Published 23 October 2003
THE HISTORY of fashionable Folkestone is presented in a compelling new
video produced by Folkestone & District Local History Society which is to be
launched early in November. Called “Memories of Folkestone, WOO-1914,"it
offers an hour plus of nostalgia, with glimpses of a town very different to
today. The video has its first public showing in Holy Trinity Church hall,
in Sandgate Road, on November 5, at 8pm. Admission costs £2, but is free to
members. Copies will be on sale at the meeting, and also at the Leas Cliff
Hall Craft Fair, on Saturday and Sunday, November 15/16.
A COUPLE of times I have referred in Memories to Zeppelin airships which
flew over East Kent over 60 years ago and last week I met military veteran
Arthur Maddock, of Narrabeen Road, Cheriton, who showed me a copy of a local
history I had never seen before, with details of a raid on Britain by a
fleet of airships in 1917.
The account is hut a small part of an A4 sized work A Short History of
Shorncliffe Garrison, by Colin Caverhill, published in January.
Eleven Zeppelins of the Imperial German Navy set out from Germany to bomb
the industrial Midlands, on October 19, 1917 -one of them at least flying'
over Shepway later, on its way back to the Continent.
The account of the Zeppelin raid is part of a review of South-East Coast
Defences by Lt-Col (Retired) R. J. Jenkins MBE.
By all accounts the weather was calm on the ground but the airships were hit
by raging- gale-force winds above 16,000ft and five airships, including L49,
crossed the English coast over East Anglia.
Kapitanleutnant Hans Gayer commanded Zeppelin L49 which was hit by engine
failure. Hopelessly lost, like some of his fellow commanders, he later
admitted that, when he passed over Holtcham, Norfolk, he thought he was
flying above Scarborough!
As L49 passed over Norfolk 42 bombs were
dropped, the casualties being some cattle and damaged farm buildings!
Eventually, at 6.30am on October 20, the airship passed over Folkestone and
Shorncliffe, dropping some bombs, but achieving little.
“At this point she was engaged by the anti-aircraft guns at Shorncliffe and
Lympne. In fact, throughout the country only 22 rounds were fired that
night, these two batteries accounting for 16,” comments the writer.
“L49 was engaged by anti-aircraft fire from Martello Tower No. 8, which was
used as an observation post.”
This Martello tower, about 100 metres south-west of the present Sir John
Moore Barracks Officers’ Mess, has since been converted into an unusual
home.
Zeppelin captured
Having got back to the Continent, at 0800 hrs, L49 was attacked near
Neufchateau by the French 152 Escadrille.
Five aircraft - all Nieuports - forced L49 down near Bourbon-les-Bains.
Owing to exhaustion and a faulty Verey pistol Gayer was unable to destroy
the Zeppelin.
The crew, along with the intact Zeppelin, were captured by the pilots who
forced them down, assisted by local farmers.
“The capture of L49 was significant in that the Allies had the very latest
in airship technology, and much of the post-war development of airships,
including the
R100, which was moored at Capel-le-Ferne, was based on L49,” the account
goes on.
“The crew members of L49 were lucky; many of their comrades were killed that
night. L50, in particular, having lost 16 crew in a gondola ripped off by
trees, was driven by the wind south across the Mediterannean. And the
Zeppelin and its remaining crew were never seen again.” Arthur Maddock
himself is a weapons expert, serving in the Army as a regular from 1937
until 1962, when he came to Folkestone.
He then carried on as a civilian, doing weaponry repairs for a good few
years after that, before retiring.
Mollie Davies, of Hawkinge, another Folkestone Herald reader and local
history enthusiast, rang to tell me of a Kent cemetery where seven members
of the crew of a Zeppelin lie buried.
The graves, maintained to a high standard, are in a churchyard which can be
seen from the train, on the main line at Faversham.
Mollie also told me of an interesting book worth seeking out. It is called
Bulwark Shore, and features stories about East Kent, compiled, she thought,
by John Aitken and Miss Walton, of Eastry.
Mollie lent her copy to someone and lives in hopes that it may soon be
returned!
Shomcliffe history tells how Zeppelin hit town
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in port dumping eyesore
I Q/\0 HERALD writer Felix was voicing pub-L«sUOIic opinion when he
urged that some-hing be done to rid Folkestone of a harbour eye-ore — an
unsightly dumping ground opposite he Royal Pavilion Hotel, with heaps of
broken ranite and "much that is undesirable to a oastal resort." At the
same time, he said, there yere stacks of timber unloaded from ships
vhich shut out both air and light. "Our dear, reamy, sleepy methods were
never better illus-rated than in this particular beauty spot facing he
chief port to the Continent" ne declared, ollowing closely upon the
Folkestone Tennis ournament competition Hythe held its Open ennis
Tournament in the grounds of the sea-acing Hotel Imperial. Folkestone
Sea Angling association was formed at a public meeting at he Town Hall,
the Mayor, Cllr Frederick Hall, greeing to be president. A handsome
memorial i/as put up in Folkestone cemetery to the late ieneral Sir Mark
Walker, VC, KCB, formerly of he Buffs and Colonel of the Sherwood
oresters, who died in May 1902. Felix was acking a local demand that
Shorncliffe Station hould be re-named Folkestone West.
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MP forced lands in desert on epic flight to India
qaqA PUBLIC meeting at Dover Road Schools was held at which an East Ward
Ratepayers' Association was formed. Regrettably five out of six of the
ward councillors had prior engagements and the sixth arrived late for
the meeting which discussed, among other topics, improvements planned
for East Cliff Sands and land fronting The Stade. There was a hiccup on
MP Sir Philip Sassoon's marathon flight to India via Italy, Egypt,
Bagdad and Basra. While flying over the great Pyramid the engine cut out
forcing the pilot to make a forced landing in the desert, during visits
to RAF stations. Seventy-five years ago the UK was reported to have one
and a quarter million people unemployed, largely because we had lost the
bulk of our foreign trade, yet we were annually importing goods
requiring 40,000 voyages of ships, most of which left our ports without
a return cargo. Hastings lifeboat arrived in Folkestone, escorting a
Thanet yacht Gimber which got into difficulties off Bexhill, after being
17 hours at sea. The yacht was bound for Southampton to get new sails
when a storm blew up and all sails were shredded. Lifeboat crew fitted a
jury-rigged sail and got the craft to safety, the two sailors being
exhausted.
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Big demand for Dormobile conversions boosts town
a QPQ SUCCESS of the Martin Walter Ltd 1990 "Dormobile" caravan
conversion on a Bedford 10/12cwt chassis, costing £545, was highlighted
in a Herald review of local firms showing in the National Motor Show.
The writer said demand for these, launched in 1952, led to a new factory
being built on the Cheriton road to cope with volume production. Sir
Kenneth Clark, K.C.B., a Director of the National Gallery, holder of
other top art posts, and writer of several books on art, became the new
owner of Saltwood Castle. An album of nearly 270 photographs
illustrating life in the Royal East Kent Yeomanry regiment, the majority
dating from the First World War, was presented to the Royal East Kent
Yeomanry Old Comrades Association at its annual reunion. The
presentation was made by ex-Yeoman Mr E.W. Hook, years after they were
'rescued' from walls of huts by Cook-Sgt McKim when the Yeomanry were
about to leave the Polo Ground, at Canterbury, to serve in Gallipoli, 38
years before. He was thanked by the chairman. Lord Harris, commissioned
in the Yeomanry himself in 1907, aged only 17.
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Hospital without sheets threat, in pay dispute
^ Q7Q PATIENTS at the Royal Victoria .L«/ I O Hospital faced the
prospect of beds without sheets because of industrial action, said the
Herald 25 years ago. It was even possible emergency patients would have
no linen at all. Maintenance workers nationwide had been fighting for
better pay and restructuring of jobs for a month and this had hit
sterile supplies and laundry. Speeding juggernauts were threatening
children's lives in the rural area where there were narrow roads, and
mums at Sellindge threatened to keep children away from school because
of the hazard on a narrow part of the A20 at Grove Bridge - a problem
aggravated by British Rail works to strengthen it. The work took up the
whole of one side of the road leaving a narrow gap for mothers with
prams. Biking posties in Folkestone felt they took their lives in their
hands every time they left Bouverie Square to join the main stream of
traffic and begin deliveries, the view often obscured by buses. People
of Postling had to make a tough decision about their fine 11th Century
parish church: to pay for much needed renovation - or have the three
medieval bells repaired. The bells won and had to be taken to
Whitechapel for renovation. |
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