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History and Heritage

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Tell us about your knowledge of the history and heritage of Hawkinge. If you would like to have your item included in this section email:enquiries@hawkinge-tc.gov.uk

Location

In the eighteenth century the village of Hawkinge, was known as Uphill, a small hamlet with its windmills and mill green surrounded by trees that stretched away in all directions as far as the eye could see.

It was situated on top of the north downs some four miles from the English Channel, with dusty cart tracks crossing its centre, a little known parish that few people visited.

Origins

  • Early Saxon settlement documented as Havekyng, Hawkynge or Hawkyngge.
  • The Saxon founder of the settlement named Hafoc translated as Hawk.
  • Osbert de Hawkynge, one of the 21 knights under Norman Baron William de Averenches held the manor of Hawkyngge
  • 1154 and before Hawkings, Hawkins traced back.

Coat of Arms

The family name of Hawkins originated from the Saxon parish of Hawkyngge. The first person to bear it was Osbert De Hawking in the reign of Henry 2. It is believed that Osbert performed knights service for one of the seven knights under the barony of William de Averenches,baron of Folkestone. Each of the seven knights was allowed to recruit three elders to assist them in service.

1246 to 1900

1216 King John arrived in Folkestone

1252 (1 May) A writ was issued to John, son of Robert de Cumbe which enquired if 2 acres and 1 perch of land was still in the King’s hands.

1263 parchment refers to Manors of Folkestone and Terlingham addressed to William de Weyland, enquiring about land held by Hamo de Crevequer for Henry 3.

1275 William son of John de Flegh gave his Old Manor House ‘Flegis Court’ in the Hundred of Folkestone, Hawkynge and Evering, as well as the church to the Abbot and convent of St Radegund’s.

1303 William de Sancto Paulo first recorded rector of St Michaels Church

1322 (4 January)  Inquisition of the death of Jan, widow of Richard de Rokesle ( who owned Terlingham Manor, 400 acres a watermill and a windmill).

1346 The 16 year old Black Prince received his knighthood, Willelmus de Houkynge was listed as tenant of Flegis Court.

1358 France squire Hawkins commanded the castle at Mauconseil

1354 Andrew Hawkins who lived in Holderness, Yorkshire married Joan De Nash and acquired Nash Court at Boughton-under-Blean, Canterbury.

1539 Flegh’s Manor became Crown property and then passed to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

1604 20 acres were twice ploughed fit for wheat and 10 acres ploughed for plodder

1635 Robert & Mary Hawkins moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts.

1671 William Mummery, a blacksmith died and was buried in St Michaels.

1698 The de Bouverie estate map shows 205 acres of Coombe Farm spread between the parishes of Hawkinge and Capel Le Ferne.

1697 Jacob de Bouverie bought from Sir Basil Dixwell an estate valued at £1,204.19s 3d per year. It compromised the Manor of Folkestone, Coombe, Terlingham and 4 others.300 acres of woodland, 24 farms, cottages and quarries.

1698 Estate maps surveyed by Abraham Walter.

1722 Nephew of Jacob de Bouverie, Edward ( info to be sought ??)

1736 estate passed to brother Jacob. ( which estate?? )

1761Terlingham Manor Farm house was erected by Jacob de Bouverie on the ruins of the former Manor built of ragstone.

1779 Stephen Moreland Kettle and his family moved from Great Chart into the seventeenth century thatched cottage called Mill House.

1785 John Mummery died and it is believed he may have lived in the original building on the side of the White Horse Inn but which has since been demolished after the last war.

1790 Uphill Mill was still standing

1795 Jacob de Bouverie (squire) sold Terlingham to Rosamund Kelsey.

1798 The Earl of Radnor’s estate book for the hundred of Folkestone states that on the 1st Tuesday after Michaelmas day a fair is held for pedlary and other wares on the Village green.

1802 Henry Barber landlord of The White Horse Inn.

1806 Terlingham Manor passed to Benjamin Argar

1816 Thomas ( grandfather of Frank Daniels ) moved to Terlingham . He was a former Folkestone magistrate, Frank had served as a Parish councillor for nearly 40 years and on the former Elham rural district council for 30 years.

1819 Mathew W Sankey ( Brewer) became bankrupt and The White Horse Inn ( late in occupation of John Kember ( Landlord).

1824 (7 March) Revd John Clarke arrived in Uphill

1832 (11 October ) land sold to Rev John Clarke to erect a meeting house for the worship of God

1833 (29 May) Congregation celebrated the opening of the first permanent Union Chapel

1836 Terlingam Manor passed to Susanna Argar

1840 Richard Mummery worked at the original village forge.

1841 Terlingham Manor passed to Thomas Kirby

1850 A kitchen and 2 further bedrooms were added to Mill House. Henry Kettle and his wife Harriet, their daughter Eliza and 2 sons Stephen and Henry lived there.

1851 Terlingham Manor Farm was run by Adam Daniels widowed mother Elizabeth, assisted by five sons and nine labourers. Adam was 19.

Richard Marsh tenant of Uphill Farm House farmed 107 acres with his wife Jane and 4 daughters Ann, Helen, Charlotte and Florence.

William Smith assisted by 18 labourers and 4 servants was balliff to 402 acres of Coombe Farm

1851-1872 Revd G.S.Elwin was rector of St Michaels

1871 George Castle and his wife Harriet bought Uphill Farm which held 150 acres. They had 3 daughters Sarah, Sophia, Georgiana and one son Stephen. Sarah Gosby ( 18 years old) was a general servant. The Castle family owned the farm for 95 years.

1872 (3rd June) William Legg MA instituted as rector of St Michaels church

1873 Alterations to the union Chapel – Uphill

1875 Restoration of St Michaels Church

1876 The Old rectory completed. On 30 November 1876 a room was licensed for ‘the celebration of Holy Communion.’

1879 Village school opened 2 June

Late 1800’s Terlingham Manor passed to William Mills.

1881 George Brisley, his wife Adelaide, 2 sons and 3 daughters lived at Coombe Farm.

Henry Kettle Junior occupied Mill House with his wife Annie and 2 sons , along with 2 mill workers, George Packs and David Turden.

Thomas Harris and his son William made metal parts of ploughs and harrows at Uphill Forge.

1882 (16 May ) William Legg aged over 70 years old was instituted as Vicar of Swingfield

1883 (25 September) Many children didn’t attend school as they were hop picking and harvesting

1886 Uphill (One mile square) officially part of Hawkinge parish on 25 March

1889 St Lukes church erected.

1890’s Folkestonians who had pitched their tents on the hillsides at Uphill, met at weekends at the White Horse inn. There was no menu but roast joints, balls of flour, brussell sprouts and mashed turnips

1898-1921 John Smith was Parish Clerk

1899 John Daniels was the tenant of Coombe Farm.

Lady Sassoon presented jackets to infants at village school whose attendance was 80% and above.

1891 Cock fights at the White Horse Hill Inn

The 20th Century

1901 Revd Algernon Raynardson Simpson accepted post of rector.

1905 Henry Kettle died ( known as the ‘Jolly Miller because he was humourus, jovial and had a fun nature) he was the last village miller.

1906 Terlingham Manor became part of the Stephen Castle farm complex

Uphill mill was struck by lightening on 8 February and again the following year.

1907 Ladies of Uphill, Florence Godden, Tryphena Jane May and Bessie May.

1909 Lewis Kettle married Tryphena Jane May ( a school teacher at Acrise school).

1913 Revd Algernon Raynardson Simpson Vicar of Swingfield

1914 Uphill Mill closed

1917 Conveyancing started on the aerodrome. 305 acres. Aerodrome rd requisitioned under the Defence of the Realm Act.

John Daniels’s ( of Coombe Farm) 12 year old son Albert Dennis, along with Mrs Nellie Feist and her 5 year old son Stanley Albert, were all killed on 26 May when German Gotha bombers raided Tontine Street, Folkestone.

1921 (September ) Coombe barn burnt down.

‘Appletrees’ house was built for writer Charles Harold St John Hamilton .who wrote the Billy Bunter stories.

1919 Conveyance 5 May ( more info?)

1924-1952 Archibald, father of Arthur Fidge was licensee of the White Horse Hill Inn.

1926 Aerodrome Rd in December was given to Elham Rural District Council by Rt.Hon.earl of Radnor as a public highway

1928 The roof of Mill house collapsed. Revd Algernon Raynardson Simpson retired due to ill health.

1930 Memorials to the Revd A.R Simpson were erected at St Michaels Church

1931 Uphill Mill demolished

1932 Josephine Cox ( daughter of Adam Daniels) became the first woman councillor of Hawkinge Parish. Josephine had a son Cecil.

1935 Descendants formed Hawkins Association in July

 

1937 Army Despatch riders from Shorncliffe Camp assembled outside the White Horse Hill pub.

1939 The Polo ground rented from AJ Daniels for the Shorncliffe Garrison was requisitioned

1940 Fred Castle with son Frederick William (Police constable in Canterbury) .Fred died in the December and his son left the police force to take over the farm. Fred had a horse called Tom and a greyhound called Lady.

Henry and Helen and mother Alice Kettle were killed when a german bomb struck the air raid shelter in Mill Lane. Also killed was PC Parker , Mrs Green and her daughter Bessie Green.

The Union Chapel – Uphill closed when the nearby airfield was annihilated.

1942 Corporal J Keogh, reopened the union chapel

1946 The Kettle family purchased a steam traction engine.

1950’s last horse shod by Mr Setterfield at Uphill Forge.

1952 Arthur Fidge, who served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force until 1945 took over as licensee of the White Horse Hill Inn from his father Archibald. Arthur retired from the business in 1975.

1956 Fire at St Lukes Church

1958 Present day St Lukes Church built

1962 Gloria Harker became the first woman chairman of the Folkestone branch of the Newsagents federation.

1964 Gloria Harker who was a member of The Hawkinge Girls Adventure Corps in the second world war along with Joan Castle in 1942, took ownership of Pepin’s newsagents where she had worked since the age of 17. Gloria became the second woman to serve on the parish council.

1977 St Michaels church declared redundant.

1979 (2 June) Country Primary school of Hawkinge was 100 years old

1984 High brick wall erected around Maypole farm house.

The role of Hawkinge during the Second World War

Hawkinge was a key front-line fighter station during the Battle of Britain and Operation Diver in 1944 against V1 flying bombs. The airfield began life as a private venture in 1912 but was soon adopted as a base for the RFC (Royal Flying Corps) later the RAF. It was abandoned for a short period after the war but was reactivated in 1920 and later expanded during the 1930’s. After WW2 it was again run down, becoming a glider school for the Air Training Corps and a Technical Training School for the WAAF. The airfield was finally abandoned in 1961. In 1968 it was used for the filming of the motion picture “The Battle of Britain” starring Sir Michael Caine. Since then part of the site has been used for the Kent Museum of the Battle of Britain and more recently a large housing development has encroached on the site involving the gradual reduction of the grass field and the destruction of some buildings. 1.5 km to the north was the dispersed site for the station in Reinden Wood.

The airfield began life as a private venture in 1912 by a Dutchman W. B. Megone, but was soon adopted as a base for the RFC (Royal Flying Corps) later the RAF in 1915. Initial tents and canvas hangar gave way to more permanent sheds and huts built in 1916. Due to the unreliability of early compasses two crosses were cut in the turf so that when lined up pointed to the French aerodrome of St Omer.

It was abandoned for a short period after the war but not before it was used for an air parcel service to Ghent after the Belgium government had requested help in alleviating shortages of food and clothing.

It was reactivated in 1920 when No 25 Squadron was reformed, the only fighter squadron in the country at the time, and based at Hawkinge for most of the following years until 1938. In 1931 the site was expanded with two new barracks blocks, a NAAFI, Officers Mess, Sergeants Mess and Airmen’s Dining Hall constructed along with married quarters. On the outbreak of war the buildings were re-camouflaged (initially begun in 1938) and hedges painted over the field. The first air raid on Hawkinge took place on 12th August 1940 when the airfield was attacked by 15 Ju 88’s. During the war the air field was used as a forward fighter station, a base for air-sea rescue and Operation Diver. During February 1940 two radio specialists were based at Hawkinge as part of the Y Service intercepting enemy radio transmissions but moved away from the airfield after the fall of France in June. In September 1940 a decoy Q-site for Hawkinge (night-time lights mimicking an airfield) were constructed at Wootton although the location is not known.

History of the Town Council

Local government in Hawkinge

Hawkinge Parish Council requested a review of its status in 2011 as this had not been done since 1968 and given the growth of Hawkinge at that time it was felt that the Parish Council might not have been properly representing the local community, or being effective in local administration

The Shepway report addressed a number of issues for the Parish Council and set out the preparation which would be needed in order for the Community Governance Review to be effective and highlighted that the Council needed to be clear about what it wanted to achieve from the review in relation to the style and name for the Council that would accurately reflect its situation at that time, and its views on warding, the number of Councillors required, and working relationships with surrounding parishes.

The report also asked the Committee to consider whether the Council should adopt the status of a “Town”.  The issue of styling and renaming needed to be resolved by the Council before the Review in 2012.  This was achieved by passing a resolution under section 245(6) Local Government Act 1972 to adopt the required status.

At this time Hawkinge had a population in excess of 9000 people with an electorate of 5381, with numbers set to increase.  It had the facilities of a small town – two supermarkets, a bank, health centre, doctor’s surgery, dentist, community centre, two primary schools, nursing home, museum, council offices, sports pavilion and cricket pavilion and good public transport to local towns.

Hawkinge Logo

The Town Crest

 A new crest was created when the Parish Council was changed to a Town Council.  The hawk signifies the “Hawk” in Hawkinge,

the circles are relevant to both the Spitfires and Hurricanes, relating to the local airfield used back in both World War I & II,

and the hills and trees relate to the countryside surrounding Hawkinge.