Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

Bee Disgusted?

It's quite amazing what twists and turns you can take when wandering down the avenues of history. There was I reading about what could've been the very first photograph of Tunbridge Wells, which was taken by the Reverend John Cumming in 1851, when I discovered that he was quite the writer and beekeeper.

The Reverend John Cumming spent hard-earned time away from his London parishoners at Kentish Cottage on the Common where he relaxed by keeping bees for honey. The Reverend's beekeeping made him quite well known in apicultural circles – under the pseudonym "A Bee-Master" he wrote some wonderful letters to The Times newspaper about the subject. In fact the letters produced such a flood of responses and interest that he was prompted by a publisher to write a book to share his knowledge on the types of hives on the market, bee welfare and his remedy for stings. Following publication the Reverend showed his appreciation to The Times for promoting his hobby by sending them a jar of Tunbridge Wells honey.

He cleverly transferred his religious beliefs into his beekeeping by treating the hives like miniature churches and by opposing the then common method of killling the bees for their honey, choosing instead to care for the bees as they cared for him by providing him with honey. He'd leave the bees enough honey for their requirements over the winter and take only what was surplus. This honey, he said, could even be sold to pay for the rent on your home. I wonder if that would work today in the current climate?

Can we say that the Reverend was the original Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells? After all, his letters predate the 1950's story of Disgusted by almost 100 years, he did hide behind an alias and he did have a bee in his bonnet (pun intended). Make your own mind up by reading some of the Reverend's letters below in their original 1864 format:

Click here to download the document (2.7MB)

Anyway, I guess you are wondering what the first photograph was? It was a calotype negative of The Pantiles, and here it is.

I'd love to know what you think, why not leave me a comment below.

It's All in the Name

I must get asked, literally 100s of times a day, where did the R in RTW come from. Well now I am safe to hide behind a fabulous new book from the Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society. Tunbridge Wells in 1909 by Chris Jones is a month-by-month diary taking us through the year that we obtained our Royal title. Its an utterly absorbing book that lasted me just a few hours as I raced through discovering just how our ancestors lived and shaped our town.

Fascinating tales of immigration, unemployment, countless applications for skating rinks, politics, the economy, in fact most of the same troubles that face the country today. You'll read open-mouthed at the stories of the local train crash, the workhouses, the domestic servants and the branding of the town with its shiny new title.

The back of the book is devoted to a tour of the town in 1909, pointing out all the local landmarks and buildings together with lots of new exclusive pictures to go along with the text which in themselves are worth the money. This is a wonderful book that had me in wonder and amusement from start to finish.

Grab a copy now. You may of course have noticed from the title of the book, that 1909 is 99.9 years ago. It's going to be a great celebration next year so look out from some very exciting posts to celebrate the 100 years of our Royal heritage.

A Portrait in Verse

Just found rather a bargain on amazon.co.uk. In fact its more than a bargain because its a book I'd never even heard of before. Wellspring by Colin Aston is a book of poetry based on Tunbridge Wells, or as the author himself puts it "a portrait in verse of Royal Tunbridge Wells".

I shall tempt you into tracking down a copy with some of Colin's beautiful words. "Sunshine licks at the mintiest domes, an architecture of pleasure and welcome" in the poem "The Way Around", in which Colin takes us on a photography tour around the Wells. Colin then he leaves us on the final page with "The Pantiles less the derring-do; Near gentle Groves cool retinue; King Charles the Martyr claims the true; Royal, loyal, Tunbridge Wells".

It's lovely to read the poetic thoughts of someone who obviously loves this town as much as I do. If you're passionate about Tunbridge Wells then this book highly deserves a place on your bookshelf.

It's inspired me to undertake some poem-themed walks to Colin's words, I'd love to know if you feel the same way after reading it.

Fly Fishing?

Do you have a copy of Fly Fishing by JR Hartley? Perhaps not, but perhaps in the twenty years that have passed since the airing of the famous Yellow Pages advert, the store that Mr Hartley walked in to ask may now finally have a copy. I'm talking about antiquarian bookseller, Hall's Bookshop, in Chapel Place. Hall's is one of our institutional shops that has been giving the beauty of books to the masses since 1898.

It's one of those places that always has a nose pressed up against the glass peering in. Where not an inch is wasted inside or outside the store, books filling every nook and cranny from floor to ceiling. With ultra-rare first editions for thousands or if you're feeling a little short, a 10p bargain box to rummage around in.

The smell of old books (obviously) greets you when you open the door, the rare shaft of sunlight is animated by the dust flying through it and even the checkout procedure is deliciously low-tech, where a credit card is only useful as a bookmark. Friends from out of town get lost inside and are impossible to drag out into the daylight and somehow time inside passes slower than the world outside.

We are actually lucky that the shop made it past its 100th birthday, because in 1989 Lloyds Bank, which owned the premises, decided to expand its neighbouring branch into the bookshop. But there was no way that thousands of loyal fans from around the world were going to let that happen. The chairman of the company was apparently bombarded with so many protests that the company conceded and Hall's Bookshop was saved.

So if you're looking for a place to escape the weather this weekend, forget the shiny new shops at the top end of town, take a walk down to Chapel Place for a dose of proper browsing, their local book collection is tremendous and you just might find that elusive book on fly fishing.

Freight Church

Thanks to my wife for buying me a great copy of A History of a Spa Town: Royal Tunbridge Wells by Alan Savidge. Having spent the best part of a week going through it I was really intrigued by a rather special looking building. Sitting back off of St Johns Road is the rather unusual Christian Science Church.

Designed by Cecil Burns, a prominent architect who was also responsible for the oddly attractive, in my eyes anyway, Art Deco Kent & Sussex Hospital. The building was built in 1931 and as can be seen from the image below had an exposed concrete frame with an open arcade along the front and pretty concrete tracery around the window frames. Unfortunately all this was lost when the Christian Scientists moved to Linden Park Road and the church was converted to offices in 1959, and in 1975 the building was re-opened as Hermes House by the Minister of Transport as the FTAs corporate headquarters.

Although now surrounded by more modern buildings you can still see remnants of the old church, and I think it deserves its place in the special list of great buildings of our town. So next time you're stuck in traffic along St Johns Road or picking up the kids from school, have a quick nose over the wall and you'll see what I mean. Incidentally, the old image below is from the Historical and Interesting Views of Tunbridge Wells CD, available here.