presentation ‘Eve’s Kingdom’ – The Story of Hextable House and The Horticultural College - and who would have believed that we were all wilting with the heat in October because the air conditioning was not working!
Valiant Keith Whitmore came to the rescue with his collection of photographs and other memorabilia of life in Hextable in bygone times. Hextable House, built around 1664 possibly on the site of an earlier building, did feature in Keith’s presentation. A vacancy to tend the grounds brought Keith’s grandfather down south from a mining town in Durham in 1929. We viewed photographs showing Keith’s father and aunt who also worked at the mansion posing outside their cottage in the grounds. Several views of The Avenue of Limes were shown, the trees of majestic height. Some have had to be replaced in recent years.
Apparently Hextable was chosen for the site of The Horticultural College because this was the sunniest place in Kent. The College was founded in 1889 by Arthur Bond, accepting male students only for the first two years. After that women were able to attend but were not permitted to gain certificates available to the male students. The annual fee was £80. Keith showed several slides of students working in the grounds, in the classrooms and in the science laboratory (now in use by Hextable Parish Council and Hextable Heritage Society).
We admired photographs of other substantial houses in Hextable and nearby including Northbank in Rowhill Road and Southbank in College Road (used as student accommodation), The Lodge on the corner of College Road and St. David’s Road, Haven Cottage in Main Road which was destroyed by a bomb in 1945 and Five Wents House. In 1904 journalist and author Arthur Mee bought a house called The Datcha in Rowhill Road from the Tweedy family. He changed the name to Uplands. The building was split into two, St. David’s and Ivanhoe at a later date. The Home for Little Boys, later known as Furness School, dominates the skyline in some of the photographs.
It is evident from the collection how many different shops and businesses there were in Hextable. There were nurseries in every direction as well as haulage contractors, drapers, grocers, greengrocers and general stores. Because Arthur Mee objected to using the village post office, which sold alcoholic drink, he had his own post office built! The building in College Road is now a café.
We were amused by a series of road safety photographs from 1929 showing Arthur Mee in his grand limousine, his daughter on her bicycle and a horse and cart demonstrating some do’s and don’ts in otherwise empty roads around Hextable. Times have certainly changed since then.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser.