A printable PDF version of this newsletter can be downloaded from HERE

The front of the Fleur de Lis bookshop and museum are getting a long overdue freshen-up. Once the scaffolding comes down, you’ll be able to see a smart new front and signage, so keep your eyes peeled.

From the chair

ANN FUREDI

Many thanks for everyone who turned out to attend the AGM. There were nearly a hundred of us at the Assembly Rooms, voting to receive the annual report and accounts, to say goodbye to some retiring board members and elect some new ones.

I am delighted to report that Leigh Allison was unopposed and elected as the new vice-chair. You’ll know her already as the membership secretary and good-humoured, energetic co-ordinator of events.

Of our new electees, Aygen Kurt-Dickson had already been co-opted to take on responsibility for planning – and has managed to achieve more in the last month than we did in the last year! Heather Knight brings a huge amount of experience with historical projects which will be of massive benefit to the museum and the coming work with Arden’s House. Neil Tonge is already known to many of you (and your children) as an author and broadcaster but also brings with him a connection to those living at the Lakes.

We say fond goodbyes to Brian Kelsey and Jackie Davidson. Brian has retired as treasurer, after many years of safely stewarding the society’s finances, placing the responsibility on to the shoulders of Andrew Holden. Jackie continues to volunteer in the Fleur bookshop and in the Visitor Information Centre.

I feel humbled to have been re-elected as chair after a year that some might describe as being a bumpy. As I said at the meeting, I sense that on some occasions some members feel I have said too much and some members feel I have said too little. It’s difficult to steer a broad-based organisation in which people hold conflicting views with equal strength. It’s been a year of learning! One thing I have learnt is how sensitive local politics is to local personalities. The much-discussed contest over “the shooting meadows path” has been a case in point. What started as our support for, and promotion of, a petition objecting to a name change quickly turned into another discussion entirely.

It turned on to individuals and their political allegiances, the history of previous campaigns, and whether it was “appropriate” for the Faversham Society to criticise “our elected representatives”. Simple honest motives were reinterpreted as taking party political sides.

I hope we can lay the matter to rest. I will try hard to not cause offence and, in future, will not refer to plans I think are wrong-headed as “bonkers”. But I don’t believe that we should ever let our stand be shaped by anything other than the merits of an issue. It should not matter whether an issue is championed by a Freemason or a Jehovah’s Witness, a Lib Dem or a member of Reform UK.

The Faversham Society should be clear – if we believe it is consistent with our mission and values we support if; if not, we don’t. That’s the way we stay true to our charitable objects.

This year will be full of challenges and also fun. If you want to find out more or join the 150 or so members who volunteer, drop into the visitor centre for a chat.

And, most of all, enjoy the summer.

www.favershamsociety.org/trustees

CONTACT ANN

Cooksditch revived

The Faversham Society has been able to help the volunteer team that does a fantastic job of looking after the Cooksditch stream.

This ancient waterway has been transformed so that the whole area is now home to kingfishers, ducks and even elvers (baby eels). Some nasty bugs in the water meant volunteers were no longer able to get into the stream without protective equipment, and so the society was more than happy to provide them with some rakes to enable them to carry on looking after the natural environment of our town.

Muck and bullets

NEIL TONGE

I first came across Andy Robertshaw when I was presenting a children’s activity, Faversham on the Front line 1939-45, at the Alexander Centre marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

He gladly agreed to drill the children for the Local Defence Volunteers (which later became the Home Guard) and those enthusiastic “volunteers” learnt invaluable life skills such as marching, rifle practice and grenade-throwing using some of my old socks (almost as deadly as the real thing). The day went well.

If you would like to know about what Andy can present and provide, come along to his talk at the Alexander Centre at 7.30pm on 16 October.

Finding the Fallen is an illustrated presentation based on more than 30 archaeological projects. This work became the television series of the same name and then The Trench Detectives. In addition to exposing many of the myths related to the experience of the First World War, we recovered 27 sets of human remains. The lecture explains how four of these were identified and contact made with their families after 100 years of being “unknown”.

Andrew Robertshaw has written five books about aspects of military history. He lectures for the Army, gives presentations at staff college and runs battlefield studies.

Nine more free papers

LEIGH ALLISON

Nine more Faversham Papers are now available – and won’t cost you a penny.

We’ve been working to make some more of our older Faversham Papers available to download and another nine have just been added to the collection.

It’s a varied selection that includes:

• Histories of the villages of Newnham, Painters Forstal with Ospringe, and Luddenham & Stone.
• The story of the “school in an orchard” at Davington and the pottery that operated from Boughton.
• A couple of papers describing the flowers and bird life to be found in Faversham and the surrounding area.
• Details of the infamous murder of one brother by another at Lees Court, Sheldwich, in 1655.
• The historian Edward Hasted’s description of Faversham in 1790.

These are the original papers, some from the 1970s. and have not been updated. See the link below and adjust the filter to “free” for the complete selection.

www.favershamsociety.org/store

Floral Faversham on show

POSY GENTLES

Faversham Open Gardens returns this month, with a host of private and community green spaces on public show.

Twenty-seven gardens in and around the town centre are featured, including seven new to the scheme, from 10am till 5pm on Sunday 29 June.

Entry to all sites is by a handbook costing £7 for one person, £12 for two. Children under 12 are free. Handbooks are now on sale in the Visitor Information Centre at 12 Market Place.

JANE SECKER

Join us for an exclusive Night at the Museum in the Fleur de Lis Museum from 7pm on Tuesday, 24 June.

Who knows – you may see ghosts of Faversham’s past. What is certain, however, is that you will be plied with complimentary wine and nibbles, and meet a series of entertaining pop-up speakers throughout the museum as you explore in small groups.

Tickets are £5 for Faversham Society members and £10 for non-members.

www.favershamsociety.org/live-events

Free to a good home! Can anyone make use of an upright piano? Buyer collects!  If you would like to take it off our hands, please email us.

membership@favershamsociety.org

The world of books, where our visions come to life

PETER QUINCE

A book is a world in itself and so the Fleur Bookshop contains many worlds, a universe of wisdom, joy, experience and excitement.

One of the things that delights me about working in the bookshop is to see customers come up to the desk to buy books that I have previously read and recognise. At times I cannot help remarking: “Oh, I’ve read that novel (or biography, or history, or collection of essays). “I’m sure you’ll love it.”

Such a remark often sparks enlightening conversation and reinforces the idea of the Fleur as a social hub as well as a cherished bookshop. Books act as a catalyst and bring people together in a common interest. Think of the burgeoning of book clubs. It is my belief that anyone who loves reading is unlikely to get up to mischief: I’ve never known a scoundrel to be a keen reader. Reading is the ideal way to broaden one’s horizons – and it’s much cheaper than travel.

A good novelist creates an imaginary world which is often not so remote from reality. It is sometimes said that all novels are autobiography disguised as fiction because the novelist must include features of his or her own experience into their characters, plot and themes. And fictional locations are usually based on places that exist; it is simply a matter of changing the names to “protect the innocent”. That is even more important when it comes to fictional characters based on real people, who may not wish to see their personalities distorted. For shrewd readers it is sometimes a guessing game:  Take your pick of the author’s acquaintances. Plenty of novelists have included friends and acquaintances, sometimes thinly disguised.

But, to return to bookshop customers buying volumes which to me are instantly recognisable. A young man interested in Second World War aircraft entered the bookshop and asked if we had any books on Lancaster bombers, Hurricanes and Spitfires and I found one for him that he had never seen before. He was delighted.

I mentioned how fascinated I am when I see a Second World War fighter plane fly over Faversham – with those unmistakeable profiles and the unique engine sound. The customer agreed that these aircraft left an indelible mark on the memory and he left the bookshop with the new addition to his collection tucked under his arm. Clearly a young aviation historian in the making.

A woman came in who was clearly a fan of Vincent van Gogh, as am I, in search of books on the great Dutch Impressionist. I have three biographies and a couple of lavishly illustrated art books at home but the bookshop had none. However, our art section had a glorious volume on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, which the lady flicked through. She was clearly impressed with the quality of the illustrations but no, she said, she wanted a book devoted to Vincent. “Never mind, maybe next time,” she said cheerfully, continued to browse and bought something else.

Customers often return to the bookshop hoping that the one book they’re after will have turned up as part of a new donation. Sometimes this happens and they go away satisfied, having searched high and low for months.

A couple of teenage girls came in and spent some time browsing – not in the young adult fiction section but further into the shop where we display classics, plays and poetry. One of the girls – I would guess they were both about 15 – came to the desk and asked if we had a copy of Romeo and Juliet. I found one. Then she asked if we had a copy of Macbeth. Yes, we did and she bought both. Were these two Shakespeares required reading for her exam, I asked. (I taught both these plays many times.) “Oh no,” she said. “I just like reading Shakespeare.” Wonderful! Serious reading among the young is clearly not dead, despite the detrimental effects of phones and social media.

One day I found placed before me The Darling Buds of May, one of my favourite works of light fiction. The customer said: “I’ve become interested in H. E. Bates since I’ve lived in Kent. I hear that some of the filming for the TV series was done in the middle of Faversham.” Indeed it had been, with Market Place turned into a 1950s setting featuring Pop Larkin and his family.

I told her how I once visited H. E. Bates’s house in Little Chart. He had died by then but I hoped to meet his widow, Madge. No one was at home, but I sent a letter to the house, addressed to Mrs Bates. Eventually I received a very kind reply from their son, Richard. “Sorry to be so long-winded and hold you up,” I said to the customer. “Not at all,” she replied. “That little story will add to my experience of reading The Darling Buds of May,” she replied as she left the bookshop with a smile on her face.

To return to my first point, the writer creates his or her own vision of the world and the reader interprets this vision in their own way. All the volumes we have in the bookshop contain not an agreed collective view of the world, but thousands of individual views, all of which the reader must interpret as suits their creative mind.

Shakespeare said “All the world’s a stage”, and the Fleur Bookshop contains an almost endless supply of characters, props and performances.