Published 2 January 2003

ROYAL Phoenix Metal Detecting Group member Robin Williams recently won the club shield for the "Find of the Year." Robin works for the Silver Spring Mineral Company. His find was an ornament hoard which is being evaluated with great interest by archaeologists and historians. The award was presented to him at the group's annual dinner at the Clyffe Tavern, St Margaret's. Members hold monthly meetings at the Royal Hotel, Deal.
ERIC Landrey, of Wear Bay Road, Folkestone sent me two interesting cricket pictures, including one of the Ramblers CC, of 1931 taken in the garden of dentist and councillor King Turner, in East Cliff Gardens, which he thought would interest older Memories readers.

Some of the names Eric remembers are: Sitting,

left to right......?, Muriel King Turner (nee Maxted) -

possibly the town's first female cricketer (?) - Fred Looker, Cllr King Turner, Bill Boorman, Ron Thompson, George Jacobs; standing, Fred Orris, Bert Landrey, Tom Sawyer, Bill Anslow, Eric King Turner (married to Muriel), Eric Landrey plus the umpire.

Eric adds that he can recall as many as six games at a time being played on the polo and sports grounds on a Saturday afternoon.

Cricket legends

Evening matches were also popular during the summer light evenings, he says.

Famous Kent cricketers of the same era he recalls include the legendary Frank Woolley, A.F. Chapman and 'Tich' Freeman. Eric treasures a small snap (bottom picture) taken at what appears to be the Canterbury ground, the players nearest the camera being Freeman, Chapman and Woolley with Wright bringing up the rear.

My father, grandfather and grandmother often spoke of watching them play, as they followed the fortunes of the county club over several decades, as season ticket holders.

I sometimes accompanied them to matches later, in the 1950s and 1960s.
The remarkable story of the battle to combat the menace of the Germans' V1 'vengeance weapon,' the flying bomb or 'doodlebug' - launched against the United Kingdom as the fortunes of battle swept our way in 1944 and the Allies landed in Normandy

- is told by aviation researcher and author Roy Humphreys, of Hawkinge, in the December Bygone Kent magazine.

Bombed out
Roy has good reason to write about the deadly little plane without a pilot — his Hythe home at the time, 44 Ormond Road, was one of the victims, in June 1944.

Mostly aimed at London, an estimated one thousand 'doodlebugs' were brought down into the sea in Dungeness Bay by our guns and fighter aircraft, with a little help, I believe, from American gun crews with the latest weaponry.

Rehoused at Coastguard Cottages Roy and his family and neighbours watched one of the first 'doodlebugs' go over Hythe at night, before many people knew what this new weapon was, with a jet of flame coming out of its tail.

Royal Observer Corps spotters on a Martello Tower at Dymchurch are said to have recorded the first flying bomb launched and aimed at London.

A teenager at the time Roy had collected enough mementos to re-construct a complete 'doodlebug' by the time he began 10 years Royal Navy service.

But his souvenirs of war disappeared!

Roy's researches indicate Hitler concentrated a large number of V1 launch sites around Calais, hoping this would cause the Allies to attempt to invade Europe via the port of Calais where there were large concentrations of his troops.
Legends
MURIEL King Turner was in the Ramblers Cricket Club team, pictured above, which was lent to the Herald by Memories reader Eric Landrey. Could she have been the town's first woman cricketer, Eric wonders?

RIGHT: This photo among Eric's souvenirs is of some of Kent Cricket Club team's star players. In the front are the legendary trio Tich' Freeman, A.F. Chapman and Frank Woolley, while Wright follows close behind them.
 

HeraldcaWs for compramise to avoid heavy legal costs ”1 QAOMORE give and take on each side was J-yf wt5called for to settle a legal dispute involving West Ward Ratepayers Association and the Town Council, over plans to widen Cheriton Road by slicing off a section of Radnor Park. That was the opinion of the editor who deplored the fact ratepayers would have to foot the bill for the legal action. The ratepayers believed it required an Act of Parliament to cut into parkland gifted to the town as a public amenity area. He said it should be recognised it would not greatly effect the attraction of the park. He sympathised with Alderman Spurgen who deprecated the attitude of opposing factions towards each other. The editor hoped the same passion would be directed at improving the state of roads in the town so that they were the restored to the state they were in 10 years back when visitors were impressed by the town's roads. Writer Felix wanted to know what had happened to an ancient man-trap which had been gifted to the town in 1879 by William Wightwick JP. He understood it was going to be put on display in the Museum. Felix wanted to know why he h.jd not been able to find it!

Blue Riband liner makes first trip through Channel a q [-42 HOLDER of the Atlantic Blue Riband .L«73%3for the fastest crossing of the occan. the Uniled States' liner "United Suites" m.jdu its first passage through the Channel on her way to Bromorhaven. Meanwhile the Town Council was considering plans to celebrate the Coronation, plans for one important ingredient, decorative street lighting, being demonstrated by a scale model of part of Sandgate Road and Guildhall Street, made by Mr G.M. Norden. Buildings to be floodlit included St Eanswythe's Church, the Town Hall and Radnor Park Church tower, but St Martin's Church was deleted from the plan due to trees which, it was thought, would make it ineffective. Further decorative lighting plans, it was suggested, could be funded in individual streets by the traders, the Council providing approved decorations for lamp standards designed by Mr Norden. It was planned to approach British Railways suggesting they could decorate some of the prominent railway bridges in the district. Members of the Parks Committee were to consider the idea of a competition for the best floral display in people's front gardens and ideas were being considered for a souvenir Coronation programme.

Council urged to spearhead improvements for resort *1 QOQ^ MAN Felix who wrote a weekly J.«/^Ocolumn "About the Neighbourhood' called on the Council to adopt a number of New Year resolutions to boost the resort. These included a 'facelift for a ‘wonderful asset,' the East Cliff sands - with improved access - moves to help improve the local fisheries and prevent their decline, together with securing investment in new fishing boats and gear, steps to grant the Marine Pavilion a full licence so it could compete with the Dover Hippodrome theatre, and to get investment in a bathing pool for Folkestone on the lines of that at Margate. Folkestone, he said, only talked; and talked about the subject, Felix said the public also wanted something doing about controlling traffic on the stretch of Sandgate Road from the town hall to Alexander Gardens. The public 'wants' list continued with impiovcments for the Cantoibury Road recreation ground, a call for a round-table conference between the Lord of the Manor, Viscount Folkestone, the Council and builders over a Hill Road development scheme and a better service of buses to help people get home for lunch!

Doubled public support for carnival - but £820 is lost "1 Q7 QDESPITE doubled public support for >L«7 / ©Folkestone's summer carnival it still made a loss of £820 it was reported by chairman John Rendle at the annual meeting of the carnival organisers. Plans for a massive shake-up of Shepway Council's top management were due to be discussed in secret. The press and public were being excluded from two crucial meetings at which the appointment of a fulltime promotional consultant, Leonard Piper was to be discussed, with implications that some existing officials could lose their jobs. Militant teachers on the Romney Marsh were threatening to bring classes to a standstill as they fought for smaller classes and more jobs for out-of-work colleagues. They warned that lower standards of education would result unless something was done about class sizes. In the letters columns there were calls for.something to be done to halt continually rising fares for travel by road or rail. The Herald published ground plans of the William Harvey Hospital at Willesborough which was due to admit its first patients on October 23. Public recitals were being given by Reginald Adams on the new Copeman Hart electronic organ at St Eanswythe's parish church.