Graveyard Memorial Inscriptions

Welcome to the Elham Historical Society database website. Feel free to browse and uncover the history of Elham. Our dedicated team of historians has recently finished recording the details on all the memorials in the graveyard. Our chairman Derek Boughton has overseen the operation, correlating the data and checking for errors. The results of their labours can be seen on the burials page.

Elham beat off stiff competition for the title of Kent Village of the year 2011 organised by Action with Communities in Rural Kent.

Censuses for outlying communities in the parish will be rolled out gradually. Check out the stats page for interesting facts and

trivia about the village. We still need your help so please send us any information relating to Elham that may be of interest.

Les Ames hits out

Elham resident Les Ames in action for England against the West Indies in 1939. He was one of the finer wicketkeeper - batsmen and played for Kent CCC.

Abbot's Fireside c 1450

The Abbot's Fireside is one of the older buildings in the village and probably dates back to the mid fifteenth century.

Audrey attends school

Audrey Hepburn (neé Rushton) lived in Orchard Cottage (Five Bells) for five years in her childhood (1935-1940) and attended the local village schools. She took ballet lessons and dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina. I wonder what became of her?

George V Playing Field

Dave Lee opens Elham's brand new playground with a sensory garden and a pretty flower meadow created by the Play for Elham charity. 21st November 2010

Swing Riots of 1830

The machine breaking that led to the riots of August 1830 onwards started in the Elham Parish, writes our historian Derek Boughton, who has made a lifetime's study of the subject.

Elham residents were prominent in the gangs that sought out the new fangled threshing machines and destroyed them. Some of them cost the not inconsiderable sum for the day of £100. Full Story

A KHAKI WEDDING 1902

The first wedding solemnised in Ashford parish church this year was that between Corporal Edward Nicholas Wakefield, Royal Engineers, third son of the late Mr. Edmond Wakefield, blacksmith, Elham, and Miss Maggie Rate Mortimer, daughter of Mr. W. Mortimer, of Ashford, and late of the Royal Engineers. The marriage was performed by the Rev. E. W. Winstanley." The bride was attired in khaki, and the bridegroom in scarlet, while the bride's sister wore a scarlet costume, and the best man, the brother of the bridegroom, in the khaki uniform of the Imperial Yeomanry. Corporal Wakefield has lately returned from South Africa, where he went through the Natal campaign with General Buller: Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 11 January 1902

Frederick Castle dies 1997

Born in Elham, Frederick became a schoolmaster in Bath Somerset and played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club in the school holidays for the four summers immediately after the Second World War. He also played football for Crystal Palace F.C. Cricinfo

FOUR £10 FINES TITHE RAID CASE 1934

Eighteen men who were committed by a special sitting of the Wingham Petty Sessions at Dover, in connection with the "tithe raid" on West Court Farm, Shepherds well, were indicted at the Kent- Assizes at Maidstone, yesterday, on a charge of riotous assembly. The men were:—David Gill, OxRoad Farm, Elham; William S. Wood, sen., Beverage Bottom, Elham: Henry Gammadge, Robin Hood Cottage, Elham; James Higgins, John William Crow and John Terry, all of Exted Farm, Elham; Thomas A. Rawe, Bladbean Farm, Elham; John Woodland, Exted Farm. Elham; Ernest A. Law, Oast House Cottages,Elham; Robert Potts and Alfred S. Potts,- Wesley Cottages, Lyminge : Leslie Wren, Longage Cottage, Rhodes Minnis: Roland Cullen. Mount Farm, Elham; Frank Castle, Mount's Court Cottages. Acrise; John Hutchinson, Station Road, Lyminge: William S. Wood, jun., Elham; Alfred J. Ross, Out Elmsted, Barham; and Frederick Solley, Great Mongeham. Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, prosecuting, said that the riot took place late on the night of September 3rd, when the men assembled at the farm, apparently as some sort of protest against the tithe laws. Some days previously a number of ducks had been taken from a farm at Westwell, the property of Mr. Kedward, and removed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' farm at 1West Court, Shepherdswell. These men and others Went to West Court Farm and recovered the ducks. All pleaded guilty with the exception of Frederick Solly, aged 48, against whom the prosecution offered no evidence. He was formally acquitted and discharged. Of the others, John Terry, aged 52, William Stephen Wood, sen., aged 48, Alfred John Ross, aged 32, and David Gill, aged 30, all farmers, were each fined £10, The remainder were bound over for two years. Addressing Terry, Wood, sen., Gill and Ross, the judge said it was a very wrong adventure, and, but for their assurance not to repeat such conduct, he would have sent them to prison. Dover Express - Friday 23 November 1934

EHS Database

Swing Riots of 1830 recounted by Derek Boughton our local expert historian.

Les Ames for England v West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica 1930 or 1935. WK Ivan Barrow watches on.

Audrey Hepburn attended private schools in the village and dreamed of being a ballerina. I wonder what became of her?

What's in the database? Find the latest additions here.

1997 Frederick Castle dies

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Les Ames (1905 - 1990)

Former Elham resident Leslie Ethelbert George Ames CBE; who died suddenly at his home in Canterbury on February 26 1990 - aged 84 - was without a doubt the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman the game has so far produced; and yet - at the time he was playing - it used to be said there were better wicketkeepers than Ames - and that he was in the England team because of his batting. If this was so would Jardine - for example - have preferred him to Duckworth in Australia in 1932-33?

Surely not. When fully fit - Ames was England's first-choice wicketkeeper from 1931 to 1939 - when he virtually gave up the job. For Kent - he was an integral part of their Championship side from 1927 to the first match of 1951 - when a sharp recurrence of back trouble - which had dogged him for so long - brought his career to an end while he was actually at the crease. By this time he had amassed 37248 runs - average 43.51 - made 102 hundreds - including nine double-hundreds - and passed 1000 runs in a season seventeen times - going on to 3000 once and 2000 on five occasions. He had had a direct interest in 1121 dismissals - of which more than 1000 were effected when he was keeping wicket. His total of 418 stumpings is easily a record.

In Test cricket - Ames played 47 matches - scoring 2434 runs with a batting average of 40.56 - and taking 74 catches - and 23 stumpings. Record 8th wicket partnership in all tests of 246 with GO Allen :Made 123 in the pre-lunch session of the 1923 test against South Africa (a record for runs in a session): Scored centuries against every first-class county apart from Kent. Unusually for a wicket-keeper - he also bowled over 200 overs - taking 24 first-class wickets with a bowling average of 33.37.

Ames was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1929. He was a pupil at the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone and he also played five times for Gillingham FC.

EHS Database

Swing Riots of 1830 recounted by Derek Boughton our local expert historian.

Les Ames for England v West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica 1930 or 1935. WK Ivan Barrow watches on.

Audrey Hepburn attended private schools in the village and dreamed of being a ballerina. I wonder what became of her?

What's in the database? Find the latest additions here.

1997 Frederick Castle dies

EHS Database

Swing Riots

Les Ames (1905 - 1990)

Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)

She came to village with her mother Dutch Baroness Ella van Heemstra. She lived at Orchard Cottage (now the Five Bells) and attended the private schools in the village square.

Stats

1997 Frederick Castle dies

Born in Elham, Frederick became a schoolmaster in Bath Somerset and played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club in the school holidays for the four summers immediately after the Second World War. He also played football for Crystal Palace F.C.