Westerham
A shopper’s paradise
On the very edge of Kent along the A25 which follows an ancient route along the Vale of Holmesdale; is an area of outstanding beauty just below the chalk ramparts of the North Downs is a settlement which has existed in this area since pre-roman times. The ancient woodland and meadows intersected by a gently meandering river is the setting for this seemingly undisturbed peaceful little gem Village life in times past may well have continued undisturbed by the outside world but some of the previous residents had a huge impact upon the world at large, from General Wolfe to Churchill both of whom changed the course of history
Westerham or Oistreham as it was originally known appears in the Domesday survey of 1086 and it was a large thriving settlement at that time, however it was not until the 1500’s that ‘real’ money came pouring into the town as a result of the iron industry. Looking at the surrounding countryside you would be forgiven for not realising that all the ingredients needed for the production of iron were sourced locally, the effluence of heavy industry are certainly not apparent!. The towns wealth ebbed and flowed but the tide finally ran out in the eighteenth century when the iron industry relocated to the midlands. Perhaps it was for the best as we now have a very attractive town that hasn’t suffered as a result of the industrial revolution.
Westerham because of its long history contains an eclectic mix of architectural styles from almost every period from the fourteenth century onwards. Together with the village green and majestic church these historic buildings give Westerham a timeless nature and when combined with the two statues of famous heroes they stand together as a monument to a glorious past. As with today’s newcomers, Sir Winston Churchill fell in love with the area and bought Chartwell because of its breathtaking location and it was to remain his home offering sanctuary during the bleak war years until his death
Westerham is surprisingly deceptive; outwardly it has all of the charm and quaintness of a Kentish village but is in reality a small town which has become a bustling centre of commerce for the surrounding villages. To a casual visitor Westerham might give the impression that it is trapped within a time warp and this along with an unusual number of listed buildings – seventy eight in total, has become an enticement for the many visitors, keen to experience something that can be found but rarely! Westerham still however manages to provide for modern day living whilst managing to preserve the heritage that for many of us makes the rural idyll.
Westerham has been settled for many centuries, it was a busy village in Tudor times, and it still is, attracting visitors from all over the UK and the world. Houses, shops and other businesses are comfortably mingled making a delightful environment for the wandering pedestrian. The high street is thriving with shops aimed at locals and tourists alike and if you can manage to tear yourself away from a retail fix, a cursory glance at the restaurants and tea shops is enough to entice even the most hardened shopaholic. It seems fitting that a village as unique as Westerham doesn’t suffer from a bland identikit high street. It is these little retailers that help make Westerham so special and remind us how good shopping can be and not a chore to be avoided at all costs. These little shops should be viewed as part of our heritage; after all didn’t Napoleon call us a “nation of shopkeepers”?
Many of the shops along the high street are managed by people with a passion for what they sell helping to create a far better shopping experience. Customer service is paramount to these small retailers and many of them are able to provide their customers with a provenance for the goods that they sell. People increasingly want to know where their goods come from and that they are not costing the earth or someone else where! Westerham is bucking the trend whereby family owned or individual shops have closed due to the competition with supermarkets and large scale chain stores, it has a thriving high street offering quality goods that the supermarkets could not possibly compete with! The shops invariably have their goods beautifully displayed and in many cases it can be a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach!
Chain stores and supermarkets are good for run of the mill mundane items but real satisfaction comes from buying a quality product so if you are looking for something a bit more interesting or a gift for someone special there are plenty of shops in Westerham supplying artisan goods made by specialist producers and it’s always good to meet a fellow enthusiast behind the counter on hand to offer advice or simply share a story or two as it used to be when shopping was less hurried and life wasn’t quite as stressed!
Westerham is also home to a thriving farmers market where it is possible to find seasonal delicacies that cannot be found elsewhere. This little market is a bridge between the rural population who still earn their living from the land and the many newcomers to the village who commute on a regular basis into the capital.
The boutiques, delicatessens and farmers market all help to stimulate local economic development by increasing employment and by encouraging consumers to support local business, thus keeping money within the local community. Westerham and its residents realised long ago that a community is much more than bricks and mortar it is little wonder that Westerham is so popular it is just sad that we cannot all have a piece of this particular pie!
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Westerham is very deceptive it has managed to retain the character and feel of a village and yet in reality is a town.
Situated in a valley between the North Downs, you would be forgiven for thinking that the town has managed to remain hidden from the development excesses of the previous few decades because of the natural features that seem to act as a form of protection; some would say defence from the modern world. Westerham lies seemingly undisturbed, surrounded by woodland and meadows intersected by the gently meandering river Darent. The beautiful countryside that surrounds Westerham as you would expect is a Designated Area of Natural Beauty; but Westerham itself is not a museum piece solely for the enjoyment of the many visitors that appreciate such an idyllic place. Westerham is a bustling small town that has much to offer its residents and visitors alike, there are shops, pubs and restaurants that are popular with both. It provides for modern day living and yet has managed to preserve the heritage that for many of us make up the rural idyll.
There is much that can be said about the buildings in Westerham and they are very fortunate to have so many that are 18th century and much older. These buildings stand as a monument to the history of Westerham encompassing times of plenty as well as those of poverty that might well have threatened the village’s very survival.
Building fashions may have changed over the centuries and some of the buildings are in reality far older than they would outwardly appear. There are many timber framed properties that have been hidden behind brick cladding and the only means of discovering their antiquity is to venture inside and hope modern improvements have not damaged some ancient gems! There are so many listed buildings that it is easy to overlook some of the less historically significant buildings that still provide Westerham with a wealth of character.
Just with a cursory glance any visitor can see that Westerham is a place of antiquity but just how old is it? There is a 1000 years of documented history about Westerham but even before quill was put to parchment and Romans stepped out of their galleys in Sandwich Bay there was very likely an ancient settlement here. In fact Celtic coins were found quite recently here.
The settlement evolved in a clearing in dense woodland by the side of a river. It may well have been a substantial settlement but at some tie during its development there was a rapid decline in numbers as it is recorded in the Domesday Book as having only 59 souls. It may have suffered some losses after the departure of the Romans as Kent was a fairly peaceful province for the Romans to administer. The likely culprits are the Jutes who arrived on these shores towards the tail end of Roman occupation.
For such a small quiet peaceful place Westerham has certainly had more than its share of heroes, there are two commemorated on Heroes Green when there should really be three. His impact on our lives is arguably far greater; every time you open a Bible it is written in English and not Latin. We tend to credit William Tyndale and Martin Luther with this, but John Frith collaborated with Tyndale in the translation of the New Testament.
John Frith and others believed passionately that people should be able to read their own Bibles but the church of the day believed it was heresy and it enabled the Church to manipulate things to their own advantage. John Frith also challenged the churches views on purgatory which was treading on even more dangerous ground. The fear of purgatory enabled the church to instil fear into its parishioners and enabled it to amass great wealth.
John Frith’s views eventually allowed the Church of England to shed the yoke of Rome and he left his successors a legacy which we still benefit from today. So long as the biblical doctrine of salvation is known and believed, the name of John Frith should also be remembered.
John Frith was the son of an innkeeper Richard Frith whose public house was known as the White Horse Inn which is now a private house called Church Gate. He was born in either 1503 or 1506 and was extremely bright, so much so that he was sent to Sevenoaks Grammar School and then went on to attend Eaton and Cambridge.
It is easy to see where his views were formulated; grammar schools at the time were founded by wealthy merchants, civic dignitaries or municipal guilds and their intention was to provide a good education but unlike universities and religious schools where pupils learnt Latin, the pupils were taught in English. He was eventually imprisoned because of his religious views and ultimately tried by Thomas Cranmer who gave him every opportunity to moderate his views, to recant and even to escape which he refused. He was found guilty of heresy and was sentenced to death. He was burnt at the stake at Smithfield a regular place of execution for religious martyrs. Unfortunately the wind blew the flames away from Frith so he spent two hours in agony till he eventually expired. Cranmer at the time of Frith’s trial was a convinced Catholic and yet within thirteen years of the death of John Frith eventually embraced his views.
John Frith along with General Wolfe and Churchill have all called this idyllic spot in the Kent countryside home. As the old saying goes “From little acorns mighty oaks do grow” what could be more apt for a small town!
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Aesthetically pleasant with historic buildings a plenty, Westerham still manages to provide for modern day living and yet has managed to preserve the heritage that for many of us make up the rural idyll. Thanks to the M25 much of the traffic that often blights small towns and villages across the country has been diverted and peace reigns once again.
Having it all is something that many people scorn because they believe that it is impossible to achieve and yet some of the new inhabitants of this thriving market town are now living their dreams without having to forgo a lifestyle that primarily revolves around work in the city of London. Today’s commuters still have their “city fix” and return home each evening to the pastoral ideal; scenery that has changed little over the centuries, fresh air and a real sense of tradition and community that one would expect from living in the country.
It hasn’t been a one sided deal, Westerham has over the centuries moved full circle aided and abetted by influxes of people searching for work or a different lifestyle. This small market town has managed to absorb the newcomers and preserve its history and the atmosphere which is no mean fete when you look at the problems that proximity to the M25 and London can create.
The high street is thriving with shops and restaurants aimed at locals and tourists alike and if you can manage to tear yourself away from a retail fix a cursory glance would reveal an abundance of Medieval and Georgian buildings. These historic buildings should give us many clues to the town’s distant heritage but it is indeed far older than it would outwardly appear. Even before the Romans arrived on our shores the area around Westerham was inhabited and it is very likely that an ancient settlement was already here, after all ancient and modern man needed water, fuel and a ready food supply. What we deem stunning views now would have been considered a strategic place for defence, ideal in fact for a settlement.
Westerham or Oistreham as it was originally known appears in the Domesday survey of 1086. It was a large thriving settlement at the time, however it was not until the 1500’s that ‘real’ money came pouring into the town as a result of the iron industry. Looking at the surrounding countryside you would be forgiven for not realising that all the ingredients needed for the production of iron were sourced locally, the effluence of heavy industry are certainly not apparent!. The towns wealth ebbed and flowed but the tide finally ran out in the eighteenth century when the iron industry relocated to the midlands. Perhaps it was for the best as we now have a very attractive town that hasn’t suffered as a result of the industrial revolution.
By the mid eighteenth century Westerham was on the rise again as a result of the steam revolution this time! The town was ideally placed as a crossing point for the north/south and east/west railway lines resulting in the first influx of commuters and a growing market in the city for fresh farm produce from the “Garden of England”
Trade was not with London alone, the green has been an important place for trade for as long as there was a settlement here. Hard to imagine that it was a hub for enterprise sitting on the green relaxing, watching the world go by! Just as it was a meeting place it is only right that we should sit alongside two of the town’s most famous old boys – Sir Winston Churchill and General James Wolfe. The later was born in Westerham in 1726 in the vicarage which was renamed Quebec House. James joined the army when he was only fourteen years old and he went on to become a British war hero and the reason that the Queen was able to call herself the Queen of Canada thanks to his fantastic victory at Quebec. The original action man, he shares the stage with Lord Nelson both of whom were mortally wounded whilst on the verge of great victories against the French. General Wolfe was only 32 when he died but he had already obtained cult status from a very adoring British public. Perhaps his statue should join Admiral Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square or should we rename it Quebec Square as his daring feats were performed a quarter of a century before Nelson!
As with other newcomers to Westerham Sir Winston Churchill fell in love with the area and bought Chartwell because of its breathtaking views over the Weald of Kent to Sussex. It was his home and his inspiration from 1924, through the bleak war years until his death.
For such a quiet peaceful place Westerham has certainly had more than its share of heroes, I have named two, in fact there is a quartet, and the third is one on every school child’s lips – King Harold who lost the kingdom to the Normans in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. This area was held by the Saxon Earl Godwin who was the father of Harold and by all accounts a thorn in Edward the Confessors side! Just imagine what would have happened to Westerham if Harold had remained King for any length of time. The fourth was a martyr; he died for his faith in 1533. He was John Frith known as a scholar for he attended Sevenoaks Grammar School, Eaton, Oxford and Cambridge. Quite an achievement for the son of a landlord at the Grasshopper Inn that we think of as ancient now but was already centuries old then!
Its famous son's include John Frith the Protestant martyr who was burnt at the stake in 1533. It is believed that Frith was the son of former Landlord of the Grasshopper Inn, which even in that era was already several centuries old.
copyright© Wendy Stevenson 2011
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