Tin Tabarnacles in Kent

What is a tin tabernacle?

A tin tabernacle, also sometimes known as a tin chapel, was a "temporary" building constructed from corrugated iron built during the late Victorian era and used for religious worship.

The late Victorian period was a time of religious missionary zeal and the Anglican church sought to spread the word particularly in rural areas such as Kent. Farm labourers and seasonal hop pickers would often find themselves living many miles walk from the nearest parish church.

To overcome this problem, tin tabernacles were built in the countryside as satellites of the parish churches. The minister would travel out to the tin tabernacle to deliver the Sunday sermon to the farm labourers and their families.

Although the tin tabernacles were only intended to be temporary structures in lieu of a more permanent building some can still be found in Kent well over one hundred years later.


The example pictured above was originally constructed in 1897 and located in Cuxton (near Rochester) but was dismantled and moved to the Museum of Kent Life in Sandling (near Maidstone) in 2000 where it is open to the public.

The tin tabernacles were usually very spartan inside as can be seen above.

I came across the St Mary's Church Room in Sole Street by accident during a recent walk. As far as I can tell from looking at old Ordnance Survey maps it dates back to around 1880. Sole Street is a small rural village a few miles from Gravesend which grew up around the railway station which opened in 1861.

Unusually for a tin tabernacle this one has a stained glass window.

Lastly another one I came across by accident on a walk around Halstead. This is not technically at tin tabernacle as it is made from wood but interesting all the same! It is located in Otford Lane and was known as the Mission Church.

At the time the church was constructed in 1891 most of Otford Lane lay in neighbouring Shoreham parish. Until that time the labourers and fruit pickers working on the farms and orchards there faced a walk of two or three miles to their proper parish church.

Eventually in 1938 Otford Lane was brought completely into Halstead parish. The Mission Church remained in use until 1985.

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Kent's Disappearing Pubs

I have been inspired to write this latest post by my fellow blogger Helen in Melbourne, Australia.

She wrote an interesting piece on her blog about the contribution to the world of the traditional British pub.

I have read reports that pubs are closing at a rate of two a day (although I suspect it could be even more than than this).

A combination of factors have lead to this criminal state of affairs. The smoking ban, increases in alcohol duties and the general economic downturn.

Many well established pubs in Kent have been closed including a number of historic ones like the Terrace Tavern below in Gravesend.

This pub has been closed for several months now and faces an uncertain future. As a riverside town Gravesend used to boast numerous traditional Victorian pubs like this but many have now disappeared and with them their unique architecture.

The Terrace Tavern is a particularly good example of Victorian decoration with the green glazed tiles, etched glass windows (hidden by the hoardings) and fancy ironwork. The Shrimp Brand Beers were brewed locally in Gravesend.

Another closed pub I came across on one of my recent walks is the Fox and Hounds at Darenth.

This pub is located on a busy main road between Dartford and Longfield. Despite the passing trade it still does not appear to have been able to generate enough trade to survive.

The Colyer Arms at Betsham named after a local Great War hero (more about him in a future post) is no longer with us.....

A few months later....

This was the only pub in the village. It's closure followed that of the local petrol station and shop. The village had already lost it's railway station in 1962 courtesy of Dr Beeching.

The pub will be replaced with housing.

The Polhill Arms at Halstead was another large pub on a busy main road close to Orpington. The pub was named after the Polhill family who were important local landowners in the 18th century.

Finally two views of the Chequers Inn in the affluent village of Ightam near Sevenoaks taken on recent walks. The first shows the pub for sale....


Then a couple of months later boarded up....

These are just a few examples of the pubs we have lost in Kent over the last couple of years. Sadly before we come through the other side of the current recession there will no doubt be many more added to the list.

If you have any comments on this post I would love to hear from you.

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Another Royal Wedding

Unless you happen to have been living on Mars for the last few months you will no doubt be aware of the forthcoming nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton next week.

Of course, this is certainly not the first Royal wedding and back in March 1863 one took place which brought the town of Gravesend, Kent to the attention of the world.

The wedding was between Prince Albert Edward, son of Queen Victoria and later King Edward VII, and Princess Alexandra of Denmark.

To the consternation of Queen Victoria, Prince Edward was a playboy and lady's man (he had a string of mistresses during his lifetime). This was deemed inappropriate behaviour for the heir to the throne and it was decided to arrange a suitable marriage.

Prince Edward's sister Princess Victoria of Prussia was given the role of matchmaker and eventually nineteen year old "minor" royal Princess Alexandra was selected as a suitable bride. The wedding date was set for the 10th March 1863.

Preparations for the royal wedding were meticulous and said to have cost over a million pounds - a small fortune at the time. The nation and the Royal family had been in deep mourning for many years following the death of Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert from typhoid and the wedding was seen as chance to finally move on.

On 28th February, the "Rose of Denmark" as Alexandra was popularly known, began her long journey to England. She left Copenhagen and proceeded to the port of Korsor where she boarded the Danish royal yacht Slesvig for the voyage to Hamburg. From there she passed through Hanover, Cologne and Brussels before arriving at the port of Antwerp.

On 5th March, Princess Alexandra boarded the British royal yacht Victoria and Albert for the voyage to Gravesend. The yacht was accompanied by a squadron of Royal Navy warships decked overall in bunting and flags and firing a twenty one gun salute.

On the morning of the 7th March the royal party reached the Kent coast. Guns were fired in welcome and local dignitaries from Margate sent by boat to greet the Princess. The Victoria and Albert proceeded into the Thames Estuary accompanied by a large flotilla of pleasure boats packed with well wishers.

The banks of the Thames were lined with spectators eager to catch a glimpse of the Princess. At 1120 in the morning on the 7th March the Victoria and Albert came safely alongside at the Terrace Pier, Gravesend to tumultuous applause from the gathered crowds.


At considerable expense the town corporation appointed a professional decorator to plan and co-ordinate the flags and bunting on the nearby houses. Stands for up to 1200 people were built at the pier entrance and garlanded arches erected every forty feet along the route of the royal procession through the town to Gravesend railway station.

At the same time the Victoria and Albert was making fast at the pier Prince Albert's royal train arrived at the station. The Prince was driven by carriage to the pier and went aboard to meet his future bride who incidentally he had only met a handful of times previously. The Prince is said to have kissed the Princess before disembarking.

The couple were greeted by the Bishop of Rochester and the lady mayoress presented the Princess with a large bouquet of flowers. As the royal couple walked along the pier sixty young Kentish girls dressed in red and white in honour of the Princess, strewed violets and primroses before them.

All the while church bells rang and guns were fired from naval ships in the river and from Tilbury Fort on the opposite bank of the Thames.

The royal couple and their entourage were taken by carriages to Gravesend station and from their proceeded slowly via London to Windsor Castle to meet Queen Victoria. All along the route massive crowds clamoured to see the Prince and Princess.

The wedding took place on 10th March at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and Alexandra eventually became Queen consort on the death of Victoria in 1901.

Despite being more or less an arranged marriage and her husband's well documented affairs, it lasted over forty seven years.

Wonder how long William's and Kate's will last?...

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General Charles Gordon - A Victorian Hero

The 26th January 2011 marks the 126th anniversary of the death of General Charles George Gordon, perhaps more commonly remembered by his nicknames "Chinese Gordon" or "Gordon of Khartoum".

He was born in Woolwich, Kent on 28th January 1833 into a military family (his father was a Major-General). Charles was duly enrolled into the Royal Military College at Woolwich and after passing out in 1852 joined the Royal Engineers in the rank of 2nd Lieutenant based at Chatham, Kent.

In 1855, Gordon served in the Crimean War at the Siege of Sebastapol and remained in Russia until 1858.

In 1860, he volunteered to serve in China where the British were fighting the Opium Wars and endeavouring to suppress the Taiping Rebellion which threatened lucrative European trade interests.

The British occupied Northern China until April 1862 when they fell back to form part of an international force to protect Shanghai which was in imminent danger of attack from the rebels.

The international force was lead by an American, Frederick Townsend Ward and Gordon was attached to his staff as engineer officer. Ward was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cixi on 20th September 1862. Gordon assumed command in March 1863.

Gordon lead a very successful campaign against the Taipings and his force became known popularly as the "Ever Victorious Army". By May 1864 the rebels had been defeated and the army was disbanded.

Gordon returned to the UK and between 1865 and 1871 was stationed at New Tavern Fort in Gravesend, Kent. There he was responsible for overseeing the modernisation of the various forts that defended the lower Thames Estuary.


During his time in Gravesend, Gordon was known for his many philanthropic works with the poor and needy in the local community. He set up a Ragged School for Boys and in his free time taught at a Sunday School held at the Mission House pictured above.

In 1872 Gordon met the Prime Minister of Egypt whilst in Constantinople and was eventually invited to join the Egyptian Army in the rank of Colonel. In early 1874, he left for Egypt with the blessing of the British Government.

Gordon became Governor of the Gondokoro province and later in 1877 was appointed Governor-General of the Sudan.

The 1870's was a turbulent period in the history of the region. The Europeans were tyring to stamp out the slave trade in the Sudan which lead to an economic crisis in the North of the country and much unrest. Egypt and Abyssinia (later to become Ethiopia) went to war in 1875 over a border dispute.

Egyptian expeditionary forces were defeated in two battles at Gundet and Gura so in March 1877, Gordon was sent on a mission to make peace with the Abyssinian King. The mission was not a success. The Abyssinian King had gone South to fight the Shoa (one of the local tribes).

Back in the Sudan, an insurrection had broken out in Darfur (parallels of today?). Gordon decided to use diplomatic rather than military means to diffuse the volatile situation. Accompanied only by his interpreter, Gordon bravely rode into the insurgents camp and following talks succeeded in pacifying them.

Over the next three years Gordon was kept busy dealing with various revolts around the country, trying to broker peace with the Abyssinians and continuing the action against the slave traders.

In 1880, Gordon resigned his position and spent several months in Switzerland recovering from the exhaustion of his work in Africa. Gordon received many prestigious offers of employment from around the world and took short term commissions in India, China, Mauritius and South Africa before returning to the UK in 1882.

Finding himself "between" jobs, Gordon spent a year out in Palestine visiting biblical sites and writing a book "Reflections in Palestine".

On his return to the UK in 1883, Gordon was invited by King Leopold II of Belgium to take charge of the Congo Free State and was about to take up this offer when the British Government requested he return with all haste to the Sudan.

Yet another insurrection had broken out in the Sudan this time lead by the Mahdi, Mohammed Ahmed. The Egyptian Army was unable to contain the rebellion in the Sudan as unrest had erupted simultaneously in Egypt (once again parallels of today!).

By December 1883 the situation had got so bad that the British Government instructed the Egyptians to abandon the Sudan and evacuate their forces as well as any civilians and their families. Gordon was ordered to proceed to Khartoum to assist in the plans for the evacuation.

Gordon arrived in Khartoum on 18th February 1884 and immediately set about evacuating the women and children, sick and wounded back to Egypt. The Mahdi's forces closed in on Khartoum following victories over the Egyptian Army at Suakin and the siege began on 18th March.

In April the British Government withdrew their troops from the Sudan and the garrison at Berber surrendered to the Mahdi in May.

Gordon and his men were alone - effectively abandoned by the British Government.

Unlike the British Government, Gordon resolved to defend Khartoum to the last.

This captured the imagination of the British public over the ensuing months and the Government came under intense pressure to send a relief expedition to break the siege.

Eventually, in August a decision was made to send an expeditionary force to relief. However, this was not ready to move until November.

Finally, the force (mounted on camels) set out from Egypt and arrived in Sudan on 20th January 1885. An advance party arrived in Khartoum on 28th January only to find that Gordon had been killed by the Mahdists two days earlier.

It is believed that Gordon was killed on the steps of the palace around dawn fighting to the last bullet. The Mahdists are said to have cut off his head and placed it in the branches of a tree on public display and children were encouraged to throw stones at it.

Gordon's remains were never recovered from the Sudan.


When news of Gordon's death reached the UK, he was immediately feted as a hero for his stoic defence of Khartoum and for facilitating the safe evacuation of many thousands of women and children.

The statue above (by Doulton), one of many memorials erected around the country in his honour, can be found in Gravesend in the grounds of the New Tavern Fort where he served for five years.


Even to this day, wreathes are still laid in his memory on the anniversary of his death.

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My Darent Valley Walk - Part 1 Farningham to Lullingstone

The tranquil River Darent flows from the hills near Sevenoaks down to the River Thames at Dartford.

I was fortunate enough to have been brought up in this part of Kent and, having done some research on the family tree, it would appear that many of my ancestors were too!

A 19 mile waymarked route called the Darent Valley Path links the towns of Dartford and Sevenoaks and it is my intention to walk the whole route, eventually, as time permits.

To date I have managed to walk two stages. Namely from Horton Kirby through to Farningham and then from Farningham through to Lullingstone. Most people would start from one end or the other but I chose to start in the middle....

In this post I will tell you about the walk I did recently from Farningham to Lullingstone (and back again via a very circuitous route!).

My walk started from the Lion Hotel at Farningham on the banks of the river.

I walked out of Farningham village along the quaintly named Spare Penny Lane. This narrow country lane runs parallel to the river which flows through the valley below. Even on a weekday it was very quiet with only a handful of cars. A nice change from the usual daily hustle and bustle.

On one side of the lane are orchards and fields. On the other, some very nice (and expensive) houses. As you can see, we have very environmentally friendly lawn mowers here in Kent.

A short way along the lane I stumbled across a poignant memorial to New Zealander Flight Lieutenant James Paterson M.B.E. of 92 Squadron R.A.F. who died when his Spitfire X4422 was shot down and crashed nearby on 27th September 1940.

One of Churchill's "few" many thousands of miles from home but not forgotten.

The memorial was erected by the Shoreham Aircraft Museum which I wrote about last year (see The White Cross of Shoreham at the foot of this post). Their aim is to place a memorial for each and every Battle of Britain pilot that lost their life within a ten mile radius of their museum.

Continuing along Spare Penny Lane and approaching the outskirts of the next village, Eynsford, I came across the ruined castle.

Eynsford Castle was built around 1085 shortly after the Norman Conquest. Following a fire in the 1200's it eventually fell into disrepair and was later even used as a kennels for hunting dogs. The castle is now under the care of English Heritage and open to the public (admission free - at time of writing at least).

The waymarked Darent Valley Path directs you away from Eynsford but I would strongly recommend you make a diversion away from the path and take a look at the very picturesque and historic village itself.

The ford across the River Darent from which the village takes it's name. The church of St Martin of Tours was built in the 12th century although, as is often the case in Kent, it may be on the site of an earlier Saxon structure.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I do not usually have much luck with churches. They are almost invariably locked when I try to have a look around. However, on this occasion my luck was in for a change.

A close up of the clock which was inscribed in 1903 with "Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be" taken from Robert Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra".

Inside, the church is very plain in comparison to many other churches I have visited in Kent.

Back on the waymarked route the path starts to climb steadily up the side of the valley across open farmland and passing the impressive nine arched red brick Eynsford railway viaduct built in 1859.

There is an unmanned crossing over the railway lines which brings you into a large open field and affords great views along the valley towards Lullingstone.

Unfortunately somewhere around about this point, there was a cock up on the map reading front Reggie! Yes, I know, I know how can anyone get lost on a simple waymarked path?...

Anyway, due to my inadvertent navigational error I somehow ended up continuing up hill and through Lullingstone Golf Course (instead of downhill towards the river). Ah hum.
  
The upside of this error was that I had to walk through some woodland which was absolutely carpeted with bluebells. Eventually I got back on track and found my way down the bottom of the valley to the Lullingstone Visitor Centre.

This Centre is run by Kent County Council and contains a (very expensive) cafe, toilets and a small book/gift shop. There is a pay and display car park which is very busy at weekends. (Picture by Indigoprime)

I treated myself to an extortionately priced Bakewell tart and cup of tea before setting off again along the river bank back towards Eynsford. The path leads past the Tudor gate house to Lullingstone Castle, ancestral home of the Hart-Dykes.
Continuing on I came to the site of the Lullingstone Roman Villa which is open to the public.

The remains of the villa, which were discovered accidentally by workmen digging post holes during the mid 18th century, include several very well preserved mosaic floors. Well worth a visit.
  
I took another country lane passing under the towering Eynsford viaduct that I'd seen from above earlier in the day and headed back into the village.

Rather than follow the Darent Valley Path back to Farningham once more, I decided to take another footpath out of Eynsford, up the side of the valley, across open farmland towards the hamlet of Maplescombe.

It was quite an uphill hike but the view was well worth the effort. After a mile or so across country, the footpath joined Maplescombe Lane and I followed this back to the Lion Hotel at Farningham just in the nick of time as the Heavens decided to open!

UPDATE - for Part 2 of My Darent Valley Walk please see here

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