At this time of year, as one would expect, things start to quieten down as people get involved with the coming holiday as all it entails. Despite that new discoveries are still being made.

Sad news for the town this week. Whitstable Teleradio Co Ltd, who have been trading in Oxford Street for the past 57 years are to close in the New year. The present directors are retiring and at present it seems unlikely that anyone is likely to buy the company which also has a branch in Dover. The company has been supplying television, hifi and video products since they were first available and was the only such shop left in Whitstable.

This news affects me directly as 30 years ago I joined the company as a TV service engineer. Some 22 years ago I formed its service department into a separate company which I still run in Canterbury, but our connections with the original company remained close throughout the years. The ethos of good customer service that started in Whitstable all those years ago is now my responsiblity to continue for the customers we look after in East Kent and throughout the UK. It's a bit like family history I suppose, the roots that grew in Whitstable have now grown branches throughout the world and it is your responsiblity to continue on with the ethos of decent, hard working folk that is within your genes. Sorry about that, I'm beginning to sound like a preacher!

Anyway, on a lighter note, here's the ultimate football match I discovered from 1898 whilst I was researching the local reports of the losses of the FLIRT and the SIR JOHN PEEL in November of that year.

The Cromwell Road InvictasTeam-Sheet

The team they were playing against included such names as Stroud, Tritton, Browning and Goldfinch. A few empty ships down at the harbour, me thinks.

If you've looked at the Notice Board this week you may have seen a posting from William in the Netherlands. He is trying to find out more information about his grandfather who was an orphan being looked after by Miss. J.E.Nicholls at 'Rushdene' in Swanfield Road. I've had a look for the house but can find no matching name. It is possible that someone out there might know something about this lady or house so I'm logging the information here just in case.

Christmas Tie-up

The Whitstable Times want to do a piece about the site at Christmas on the basis that this is the time of year that families get together. With this in mind it would be really useful to have some (printable!) quotes about your ancestors, the town and the site from a few people around the world. They would probably be along the lines of, and these are actual quotes:

It made me feel like I was actually there.

It's great to see your ancestors recognised and learn more about the town they lived in.

I never realised my family were part of such a close knit community.

I now feel I have found my roots.

You can say what you want because the newspaper has editorial control over what they print. The real opportunity is that if you mention the name of one of your ancestors within living memory there is a good chance that a cousin or two ??removed will contact us or the paper and you could end up filling in some of your missing connections.The reason I am asking is that I wouldn't use any of your quotes without permission, so if you do send something can you make it clear that it can be used in this context?With regard to the Whitstable Times, I told you a few weeks ago about using some of their current information. This has been placed on hold at present for legal reasons.

By the way, if any of you have any shares in The Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company hidden away there's a few people around the town and on the Council who would love to have a chat with you!

The deal I have now been offered by the newspaper is complete access to all of the archived issues that they have (since April 1948) in return for building an index of the articles in them (ie a searchable database) for their, and possibly others use. Much as I like this offer I know that it is beyond me at present in terms of available time, so it will have to wait until I can get more local people involved.

That's all for this week,

Well, where did last week go? I can't believe it's Sunday again already.

I've been busy this week with the Whitstable Times newspaper in three ways. First, assisting with their copy for Thursday's front page story of TeleRadio closing after 57 years. Secondly, preparing the copy for their Christmas feature on OysterTown.net. The deadline for this issue is next Monday so the paper can print early for the holiday. By the way, thank's for the quotes, let's hope for some results. Thirdly, I have at present a loan of the original copies for part of 1946 and all of 1947. I know I said 1948 was the earliest remaining, but I was wrong. It turns out that the previous years were destroyed whilst being archived in the printing works in Canterbury during a air-raid in WW2. The surviving copies are the ones produced after the company built a printing press at their present premises in Whitstable during 1946.

In going through these issues the first thing I look for are the Births, Deaths and Marriages, then for any reports about weddings or funerals. These, as I mentioned before, are vey useful as they often name relatives of different surnames and these give me the clues to the links between the families.

What has got me excited about these issues is the start of a regular column by someone known simply as E.B., who seems to have moved amongst the people of the old Whitstable families and writes the story of a person, together with his history related to the town history. Some weeks he meanders of into foreign politics but the next week he is back with tales of the old ships, or pubs, or another local. It will take me some time to get these columns onto the site, but when I do you will see what I mean. Here is someone, in the late 1940's, getting actual quotes from older people about their lives in the town. The same people that may be your direct ancestors.

Also in these issues are a number of listings of events from the 1700's. These were written by a certain Mr. Goodsell. If that name seems familiar go and look on the spline of that book that so many of us regard as the 'Bible' of the early days of Whitstable. These will make an interesting research tool even if not as entertaining as those of E.B.

Whilst carrying on with the transcription of the 1891 Whitstable people in ships, I was entering the details for Frederick Kemp on board the "Gypsy", the gGrandfather of Carolyn Kemp, when I realised that I was actually reading his handwriting and that the signature at the bottom of the sheet was his. There's something very tangible about this kind of experience, almost as if you have made a connection with the person, and even more so if you are a direct descendant.

Anyway, these are my excuses for the lack of activity on the site this week, but I have finished the page about the tragedies at sea in November 1898. These are taken from the Whitstable perspective of the sinking of the FLIRT which was first covered from the point of view of the Devon villagers who witnessed it, and of the running down of the "Sir John Peel", when the aforementioned Frederick Kemp was drowned, along with Frederick William Shilling, also from the town.

My son, with the callousness of youth, tells me that the site is 'A repository for the dead of the town'. I've thought long and hard about this and re-analysed my objectives. I've never meaningly intended to glorify other peoples misfortune. My conclusion is that, on present experience, the information presented in newspapers or on the grave of someone who has just died is often the only such data available about them that has survived. This reinforces my desire to talk to as many of the older members of these families as I can before it's too late. If, at any time, you read anything on this site that causes you personal distress then please let me know. As an example, I have copies of newspaper articles about such things as murder amongst local people. Although these are over 50 years old and are already in the public domain I do not intend to publish them. This is not just to gloss things over and make out that our town is better than any other. It's because I wouldn't like to read that my gGrandfather killed my gGrandmother before killing himself. Families have a way of closing ranks over these things for the good of the offspring and that's probably for the best.

Don't panic, I'm not talking about any of you that this newsletter is going out to! This reminds me of a conversation I had with my daughter about researching the family history. She said that if I found out that an ancestor had been a mass murderer she would forever worry that some day the gene would come out in her and she would flip and start killing people. My reply was that she was more likely to flip and become a very boring person in view of the evidence so far unearthed.

On that sobering note I'll leave you until next week.

So, Christmas is almost upon us and we're all sorting out those last minute bits and pieces.

I won't take up too much of your time this week as I haven't much to tell you, but I have got ready the first of the 'E.B.' articles I wrote of. This will be on the site soon so here is your preview.

Just to be festive I'm adding my own title:

THE DAY THE CARPENTER ARRIVED IN TOWN
From the Whitstable Times, Issue 4,303. (22-03-1947)

William Chandler, carpenter, builder and undertaker.

"The turnpike gate swung open and William Chandler stepped through into Oxford Street. A journeyman carpenter from Elmstead, near Denton, where he had served his apprenticeship, he had made the long walk to Whitstable, carrying his tools on his back, for the purpose of finding permanent employment in the town.

The foundation stone of the new Seasalter Church had just been laid by Sir. Brook William Bridges, in the month of August, 1844, and Chandler was hoping to be taken on by one as one of the workmen engaged in the construction of the building. Looking around him, as he walked from the turnpike, he decided that Whitstable was a place he was going to like. There was a freshness and charm about it that made a strong appeal to him. On his right, green fields stretched as far as the eye could see. He passed a newly erected brick house that at once took his fancy. There and then he made up his mind to obtain possession of it, if that was in any way possible, and make his home in it. He followed the road until it ended at the “Bear and Key” Hotel.

With time to spare, he made it his business to study the lay-out of the town, and in doing so he found it was made up of 605 houses, and that the combined population of the two parishes, Whitstable and Seasalter, numbered 3,319 people. Having acquired this useful information, the young carpenter proceeded to make his application for work on the new church that was being put up at Seasalter. He was at once engaged to do the carpentry for the interior.

With future prospects rosy, he hastened to make enquiries respecting the house he had seen and liked. The agent he went to told him it was to be let, and his credentials being satisfactory, he became its tenant. The house, built of modern red brick material, was put up in 1835.

Needing a workshop, William built one on spare ground in his garden with second-hand timber and rippings from the saw pit that was where the Parish Hall now stands. The workshop itself was constructed on posts seven foot high above the ground, was 29 foot by 12 foot in size, and covered nearly the whole of the little back garden. What an unholy rumpus with officialdom there would be in these days if any man, owner or tenant, dared to put up as much as a small shed on his own plot of land without conforming to red-tape rules and regulations devised to strangle free-enterprise and individual initiative!

In his workshop, William made the pews for the new church at Seasalter. When that important task was finished, and there was no more church work for him to do, he turned his skill and attention to house-building and repairs, and, in addition, set up as an undertaker. He carried on business in conjunction with Thomas Porter, who founded it in the year 1829, and it was Porter who was responsible for putting up the brickwork of the new houses, Chandler seeing to the woodwork.

As an undertaker, the energetic and ambitious carpenter had plenty to do. The undrained marshes around round the town made Whitstable unhealthy to live in. The annual death rate on an average was 70. There were two burial grounds, one at All Saints’ and the other at Old Seasalter against which as a burial ground there was, for some reason, strong popular predujice. The price of a coffin was usually 35 shillings. There being no sandpaper in those days, the wood was rubbed with brick to give it a smooth and polished surface. When the New Cemetery was opened in 1857, the first coffin lowered into the ground was one made by William Chandler.

After his death, the business he had built up was taken over by Wallace Camburn, whose apprenticeship to the building trade had been served with John Lawson. Houses in Swanfield Road were put up by him. He was given the work of pulling down the old Pearson's hotel, and in 1873, used up the materials in the building of the Whitstable almshouses. Waterworks house on Borstal Hill was built by his firm. As an undertaker, he introduced to the local market polished coffins. The prices for which ranged from 45 shillings to 60 shillings. By this time, 1890, the population of Whistable had risen to about 6,200, and the yearly death rate averaged six per 1,000.

The fitting of ships' cabins was a branch of work that Wallace Camburn specialised in with marked skill and success. In construction of new houses neccessitated by therapid expansion of Whitstable he took a prominent part. So that room could be made on the east side of Oxford Street for a pavement he gave up his own front garden. The first pavement on the west side of this street, it is interesting to note, was laid down in 1857.

The Wallace Camburn firm, during the years that Whitstable made such quick growth, especially marked as this was between 1900-1910, put up 70 shop fronts in the town. During these years the firm was hard at work building in Argyle Road, Clare Road, Westcliff, Essex Street, Cromwell Road, Tankerton Road, Seasalter and at Willow Woods.

In 1927, Wallace Harvey, grandson of Wallace Camburn, joined the firm, becoming sole proprietor of it in the early part of 1945. Under his management and control the firm is giving special attention to the work of house repairs and is developing and modernising the undertakers' branch of the business founded by William Chandler, the journeyman carpenter who came and settled down in Whitstable over a century ago."

E. B.

I'll leave you to digest any useful information from this article. In case any of you have a connection with William Chandler, I have some other information available as he was one of my wife's ggGrandfathers.

In the meantime I would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and thank you for your input to what is turning out to be a major re-discovery of many aspects of Whitstable and its people that were in danger of being lost. I feel very happy that I started this venture but also still awe struck with the enormity of the work yet to be done.

Christmas came and Christmas went. I hope you got everything you needed.

We had four generations sitting at the table for Christmas dinner, food for thought.

As you would expect no great items of news this week. The email traffic died down before Christmas as people the world over put their hobby to one side.

Instead I'm sending you the following for your reference for those times when you are having trouble locating a road name in the town. These details are now on a page in the History section of the site. (For those of us who can never find that piece of paper we made notes on!).

Other news:

Due to a space problem with this week's Whitstable Times their feature on the site has been 'held back'. Although this is a shame it is giving them time to dig out all the emails they have ever been sent from people who used to live in the town, write to them, and add this information to the feature. I'll let you know when.

Reliable Sources?

If you get information from at least two unconnected sources you can generally reckon it to be accurate. When I transcribed E.B.'s article about William Chandler this was my second source of the story of his coming to Whitstable. I had previously been told this by my father-in-law (William's ggGrandson).

Over Christmas I asked him how he knew the story in the first place. He told me that when his mother went to get her old-age-pension it turned out that her birth had never been registered. They had to find some reliable witnesses to confirm her identity and age. One of them was Wallace Harvey (a local historian and former councillor who knew the family). He signed the papers then told the story of William Chandler.

In looking back at the article by E.B. I now realise that the most likely person he got the information from in 1946 was the gentleman who was then in charge of the Builders and Undertakers started by William. His name was Wallace Harvey.

So, my two unconnected sources are now probably one and the same. Can I get any further proof of the story? I have my original research that confirmed his birth place and age, and the census data ties in with this as well as the address in Oxford Street. As for the rest I have no proof, but I like the story, so it stays.

Anderson, Rigden and Perkins.

This was the last of the shipbuilding firms in Whitstable. The second of the transcribed E.B. articles relates their history from 1917-1946 including the WW2 years when they carried out much work for the Admiralty. This is now on the site, provisionally indexed from Newspaper/ebindex.html along with the previous article.

Goodsell.

It would seem that the scraps of information that I have in my possession would have gone into his book in 1938 but he ran out of space. If this is correct then it is of utmost importance that these are re-published on this medium to guarantee their use for anyone reasearching the 1700's in the town. At present I'm still considering how best to display them. Name order is difficult for weddings and some of them are news items anyway. More likely they will be in date order, leaving the search engine to find the pages for people as now.

I wish you all the best for the New Year. Let's hope it's one of new discoveries!

2003 - November.

2004 - January. February.

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