Kempes Hall Today

Chris Kemp very kindly gave me permission to insert these two pictures taken by him of Kempes Hall (see my previous post) today. The first shows the front of the building. 

This view is of the rear of the building - the long narrow extension on the right of the picture may have been the old school rooms.

Thanks, Chris!

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Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990), New Scientist, May 21, 1964

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Kemps Hall Academy, Boughton Aluph, Kent

My great grandfather was at school here in the early 1840s. How do I know? Well, I have a school exercise book of his, written in beautiful copperplate.

Way back in 1999, I posted an enquiry on a Kent bulletin board asking if anyone knew where Kemps Hall was. Twelve years later Matthew has contacted me about my enquiry.

Matthew is the present occupant of the Hall and has very kindly told me that it is now known as Kempes Hall and was originally listed as a 16th Century Manor house.  In the 1800s it became a private boarding school for approximately 40 boys. By 1918 however it was sold as part of a lot from the Eastwell Park estate by which time it had been converted into 6 cottages. It is now a single private residence.

Boughton Aluph is here, three miles north east of Ashford in Kent.

Thanks, Matthew!

A World War I Aviator

Peter writes to let me know that Morris RICHARDSON, my second cousin twice removed, bn 1892, was a flyer in 33 squadron during World War 1. Morris attained his Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificate in a Farman biplane at Farnborough in 1915 and survived the war as a pilot - quite an achievement from what I have heard of those times.

Farman III Biplane

His brother Basil Hutton RICHARDSON did not survive the war. He died in German hands in 1915 and is buried in Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel. Coincidentally, there is memorial to Basil on the North all of St Georges Church, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne - where I used to go when I was a youngster and my father was the vicar. I remember seeing it but had no idea that it was of a relative.

There are some interesting illustrations of the Maurice Farman biplane and the Military School, Farnborough here.

Scans of Wallsend Slipway Brochures

Worked through a batch of scanning, including these Wallsend Slipway brochures. Why have I scanned them? My grandfather worked there, and I remember as a kid visiting with my father. They are fascinating, full of the shipping that we built and sent all round the world in those days. 

The title "Oil Burning for Marine Installations" may lack something compared to the glamour of the record-breaking Mauritania (engined at Wallsend Slipway and described and illustrated in both the brochures above) but it contains some beautiful coloured cutaway diagrams of marine machinery. There's an interesting description and illustration of one of Wallsend Slipway's engines, now on display in the excellent Rahmi M Koç private technology museum in Istanbul, Turkey, at the International Steam Pages web site.

 

Finally, a coloured aerial photograph from the 1871-1929 brochure. It shows the iconic 200-ton crane, a well-known landmark in the area (also shown on the cover of the 1871-1929 brochure).

Postcards of Reepham, Norfolk

Postie brings two early C19 postcards, bought on eBay. Reepham is the village in Norfolk where my PIERCY ancestors lived in the late C18 and early C19 before Jeremiah moved to Fakenham, also in Norfolk, probably between 1836 and 1841. Scanned them, and a load of other vintage Reepham and Fakenham postcards as well. There are still hundreds more to do...

This was one of my favourites. I love the children's Edwardian dress and the cattle roaming the square.