Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

Most Haunted

It's been too many weeks since David and I met up to take some pictures for our Project and this one was to be quite a scary one.

The "ghosts" of the pump room. David's photograph.

Our shoot for the day would be in The Retreat public house on Church Road. This building wasn't always a public house though.

The building first appears on an 1808 map but is just listed as a Lodging House of Mr Morley. Records show that it was a lodging house between 1740-1780. In 1821 it was listed as a hotel and by the 1950s it had become a pub. But it's the period of the mid 19th Century that had us both so intrigued as to want to pay this place a visit.

Back in the mid 1800s the building was used as our town's magistrates court and hearings were held here every fortnight. The building contained cells within the basement to hold the prisoners and rooms to hold the bodies of those who were hanged on the Common for their crimes before their corpses were taken to the funeral house (Sadly, this claim cannot be established with any written text, yet).

David and I opened the creaky door to the cellar and climbed down below to check out what was left of the cells.

The stairs down into the darkness of the cellar.

The photo at the top of this post shows what is now the pump room of the pub. The alcoves in this room are where prisoners would be shackled to the walls with irons. Today we may be larking about being convicts but it really couldn't have been much fun being chained up down here. We had really had quite enough after about half an hour. Apparently psychics have been in here and "seen" people in these alcoves. It's rather eerie to imagine that we were probably being watched whilst shooting these images. David was rather spooked upon hearing the scraping of boxes across the floor whilst in here but nobody else was there. The photo below is a crop of one of David's photographs in this room, can you explain the strange apparition?

Well, can you explain it?

The room in the photo below is apparently one of the scariest rooms down here, and one that has a lot of people feeling intense discomfort. This room has the appearance of a cell with the door now missing and this is most likely the area where they stored the dead bodies. We were both alarmed by three loud knocks when standing in this room. There was nobody there with us. Or was there?

The body/bottle storage room.

The photo below shows an archway that is said to be an entrance to tunnels. There is another archway directly opposite this in another room and we know that goes next door as we have been there on the other side. Alas we have no idea where the entrance in the photo below goes, this one needs some more research.

One of the archway entrances to the tunnels?

The room opposite this one has some original woodwork and brick shelving which could well be where the gaoler stored the irons, keys or torture devices. Although it was probably for his paperwork and lunch that his wife had made him. Click on through to the project to see the rest of the images showing this room.

It's said that the staff never look back when locking up down in the cellar as there is a horrible feeling of someone following you. We, of course, looked back but unfortunately nobody was there.

This building seems to have the most ghostly tales I have heard of in Tunbridge Wells. The staff were regaling us with all the things they had seen, such as the shadows that appear to walk through the bar to the back door but belong to no body, objects flying around and the many tales of the haunted stairs. These really get your goosebumps bumping. There isn't room to list them all here so if you want to hear them then you'll have to stay tuned to the blog and watch out for the Tunbridge Wells Ghost Tour coming very soon.

The haunted stairs.

David and I would like to thank The Retreat for letting us in to photograph for the Project. We had a really nice lunch and a beer too so we recommend you should pop in and check them out, you never know who will be sitting next to you at the bar.

Kent & Sussex Hospital Bombed

A interesting comment popped up from Anne Wagstaff the other day regarding a memory of the Kent & Sussex Hospital being painted in camouflage colours. So I thought I would investigate.

I have just been chatting to my father, born in 1934. As I talked about the tiles a flicker of a distant memory of them came to him. He had his tonsils removed in about 1942. His main memory is of the incredibly highly polished, shiny Lino, the smell of antiseptic and, curiously, the front of the hospital being painted in camouflage paint. He is wondering if the hospital really was camouflaged or if his memory is playing tricks. Do you know?

I discovered an interesting story of evacuees being sent from London to Tunbridge Wells to help paint the hospital bright white with a giant red cross on the top of it. Alas all this seemed to do was draw attention to the building and the enemy dropped an oil bomb onto the roof just a few days after the paint had dried. So, the children were given new brushes and helped to paint the building in a drab green colour, this along with chicken wire mesh covered in thousands of strips of dyed cloth which was also covered in ranges of green paint, helped camouflage the building perfectly, or so it was thought. Branches and twigs were also stuck all over the building to further hide it from view.

Alas the camouflage failed to protect the hospital and on the 12th of September 1940 it was hit. The bomb landed on the Outpatients and Casualty departments, where the town's main first aid post was. An 11 year old paper boy was killed in the blast. You can see on this bomb damage map just how many times the site was hit but the building itself was only hit the once.

The bomb damage. Copyright to Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Thank you very kindly to John Weeks at the Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust for his help in answering Anne's question. Look out for John's forthcoming book about our hospitals and if you want to learn more about Tunbridge Wells during World War II then check out my week-long series I wrote back in 2009.

Windmills of The Wells

The rather ferocious winds that have been battering us all these past couple of days got me thinking about a well overdue post that I had started to write about something windy. Windmills.

The Culverden Windmill in a painting by Charles Tattershall Dodd.

Tunbridge Wells had two windmills. Sadly neither of them exist anymore but for a few remaining clues.

The Culverden Windmill, pictured above in a painting by Charles Tattershall Dodd, was constructed in around 1832 and was demolished by 1870. It has appeared in several works by the artist and there is another one below in this post. You can also see the windmill in the map below, can you find it?

Culverden Windmill on an 1849 map of Tunbridge Wells by ES Gisborne.

It was a Post Windmill, its defining feature being that the main machinery part of the building is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. Even though the windmill was demolished in 1870 it appears that it had ceased functioning as a mill some twenty years before it was pulled down.

The Culverden Windmill appears in a sketch of Toad Rock by Charles Tattershall Dodd.

The Culverden Windmill in a painting by Charles Tattershall Dodd

All that remains of the other Tunbridge Wells windmill, the Calverley Windmill, is a street name, some houses bearing the name and an old pub. The parish area is also still locally called Windmill Fields. The pub, which is now a private residence, has a rather beautiful tile rendition of the mill on the front which you can see in the photo below.

Tiling on the old Windmill Tavern pub.

It's hard to establish when exactly the Calverley Mill was built. It appears on a map of 1769 but does not appear on an older map of 1730. It would therefore appear that the mill was constructed between these two dates. If anyone knows different please drop me a line.

The Calverley Windmill was a Smock Windmill, this type of windmill is made up of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower which is topped off with a roof that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. The pub tiling above shows quite well the type of windmill that stood there many years before.

An excerpt showing Calverley Windmill from the great panorama by Saltmarsh.

Early in January, 1933, a local newspaper reporter stopped by the celebrations of the diamond wedding anniversary of a Mr and Mrs Smith. The two 85 year olds had lived all their lives in the neighbourhood, having in fact played together as children beneath the shadow of the old windmill. Mr. Smith remembered the mill as a very old, weather-boarded structure on a brick base, worked by fantail-operated gear; its sails swept very close to the ground. He even recalled hanging on the sails as they swung past!

He remembered that it was last used for corn-grinding about 1860 and then moved a little distance away and re-erected near the present golf links. The old structure was not used as a windmill at its new home as he didn't remember seeing its sails at work after its removal. It was used by the purchaser, a Mr. Joslin, as a shed and pulled down soon after. The inner workings were removed and taken to Crowborough for use in the newly constructed Pratt's Mill.

Calverley Windmill on an 1828 map by Decimus Burton.

Where is our nearest mill now? It's in Argos Hill. It's a Post Mill so would look very similar to how the Culverden Windmill used to look. You can pay the Argos Hill website a visit, make sure you click on the donate page to help towards the restoration, to see some really lovely photos of it. Or why not go and see the windmill for yourself, it's not currently open to the public as it is in a dangerous condition (even more reason to donate), but it can be viewed from the road.

View of Calverley Windmill by J Newman, 1875. Click for larger.

In these days of alternate energy I wonder how long it will be before the horizon is once again adorned with the spinning blades of a windmill?

Thank you to Richard Howes at Argos Hill Windmill, Michael Howes, Ian Beavis and the lovely folk at Tunbridge Wells Museum for their help in this post.

The Cherub and The Christmas Giveaway!

Before we get to the part that you've come here for, the fabulous Christmas giveaway, let's have a little fun festive post first. Oi, stop scrolling to the bottom!

I discovered this little nugget of a historical fact not from a text book or a lengthy session sitting in the museum but from a good old-fashioned walking tour.

I hope that over the Christmas period you might stop by King Charles the Martyr Church and leave a few pennies as this is one of our town's most treasured buildings. When you are there you take a walk around and have a closer look at the handsome chap in the photo at the top. What do you notice? That's right, this usually beautiful little cherub is sporting an enormous moustache. But why?

Well, pull up a mince pie and I shall tell you. Back in the late 1670s, John Wetherell was busy plastering away, covering the ceiling in magnificent domes and roundels, adorned with ornaments of fruit, cherubs' heads and palms. This was really top quality workmanship, the craftsmen he employed to help him had also worked for Sir Christopher Wren. But it seems that one of the apprentices he had hired was finding the whole thing a bit of a bore, so he waited until his master had gone for lunch and decided to have some fun. That rather mischievous lunch break prank resulted in two of the cherubs being comedically adapted. The thing is we aren't really sure if John Wetherell actually noticed either. Naughty apprentice. He's fired!

Anyway, I've shown you one of the cherubs in the photo above but you're going to either have to go yourself and try and find the other or partake on one of these local walking tours. I recommend the latter, especially as you can also learn about the unique pews, the Christopher Wren connection, and also the famous people who once worshipped at the church.

Whilst we're on the subject there is quite a good Tunbridge Wells Treasure Hunt on this weekend (until 20th December) with some great prizes. Details here.

Right, let's get to the bit you've all sat through that for, the tuppence in the pudding, the Christmas giveaway! To be entered to win this year's fabulous gift, which is not quite as good as Create DM's giveaway of an iPod Touch, hey where are you going?! Right, attention back to me, to be in with a chance of winning my great giveaway then just leave a comment and you'll be in the draw. What's the prize you ask? Well it's this rather tremendous fridge magnet featuring Jan Kip's engraving of King Charles the Martyr Church. You know you want it! Comment away!

Competition closed. Congratulations to Beverley Aston for winning the Christmas Giveaway.

Noah's Ark Finally Surfaces

Noah's Ark had lain hidden for nearly twenty years. But when it finally surfaced recently, we were there to witness it.

Noah's Ark.

No, we haven't been on holiday to Mount Ararat, this was on Mount Ephraim and David and I were in the now abandoned Kent & Sussex Hospital.

Some of you may remember the Children's Ward of the hospital which had lots of vibrant and cheerful animal tiles on the walls above the beds.

One of the animal tiles.

These tiles were originally installed to cheer up the children who were staying on the ward for long periods. As well as providing some colour and fun they were also believed to be a much more hygienic surface than regular wall coverings as they were easy to wipe clean. Although I would presume this was for entire walls of tiles and not small panels with edges that attract dirt but there you go.

One of the animal tiles.

The tiles, also called Carter's Tiles, cost around £9 for each scene and were paid for with funds raised by the Courier Newspaper's PeaNut Club. It has been said recently that it would take 10,000 times as much as they originally cost to remove them, but be rest assured that a caveat will be in place on the demolition of the building to save them.

One of the animal tiles.

They were made by WB Simpson of the Poole Pottery in Dorset who created tiles for pretty much any sector of industry you care to imagine. If you visit the website of the Virtual Museum of Poole Pottery you will see that the Tunbridge Wells tiles were also made for other hospitals around the UK. The pottery was so proud of these that they featured in their publicity campaign of 1935.

All of the tiles were actually painted over and then boarded over in 1965 but then rediscovered and restored during some building works in 1984. Unfortunately the Ark wasn't so lucky and had been covered over again so that a sink could be installed in front of it. Now the hospital was empty it was time to reveal the Ark again.

The reveal of the Ark begins.

We sat waiting patiently whilst one of the workmen sawed away, walloped with hammers, chipped with chisels and basically lost pints of sweat in brute force trying to remove the wooden covering.

Sawing away at the wooden covering.

Time for a bit of brute force.

But then finally, after ten minutes of waiting, the cover was removed and there it was. The colours were beautiful, being covered up had protected the colourful tiles from the sun and from the modern harsh cleaning materials. The colours were so vivid in the low sun streaming through the window.

The Ark is revealed.

Also, it being revealed meant that the rest of the animal tiles in the ward now made sense. You may notice if you look at one of the general photos of the ward that all the animals are in pairs and are walking towards the brightly-coloured Ark ready to board. Just like the Bible story.

The Ark in all it's glory, being seen for the first time in 20 years.

We were the first people to see the Ark for nearly 20 years and it was quite an experience and one I won't forget in quite some time.

Keep stopping by our Tunbridge Wells Project as we add more and more galleries to the abandoned Kent & Sussex Hospital album.