Published 15 November 2001

80 YEARS ago the Co-operative Transport Society Ltd, born out of busmen's battle for fairer rates of pay, launched a new fleet of buses at Folkestone. That battle for better wages was with the East Kent Road Car Co, which was then in the gradual process of swallowing up most of the smaller bus operators to reduce competition. Five years later the Herald carried a large picture of the staff of this fledgling Co-op bus company, the drivers and conductors all wearing long, light-coloured uniform coats. The photograph, below, was taken at Cheriton Road cricket ground. The company began with seven Dennis charabancs bought new in 1921. Incidentally, a day trip to Margate in the mid-1930s cost 27.5p return.
M AMEMORIES reader Bob Cork, m I Mm father of our sports editor m W m Mick Cork has very good reason to remember the bombing of Morehall Avenue on the night of May 28/29, 1941. He was there!

Responding to Paul Sindell's reference to war damage in Memories recently Bob explained that he was home on leave from the 70th Battalion the Buffs, guarding Hawkinge aerodrome, at the time of the air raid.

"I was tucked up in bed between clean white sheets and pillows at No. 44 Morehall Avenue, our family home.

"The first landmine woke me up and, just seconds later we didn't know what had hit us for a bit. All the windows back and front plus the front and back doors were sucked outwards as the explosion had a terrific vacuum effect. Ceilings were all down, the roof off and plaster off many of the lathe and plaster walls.

"When I got out of bed to find my Army boots and clothes I bumped into the piano which, when I went to bed, was against the wall opposite the windows, still upright.

"Mum and Dad were on fire watch that night and had been out in the Avenue talking to the lady opposite who couldn't sleep, she said, because she was worried about her husband on fire watch at the gas works.

"They had come back and were lying on
their bed fully clothed with just an eiderdown covering them.

"They would certainly have been killed if they had not come in when they did. I went to Nos 46 and 48 which had suffered the same fate as ours. Mrs Errington came down stairs but Mr E. was under the bed.

"At 48 lived a Miss Perret of about 75-80 years who, to my call 'Are you all right' said 'Yes, yes. I'm coming.' I took them round to Morehall School, a rest centre always available during wartime.

"I went back and asked the Civil Defence people, who had quickly arrived, if they needed help, but they said 'No, go and help your Mum and Dad'."

Wartime spirit

Bob, who lives in Shepherds Walk, Hythe, told me that his Buffs unit of that time was a young soldiers' battalion of 17 to 19 year old young lads who volunteered for the Army at the end of May and throughout June and July 1940.

His old home, at 44 Morehall Avenue, later restored, had two upper attic bedrooms normally used by him and his brother, but when he came home on leave his father wouldn't let him sleep there because it was too dangerous, he said.

"Mum and Dad made up a bed for me in the front room, instead."

Bob, paying tribute to the wartime spirit among local people said everyone helped each other.

"My cousin's wife, who was living with us phoned her parents, Mr & Mrs A
Holmes, at Dartford. Mr Holmes was the Folkestone probation officer but had been transferred to Dartford. They said we were to move into their empty house in Chart Road.

"There was no transport so, helped by my pal Bill Paterson, whose family lived at 71 and was given leave by the company commander of A Company at Lympne to come and see that everything was OK, we moved lock, stock and barrel, including the piano, to Chart Road. Bill was given an extra day off to help."

At night, he said, they slept on the floor because they were simply 'knackered.'
Later that year his mum and dad got a house at No. 72, and that was their home until they died.

"The one thing that remains clear to me is the calmness of all the people involved - and neighbours helping neighbours."

In conclusion Bob, who was born at No. 44 in 1921, says there is a tablet on the wall of All Souls Church giving the names of all those who lost their lives.

•Author and historian Alan Taylor, of Folkestone & District Local History Society, gives an illustrated talk on Folkestone at War 1939-45 at St Martin's Community Centre on November 23 at 7.30pm.
‘I was there!9
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Colourful scenes as Boer War VC hero visits district M FIELD Marshal Earl Roberts, VC, .L«7UX Commander of the British Army, recently returned from the Boer War, paid an official visit to Dover Garrison and the Army camp at Shorncliffe. And everywhere he went he was met with great enthusiasm and speeches of welcome. At Dover he was greeted by a salute fired from tho Castle where he was later entertained to lunch, and, after inspecting new cliff fortifications to the east and west of town, with new “long Tom" guns, came to Folkestone by special train. He was met by a big civic party led by the mayor and railway mogul Sir Alfred Watkin, and then inspected a guard of honour formed by the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Buffs commanded by Capt Graham Gosling who had served in South Africa. Lord Roberts, on a fine charger, rode with 1st Royal Dragoons to Sandgate via Castle Hill Avenue and Sandgate Hill, arriving to a colourful welcome. He opened the new 'Eddie Wood," Soldiers' Institute at Shorncliffe barracks, spoke to old soldiers and inspected the camp.

Supermarket evacuated as swaying parapet set to fall *1 QOC A FOLKESTONE supermarket was evac-JL*7<&Ouated when a swaying brick parapet began swaying and threatened to crash down on shoppers at West Terrace, as a force ten gale hit town. Police cordoned off the: area as a team of workmen moved in to dismantle the crumbling masonry. The storm also brought flooding, power line damage, ferry delays and the corner of a hotel in Westbourne Gardens came crashing down, fortunately without injury to anyone. Sea water flooding the basement of a pensioner's seafront home at West Parade, Hythe caused an explosion, blowing out the front door, as it shorted-out the mains supply. Elsewhere in Hythe, high tides led to the escape of hundreds of gallons of raw sewage as a non-return valve for seawater was put out of action and the garden of at least one bungalow home was turned into an open sewer, The Council paid tribute to fishing skippers Thomas Marshall and James Fagg and the crews of the boats Invicta and Jessica for their prompt action in saving the ten passengers, pilot and mechanic of an airliner that came down in the Channel. This was at the cost of discarding costly fishing gear.

Factory sites needed to attract more industries «f QC'f FUTURE development was the sub-•il>«/9>Lject on the agenda when the Chamber of Trade met with the Divisional Planning Officer for Kent, Mr L.C. Waters, and a strong hint was: given that if the town wanted industry bringing more employment it might be necessary to first provide the factory buildings, as Margate had recently done, attracting a firm promising jobs for about 600. As to homes the population ceiling proposed for Folkestone and Hythe, was 57,500. Fisherman brothers Ronald (28) and Stanley (27) Heath; were pictured on the front page of the Herald after they were rescued from the burning fishing boat "Countess of Radnor." The craft sank over a mile off Folkestone. The brothers were brought ashore by skipper Stanley Sharp of the 'Happy Return," which, in spite of fog, spotted the smoke. His crew joined in fire-fighting but there was an explosion. One of the tanks of paraffin was thought to have blown up. Fire started on the way to the Varne when Stan Heath tried to start the vessel's second engine. A reader was asking what had happened to the Sandgate Road winter attraction of the "Hot Chestnut Man."

Doubts over town’s last four star hotel after purchase bid A Q“»/jTWENTY-five years ago the shock news X*s I O broke that the future of the town's only four-star hotel, the Burlington, was in jeopardy. A firm offer was said to have been made for it by a development company which could mean conversion to offices or flats. And yet three offers were said to have been made by large hotel chains, one of them believed to be the old established Forte group. These were being fended off by major shareholders, it was said, who feared the property would be "turned into a fish and chip shop.' And an economic axe was hanging over Folkestone's Arts Centre. Cutbacks in national expenditure threatened the grants and loans it relied on to help stage exhibitions and concerts. It was agreed to put up entrance charges to film shows, concerts and lectures, along with subscriptions paid by Friends' Association members. Craftsmen turned the clock back in Stelling Minnis, bringing back to life the 110-year-old village windmill which ceased operating commercially six years before. The mill: was due to open to the public, thanks to joint efforts of the KCC, East Kent Mills Group and the parish council; who organised its restoration. Fred Parsons, former boss of the Herald's parent corn-retired from the board after 50 years service.