Detail of New Morehall Wall Mural, Stan the CatMural Artist: Phillippa Goddard

www.gofolkestone.org.uk

July 2015

Cover Photo : Detail of New Morehall Wall Mural, Stan the Cat , Mural Artist: Phillippa Goddard . Further details and official mural explanation see article in this magazine .

NOTICE OF GO FOLKESTONE 13TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 11TH NOVEMBER AT WARDS HOTEL , EARLS AVENUE . TIME TO BE CONFIRMED IN NOVEMBER MAGAZINE .

Remember : You are a member if you pay your subscriptions and receive the magazine even if you have never come to a meeting at Wards . Please advise immediately if you are not receiving your magazine in the post or by email ; EMAIL richardwallace.mrics@hotmail.com ; write to Membership Secretary , Flat 4, 21 Augusta Gardens , Folkestone . We like to equalise all memberships to around August / September , so if you feel you joined during the year and wish to pay a part year please explain and we should be able to confirm .

Agenda : We will be testing support and receiving ideas for new projects for 2016 such as that outlined by Terry Begent in this edition . The last three years have concentrated on The Morehall Mural , now finished , and the 7 Town Trail boards . The latter are now being combined with the Kent and Shepway directional boards e.g. along The Leas . For us this is not ideal but there are other ways in which to use John Sim’s artwork . ONE MORE GO FOLKESTONE BOARD IS BEING FINALISED FOR NEAR MARTELLO NO.4. CAN WE PLEASE HAVE HELP FROM ANYBODY WITH INTERESTING POSTER MATERIAL RELATING TO H.G.WELLS OR THE NAPOLEONIC MARTELLOS

Support the Folkestone Youth Project . See the article in March Magazine: Send cheques and doubloons to FYP, Leemost House , Radnor Cliff Crescent , Folkestone , Kent.

1

Contents Editorial

4

5

6

7

8

9

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

19

20

22

23

24

25

26

Help Wanted; Folkestone Volunteers.

Folkestone Fishing Now

Amazing

Folkestone’s Problem Buildings

Folkestone Flowerpower: The Leas progresses

The Leas Pavilion

Folkestone in Transition

But is it Art : An Idea for an event

Art in Folkestone’s Streets

Pubwise and Church Notes

Summer Happenings

Not All Lilac: School News

Classical Folkestone

War and Peace! Part 3

Music Making in Modern Folkestone

The New Vision for Tontine Street

Relaxing Reads

Summer Recipe: The Chocolate Bomb

Folkestone Invicta Football Club Update

Jumbo painting Success for Go Folkestone

Richard Wallace

Go Folkestone is an organisation run on a shoestrring which tries to promote both the town and the voluntary efforts of the Big Society . We aren’t party po-litical though . We would like more creative stories and more of how you cope with the ups and downs of life . We had a strong response to David C’s piece on Living with Dementia . All the internet chat in the world is not as good or as informative as a thoughtful article. We were in May offered a £100 grant or prize by a member ( not someone on the committee!) , to give to the Local Hero , the one person who it was felt had done the best small initiative around Folkestone in 2015 . The winner will be announced in our November magazine . Please suggest nominations to richardwallace.mrics@hotmail.com or by post to Membership Secretary , Flat 4 , 21 Augusta Gardens , Folkestone . Members now get the magazine in the post before the large surplus of over 1000 hard copies gets distributed in different roads of Folkestone each time . We are also planning a Tenterden Christmas trip and a social meal or two for members only , to follow up the excellent ‘do’ at The British Lion . So please pay your £10 sub by 31st August , and if you have a restaurant or other business advertise with us .

RW

Editorial Committee : David Noble, Richard Wallace and Pat Cocks. Magazine Layout : Mike Tedder.

2

Go Folkestone Community Action Group

3

4

HELP WANTED !

UNIQUE RARE CHROMOSOMES DISORDER .

One in 200 children is born with one or another piece of their chromosomes missing or disarranged, and this has a varying but pretty unpleasant effect on their lives . This includes 18 month old Rhys Hills of Ethelbert Road who at the moment has to go to Great Ormond Street Hospital twice a month with his dad Robert . Rhys’ eye-lids have been improved a lot recently, and he is a good son and brother , but things aren’t easy . The charity has helped a lot despite only having 2 full-time staff .Donate at justgiving or go to rarechromo.org.uk Rob is organising an Under 14 football tournament and craft sale on 23rd August at Three Hills Sports Centre in Cheriton Road to raise funds for the ‘Unique’ charity itself . It costs £700 to organise , despite a discount . Tel 0772 3000 640 . Late teams and helpers may be useful , but really he wants people to come along and spend money . The stalls, organised by Donna Bullock , a Saga colleague are mostly genuinely craft and jewellery based .

Rainbow Centre , 69 Sandgate Road , Folkestone , Kent CT20 2AF . Monday-Friday 10.00am folkestonerainbowcentre.org.uk 01303-850733

The Centre is involved even now in the first stages of organising the Winter Shelter programme for Folkestone . Last year 183 volunteers helped provide a hot meal and safe beds for 42 guests : people who could not spend Christmas with their families or in their homes . This runs through December, January and February with a meal, bed and light breakfast available in church buildings every night : more when the temperature drops . Some referrals for more permanent help result . The Rainbow Centre needs donations , via the website or by cheque and it is never too early to put your name down as a volunteer for this and other everyday volunteer work like pre-school and food banks .

The Samaritans in Folkestone , who contributed more details to the March magazine ( subscribe or see gofolkestone.org.uk ) , have regular training sessions at their house in Cambridge Gardens and elsewhere as people come forward to volunteer . Once again we would emphasise that though it is frequently low key and can encompass dealing with emails or just vital fund raising through The Friends , being a Samaritan is really important . ANYONE INTERESTED CALL 01303 255000

HAVE YOU ANY WASTED , UNPLAYED BRASS INSTRUMENTS ? Tel 01303-680063 . Christer Aberg runs the Shepway Brass Academy on Saturday mornings at Folkestone Academy . The full details are on the net . Don’t be bashful : beginners have their own hour , as do the the intermediates and advanced . Christer does very much need more brass instruments , which can even be loaned : you can set up a person to person loan if you want to be careful . That way children will join, practice and maybe progress before making the major investment for some parents of a brass instrument . See Michael Foad’s article later .

Dementia Friends : Go Folkestone has publicised the Dementia Friends movement before . In training sessions last year dementia champions trained up to spread the word about how to include people with dementia in society . It is aiming to remove some of the myths about this disease , and now the champions are holding regular sessions for 20 or so people , to come along and learn . Phone Shepway Volunteer Centre at the United Reformed Church , the normal venue ( opp Central Station) on 01303-259007

Following the first year of the groups inception, the inaugural AGM of the Folkestone and Coastal Diabetes UK Group was held on the 10th of June at the Best Western Hotel in Folkestone, with speaker Alison Thomas, Diabetes Specialist Dietitian, from the Community Nutrition Service, who gave a practical and highly interactive presentation on nutrition and diabetes. If you have been affected by diabetes and feel you might like to join or help please contact our secretary Edith Baker at diabetesfolkestone@btinternet.com or call 078 952 66315 for further information.

5

FOLKESTONE’S FISHERMEN NOW

Many visitors to each of five exhibitions of ‘Folkestone’s Fishermen, Folkestone’s Fishing Heritage’ recently presented in the Town at various places and currently at the former Ferry Booking Hall at Folkestone Harbour opposite the Hotel Grand Burstin, have asked about the state of our local fishing industry and whether it is still functioning and viable.

At the present time there are 10 vessels fishing from Folkestone, comprising trawlers, netting/potting, trawler/netting. Today all fishing is carried out within the 12 mile limit with 90% inside the 6 mile limit . The majority is actually in Hythe Bay. With the shore side : fish processors, drivers, fish merchants, net makers etc. upwards of eighty people rely on the fishing for their living. Unfortunately very little fish is sold locally other than by Folkestone Trawlers .

Over recent years there has been an abundance of Skate , Dover Sole, Plaice and Cod on the grounds ; more than for many years . Things that only sell on The Continent include small Dover Sole , and plaice which goes for processing into ‘goujons’ and the like . Small amounts of other fish are sold to fish merchants based in Herne Bay and Southampton.

Photo: David Noble

The shellfish side of the industry is very important . Whelks are the main catch and Folkestone Whelks are renown for their taste . Any surplus is exported to Northern Ireland to be processed for sale to ………….South Korea !! Scallops on the other hand are popular locally and very important to the fishermen in the Winter . In recent times the amount of fish appearing far outstrips the quotas the government allows . If the quota system was scrapped the industry could grow back to something like previous times. Some of the old fishing families still working are The Sharps The Brickells , the Reeds and the Gales. This means that the tradition of Folkestone’s original fishermen lives on in the family connections, and we should all be very proud of this. There are far fewer vessels than the 60 or more a century ago, when hundreds were involved in the fishing.

Over the years there have been occasional fatalities in local fishing, and we share the sympathy of relatives of fishermen lost overboard, lost with their vessels, and even destroyed by war time mines.. Many served their country in the wars and were involved in the Dunkirk evacuation. We should be grateful for their tenacity to this most hazardous profession, and their ability to continue to provide food for our tables. We always welcome visitors to our Exhibitions as an opportunity

6

for them to see pictures of local fishermen, their equipment and activities conducted while at sea, depicted in our video presentations.

Photo: David Noble

Fishing is a unique occupation – it is only by being a fisherman that you realise what you really are. It is an experience which cannot be equalled except by making a trip with them to discover the arduous and risky nature of their task. The Exhibition is open daily from 11am to 4pm, but is crucially dependent on staff available to man it, and you are invited to come and have your eyes opened to the true nature and history of Folkestone’s Fishing Industry.

John Gale and Frank Bond.

Ps Can Folkestone Trawlers have a couple of dedicated NON RESIDENTS PARKING SPACES right outside the shop so that people can actually buy local fish PLEASE .

Amazing

When David Noble contacted me to ask if I had anything to contribute to the May edition of Go Folkestone I told him I was writing a piece about living with dementia but was not sure if it would be suitable for the magazine. David said it would and encouraged me to send it in.The response to the article has amazed me. It started with a lady who had lost her mother to dementia emailing me to say how much she had been moved by it. Then a bunch of flowers were delivered for my wife from another lady who had read the article. I have been stopped in the street and have had some very rewarding conversations with carers who wanted to share experiences. A number of people in the NHS, including a Psychiatric Consultant, have told me how helpful it was to have the point of view of someone living with a victim of dementia. The Matron for Dementia at The William Harvey Hospital has contacted me to say she would like to share the article with members of hospital staff when she provides dementia education. She felt the piece would increase understanding of living with dementia both for individual and carer. Over the years I have written a lot of articles but none have evoked such a response as this one. Perhaps I should retire whilst I’m ahead.

David Crocker

7

FOLKESTONES PROBLEM BUILDINGS

MACDONALDS PLANS NEW RESTAURANT IN FORMER RESTAURANT CAR PARK The Range, formerly Wickes, has recently made the rather incongruous little Firs Farm ‘retail park’ at the top of Cheriton busier. This was never meant to be a proper retail park. It started as one Little Chef, The Firs Club and a small retail warehouse created out of Grade 2 listed Firs Farm and barns . These simply couldn’t be demolished, but the bulk of the farmland became houses. The area is residential and the road Firs Lane was never suitable for a proper retail park. But now , and much to the chagrin of local residents , Mac Donald’s are trying to fit a 160 seat drive-through and two storey restaurant on the small car park between the former Little Chef ‘barn’ and the main road boundary . 65 jobs are supposed to be created, but how many are part time? Councillors and opponents should perhaps check these claims carefully against the size and staff of the outlet at Park Farm before accepting that. I don’t want to be against any employment, but surely if there had been enough space for a commercial unit next to the Little Chef it would have been fitted in in 1990? And this is a particularly high traffic generator situated next to what is effectively a Pub. I’ve nothing against Mac Donald’s except their food. But the parking is confirmed by local planners as now inadequate, and the adjacent street parking is already choked up. One residential type access leads into a residential type road and then almost immediately to a main road junction where you cannot see the traffic coming over the rise from the M20 direction. New 160 seat Mac Donald’s/ current pub club / cramped site/ invisible motorway junction. This one will at least go to appeal surely? Planning application Y15/0428/SH

SHOWPIECE JOINTON ROAD BUILDING SAVED AT COST OF 6 HOUSES IN BACK GARDEN A development application for Kelston aka 12 Jointon Road, the massive building on the corner of Earls Avenue finally went to Development Control on 9th June and was passed. The battered but handsome mansion wrongly rumoured to have been designed by the famous Edwin Lutyens in the early 1920s is saved with only the rear block which was added in the 1970s removed. The original building is then split quite subtly to make two still large semis with very little external change whilst the side garage is demolished and some of the large ash trees are sadly removed to give space for a drive and 6 smaller, new houses in the large back garden. The back garden is well below street level (drainage?) . Go Folkestone were kindly given a view of the scheme at Wards Hotel by Roger Joyce and the London based developer. We liked it, whilst still feeling it would be better with one or two fewer houses. Folkestone Town Council also liked parts , but rather less, and tried unsuccessfully to save trees and make it all a bit less dense and , successfully, to put in more parking . 8 buildings are wedged in, about as attractively, on Roger Joyce’s clever plans, as they can be. If this is not unpopular developers will be eyeing more back gardens.

GRACE HILL EYESORE DUE FOR DEMOLITION? Probably the ugliest site left in a prominent position in Folkestone is the former Art School annexe next to Grace Chapel in Grace Hill, a stone’s throw from the listed Carnegie Central Library. This was featured and pictured in the last issue. But when planning officials were questioned about it, they suggested that the owners of the building on the site might be required to demolish it by Shepway fairly soon. If this is true it would be an excellent move. It is an embarrassment, particularly next to a set of listed buildings. The only historical relevance it has is to the history of asbestos...

BRADSTONE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION WILL RENEW GRAVEYARD IN THE SKY Stand on one of the busiest corners in Folkestone where New Road curves around to Dover Road near the Citadel and look up the built up slopes which nearby Bradstone Viaduct crosses. If you look very closely you will see the obelisks of a Georgian graveyard on a small plot of land alone on top of a huge pillar. This in fact has a locked ground level door to a staircase which can access it but does not for safety reasons. The efforts of David Taylor and the Bradstone RA to organise the repair of this Baptist graveyard, not used since ca 1860, will be featured in the next issue of Go Folkestone. Fortunately the lining up of gravestones around the perimeter. which is a soulless characteristic of similar ‘tidying’ is not believed to be in the always well-judged Association’s plan. Richard Wallace

8

FOLKESTONE FLOWER POWER

THEY ARE BACK!

The floral baskets that hang on the lamp posts along The Leas are back again this year thanks to the generous donations of our sponsors, who are, in no particular order,

C & J Ayris, Abbeywell Vets, Chandos Guest House, Mr & Mrs C Davis, David Payne Carpets, Hugh Barker (SDC Councillor), Helen Barker (SDC councillor), John Dean, The Southcliff Hotel, Town Cllr Anthony Dunning , Folkestone & Hythe Hotel & Catering Assoc., Folkestone Town Council, The Roger De Haan Charitable Trust, Folkestone Rotary Club.

Two of our sponsors are not from Folkestone but appreciated them last year and have generously donated for this year.

We had to admire The Southcliff Hotel who auctioned off their unclaimed lost property to add to their donation. We got to thinking about British Rail. If only it were that easy!

The baskets are delayed this year because of the cold weather and were hung on 17th & 18th of June. They are multi-coloured.

They are intended to give pleasure to all Folkestone residents and our many visitors. Last year they continued well on in to September/October and from feedback were much appreciated.

In case some of you are wondering what your cash is spent on, approx one third purchases the plants and two thirds of the cost goes towards hanging, taking down and maintenance. That is watering 64 baskets twice a week with a bowser and operator.

We liaise with Jana Getliffe and her SDC Gardens Maintenance Team to do this work and we like to keep them busy! It is never easy gathering in the cash so if you would like to see them next year, please help us achieve our target of approx £6’500 by January 30th 2016.

Tel. 07712857912 or go to Folkestone Festivals website and follow the buttons to Pay Pal where you can donate to Folkestone Flower Power as much or as little as you wish. It’s easy. I tried it.

Pat Cocks

--------------------------------------------------------------------

In Shorncliffe Road there is another tweak to the development of St Marys School and Convent . The Sisters , who still own 74-76 Shorncliffe Road now want to sell off the less attractive No74 for conversion to 4 flats . But they will it seems still be converting No 76 to a ground floor day nursery and upper accommodation for the ageing nuns . 28 houses are still being built in Ravenlea Road . And on completion the former St Mary’s School playing fields , currently used for charity boot fairs will still go over to Shepway as public open space . Folkestone TC would probably like to improve it in the end.

9

LEAS PAVILION

We are harping on about the Pavilion again, but then it is the most important ‘building in peril’ in the town of Folkestone, and others are anxious too.

Several Go Folkestone and New Folkestone Society members attended a May meeting of about 25 people concerned with the fate of The Leas Pavilion at the Old Fire Station, along with two representatives from the Campaign against Delinquent Owners. This is a group from outside Kent which has had some success with helping save Hastings Pier and the London Road Fire Station in Manchester, details of both of which campaigns are on the Net. I and others have joined the new Friends of the Leas Pavilion as it is a valuable single issue group. I believe though that CADO does require payment for some of its work pursuing delinquent owners, which is difficult for small groups. The Friends are particularly interested in opening the Leas Club as a community building and theatre, perhaps under their own steam. They have a contact who runs a theatre in Broadstairs and who feels, as part of a package, that a theatre in the holiday season may be viable. Go Folkestone, the original protagonist in listing the Pavilion, wishes the new group well and will liaise with it. Our main distinct target is to draw up something similar to estate agents’ particulars of sizes and pictures and then push it to all corners of the Internet, as we believe almost any use would be better than demolition. We also feel that perhaps there is not a gap for another theatre in Folkestone and want to throw the net wide to commercial interests, but wish the Friends luck. Those who wish to join The Friends should contact Mrs Julia Blewett, 22 Seabrook Court, Hythe, Kent CT21 5RY.

I went to talk to a senior planning officer in June. They promised to get the Conservation Officer to inspect the building again, as it is declining after 6 years of vacancy. However Shepway still believe that it is structurally sound enough NOT to require a repairs or dangerous structure notice which is the only legal reason they could interfere in advance of the development scheme. The Friends are also weighing in on this. Clearly bits of the Edwardian terracotta balustrade are falling off and leaks are being reported through the roof. You can also see in the photograph in the magazine how there appears to be movement and damage. We are very uncertain about this and think another proper structural survey should be carried out for the first time since 2008. But the Council feel, understandably, that they have safeguarded the building with a planning permission and now a legal contract with all the owners, only signed on 29th April 2015. The Council have worked hard to oblige the developers to repair all the items mentioned in the 2008 survey and bring the Club up to a proper standard before selling all the flats. But what will happen if that repair is postponed much longer?

The planning officer pointed out that the Pavilion has an established use as a licensed premises i.e. The Leas Club, which has never been lost. I pointed out that many neighbours would not be happy with the return of The Club , but nevertheless it does seem likely that if the proposed health club specified in the planning permission had an ancillary bar, or perhaps if a licensed restaurant moved in, that that would be almost impossible to oppose . This is very interesting for other parties. I said that I was nervous that some people might be dragging things out with a long term objective of demolishing everything but the Leas facade and having a massive modern block of flats. I know that that was the desire before GF moved to get it listed because one of the prime movers told me so. But the officer felt that the listing and the clear repair obligations made it clear that this was impossible. We must all watch out for serious disrepair though and keep councillors informed .

10

The 29th April legal agreement still leaves the old Leas Club lease to Warburtons in place, but the owners are Churchgate and they are signed up to repair the building, though only as part of their building project. Other members of Go Folkestone have researched Churchgate, and their financial picture is confusing. However the associated mortgagees and builders Blackcap, a London firm, appear to have an extremely good financial footing shown by Companies House. The two firms have many of the same directors including one who signed some of the original 2008 documents. So one would hope that the developers, one way or the other, are ready to go .and well able to do the project in the current attractive climate for selling 68 superior apartments on Folkestone seafront. The apartment block design is not sympathetic to the Edwardian listed architecture and I don’t like it at all but some members do . Frankly we all want them to get on with saving the part of the building that is so intimately connected to all of our Edwardian and World War 1 history, and will put up with the rest .

One piece of unqualified good news is that Shepway officers, at least, are proposing to serve a building works notice under the 1994 Building Act on Churchgate to get the owners to repair the dangerous eyesore that is 4 Longford Way. This skeletal building at the side of the main club is the one bit of intended affordable housing still attached to the whole development, and we were told it would be transferred to a social housing provider some months ago.

The developers put up scaffolding on No.4 the last time they were pressed and then took it down again, but fortunately Shepway are playing hardball. The excuse for the slowness that I heard rumoured was that No.4 couldn’t be occupied because it would then be impossible to live in during the building of 68 flats. But that is no excuse for not at least creating the safe basic shell of five flats instead of something a notch up from Corfe Castle.

Churchgate have an interesting website about their good works ….....

Photo: Pat Cocks

11

NEW ‘TRANSITION’ GROUP FOR FOLKESTONE

Can Folkestone become an even happier place where we create less environmental damage, including less carbon emissions, and are more resilient and ready to cope with the impact of global climate change? This Spring, Folkestone in Transition organised three discussions at Sunflower House to learn from inspiring examples of local action.

Starting in Totnes in Devon a few years ago, “Transition” initiatives now exist in over a thousand communities around the world aiming to make their areas stronger and happier. There are already established local groups in other parts of East Kent including Transition Hythe and Deal With It. Transition groups have created and encouraged practical projects on local food, energy efficiency, community-owned renewable energy and a more robust local economy. Locally driven and forward looking, they aim to support the move from today’s high carbon economy to a resilient and fulfilling future. National support, including training and examples, comes from the Transition Network (www.transitionnetwork.org). In Folkestone, we are exploring how we could do more.

At our first session “Warmer, Cheaper, Local”, we discussed taking back ownership of our use of energy. Community Energy South, the local network of community energy groups (www.communityenergysouth.org.uk), told us about locally-owned solar projects in Sussex, “drop-in” centres in Hastings to help people switch to cheaper energy tariffs and training courses in Folkestone and Dover that have enabled unemployed women to become confident local energy champions. We are now forming a Folkestone Community Energy Group to take forward practical action, potentially including local share issues for solar panels and a Folkestone energy switching “pop-up” shop.

Our second discussion asked “Where does our Recycling go?”. Brian Rumbelow from the Shepway and Dover DC recycling service answered the question and also told us clearly what can and can’t go into our recycling bins. Batteries go to be recycled at a factory in Belgium but all the rest of the recycling collected is reprocessed in the UK. More details are online at http://www.shepway.gov.uk/recycling-waste-and-bins/household-recycling-and-rubbish.

The third session looked at creating even better places to live. In particular, we heard from residents of Ramsgate (http://www.newingtonbiglocal.org/) and Dover (http://doverbiglocal.org/) about their “Big Local” resident-led long-term community project. Big Local projects have received £1M each from the Big Lottery Fund to spend over ten years in ways that the community chooses to make their areas even better. With the Big Lottery looking to support other projects that put “people in the lead”, we discussed the lessons and opportunities for Folkestone.

Folkestone already has lots going on to support health and happiness in a changing world, particularly on arts and creative industries, heritage, food, complementary health and enterprise support. As world leaders support phasing out fossil fuels, low carbon industries mature rapidly and the internet alters how experiences, goods and services are provided, we can add a further dimension to our town’s regeneration. To find out more or get involved, do visit www.folkestoneintransition.com or contact Penny Shepherd (07904 333019 or pennyshepherduk@gmail.com)

Penny Shepherd

12

BUT IS IT ART ?

Way back in 2007, I published an article in the Go Folkestone magazine entitled “But is it art?” that gave a bit of the history behind the phenomenon that enjoyed a revival with the advent of the felt-tip pen and spray cans of paint. Even a certain “Banksie” got a mention and it is his recent contribution on one of our local walls that has prompted me to wonder if the town ought to embrace this kind of work as part of the next triennial or its fringe. In 2007 “tagging” walls was looked on by society as “criminal damage” – no ifs, no buts – although the work of the, by now, legendary “Banksie” has gone a long way towards convincing us all that there is a measure of artistic talent in what still appears on our walls when we are not watching them, even though, legally, it is still considered criminal damage. Folkestone is widely known in some circles as having a “free wall” at the skate park at “The Shed” in the harbour. A “free wall” is one where you can practice your graffiti art without any danger of prosecution and, in this case, it is the sides of the containers or the wooden boards attached to the fence around the skate park. Skateboarding and graffiti seem to go hand in hand, probably because both involve free-spirited individuals, usually practising their art alone – even if in the company of others. This skate park, and the opportunity it offers for graffiti artists, will disappear within the next couple of years as the seafront development starts to gather pace so it is likely that we will see a corresponding increase in unwanted graffiti in other parts of the town. Perhaps we ought to pick up on the reputation that the town has for having a “free wall” and embrace it by staging a graffiti festival for all comers. This would involve erecting a number of full-size (2400 x 1200 mm) sheets of chipboard, plywood or mdf in various public places – erected on a free-standing frame of some kind. Similarly, with half or quarter sized boards. Artists could then register to use one or other of them to paint (if that is the right expression in those circles) a work of art that would then be judged by experts or the public at large. The best in class (age, size of finished work etc.) would be awarded prizes. They would have to supply their own materials in the first place but all works would be put up for auction – possibly at the awards ceremony – with profits going to the artists themselves. A small percentage of the money raised might be deducted/diverted towards the costs of staging the event. Unsold works could be given back to the artist, displayed in town for a year or stored to be repainted at the next festival. Hopefully this would help to reduce the amount of unauthorised graffiti around town. Terry Begent

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The big development along Shorncliffe Road where Westbourne School has been demolished is for a big care home at the front and a decent estate of mainly 3 and 4 bedroomed semi-detached houses on the school fields . The latter is being done by Bellway Homes and is typical of the better quality brick houses that can be built in town since the High Speed Link got Londoners interested . Broadfield Road residents are unhappy about through traffic as the estate won’t be accessed from the man road at all , because the obvious gap opposite Earls Avenue has a massive ring water main beneath it . The nice sylvan walk to Cheriton Road is preserved . Perhaps GF readers could suggest a name for it .

13

Art in the streets of Folkestone

The 2014 Folkestone Triennial attracted 135,000 visitors and, this year in particular, the artworks were taken under the wing of the local community. It somehow seemed less of a showcase than the previous exhibitions and more of a stage for interaction with the art, drawing locals and cultural tourists together. This radically different approach was introduced by the Triennial Curator, Lewis Biggs. His emphasis on the axis leading from the harbour up to the train station, taking in Tontine Street and Foord Road, was a deliberate attempt to draw visitors into neglected parts of the town and engage them in place making and regeneration. A focal point of this area was Payer’s Park redesigned by muf architecture/art. As a host, I never encountered any trouble in Tontine Street, which has been referred to as Folkestone’s very own ‘Gaza Strip,’ and, sitting with Lewis in Beano’s vegetarian café, the place seemed pretty tranquil, especially by comparison with its reputation.

. The International Biennial Association and its creation, the World Biennial Forum, are providing a framework for international two-yearly festivals . Lewis set up the Institute of Public Art in 2014 as a vehicle for biennial research and networking as well as awarding prizes. The first awards ceremony was in Shanghai and the second is in Auckland in June 2015. Hopefully Folkestone will be the 2017 venue, coinciding with the staging of the next Folkestone Triennial. In Lewis’s words ‘The key idea for biennials / triennials is internationalism. The key idea for public art is localism. I want localism to have an international audience, when it is good - and often it is much more interesting and ‘good’ than the art that gets an international audience without addressing any local ones.’

Lewis lived in Liverpool for 25 years, acting as the director of Tate Liverpool from 1990 to 2000 and was a founding director of the Liverpool Biennial in 1998. He was instrumental in the setting up of Tate Liverpool and the successful bid for the 2008 European Capital of Culture. In 2011, Lewis was awarded an OBE for his services to arts in the North West.

Folkestone is of course much smaller than Liverpool but the communities in both of these places have a tendency to focus on past glory days and Lewis sees art as pivotal in turning the focus towards the future and its endless possibilities for change and renewal. We in Folkestone are fortunate to have Roger de Haan as a single benefactor. The situation was more complex in Liverpool although James Moores did fund its first Biennial.

Lewis ,interestingly does not see tourism as having a major influence on Folkestone’s future and comments that: ‘Despite Folkestone’s deep social divisions, our political leaders are business focused and seem unwilling to articulate a holistic view. For Folkestone to grow and succeed it needs more emphasis on culture and human capital and this will come from people who live and work here not from tourism. Faster rail travel and housebuilding will encourage them to move into the area, bringing with them spending power and creativity.’

I point towards the Turner Gallery at Margate . Lewis is firm that he does not advocate this for Folkestone. Drawing on his experience at the Tate Liverpool, he highlights the vast savings in building and staffing costs which are derived from placing art ‘in the street,’ leaving much more money available to spend on the artworks themselves. In his last year as director of Tate Liverpool, only 10% of the total budget was spent on art; for the Liverpool Biennial the figure was 75%. He also hints that he feels more comfortable spending time with the artists who embody his own values of independence, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.

Talking to Lewis it seems that the 2017 Triennial is bound to take place. His most obvious sources of funding are Europe, KCC (although so far there is nothing tangible in the pipeline) and SDC (more likely to be services in kind than hard cash). Art on the streets of Folkestone has become such a part of the landscape and its reputation that I hope Lewis’s confidence turns out to be well founded.

.Liz Tulloch

14

Pub wise

The Richmond public house near the harbour can now regrettably be called the former Richmond pub . It is being sold to a property developer from Densole . I have been told that he will probably convert the 1866 corner building into two flats . And so we say farewell to one of the smallest and at one time friendliest pubs in the town . Martin Easdown and Eamonn Rooney’s excellent 2004 book ‘ More Tales from the Tap Room’ relates to a time before young people got their gossip and contacts on the Net, and when smokers relaxed inside most pubs : two of the three biggest factors , along with drink –driving laws , in the decline of the British Pub .

‘ the smoky public bar resounds with loud cheers and affable banter as the pub quiz ,darts and cribbage teams battle it out with teams from other pubs in the area . On frosty winter mornings the pub football team slog it out on some open, windy fields in blue shirts proudly emblazoned with their pub name ......’ The area just inland from the Harbour has now lost 8 pubs in about 15 years : The Honest Lawyer in Bellevue Street , The Harvey , The Martello , The Imperial in Black Bull Road , The derelict Castle , The Brewery Tap in Tontine Street , The Two Bells and The Railway Bell , now the Tesco in Dover Road . This leaves the independent free houses of The Lifeboat , The Raglan , and The East Cliff Tavern , the decent Greene King chain pub restaurant The Black Bull , and Shepherd Neame’s Royal Standard and Red Cow. The fire damaged Cherry Pickers in Cheriton meanwhile is probably to be demolished for flats by the owners who seem to have successfully defeated an ‘ Asset of Community Value’ order which sought to protect it .

The Tiger in Stowting has unexpectedly been sold in June by the village co-operative which owned it. The fairly remote village pub was saved by the village in the 2000s. It was modernised without losing too much character and probably does more on food but is definitely also a pub . Some of the villagers owned shares , and the example influenced a similar salvage exercise for The Farriers Arms in Mersham. But now a private individual or small company have acquired it through Porters Surveyors of Maidstone . If they are wise they will not change much . The sale is believed to have been a profitable move for the villagers . The New Inn in Etchinghill is now refurbished and renamed as The Gatekeeper (was there a toll road?) , licensed to the family that successfully runs The Jackdaw and The Duke of Cumberland in Barham

Church wise St John’s Church has got a new vicar , the Revd Stephen ( Steve) Bradford who is married to Janice and will be inaugurated in July . Meanwhile St Mary and St Eanswythe’s in The Bayle , has been approached by the Canterbury Archaelogical Trust to reopen the relics of St Eanswythe for the first time in about 20 years , presumably for some carbon testing on the Christianly buried and partial bones . It is a fact that the relics are within the altar area of the church , believed moved there from an earlier St Eanswythe’s Church after the destruction ca1150 during the Wars of King Stephen . They were discovered when the altar was redesigned in Victorian times . Earlier tests suggested the relics were Anglo Saxon and the remains of a female of around 20 , which is consistent with the reported age of St Eanswythe . It would be barely credible , and unique in South East England , if these were the 1,400 year old bones of the founder of the first nunnery in England , the pious grand-daughter of the first Christian King in England : Ethelbert , King of Kent ! But as they were venerated , and if they were well hidden around the time of the Reformation , when such things were ‘Popish superstitions’ , then it seems possible . Congratulations to Pam and thefriendsofsmaryandsteanswythe.org.uk for the also websited Women in World War 1 show by local children in the church in June . The Project is still live . More materialistically the fate of the closed and merely Edwardian St Saviours, though undecided by the Diocese of Canterbury, looks very likely to be primarily for social housing and some community use .

Richard Wallace

15

SUMMER HAPPENINGS

Folkestone Trawler Race: This proven annual event showcases Folkestone’s marine history with a race between local fishing boats on Saturday 1st August and a more relaxed fish pie making competition ( with mayoral judging ) on Sunday 2nd . Both days have a small funfair , stalls, musicians and lots of fishing related exhibits and food for sale . It is a great weekend for visitors , as well as for the harbour pubs and restaurants , the owners of which should give the organiser Cath Mison a prize ; helpers always appreciated . The Trawler Race timing depends on tides but you should be safe for the start if there before 11.30 am .

Folkestone Harbour Festival: Probably more split toward the former ferry area than the Stade based Trawler Race, Folkestone is hosting the European Power-boating Championship on 15th and 16th August, for the second year in a row, having fought off bids from a couple of other venues. This fast and furious event will be held against a background including plenty of bands, stalls and, probably, a bar tent. Saturday 15th will bring an evening Fireworks Display by the sea.

Bangers and Buskers : For the first year of its life , this banger based Saturday do on 5th September may start small in The Bayle , or may trail people all through the town from sausage stall to sausage stall from Chambers Bar to The Old High Street . We have asked 11 sausage makers from all over Kent to come and to take part in a tasting competition using mini-sausages , whilst selling their big ones conveniently close to the best Folkestone pubs ! Started by David Noble of GF after enjoying the Sausagefest in Framlingham , the idea has been taken over by John Barber and the experts of Folkestone Festivals .

SKABOUR Festival returns to its roots at Folkestone Harbour for 2015 on September 18th, 19th and 20th. Run by local ska enthusiasts and volunteers for a not-for-profit community event Ska-Fest brings many people to the town annually. The main hub of the festival will be in the superb seaside location of the The Grand Burstin Hotel . With 22 bands and 33 DJs there will much dancing (aka skanking) going on. Top acts include The Selecter, The Original Aces, The Toasters, The Hotknives, Beat Goes Bang and all the way from Venezuela are Desorden Publico. With harbour pubs and clubs as part of the Skabour Fringe it is a must for ska and reggae fans. Classic Scooter clubs will also occupy a dedicated ska park at the Grand Burstin. For further details see: www.skabour.co.uk

Rude Boys by Richard Mann, Sid & Nancy by Richard Mann Pictures are for Go Folkestone and not for any other publication without prior permission.

16

There is also to be a SKABOUR Photographic & Art Exhibition to be at GOOGIES Art & Music cafe restaurant at Rendezvous Street for all days of September. The photographers that have covered the ska events since it beginnings of 2010 have been invited to put up framed photographs of their work of the festival over the years. Other music photographers are also invited including Richard Mann who took the photography of The Selecter “Too Much Pressure” album back in 1979. More of Richard’s work includes The Specials, Bad Manners and probably the last photos of Sid Vicious & Nancy Spungen together. (www.fotomann.co.uk)

NOT ALL LILAC

Several significant school changes are on the cards at the moment, of which Pent Valley’s troubles and the installation of new headmaster Jon Whitcomb, are well known. Mr Whitcomb has mainly been a successful ‘school doctor’ for tough schools like North School in Ashford, and the improving Westlands in Sittingbourne. A short but positive stay with a new female head brought on , is the June rumour. The one closure Mr Whitcomb was involved with, The Chaucer Tech in Canterbury isn’t doing badly in its very last year, and is conceivably the victim of being on a much, much bigger redevelopment site than PV.

Go Folkestone has reported before on the newly mooted ‘Martello Primary School ‘ certain to be built this year at the end of Warren Way in East Folkestone . There was no alternative site despite the unhappiness of some residents in what is a cul de sac. I saw the ornate document by which Lord Radnor gave the site to Folkestone Corporation in 1939 the year war broke out, for ‘recreational and educational purposes’. So it was a long time coming! Local councillors will have to work to minimise the school’s traffic problems, perhaps using the footpath through to Wear Bay Road to help. We must also get some money from the Kent County Council toward replacing the Multi-use Games Area and kick-about rough football pitch lost by the community to the school. That is unless the private company Lilac Sky running it, also at Morehall, are more open with the school’s own facilities than currently proposed. Possibly East Cliff facilities could be upgraded with KCC compensation?? But on the other hand children don’t want to be playing near cliff edges!

The other new, one form entry, primary school proposed at the bottom of Royal Military Avenue will also be an interesting challenge for parents to get in and out of , on the way to work, if Horn Street Bridge is not improved. I expect this will be called Shorncliffe Primary School. There at least half of the green space of the former military sports’ pitches , west of the handsome tree avenue will be open to the public , whilst still being used for some school games , leaving a nearly square corner site for the school . This school is only proposed for 2018. By that time only the first 234 new dwellings proposed around the ‘Lines’ at the back of Royal Military Avenue and opposite the end of Church Lane will be built out of about 1000 scattered in the military area up to the year 2030 . But even now Cheriton Primary is expanding, so it is all needed. Confidential plans are being discussed to help the school gradually build up which I know will please local people. Thirdly we see the conscious uncoupling of Folkestone Academy for the new school year from its former sister academy in Thanet. The Marlowe Academy was a difficult school with rolls as thin as Folkestone’s are full. It was sometimes bottom of the A-C pass table in Kent. It will now use its excellent facilities as a 6th Form College coupled with two or three Ramsgate and Margate schools leaving Folkestone to stand alone. Of course Folkestone Academy has the personal disaster of the headmaster stepping down after fathering a child with an 18yr old pupil. But that will be a soluble problem and the Academy still has an excellent reputation and will be much easier to run on a local basis, coupled with its excellent primary partner.

Richard Wallace

17

Classical Folkestone1953 thirty two Dover Road Dustbin Raiders (pupils of Dover Road Secondary, at the time the roughest school in Folkestone) were singing Schubert’s Der Erikonig; it was my introduction to the world of classical music. For one hour each week we received “culture” from the radio in the form of a music programme presented by Mr Appelby. Terrible as our rendering was it struck a chord with me arousing my curiosity about the world of classical music. When in 1959 after National Service I returned to Folkestone there was a lot of classical music on offer. As well as the talented Folkestone Choral Society and Orchestra, both still contributing much to the town, professional orchestras were starting to perform at The Leas Cliff Hall. One of the first conductors I saw was Vic Oliver who came with The British Concert Orchestra. If asked at the time who was Vic Oliver most people would have said he was a popular comedian. He was, but also a very talented conductor and a violinist who had performed with the world famous conductor Bruno Walter.

Looking at old programmes what amazing value for money we got in the 50s. A concert on 24th June 1959 started the evening with Overture Egmont, continued with Valse Triste, an Aria from Don Carlos and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. After the interval, Polonaise from Eugen Onegin, an Aria from Samson and Delilah, Franck’s Symphonic Variations and concluded with the Overture to Merry Wives of Windsor. These days it’s an Overture, Concerto and Symphony, all over in two hours.

A table of some of the many Folkestone music programmes of the classical years

Photo: David Crocker

In the1960s The London Philharmonic with great conductors like Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Charles Groves came at least three times a year which included a Christmas concert aimed at young audiences. The Mozart Players, Bournemouth Symphony and Guilford Orchestra were also regular visitors.

18

It was in 1964 that Sir John Barbirolli and the Halle Orchestra shocked a Folkestone audience raised on a bland diet of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, They played Symphony No 5 by Shostakovich which was described at its first performance in 1937 as “powerful but intelligible”. I think from the audience reaction after the concert that it was too powerful for some and unintelligible to others but I was electrified, I had never heard music like it. Dame Janet Baker the great Mezzo-Soprano came to Folkestone in 1975. I sat next to an elderly man who had journeyed from Yorkshire just to hear her sing. He told me that his last visit to Folkestone had been in 1916 when he marched to war down the Road of Remembrance. In 1983 competitors from all over the world came to Folkestone to take part in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. The great man was on the panel of judges over the week long competition and on the last evening of the competition conducted The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with the winner as soloist.

Sadly because of a lack of sponsorship this competition was eventually lost to Folkestone and has since been held in Cardiff, France, Norway, USA and China. Chinese competitors were very successful in Folkestone at both Junior and Senior categories.

The accelerating costs of staging concerts in the early 1990s led to serious losses even when every seat was sold. It was an end of the era when the cover of LCH programmes proudly announced “Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall Kent’s Premier Concert Hall.”

I remember actress Joyce Grenfell coming here for a performance of songs and monologues and finding a very small audience remarked something to the effect “Folkestone residents obviously have to be in bed by seven”. For the last two years Ellen Kent has brought her wonderful Opera International to the Leas Cliff Hall. I have seen opera all over the world and her singers and productions are comparable to the best. We are so lucky she has chosen Folkestone as a venue but at a performance of La Traviata in April the hall was barely half full. If opera is not to go the way of our orchestral concerts please come and support in December the most accessible of all operas “Carmen” and in May 2016 “Tosca.”

David Crocker

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In East Folkestone the surprisingly smart bit of 1960s industrial architecture that is The Martello Centre in Neason Way off Warren Road has been a community hall and offices for a few years . But now the upper floor is being converted into 7 little assisted living flats, still run by Caretech, which will run offices, a refectory and lounge on the ground floor Nice to see that the flats though little have separate bedrooms and proper bathrooms . Martello used to do clothes for Marks and Spencers and many locals can remember the rows and rows of sewing machines.

The detached Harbour Church Hall in Harvey Street seems to now be owned by developers Severncroft . They are proposing to convert the plain but well balanced building , without messing it about very much at all , to 5 2 bedroomed terraced houses , presumably for sale . It lends itself very well to being a terrace . In the meantime we think it may still be used for the WINTER SHELTER

19

WAR AND PEACE!BY WALLACE LAKER

My name is Wallace Laker and I live in Morehall now but I was born in 1929 on a farm in Wingmore near Elham and this is the final part of my reminiscences. Elham in the 1930s and later had a chemist’s shop (never called a pharmacy) and the chemist had a ‘round’ delivering medicines for money at the door, before the NHS. I think he was called Nicholson and he would make up pills of different types with special implements as well as sell brands. Elham Valley Stores, later called Hubbles Stores was actually run by Ken Hubble, who was Ex-Navy. The bakery was near The Kings Arms, and the Post Office down near The Square too, but a greengrocers was nearer the War Memorial, which was of course for World War I. We only had a well to provide water at our Wingmore farm even when I was grown up. It was improved in 1935 and was 100 feet deep. My father tried to get on the mains, but the Folkestone and District Water Company said it wasn’t worth its while. The Mid Kent Water Company did think it was possible to do from their side in the 1930s but would not trespass into FDWC territory! About 40% of all households in Britain in 1939 still didn’t have electricity, though that included people living in single gaslit rooms in cities. Many didn’t have mains drainage. We had our own generator and so some electricity because of the farm equipment. The towns had gaslight, gas stoves, and even gas fridges later on. Some in the country still had just oil lamps, and the Elham Valley Railway was of course all steam. Nickolls the big building and groundwork’s firm that still exists in Folkestone had a fleet of slow, gargantuan, Foden steam Lorries that were always coming through. Slow, lumbering and impressive.

In 1940 a German plane roared over and then dropped out of the sky under machine gun fire into Spruce Gardens in Elham. There was such a big bang that people said the bullets had detonated the ME 109’s single bomb whilst it was still attached to the plane. But the pilot, whom I later learnt was called Ludwig Lenz, did survive long enough to die in the local hospital so I doubt that. In 1943 a Junkers 88 crashed into Lower Chantry Lane in Canterbury. The first thing I knew of it was seeing a German parachute draped over the almshouses near my school in Longport. I collected a big shaft from it which I hid under a tunnel. When I went back years later it wasn’t there. I had collected bits of German planes and interesting shrapnel; we boys all had collections and swapped. One of mine included the brass specifications plate from the JU 88 with ‘Telefunken Augsburg’ on it, which I had at home for years. That company made radios and televisions before and after the War. But then Bayer made aspirin and they still made poison gas during the War. Hythe School of Infantry was very big. It requisitioned a Wingmore cottage and used it as part of mock battles in the woods and fields practising for D Day and after, which they carried out most weeks. The two up/two down got knocked about a bit. They used to let me be on one team or another. It was very competitive and I tried to help my ‘team’ win. I remember pouring a bucket of water from the bare joists of the cottage shell onto a proper, or at least proper trainee, soldier.

One day in 1944 someone from the Army called and told us, not for the first time, to stay indoors whatever happened as there was going to be a big military exercise. We kept our heads down as there were explosions and firing for hours. One large part of the army was trying to take Standard Hill in Elham occupied by another large part. There were tanks flattening the fences, for which the farmers were of course all later compensated, and a hell of a noise. They were probably practising for D Day. There were more British and Canadian troops at D Day than Americans. You wouldn’t think it looking at American war films. They certainly made a mess practising

The War ended in May 1945 apart from Japan. We knew things were getting better when the Doodlebugs or flying bombs stopped early in March, though not before one hit Water Farm and broke many windows in the village. Then one Sunday evening, it was dark, a flying bomb went over on a completely different track to normal and crashed in Lyminge Forest. It was a final frightener: some mad last Nazi shot from a mobile launcher that was probably totally cut off by our troops.

20

When I left the Technical School in 1946 I didn’t know much more about farming than when I went in , so I went back to help my Dad. Things did not go that well as he only paid me 5/- (25p) per week when I was 17. Even the minimum agricultural wage was £2.00 per week. I wouldn’t have minded so much but he smoked an ounce of tobacco a day which cost 2/6d ( 12.5p or ‘half a crown’ ) . I still caught rabbits, which were popular food before myxamotosis put everybody off in the 1950s. I could sell them for 3/- . A good price due to rationing. My safety valve was sport, both football and cricket. Even in the War the Elham Young Farmers were active and Elham Cricket Club was revived in 1944 before the War ended. There were some men around as the farms needed to be kept going. I saw Donald Bradman at Kent‘s ground at St Lawrence just after the War .

Anyway the well went dry in the hot summer of 1948. This was unheard of because the rivers were stronger in those days and there was more water around. The Nailbourne though it was a seasonal stream as nowadays , was often flowing , although there is a spot on the northern edge of Elham which we called Mother Brompton’s Pit where it tended to vanish . You can still see it from the 17 Bus on the right going to Folkestone. My brother and I had to go down the well on a leather sling. He cleared out a century of sludge. I then tried the hard bottom but it was very hard and our pickaxes couldn’t get a good swing. My oil lamp then went out and I yelled for the ‘chair’ to be sent down. There wasn’t a breeze down there so something was wrong. I came up quick because of the lack of oxygen, though I felt ok. I don’t know whether there was a fuss about the drought, but we got mains drainage in 1950. Things were changing fast even in peacetime. The well is still there though we aren’t.

A young teacher on the farming course took a smallholding on and I used to help him with odd jobs until he offered me a job away from the family at £2.10s.00d per week. Clearly this was a fortune and with some family bad feeling I still took it. Then later on I applied for a job as a Milk Counter. This involved me going around farmers that were being monitored and taking careful notes of the amount of milk that each cow took. What became the Milk Marketing Board took careful records and told the dairy farmers which cows, and bulls, to breed from to increase the milk yield. In the end I learnt to drive because I could earn extra money going as far as the Midlands, because you needed to be mobile to get there for early milking and so got overtime and petrol money. One particularly old dairy farmhouse I remember was Tappington Farm in Denton which is still beautiful.

Well in the end I married and the Co-op, which still had lots of connections to farmers via its dairy business, offered me a shop job and I came to Cheriton. But you don’t forget things like the War.

© Wallace Laker and Richard Wallace

Music – Making in Folkestone Today

As someone who has been involved in community music-making in our local area for the past 40 years, I have been asked to offer an “up-date” to David Crocker’s “Classical Folkestone” every word of which I happily endorse, and which brings back many musical memories.

I know we have lost our Orchestral Concert series, but this is a world-wide, not just a local, problem. Box Office receipts go no way to covering the cost of putting on a concert by a large professional symphony orchestra, and in the present financial climate sponsorship to cover the deficit is becoming harder and harder to obtain; just ask any of the Management Boards of any of our great British orchestras!

We are still so fortunate thanks to support from Classic FM and also Pharon Independent Financial Advisers Ltd, that for a fraction of the cost of going up to London, we can enjoy a series of concerts by the world class Philharmonia Orchestra in the Marlowe theatre in Canterbury. Yes, I know it is impossible without a car to get back to Folkestone after a performance at the Marlowe, but try to find a car-owning friend to go with you! [actually if you are rougher than Michael you can catch the No.16 Folkestone bus from Canterbury Bus Station as late as 11.03pm , and it certainly isn’t rowdy . Ed.]

21

However, MUSIC LOVERS – DO NOT DESPAIR! On a more modest scale there is a tremendous amount of really fine quality music-making, both professional and amateur, on offer here in Folkestone and Hythe.On a professional level we have just been treated to the amazing Sacconi Festival in Folkestone Parish Church, and also a wonderful concert of music for strings given by the Primavera Chamber Ensemble in St. Leonard’s Church, Hythe. Bayle Music, Folkestone United Reformed Church and St. Leonard’s, Hythe, together with FHODS Tower Theatre all promote professional, as well as many good amateur, concerts, and the Leas Cliff Hall still offers performances by top class Bands such as the Royal Marines and the British Legion Band, as well as Ellen Kent’s excellent Touring Opera performances, as David Crocker mentions. There is also the amazing series of “JAM on the Marsh” concerts and events in Mid-July on Romney Marsh.

TAKING PART: for those who enjoy singing, opportunities abound in different musical styles from Folkestone and Saltwood Choral Societies and the Cantores Choir in Lyminge to the AGAPE Gospel Choir, the Mission Gospel Choir, and the Shepway Community Choirs for different age groups, as well as several “Singing for Health” groups. Folkestone URC also offers a series of One Day performances from Tudor Madrigals to Gilbert & Sullivan, whilst FHODS put on Musicals both for adults and youth groups.

Playing to the Camera, Shepway Brass Academy

Instrumentally: the Folkestone & Hythe Orchestra (now ‘Folkestone Symphony’) warmly welcomes new members, though string players do need to be at least grade 7, and a higher standard for wind and brass.Good woodwind and brass players would also be welcome to join the Hythe Town Concert Band, who also offer a Training Band for less experienced players.

For youngsters aged 8 – 18 who would like to try playing a brass instrument, an important affordable (only £1 a morning) initiative, the Shepway Brass Academy, was started a couple of years ago by Christer Aberg.For more information about any of the above and how to get involved in local music-making please consult their respective web-sites. Nearly all take a short break in August, but re-start in early September.

Finally I cannot endorse too strongly David Crocker’s plea for all of us to support not only Ellen Kent’s superb opera productions in the Leas Cliff Hall which we are so fortune to have included in her touring programme, but all the wide variety of concerts and music-making in our local area.

Michael Foad

22

THE NEW TONTINE STREET SKATE PLATE

The proposed Tontine Street Youth Sport building is earmarked for the island site next to The Cube where Four Seasons Bingo and Barons Gym have been demolished . Historically this was the 1920s Folkestone Co-op building , and creates a site for an almost oval building sharing a reconstructed 44 space car park with the pink Cube adult-ed office block . The new building is a dramatically ultra-modern fully glazed four storey edifice which doesn’t clash with anything nice in the immediate area , because there isn’t anything nice in the immediate area . In fact the buildings on the other side of Tontine Street here which include a 1920s car workshop and a long neglected rat-ridden scrub slope up to St Michaels’ Street hidden by advertising hoardings , could all usefully be redeveloped too , perhaps with more parking if the unnamed sporting building is a big success , or with wider carriageways . Possible names include The Island and 55 degrees .

From the bottom , in brief , the unwindowed ( light tubes?) basement is a boxing gym with a 25m ring , and a weights room . If the boxing didn’t take off it could easily be a general gym . It is only half the size of the other floors as the ground slopes up in the St Michaels Street direction . The ground floor is a cafe perhaps best described as a youth club with a couple of offices and a separate pool / games /table football room.

The first floor then becomes the main skateboard use together with the second and third floors, all of which are purpose built for different types and grades of the sport. The first floor has the deepest bowls and vertical towers for the premier skateboarders; the second floor is equally roomy but a little easier; the third floor has street type skate boarding, a different type involving small obstacles imitating the kerbs and small walls of the street, including also so-called grind bars.

The ‘fourth’ floor is the very usable roof which is a versatile space for quite a few events, with an oval canopy in its centre protecting chairs. There will be walkways cum balconies to increase the drama and attraction on some floors. The building’s curved wall swells out dramatically at upper levels (55 degrees?) to increase the space.

This is certainly a special building which if it comes off, due to the backing of Roger De Haan, will be another important stage in the rebirth of the Tontine Street district.

For my part I would suggest that the owners of The Cube, if they can, turn that into a complementary nightclub: youth all the way. It has been a little bit intimidating for some older people coming to adult education in this district, and it might not get any easier, so change it all. Folkestone’s existing main nightclub, the erstwhile Parisienne on Marine Parade is due for demolition. The Silver Springs area in Park Farm Road has been canvassed as a possible nightclub site but these are all mere rumours. A town of Folkestone’s size needs a proper nightclub.

Contacts at the Folkestone Youth Project say that it has already been offered some space in the building. The FYP has previously moved from the old Shed to self-built portacabins at the Harbour, all on generous terms. The young people who use The Shed are likely to want somewhere to smoke (the roof?) and to hang out with minimal interference. FYP are talking to the project owners and have been offered some of the space. But maybe some kids at least cannot be completely happy in such a state-of-the-art, carefully maintained building. Maybe they will try and hang on to their portacabins to some extent.Other things for members to consider in any representations are • Traffic and parking : the proposal is buses and taxis both ways but others up only • Suggestions for other uses of small parts of the building • Wish list for other facilities in the town: Go Folkestone members always come up with tenpin bowling as top of the list, which is not able to fit in here presumably!

23

Relaxing Reads

If your idea of a pleasant summer afternoon is indulging in a bit of nostalgia, find a comfortable shady spot and settle down with Folkestone & District Through Time by Pam Dray (Amberley Publishing, £5.99). Starting at the Warren, and concentrating on the eastern and northern parts of the town, this book features photographs on every page, many in colour, and comparing the “before” and “after” of various sites. Pam has captured a number of aspects of our disappearing heritage. Many small businesses and corner shops have disappeared, and there are pictures with information about them and their owners. Since her book was published in 2012, more changes have taken place. What was Holywell School, for example, had then become The Primary Academy, but has now been razed to the ground to make way for more housing. I was particularly interested in this volume as I have lived in this area all my life, and almost every page contains an “I remember...” The countryside that became Churchill Avenue, the mysterious mill pond, the terrifying Miss Bird and her gardening classes, and Harry Wiltshire with his greengrocery, among many others. This book is a a must-have for local people, but will prove equally fascinating to anyone who has an interest in the town and its social history.

Park Farm Then and NowPhoto: Pam Dray

If you’d prefer to get out a bit and explore the area, I can recommend Terry Townsend’s Kent Smugglers’ Pubs (PiXZ Books, £9.99). This fascinating little book contains information on 31 different pubs, including The Bell in Hythe, The White Horse in Dover, and the intriguingly named Bonny Cravat in Woodchurch. For each establishment there is a colour photograph and a description of the pub as it is today, set against its often blood-curdling history. Who would believe that our tranquil Kentish villages could have such gruesome history? The stories of the notorious Ransleys, the Hawkhurst Gang, and others are told in easily digestible paragraphs, encouraging the reader to explore. Apparently The Woolpack Inn at Warehorne has a tunnel which comes up in a mock grave in the churchyard opposite – but unfortunately it was closed for restoration when we visited. Ogden’s cigarette cards add to the illustrations, and Kipling’s poem, A Smuggler’s Song is also included. An index and a map would have been helpful, but we have spent many a pleasant lunchtime seeking out these pubs and soaking up the history as well as the beer!

Of course, if your holiday plans include a long flight, you may prefer an e-reader, and for my own first venture into this technology I chose the wonderful Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey (Penguin, eBook £2.99). 86 year old Maud has a failing memory, but keeps notes to remind herself, and knows that her friend has disappeared. Her search uncovers links to another woman’s disappearance seventy years before. No particular local connection here, but anyone who has experienced a “senior moment” will love this skilfully written, humorous and poignant mystery. Winner of the Costa First Novel award, it is also available in paper-back from local bookshops.

Sheila Palmer

24

SUMMER RECIPE: A CHOCOLATE BOMB

By Mary Bridger

Ingredients: 8oz plain chocolate; 2 tablespoons of instant coffee; 2 tabsp of hot water; 2 egg whites; 4oz caster sugar; 1/2 pint of double cream.

[1oz= 27 grammes . 8oz = 215 grammes]

Method: Place a 2 pint pudding bowl in the freezer, until the chocolate is ready.

Gently melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering hot water. Do not let any water get into the chocolate .When the chocolate has melted remove the bowl from the freezer and brush the inside of the bowl to create a half sphere of choc. Return the basin to the freezer until the chocolate has set. Repeat the brushing of the chocolate layers as the layers harden and go in and out of the freezer. Do this at least 3 times and preferably 4-5 times . Then return the bowl to the freezer until the filling is ready .

Dissolve the coffee in the hot water . Whisk egg whites until they are stiff . Fold the coffee liquid into the double cream gently. Then fold in the egg whites . Folding is mixing gently and trying to ‘fold’ air into the mixture. Pour the filling into the chocolate lined bowl and return to freezer to set . Then unmould the bomb like a jelly onto a plate, with a gentle shake.

It is best to use a rubber pastry brush than a bristle one to paint in the chocolate layers. Once upon a time a good pastry brush never shed its bristles. But I did do this once and someone thought that the loose bristles were my hair!

25

FOLKESTONE INVICTA REPORT

As I must have said several times over the course of the last 12 months, the 2014/15 footbaseason was always going to be seminal for Folkestone Invicta FC. They started out again with the aim of making the end-of-season play-offs in Ryman One South while finally clearing their five-year Creditors Agreement early in the new year – both of which were achieved. And, for the most part, they played with the same sort of pleasing style that manager Neil Cugley had introduced a few years back. The critics still reckoned they ‘lumped’ the ball forward too often, but what teams don’t? The local side had scored more than 120 goals in all in 2013/14 when they were gifted runners-up spot at the last minute due to Leatherhead’s maladministration and subsequent points deduction. And this time around, Cugley’s men earned second place through their own efforts alone, pipping arch Kent rivals Faversham almost at the death. Despite losing their three 20 goals plus forwards of the previous season – Johan Ter Horst, Dane Luchford and Paul Booth - at various stages of this campaign, they still scored more league goals than ever before and earned more points than they’d ever managed at this level.Two players brought in during the summer of 2014 had a great deal to do with that. Former Leatherhead and Maidstone striker Ian Draycott proved a revelation with an astonishing 43 goals in his debut season in the Black & Ambers while youngster Jordan Wright grabbed 15 or so from midfield as he made the appreciable step-up from Lydd Town in equally superb style.Ultimately, sadly, Invicta fell at the final promotion hurdle for the second year in a row. Twelve months earlier it had been Draycott and his Leatherhead team-mates who celebrated wildly at the Fulliicks Stadium after winning the play-off final at Folkestone’s expense. And this time it was another Surrey outfit, Merstham, who went away full of the fizzy stuff with a flattering 3-0 final victory over Cugley’s squad. “We’re going to have to win promotion outright” has been the call from many of a Folkestone persuasion, but each time in these last two years they have seen one club dominate their division – first Peacehaven & Telscombe and now Burgess Hill Town – who have produced the kind of consistency and mental strength to win titles.

Sussex football has really been on the up in recent seasons – something maybe our friends at the Kent County Football Association need to look at. Two good, solid close season signings in proven goal-getter Carl Rook and experienced defender/midfielder Phil Starkey have already been added to the squad for the forthcoming 2015/16 title push. But it does now look likely that long-serving club stalwart Michael Everitt may have played his last game at this level as work commitments and the demands of a young family take priority. The 33-year-old former club captain’s 600 plus games is a record that may well never be beaten, though if boss Cugley does have the knack of inspiring loyalty among his players with the likes of this season’s beneficiary Frankie Chappell and present skipper Liam Friend not too far behind.This was Cugley’s 18th successive season in charge of his home town club so no-one could say he doesn’t set a great example in the loyalty stakes. But if Invicta want to cast off the unwanted label of the Ryman League’s ‘Nearly Men’ they p erhaps need to make a better start than they have in their two most recent runners-up years.Much will depend on how the two new men settle and just how high expectations are among everyone at the club. Folkestone Invicta are not a ‘flash’ club, and hopefully never will be. Going into a season with the stated aim of Championship or Bust would put a tremendous pressure on Cugley’s new squad, inviting immediate, and dare I suggest, quite ridiculous discontent in certain quarters if they do not win every game. Even Chelsea and Barcelona – or indeed Burgess Hill Town - didn’t do that.

Mick Cork

26

JUMBO PAINTING SUCCESS FOR GO FOLKESTONE

Phillippa Goddard the well known local artist will have completed the GF Mural on the side of Safe Hands Mobility Shop in the Morehall stretch of Cheriton Road as we go to press . Those mystified by certain elements should read the following GF guide to the wall painting We hope the Mayor will officially celebrate it at a small opening party in July to which Go Folkestone members and patrons will be invited .

Phillippa had previously done the public mural in Bradstone Road ( Art Deco Trees) and the mural very near that in Foord Road on the former chapel next to Darby Steps ( Sun flowers). She was being asked about a harbour mural in connection with Samuel Plimsoll , but now says that she may take a long holiday ! Go Folkestone lined her up with a local assistant Alan P who has had his ups and downs in the past but who has worked hard . He came completely voluntarily to gain more experience as a painter , having turned his hand in the past to such odd jobs . Keeping the Job Centre advised of volunteering has helped his cause and he can now look at the massive, colourful wall and say ‘I did some of that ‘.

The painting’s mascot is Stan the Cat down in the corner , a painting of a real cat who lives at Safe Hands in a state of amiable independence . He is believed to be a Van Cat from Lake Van in Turkey , a swimming breed! He sits above the artist’s monogram and a line of wavy bricks which you can see echo those of a house a few yards away . The road in the picture is that outside the

Phillippa and Alan painting on the first level of scaffolding. Photo: David Noble

27

Cheriton Post Office and Lloyds’ Bank which the artist felt a pleasant pair of local buildings . She has said more recently that the famous Sunburst of the Davis and Davis Building might have got a look in if she had appreciated it earlier , but the famous Edwardian Davis and Davis clock renovated by Frank Bond does make an appearance .

Go Folkestone members suggested many elements including the elephants and the Dormobile, though just as many were discarded by the artistically independent muralist . Circus elephants were a rare but never forgotten event in Cheriton Road , possibly going down from semi-rural lodgings to Folkestone in a necessary blaze of publicity from Victorian times ( Sanger’s Circus perhaps) to Bertram Mills and Billy Smarts up to ca 1960 . Pat Cocks and others remembered them , and a dog belonging to someone’s father which was frightened by a Jumbo coming out of the mist and didn’t stop bolting until it got home .

Pupils from Sandgate Primary School helped by having lessons in which they talked about the Gurkhas and looked at some Nepali art before doing their own designs for saddlecloths and body-paint onto elephantine stencils . Phillippa has used nothing but these concepts for decorating the leviathans . In that way being influenced indirectly by Nepali art and being Indian ( small eared) elephants , the animals have a double reference to local history and to present successful multiculturalism in Cheriton.

Dormobile of course were the biggest and most distinctive local employer with a large factory where Shearway Business Park now is , building their famous camper vans until crisis struck around 1990 . By coincidence the non local Mrs Goddard spent many childhood holidays in one . Now collectors’ items , every one has a plate marking it from Martin Walters in Cheriton . I’ve no doubt some circus operators had some as well since they were built for living on the move , so the one in the painting feels fine .

There is however a complete mixture of ages and references in the mural with 1950s elephants decorated in Gurkha style and going past modern buildings . The spectators are a mixture of ancient and modern , and if you look closely you will see the pink blossom of cherry trees for ‘Cheriton’ toward the top . This is an artistic conceit which is called a rebus , but there were cherry orchards in the district . The aeroplane’s vapour trail is also a lazy C , though officially this is the Morehall Mural ( M vapour trail : No ) .Up at the top of the gable where height makes the design simpler the lines of the North Downs are visible particularly Castle Hill , or Caesars Camp as David still calls it . Here there is historical resonance as the still extant remains of the Norman earthworks , dating to around the 1070s , 940 years ago , are given the single tower , huts and complex dry motte or moat of a motte and bailey castle that would have looked over Folkestone in the time of William the Conqueror . Overhead a Spitfire redolent of a later conflict which many remember wheels in triumph . Actually Hurricanes flew from the local Battle of Britain aerodrome at Hawkinge but even locals would have lionised R.J Mitchells iconic Spitfire during WW2 . Traces of white World War 2 tank traps are visible . The painted clock , a few yards from the real one , is set at 11,00 am the time of Remembrance for all who died in defending the country .

Go Folkestone would like to thank Folkestone Town Council and the Roger de Haan Foundation for supporting our project . Locally we would like to thank all at Safe Hands , at County Hardware over the road and the Community Network and Foothouse . They all deserve your support for helping such a bright and colourful project that spreads artistic excellence across the town . It would be nice to do the even more prominent sister wall nearby that everyone asks us about , but you have to do what owners allow you to do .

Phillippa Goddard and Richard Wallace

28

Specifications and details for your advert

X

X

Type of Advert Size 1 Issue 2 Issues 3 Issues 4 IssuesWidth Height B/W Colour B/W Colour B/W Colour B/W Colour

Quarter page 60 mm 90 mm £30 £45 £56 £85 £82 £125 £105 £165(Portrait)Quarter page 130 mm 40 mm £30 £45 £56 £85 £82 £125 £105 £165(Landscape)Half page 130 mm 90 mm £40 £60 £75 £115 £110 £170 £145 £225

Whole Page 130 mm 180 mm £65 £75 £125 £145 £170 £215 £245 £285

Inside Cover 130 mm 90 mm £50 XXXXX £95 XXXXX £140 XXXX £185 XXXXX(Half page)Inside Cover 130 mm 180 mm £75 XXXXX £145 XXXXX £215 XXXX £285 XXXXX(Full Page)Back Cover 130 mm 180 mm XXX £150 XXXXX £285 XXXXX £415 XXXXX £540

Advertisments:Each issue is made up of 32 pages including front and back covers.The front cover is used to feature areas of interest in Folkestone.There are only six coloured pages including back page for adverts all other adverts will be black and white.

How we would like to receive copy from you: Print ready artwork in a computer file sent via email or on a CD(Formats accepted: jpg, bmp, tiff, pdf with no embedded fonts).Print ready artwork on paper (A4 size preferable to preserve quality when scanning.Please ring 01303 278644 if you need assistance.

Where to send your advert:

David Nobleemail: djn@noblepics.co.uktel: 01303 254263

or by mail to:David Noble28 Coolinge LaneFolkestoneKent CT20 3QT

(same address for cheque andorder form)

29

Community Action Group working for positive

Change and Pride in Folkestone Membership Subscription/Renewal due 2015-16 Please make Payment / cheques payable to Go Folkestone by one of the methods below: Post your renewal to: Go Folkestone Membership Secretary Mrs Nicola Tolson . 21 Clifton Crescent . Folkestone . CT20 2EN Or Alternatively Internet Banking:Lloyds TSB Sort Code 30 93 34 Account 02359029 Use your name as your Reference

Membership renewal Single membership £10.00 In receipt of benefits £ 5.00 Couple at same address £15.00 Junior membership (under18) £ 5.00

Name: _____________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________

Telephone Number: __________________________ Mobile: ___________________________

Email Address:________________________________________________

Go Folkestone use Email to communicate with Membership – please write clearly.

30