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From the chair
Possibly the worst-kept secret in Faversham is that Roy Pleasance, the owner of Arden’s House in Abbey Street, who died in 1997, bequeathed the property to the Faversham Society providing his widow, Norma, with a life-long interest. Last year, with Norma having moved to be near her son in Cornwall, the family asked us to take over ownership of the property.
It is both a huge honour and a significant responsibility.
The property is a private dwelling occupied by lovely people who look after it well. This is a blessing because we need to plan the future of the house carefully, considering how it can most benefit the town which Roy loved and, as a founder of the Faversham Society, did so much to protect.
You may remember Peter Quince’s description of a visit to the house, which dominates the entry to Abbey Place, in Newsletter No 718 (April 2024).
The beautiful structure is, of course, most widely known for its connection to the former mayor, Thomas Arden, who bought it in 1540, at a time when he worked for the government office responsible for the sale of monastic property. Until 1538, when the abbey was dissolved, the house had been part of its estate.
Arden was murdered in the house after 11 years, and his wife was among those executed for the crime. Alice was burnt at the stake in Canterbury, having been convicted of commissioning the crime. The scandal inspired the play, Arden of Faversham, which was first published in 1592 and is still performed to this day. Questions remain about its authorship but there are credible claims for it being William Shakespeare’s first play.
This is enough to make the house the single most enthralling property in our town. The abbey … a mayor … a murder … a play …
Now we have to consider carefully how to exact our duty of care to the house, so that it passes to the next generation without detriment, having revealed history to us.
Our first task is to ensure nothing of the house is lost from deterioration. So, we must carry out necessary repairs and maintenance and also, with a view to restoration, we must learn exactly which parts of the house date back to when. Jonathan Carey is already corralling the necessary experts into a team that can undertake this work and he has agreed to provide regular reports to the newsletter.
And, of course we will need to consider how, in future, the house might be used to best benefit the town. The 2026 AGM will be an opportunity for society members to share views and opinions, bearing in mind that we will be playing a long game considering the tedious realities of costs, risks and sustainability of different ideas.
Meanwhile, imaginations are already sparking ideas for small events. In the past, Arden House’s garden has been used as a venue for performing the play – maybe we can once again evoke the spirits of Thomas and Alice Arden in the garden where they lived. I believe plans are afoot.
Our support for the Old Grammar School Charity trustees’ opposition to adopting Queen Matilda’s Place as a formal name for part of what many locals considered to be part of the Shooting Meadows Path, pleased some of you – and annoyed others.
It provoked detailed debates about where the original path began and finished, concerns about whether the society should oppose decisions made by elected officials, and some objections to my tone in alleging “historical vandalism”.
However, as in all local disputes, the best result is a coming together of opposing parties. And this is what has happened in the battle of the Shooting Meadow Path. On 28 November, Faversham town councillors voted unanimously to ask Swale Council not to name the footpath – effectively abandoning the renaming scheme.
This leaves the status quo ante. No name will be formalised by public signage, and the official postal address of the Old Grammar School remains “The Shooting Meadow”. As I said when contacted by one of the local free magazines: “We are delighted with the result. The council made the right decision for the town [and] It’s wonderful when a council listens to its electorate and acts on what it hears.”
What I also think is rather wonderful is that Nicola Jacobs, a young-sounding journalist for the Faversham Community Ad Magazine, wrote a piece that revealed a subtle but very important understanding of why we felt the issue was “core business”.
She wrote of the town council decision: “The decision recognises that history isn’t just about dates, facts and figures; it’s about the lived memory of generations. The informal but enduring ‘Shooting Meadows’ name reflects communal memory, rural life and local identity forged over centuries. While the renaming campaign sought to bring formal recognition to a medieval queen’s legacy, the rejection underlines that heritage is as intangible as it is documented.”
If only the journalists in our national media were so thoughtful!
Vikings on the rampage
Almost 100 people splashed down to the Assembly Rooms in dreadful weather for the talk about Vikings in Kent, by Andy Ward, curator at Kent Archaeological Society.
The word Viking means “to pirate” and they came from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, in two main waves between the sixth and 11th centuries. We learnt that despite written evidence, some of it contradictory regarding dates, there is not much physical evidence of Vikings left in the county.
Kent, flush with ecclesiastical treasures and not far from northern Europe made a lucrative resource for the Northmen.
In 845 and 846 they overwintered for the first time on Sheppey, avoiding the journey back to Scandinavia and allowing them to be ready to raid along the Thames towards London and around the coasts in the spring. We can only imagine the terror of local people when they were spotted and then plundered towns and villages. But it wasn’t all pillage: they liked the county’s fertile soil too. Many were farmers and settled here with their families.
On misty mornings, it’s easy to imagine the longships sheltering in the Swale, but they were definitely not wearing horned helmets – a myth that seems to have started with the 19th-century designer of a Wagner opera.
There’s plenty to satirise here. If not, we can always make it up
Andy Capon and his spoof news bill boards in Faversham market and a couple of Spire headlines including a University of West Ospringe announcement .
This is the first in what we hope will be a regular series about the people who are making their mark on Faversham. First comes Andy Capon and the often-bonkers world of The Spire
It’s been called anarchic, puerile and childish, but also compared to Private Eye and the Viz comic. And it’s become something of a household name in the six years since it was launched.
The Spire has become Faversham’s go-to magazine for “The truth, the half-truth and anything but the truth” about goings-on in the town. Such is its success that owner and editor Andy Capon has appeared twice at Faversham Literary Festival and, to date, the business has 15 books under its belt, with another due out in spring.
But it began under the unlikeliest of circumstances, as Andy explains. “I was working as a recycler at a food firm in Sittingbourne – very boring stuff, but it got me back on my feet again after a prolonged depression. I’d been working there for a year when I was diagnosed with cancer. My boss was very sympathetic and told me to go home, rest and have the operation, after which my job would still be waiting for me.
“I had a tumour removed in March, 2019 and just as I thought I was fit enough to return to work, the cancer returned. I spent the best part of 2019 off of work, by which time I was climbing the walls with boredom. I began to write a daft and surreal blog about life in Faversham called The Spire. It was pure nonsense and designed to make locals laugh.”
Andy distributed the blog online via Blogspot, Facebook and Instagram and it quickly got a following. “It seemed to land at the right time. Such was the support that I decided to release what I thought would be our only book, just for a laugh.
“To my amazement and amusement, it sold well, so I decided to take a chance, to quit my job and devote my time to running The Spire as a business.”
As the online followers grew, Andy decided to produce a print version, which saw the release of the Winter Collection in December, 2019.
So, what is The Spire? Andy explains that it pokes fun at all local political parties and the establishment. It also satirises stories that appear on local social media. But he’s quick to point out that it’s affectionate, rather than brutal.
“It’s sometimes close to the bone, but never nasty. It wasn’t received well by some local politicians initially, but they soon got the joke and came on board. There isn’t a political agenda – although it’s safe to say it’s left of centre – and if there is a central message to The Spire, it’s that we owe it to ourselves not to take ourselves too seriously, especially now.”
Andy has been joined by other writers, which he says has improved The Spire’s content. “It’s easy to become complacent, even lazy, when you do something on a daily basis, but when other writers started sending contributions, it made me up my game a bit. They were a breath of fresh air and took The Spire to what it should be about. Anyone can send something in and if it’s any good, we’ll use it.”
A new book is close to completion and work will begin straight away on the next. “That’s how it works. It’s like a production line, but it never gets boring. It’s a hard thing to sell, but we’re still having a lot of fun doing it.”
The Spire has about 4,000 followers and survives on subscriptions and monthly donations by a handful of faithful supporters. He says: “We’re constantly trying to build on this, but convincing people to pay for entertainment which is available free is always an uphill struggle.
So what of the future? Andy ponders and says: “I’m often told that The Spire could go national like, say, The Poke or The Onion, but I’m not interested in expansion when the audience is right on my doorstep. The Spire is Faversham-centric and many of the jokes wouldn’t land as well in Shropshire or Dorset as they do here. Someone once described it as ‘a love letter to Faversham – with knobs on’. I like that. It’s by locals, for locals and that’s good enough for me.”
Although Andy says he doesn’t have a favourite story, he loves that some of the references in The Spire have become continued threads, including Sergeant Stan Murch, the University of West Ospringe, the Bear Inn Corridor saga, the Lakeside Principality, Bob Geldof (who’s a fan, by the way) and Overheard in Macknade.
Finally, we ask Andy if there are any taboos in Spire content. He replies: “I tend to avoid stories about sex and drugs. I don’t feel comfortable writing about either. There’s plenty of other subjects to satirise, especially these days, and if there isn’t, we simply make something up and hope that it flies. It usually does …”
The Spire annuals are available to buy on Andy’s stall in Faversham market every weekend.
Gift aid booster
If you are a UK taxpayer, you can make your membership subscription work harder at no extra cost. HM Revenue & Customs will give us an extra 25 per cent from your payment.
So, for a couple over 60, paying £20, we get an extra £5. In a world where you don’t get much for nothing, all the extra fivers add up for us.
As long as you pay enough tax to cover this amount (so in the example above, you pay £5 tax) then all you need to do is contact us on the address below or pick up a gift aid form from the Visitor Information Centre. There is nothing extra for you to do – we do it all for you.
Alternatively, if your tax status has changed, please remember to let us know so that we can update our records.
If you’re not sure if you have told us we can claim gift aid on your behalf, please just email us and we can check for you.
Ghosts and legends
Don’t forget to book in good time for our next talk, on 12 February, when Dr Geoff Doel will be telling us all about the legends and ghosts of Kent.
You can book online on the website link below or at the Visitor Information Centre. Talks are free for members.
Millennium Faversham
As we enter the second quarter of 21st century, do you remember what Faversham was like in 2000?
I was looking for items about Faversham on YouTube recently when I came across a film created by Faversham Society to commemorate the millennium entitled Faversham in the Year 2000 and its surrounding villages. This gives a snapshot of the town and its activities in that year. It lasts for 28 minutes and I found it fascinating and it brought back many memories.
Why not have a look?
Faversham’s treasures … and where to see them
So what happened to Faversham’s lost treasure after 1870? If you remember, we left it bequeathed by William Gibbs to the South Kensington Museum. The museum had been founded in 1852 in the aftermath of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park the previous year. It was subsequently renamed the Victoria & Albert Museum following Queen Victoria’s last public appearance there. The V&A kept the Gibbs collection until 1895, when the 500-plus items went on loan to the British Museum.
The transfer of our items made sense because by this time the British Museum was interested and keen to develop a collection of “British antiquities”. To that end, they had appointed Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-97), a great antiquarian and collector. He was later to say his department had started off with 154ft of wall cases and three or four table cases. Forty-five years later when he retired as museum administrator – he had been knighted in the meantime – the collection now occupied 2,250ft of wall cases, 90 table cases and 31 upright cases, as well as numerous other objects placed over the cases or on walls.
Wollaston Franks blamed his obsession with collecting on his genes, and said: “Collecting is a hereditary disease, and I fear uncurable.” Happily, this ailment was accompanied by a substantial fortune enabling him to amass antiquities and donate many to the museum.
This was long before the fantastic discovery at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial, which has been described as one of the most spectacular and important discoveries in British archaeology. In about 625 the ship had been hauled inland and buried in a large trench, and then lay undisturbed until the 1930s. It had contained the body of a king or great warrior, and was surrounded by treasure that is now on display in the British Museum.
The Sutton Hoo collection has been in the news recently: in September, it is being lent to museums in France together with other treasures such as the Isle of Lewis chessmen. In return, the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the Battle of Hastings, will be on display in the British Museum.
The reason for referring to this at all is because of the exciting news that the British Museum now has on display 25 treasures from the Kings Field site in Faversham – a testament as to their importance.
The museum has, with the Gibbs collection and related objects, 767 items from the Kings Field cemetery. They arrived in batches between 1870 and 1962.
If you then add to that figure the large collection in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (of which more later), we are getting to about 900 items – not including any others we do not know about at the moment!
The British Museum collection has now been digitised, so you can see all of our 767 objects on your computer at home if you wish. From the museum website, search for collection online. When asked for a keyword, type “William Gibbs and related objects”. Make sure you use its spelling, “King’s Field”, to look at the related objects.
If you decide to go up to London to see the displays for yourself, it would be worth a further click to check on the 25 items on display so you will know what you are looking for. This has the advantage – for the next few months anyway – in that you can see the Sutton Hoo hoard too.
You will find that our items are not all in one place, because the dates are different, and sometimes they are illustrating different themes. For example, there is a bone pin beater (women’s work), and a gaming set made of horses’ teeth (leisure activities), both bequeathed by William Gibbs.
If you do not have access to a computer, and want to see the items, there are room stewards who can help and exhibit labels on items will assist.
There are items on different floors. The Enlightenment Gallery, Room 1, on the ground floor, looks old-fashioned. It has actually been designed very carefully to reflect what it would have been like to visit the museum in the Age of Enlightenment between 1680 and 1820, to show how the pursuit of knowledge was reshaping people’s understanding of the world.
In Room 1 you should look for a silver finger ring; a metal chain with a glass bead and green train; a gold bracteate pendant; 13 amethyst beads; a gilt copper alloy buckle with a triangular plate; a silver gilt disc brooch with three garnets; ditto with four garnets; ditto with six garnets; a pottery jar of black burnished ware; and a green glass palm cup. All the these were bequeathed by Gibbs.
In Room 1 also, from the related objects collection, Augustus Wollaston Franks donated glass beads in two strings in 1884; and 44 beads were donated by S. M. Richards in 1962.
In Room 50 on the third floor, look for an Iron Age silver bow brooch, typically worn as a pair and joined by a chain, made between 100 BC and 50 BC, bequeathed by Gibbs.
In Room 49, also on the third floor, you should look for a Romano-British beaker, a bottle and a bowl, bequeathed by Gibbs, plus a copper alloy dragonesque brooch, made in the first or second century. A Romano-British green glass bottle is on display from Kings Field bought at auction by the museum in 1922 from the collection of Sir John Evans (1823-1908).
In Room 41, which houses the Sutton Hoo treasures, look for the bone pin beater and gaming pieces previously mentioned. Also, a Coptic bowl containing hazelnuts; a miniature buckle, one of a pair; a silver garnet disc brooch with three garnets; a disc pendant; a silver buckle with an oval loop; and a Celtic hanging bowl with escutcheon (a shield) showing a Latin cross flanked by two dolphins. All of these were bequeathed by Gibbs.
Another hanging bowl with escutcheon from Kings Field is also on display. It was sold to the British Museum by the Rev John Pollexfen (1813-99), a Scottish antiquarian and coin collector, for £200 in 1870.
The British Museum is not the only place where you can go to see a collection of our treasures. If you are ever in Oxford and have the time, do visit the Ashmolean Museum, which opened in 1683 and is the oldest public museum of art, archaeology and natural history in Britain. It has more than 145 objects (some made of many parts) from Kings Field.
In Gallery 41 on Level 2 at the Ashmolean you can see two buckles; two lots of strung beads; an amethyst bead; an annular brooch; four pendants; a jewelled disc brooch; a palm cup; a vase and a glass jar.
In Gallery 17 on Level G, there is a late Bronze Age bracelet. These had all been acquired by Sir John Evans. He bought the Anglo-Saxon material from our Faversham cemetery from James Morris, a private collector. Care was taken to record the provenances. Sir John bequeathed his collections to his son, Sir Arthur Evans, who eventually became keeper of the Ashmolean. He presented them to the museum in different lots – in 1909, those in Gallery 41, and the bracelet in Gallery 17 in 1927.
A gold pendant and a glass vase from Kings Field were bought by the museum at auction in 1942, and are also in Gallery 41 on Level 2. They came from the collection of Lord Grantley. There is also on display a copper alloy enamel brooch bequeathed to the museum in 1992 by a Richard Hattatt, also in Gallery 41 on Level 2.
The Ashmolean collection has also been digitised. Go to the Ashmolean website, search for collections online and search for Faversham. To see what is on display scroll down on the left-hand side looking for on display only.
In conclusion, the British Museum is heavily engaged in the logistics of the Bayeux Tapestry’s arrival at the moment and has indicated that its staff are extremely busy for the foreseeable future. Eventually, I hope, they will be willing to lend us some of our treasure to display.
It would also be extremely helpful if the archaeologists could find – please pardon the expression – “concrete” evidence of Anglo-Saxon workshops here to convince Liverpool’s World Museum that the Kingston brooch was made here.
Many thanks to Yvonne for coming with me and making sure we found the British Museum and what we were looking for – and all the information about William Gibbs. Thanks also to Graham for his IT help
Visit to Hythe, Dungeness and trip on the ‘little train’ with fish and chip lunch, WEDNESDAY, 8 APRIL, £75
We leave Faversham by minibus (pick up from a central location in Faversham) and drive to Hythe, where we will have time for a look around the shops and perhaps have a coffee. We then board the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch ‘little train’ to Dungeness, the trip taking just over an hour. At Dungeness we will have a fish and chip lunch (or similar, included in price) in the End of the Line Café, followed by free time to visit the beach, the nearby lighthouse or pub. Arriving back in Faversham by 6pm.
Chatham Dockyard, THURSDAY, 26 MARCH, £75
Travel by minibus from Faversham (pick up from home or a central location), leaving at 10am and returning to Faversham at 4pm. While at the dockyard there are several exhibitions to visit including the RNLI exhibition, Women in the Dockyard, Ocean Photographer of the Year Exhibition, the Ropery and the submarine HMS Ocelot.
About us
Awaydays organises group holidays & day trips from Faversham. We take only small groups (eight people maximum) to various locations in Europe. Many who come on our trips are solo travellers. Each trip is accompanied by an Awaydays representative and the holidays include transport from Faversham. We also run day trips to gardens, tourist attractions, stately homes, wildlife tours and boat trips taking a small minibus from Faversham. Visit our website or scan the QR code to find out more information and see detailed information.
