Published 10 April 2003

THE ‘MYSTERY’ mill and house, right and, below, an old print of Foord Valley mills, with Belle View Meadow mill in the right hand corner, back in the mid 1800s.
Belle View
THE PUZZLE picture I featured in Memories of a large house and adjoining windmill, thought to have been in Folkestone, created considerable interest. Mrs Sheila Longhurst contacted me by e-mail to tell me her husband thought the old property was a house still standing at the top of Mount Pleasant Road in Folkestone.

One of my friends, Peter Hooper, of Dover Road, told me he too thought it was a house at Mount Pleasant and went to have a look. But he thought there were too many differences to how it looks today.

However, Mrs Longhurst got back to me and told me how much the property had changed since the photograph was taken, back in the late 1800s.

“When my son, who lived in Mount Pleasant Road, came in I showed him the picture without comment and asked him where he thought it was.

“He said that he would tell me exactly where it was - at the top of Mount Pleasant Road! He said it was Belle View Meadow Windmill.

“He has seen a painting or print of it in a customer’s house. The old houses in Mount Pleasant Road and Bellevue Road are back to back and were built by the navvies who built the Viaduct.

“My son, who lived in this road, has an indenture of sale for a house in Mount
Pleasant Road showing that the land or possibly the property was first sold in 1832.

“My son moved to Mount Pleasant Road early in 1987 and remembers the house with the steps and a wooden balcony on the front of the house. The middle window was the door to the balcony.

“It was burnt out in 1987. The balcony went and the roof was completely rebuilt. He thinks the land in front of the building was excavated, making the semi-basement the ground floor.”

Mrs Longhurst, e-mailing me on Tuesday, added “My son is a builder and took the picture to the site today to check with his builder’s eye and he is convinced that it is basically the same property.”
Mrs Longhurst was also able to comment on the Claringbould (or Claringbold) family connection with the mill - the owner of the old picture being Klaske van Coeverden Claringbould, whose family lives in Antwerp.

“With regard to the Claringbold family, I have a 1960 Kelly’s Directory and there are two Claringbolds listed - an A.C. Claringbold living at 1 Church Street and a Mrs Claringbold at 9 Princess Street, not so very far away from the site of the mill,” commented Mrs Longhurst.

“I hope that this information is of use to you as it has certainly fired my ancient
Claringbold link
brain cells, but does not get the ironing done!” she writes.

Well, thanks very much Mrs Longhurst and pass on my thanks to your son for taking the trouble to cast his expert eye over the property.

I also looked up Claringbolds in the 1949 Kelly’s street directory, and found a Charles H. Claringbold at 17 Ship Street and a Lionel at 44 Sidney Street. Back in 1938 there was also an Oliver William Claringbold at 60 Dover Street, while Lionel was then listed at 4 Peter’s Street.

Susan Lees, of Alkham, who has been in touch with Klaske, told me she wondered if there was a connection between the Claringbould farmers at Drellingore and a mill that was moved from there to Ringwould around 1820, Claringboulds appearing there soon after. “It is a bit of a coincidence,” she commented.

There have been quite a few articles
about local mills in the Folkestone Herald over the years and one article I found, by P. Davies A.L.A., back in 1950, tells how the Bellevue mill (or Belle View Meadow Windmill) was bought by the South Eastern Railway Company from W. Stace and others for £1,335, in connection with the building of the Viaduct close by, which would have robbed it of its source of wind power.

The writer also relates how Millfield Mill, Folkestone, was built for a John Claringbould some time prior to 1821 and a John Claringbould was a tenant in 1823-4. It had three pairs of stones for grinding and was said to have been built by a John Hill, of Ashford.

It didn’t remain long in John Claringbould’s hands for he borrowed £200 from an uncle, couldn’t pay it back and lost the mill, back in 1827! This mill was taken down and moved to Bethersden in 1885.
 

Boost transport with the ‘omnibus’ - says Herald *1 the future of plans for a local -LI/UO tram survicc no further forward the Herald was calling for the introduction of a motor bus or buses carrying 36 passengers, 12 inside and 24 outside, to augment the existing horse drawn buses. The Revd Husband, once the Vicar of St Michael's Church, Folkestone, loved to herald the Spring and lie had his own special way of doing it. The season of Spring, it was said, began at 7pm on Saturday night and the worthy cleric surprised nianv of his flock by climbing the church tower in the darkness at 6.45pm to toll out the winter on the bells. Many, startled by the doleful sound, would cry out "Who's dead?" Then the note of the bells became more tuneful to herald Spring and some at least would realise he was having his little joke! MP Sir Edward Sassoon called for legislation to check the "capricious and arbitrary" exercise of their power by local licensing magistrates who were set on reducing Folkestone's pubs. He said he was to speak out at a meeting in Maidstone against the suspension of public house licences without compensation where there had been no misconduct

750 delegates visit for education conference nf npnA HOCKEY festival, involving 30 ^%790teams and the visit of a French team, was to be a big attraction at Folkestone over the Easter holiday. The annual conference of the National Co-operative Education Association brought 750 delegates to the town and it was a "full house" at a fair number of hotels. William Hand, of the Mecca Hotel, Alexandra Gardens, was presented with a Royal Humane Society bravery award after diving into the sea to save six-year-old Ann Proctor, of Cheriton, at Sea Point. Sandgate. Another man had been forced to turn back by a strong current. The child's mother was looking on as her two daughters played quite happily, but the next minute one child was swept 20 yards out from the seawall, reported the Herald. Work continued on demolition of the Victoria Pier, the Manor Office of Lord Radnor stepping in to ensure the work could be completed because the Pier Company was in serious financial difficulty. Four Old Harveians and a boy from the school, all members of Kent County Association of Change Ringers, rang a peal of five bells at St John's Church, Barham to mark the 375th anniversary of the birth of famous Kent physician Dr William Harvey

Traders press for rail link to north to attract tourists m QOQTHE Chamber of Commerce was J.«/^Opressing Southern Railway for a rail service direct from the north of England to boost visitors to the town and considering whether Folkestone could adopt a publicity ruse used by Cannes to boost tourism - advertising the town through a special postmark on outgoing mail. The Herald published two pictures of work to extend Romnoy, Hythe and Dymchurch Light Railway to Dungencss. plus a photo of owner Capt J.E.P. Howey. Southern Railway planned to open the Warren Halt from early May. A petition was organised calling for the retention of Capt Holland as Musical Director at the Leas Cliff Hall. But another faction held that he was not popular in the district and a change was needed The popularity of flying light aircraft stemmed from Lympne, in 1923, it was stated during an Aero Show held by the Cinque Ports Flying Club over two-days of the Easter holiday. Trie original aim had been to see how far one could fly on a gallon of fuel said Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker, Director General for Civil Aviation, two fivers each achieving 87 miles!

New memorial plaque for town’s famous surgeon •f Q^QFOLKESTONE was celebrating the _L«710400th anniversary of the birth in Folkestone of Dr William Harvey, tho famous physician and, to mark the occasion, the Hetold published a special illustrated feature written by Dr D. Geraint James, Dr. C.H. Bishop and John Moncrieff, a former Folkestone mayor. The anniversary was also marked by the unveiling of a third memorial to the doctor, in the form of a stone plaque put up in Church Street, at the old post house where he was born. Dr Harvey's father was mayor in 1586, 1599, 1601 and 1611. Managing Director of European Ferries (formerly Townsends) Keith Wickcndcn told a Tory rally in Folkestone that immigration to the UK must bo reduced. It was "absolutely absurd" to take in so many when the country had so many problems, ho warned. The Star Inn, at Newington, popular with thirsty soldiers and thousands of other customers since the 18th Century, was closing, a sad day for hosts of no less than 20 years, Gerry and Flo Cross, both of whom were 64, part-time barman of 25 years, Alf Woollett and Mrs Daisy Foss, barmaid for 19 years. Tho Star was coming down as part of plans for link roads to the new M20 motorway.