THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS—FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1901.

I. RIVER.

Our nearest village is River. It is so near that it not only touches the Borough of Dover, but a small part of it is included within the municipal limits. Many writers have described River as a beautiful rural village, and it well answers that description still, for although the operations of the enterprising builder have robbed it somewhat of its rusticity, its physical features of beauty on hill and dale still enchant the beholder.

Local Landmarks.

But those who knew River, say, sixty years ago, find in it to-day many changes — some improvements, and some hardly worthy of that name. There are two landmarks in River which even sixty years’ remembrance does not find altered; the Church of St. Peter’s was rebuilt in 1832, and has not been greatly changed since, and Kearsney Abbey, previously the country residence of Mr. Briggs, was rebuilt in monastic style by the late Mr. J. M. Fector in 1822. The paper mills form another landmark that outreaches a sixty years’ memory, but they cannot claim to be unchanged. The greatest latter-day changes have been the erection of the bungalows and villas which line the Upper-road, and the building of the Co-operative Stores, the new Dublin Man of War, numerous cottages, and the Cricketers Arms on the Lower-road, which at its eastern end, in the Borough of Dover, has our fine Athletic Ground. Before saying anything of these things which are of to-day, it will be interesting to look back, for this village has scraps of modern history which will be well worthy of recording. We have before us the recollections of a former resident in the Parish of River from the year 1840, and if we attempted to embellish those notes at all, that would be another change without improvement. He says :—

Sixty Years ago.

In 1840, which is about as far back as I can go, the River Workhouse was inhabited by the Rural indoor poor. I remember attending, when a boy, an evening service held by the Wesleyans in a cottage adjoining it. That cottage was occupied by Mr. John Williams, who at that time was a foreman at Crabble Paper Mill. He was a son of Mr. Williams, bookbinder, of Townwall-street, Dover, and I believe that John and his brother left Dover to take positions as Methodist preachers. Their uncle, Mr. George Gould, remained at River. He was at that time and until his death Mr. Phipps’ clerk. This Mr. Christopher Phipps was the uncle and predecessor of Mr. Filmer Phipps, the late proprietor of the River and Crabble Paper Mills. I should mention that the style and title of the firm, at the time I am writing of, was John and Christopher Phipps.

The Paper Mills.

“A good deal of my early recollections of the village of River centres round these mills. At that time, and until the South Eastern Railway was opened to Dover in 1844, the paper made at River was taken in farm waggons to Dover and sent to London by the Hoy. The father of John and Christopher was Mr. William Phipps, who was the first introducer of machines for making paper, and I was told that the identical machine at Crabble Mills, of which I had charge for some years, was the second paper-making machine erected in England, the first being claimed by Dickenson’s, at their water mill in Hertfordshire. Both the mills at River and Crabble had been vat mills before the introduction of machinery. That was before my time, but my father, who was born in River about the year 1795, told me that he remembered the “new” River Mills being built. Part of the old vat mill is still standing at the back of the more modern structure. The growth of the paper-making business was closely associated with the Phipps family. Mr. William Phipps, who introduced the first machine, according to the village traditions, came to River as a working paper maker with the proverbial shilling in his pocket, the River Mill then being the property of Mr. Thomas Radford, who was buried in River Churchyard, on the right hand side of the footpath opposite the church, and when I last saw it the inscription on the stone was still legible. Mr. William Phipps married a daughter of Thomas Radford, and my paternal grandmother, who died early in this last century, was Elizabeth Radford, after whom I was named, but what relation she bore to Thomas Radford I never could learn.

Hollands as a Beverage.

“Coming back to Mr. William Phipps, it need hardly be said he was a man of strong personality, and several anecdotes about him were told by the old paper makers with whom I worked as a boy. His custom, and that of the mill hands, was regarded as one of the valuable assets of the old Dublin Man of War. There he regularly went for his glass of grog of an evening, but his men at that time did not always wait for the evening, and the masterful William used to assert his authority by going to fetch them out when they were there on the “spree.” The drink at the Dublin Man of War at that time was mostly Hollands gin, a great deal of which never paid tho Crown any duty. In those days gin was a commoner drink than now, being sold by private persons under a permit from the Customs House, supervised by a gauger, who visited the retailers from time to time to see how much they had sold. No doubt it was owing to the injurious effect of this common use of spirits as a beverage that led to the formation at that time of the first Temperance Societies, which only denounced the use of spirituous liquors, raising no objection to malt beverages.

Conversion of the Workhouse.

“I mentioned the old River Workhouse as a going concern. After it was superseded by the establishment in Buckland Bottom, I remember that it was sold by auction and transformed into a commercial school, kept by Mr. Jasper Weston, brother of the late Mr. Lambert Weston, photographer, of Dover. When his school was discontinued, the building was reduced in size by taking off a wing from each side and one storey off the top. It was recently the residence of the late Mr. Robert Finnis Jennings. The house as it now stands is what is left of the old River Workhouse.

Church Recollections.

“The Church at River was rebuilt in the years 1831 and 1832, which was before my recollection, but I took the record from a printed board in the gallery, on which there was a statement to that effect, signed Charles Eaton Plater, Vicar, and John Coleman, Churchwarden. The musical portion of the service when I was a boy was confined to two or three hymns, and the metrical version of the Psalms printed at the end of the Prayer Book. Mr. George Gould, the clerk at the Paper Mills, was the leader of the singing, who used to give it out in the usual way, “Let us sing to the praise and glory of God,” mentioning the number of the hymn or psalm; then giving the keynote with the pitch-pipe, they sang, the service of song being purely vocal for many years. Before my recollection a barrel organ had been given for the use of the church, but whether there was something wrong with the works, or whether the tunes were not acceptable, I cannot say, but the singers did without it for several years. Some time in the “fifties” the barrel organ was brought into use again, and its weak points are fixed on my memory. It had two barrels of ten tunes each, and as some of these tunes required more wind than others, the instrument was at some times squeaky and at others short of breath. After the death of Mr. Plater, during the time of the Rev. E. G. Boys, who held the vicarage about 20 years, the old barrel organ, relieved from its squeaking and gasping, was stood on one side to give place to a harmonium, which was purchased, and played by a member of the Vicar’s family. The harmonium was superseded by an organ during the Incumbency of the Rev. Charles Morice, who also got rid of the old-fashioned high-backed pews, and he also had an apse built at the eastern end. I have a vivid memory of these facts, for my uncle Luke was for many years the Clerk and Sexton of River Church, and I succeeded him for some years until the office was abolished.”

R.E.

These interesting personal recollections leave but little to be said about old River. Anyone walking round the village can easily see which portion of the dwellings is of the period referred to in the foregoing recollections, when River mainly depended on the mills, and the newer part that has sprung up since River became a favourite suburb of the town of Dover.

Village statistics.

Before leaving the past, a few more facts may be jotted here to supplement the recollections of river at the time of which R.E. writes. In 1841 there were 110 houses in River. The population of the place in seems to have fluctuated. In the year 1801 the inhabitants number 559, in 1831 there were 690, and in 1841 only 516. At that time the principal landowners were Christopher Phipps, Edward Pilcher, John F. Maitland, H. Hilton, and B. J. A. Angel. The area of the parish is 1,119 acres, but a good deal of that lies some distance north east of the village, and contains the Mansions of Old Park and Archer's Court.

Corn Mills of the Dour.

In addition to the paper mills, there are two flour mills in River, the one the Abbey Mill, over against Kearsney Abbey, and the other Crabble Flour Mill, on the Lower-road, where on the upper side of it is a big lake still frequented by wild water fowl and handsome swans, and on the lower side is a beautiful limped stream with charming surroundings, which Miss Horsley in her Paper on the Dour thus describes: “After passing the mill, the Dour flows on both sides of a pretty garden, where the earliest primroses may be seen reflecting their pale blossoms in the water; and in the crevices of the low brick wall, which forms the boundary between the river and the road, the pretty little ferns, asplenium ruta muraria, and asplenium trichomanes, may be found still, unless some unscrupulous collectors have uprooted them.”

Bushy Ruff.

One of the prettiest spots in the village is Bushy Ruff Lake, with a house on the rise just above it. This name was given to the place by Mr. William Knocker about a hundred years ago, when he built Bushy Ruff House. The lake is still famous for its wild water fowl, which nest in the reeds and bull rushes, which are most luxuriant. The wild fowl are growing scarcer because of the ready gun of so-called sportsmen, but among the denizens of the lake may be mentioned moorhens, coots, snipe, tufted duck, the smew, the crossbill, the water rail, and the handsome kingfisher.

Bungalows and Chalets.

The modern history of River may conveniently date from the introduction of the railway which runs through and has a station in the parish. The railway was opened in the year 1861. Soon after that epoch the quick and cheap run from Dover suggested the suitability of the place as a dwelling place for the retired tradesman, and residence for those who prefer to work in the town and spend leisure in the country. The pleasant slope on the western side of the main road, overlooking the river, offered a fine site, which has been now fully utilised with bungalows, villas and chalets. On the opposite side of the London-road, where the Whitfield-hill commences its long ascent so well known to cyclists, there has been a great enlargement of Woodside, the the residence of Sir William Crundall, the grounds of which are charming and very extensive. The Railway Bell, a noted house of call, has grown up with the railway, the Temperance Hotel is a new feature, and the Dublin Man of War, as before remarked, has been rebuilt in a more prominent situation.

Commercial Development.

In a commercial and industrial sense, perhaps the most striking modern development has been the rise and progress of the River and District Co-operative Society, which was started in a small way chiefly by mill hands 20 years ago. It began in a cottage with a few shareholders, and it now has 2,852 members, and an annual turn over of £65,000. To secure its present position the Society has outstretched the bounds of River, but its registered offices are still at River, and one of its stores, as well as the bakery, in which the annual quantity baked is 180,400 gallons.

Village Institutions.

River has also its Parish Council, its School Board, its Parish Room, and its Club, called Kearsney Social Club, which is the centre where men of “light and leading” meet. It will be seen from the foregoing that River is a place where men do not merely vegetate, but live, and its future may be expected to outshine its past. Its population is increasing, social attractions are growing, it has gas light, and electric light may soon find its way there, and the electric trams, which at present halt outside its bounds, may be expected to invade it; in fact, it may be predicted that that suburb will be so extended that it will be difficult to say where River ends and Dover begins.