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Sandgate

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May 2022

This magazine is compiled and edited by David Cowell who is totally responsible for content. If you do not wish to receive these magazines please email UNSUBSCRIBE to him at david@thesentinel.org.uk

Sandgate Farmers Market Saturday, 7th May Catherine Jordan Cakes Delightful treats from a professional patisserie

Usher's fruit and veg are based locally with lots of fruit, veg and salad sourced locally. For example their potatoes are sourced from O&P Gowers In Acrise.

Arkwrights Pantry Lovely foodie gifts including a range of Chilli based products from Carrington Foods Ltd. who are based in Faversham.

Anji's Interiors

Marsh soap is vegan friendly, made from quality organic products. Each soap is made from 90% olive oil, coconut oil,100% natural fragrances, seeds, petals/buds added for decoration.

We’ve been sourcing ingredients and accessories from expert producers and artisans in exchange for a fair price for over 30 years.

This Free Spirit

NEW

Working for local, national and international clients and companies from her studio based in sunny Sandgate, on the South Kent coast, Anji creates beautiful bespoke quality curtains, blinds, soft furnishings and interior decor to suit your requirements.

original handmade knitwear, clothing and gifts.

Have you lost your connection to creativity? Create, connect and revitalise your creative soul, chat and have some well deserved 'creative me time' and learn to mosaic in my pop up gallery on Tontine St.

Pauline's hand made toys Conventional and wrap style masks, soft toys and so many more wonderful hand made gifts Gill Thompson Jewellery

* Unique gifts - Gill makes only one piece * Commissions accepted * Gill can bring broken jewellery back to life * Gill uses precious, semi precious gems,freshwater pearls, glass and crystal beads

Masks wearing will be encouraged and social distancing observed

St Paul’s Church, Sandgate celebrates 200 years Beginning on Sunday 5th June, St Paul’s Church hosts a week of events to celebrate its 200th anniversary. Two hundred years after the site was first consecrated, the members of St Paul’s Church are putting on a series of Open Days, coffee mornings and special guest events St Paul’s Church with the white cherry blossom tree that was planted in hoping to attract July 2021 as part of the Remembrance and Thanksgiving service to visitors from across remember our loved ones who are no longer with us, those that have died during the pandemic, and to thank all essential workers who have Kent to learn more kept our community going in such turbulent times. The names of 93 about the building, its people were written on pieces of paper in the shape of leaves and planted in the roots of the tree. history and surroundings. Building up to the week of celebrations, people from across Sandgate and Folkestone have knitted and crocheted over 1,000 flowers that have been stitched together to create a magnificent display outside the church. Highlights of the week include a performance from Terry Waite CBE reading from his book ‘Out of the Silence’ interspersed with music and singing from Vicky Yannoula. During the week, the congregation will be offering tours of the church, featuring a display of wedding dresses worn at the church with the oldest dating back from 1968, stunning floral arrangements and interesting historical photos. Carrie Thomas, Deputy Churchwarden, said: “We’ve all been working really hard to prepare for this special milestone in the church’s life and look forward to welcoming visitors, showing them around this beautiful building and sharing our stories of what St Paul’s Church means to us.” St Paul’s Church is delighted to be able to offer an exclusive educational event for the pupils of Sandgate Primary School, the original site of which was opposite the church. This event will not only teach the pupils about the history of the stained-glass windows and the magnificent decorated ceiling dating from 1927 but will offer them a chance to explore the small church gardens not ordinarily accessible. There will also be a number of special services to commemorate the event, 3

the first led by Archdeacon Darren Miller and the final one, on Sunday 12th June, led by Bishop Rose Hudson Wilkins, the Bishop of Dover.

Programme of events Sunday 5th June10.30am

Sunday service with Archdeacon Darren Miller presiding Tuesday 7th June 8.30am Service of morning prayer Thursday 9th June 7-9pm Terry Waite CBE: Words and Music Tickets cost £15 and will be available at all Sunday morning St Paul’s services and online at www.trinitybenefice.co.uk/terrywaite Friday 10th June 10am-12pm Open Day for visitors Saturday 11th June 10am-12pm Coffee and Entertainment with music provided by Richard Baulch Sunday 12th June 10.30am Sunday communion service with Bishop Rose Hudson Wilkins presiding

History St Paul’s Church was consecrated on 28th May 1822, with the original building being demolished in 1848 to make way for the present St Paul’s, which was completed in 1849. It is a fine example of Victorian Gothic style by architect S S Teulon. The photos that will be on display during the Open Days show St Paul’s as once having two-decker seating with galleries that could accommodate up to 500 people. The galleries were removed in 1915, reducing the seating to 300, but providing the church with a more graceful interior. St Paul’s fine organ was built by Foskett around 100 years ago and was the gift of the Master family. It is regularly played by a number of organists each week and Revd Canon John Wright said: “It is a very fine example of a ‘two manual organ’. One quirky thing about the organ these days is that the Bourdon Stop is ciphering!” St Paul’s Church has a number of stunning stained-glass windows, some of which are memorials, that were installed in the 20th century with the exception of one small, beautifully coloured window on the west side, in what is now the kitchen, dating back to 1872. The ceiling decoration is also a sight to behold as it was the work of Charles Powell during the period of 1927 to 1936 and depicts eye-catching symbols that radiate the story of Christ’s Crucifixion. The history of the windows and symbolic meanings 4

behind the ceiling have been included in a special celebratory publication that will be available to buy from the church.

Come and join us to celebrate the 200th anniversary of St Paul’s Church, Sandgate 1822 - 2022 St Paul’s Church wall of flowers Since January, members of the congregation and Sandgate community have been knitting and crocheting flowers for an eye-catching display that will help promote the 200th anniversary of St Paul's Church, celebrated with a week of events beginning on Sunday 5th June. The display is located on the wall beside the steps leading up to the church where so many have made the walk to services and other events before the road leading up to Saga was developed. This colourful arrangement of over 1,000 flowers was unveiled on Sunday 1st May and has already caught the eye of many passers-by. Do pop down and take a look. We would like to thank everyone who has been involved. It really is a project by the community for the community. For more information about any of the above events please contact Carrie Thomas, Deputy Churchwarden at: stpauls200@gmail.com St Paul’s Church Facebook page: facebook.com/stpaulssandgate St Paul’s Church page on the Trinity Benefice, Folkestone website: trinitybenefice.co.uk Photos: James Willmott© 5

Our thanks to the Sandgate Parish Council and the Community Gardeners for allowing us to reproduce this diary page. We hope to make this a monthly feature in the magazine but you can read all the diary entries by clicking on this box. There is still no rain for Sandgate and very little promise of any on the horizon. Apparently we had 21.1 mm of rain this month which must have come on the very first day or so, or crept in during one night! The plants have to really put down their roots to find any moisture in the soil and clearing any of the plots to make way for new plants is a fight. Some of the roots and stems seem welded into the soil or set off in concrete, whilst others are sitting within a dust bowl; such is the difference between contrasting areas of the same garden. The spinach from last autumn had gone to seed, and the parsley was trying to do the same, there are new plants of both and so the compost heap gained a deep new layer of vegetation. The sweet peas got planted with two newly positioned wig-wams near the pond (where they are sheltered from the wind). A liberal dollop of horse manure got added too, providing a mulch as well as fertiliser for such hungry plants. An executive decision was made to plant the tomatoes this Saturday. The temperatures are fine both day and night, but the wind can be a threat and so they have been netted just for a couple of weeks to get them settled in. More will be planted this coming week, and we will start to plant in spaces along the wall. The beans, courgettes and squashes are following along just a week or two behind them, so we have time to concentrate on one thing at a time. Concentration was certainly not happening when a complete idiot (me of course), Our younger members working managed to drop an entire tray of pots full towards a Duke of Edinburgh of seedlings just on their way to be pricked award 9

out into larger pots. Fortunately we had some patient and capable volunteer gardeners there, who carefully salvaged all they could from the situation, and seedlings were saved but many were lost. Luckily, and on the very same day, Rosie turned up with donation plants she had grown and potted on at home for us. Thank goodness for that. Thanks also go to Rosemary from the Romney Marsh community garden as she had even more seeds to share with us and a few plants Weeding and working with earthed up potato plot in front for the Incredible Edible plant sale and seed swap which is next Saturday 7th May from 10am to 2pm outside the United Response Community Network in Cheriton High Street. If you are a keen gardener or looking to fill some spaces in the garden or house, then this is the event for you, and the place to get some terrific plants for a small donation. We will be providing some potted herbs as well as spare tomato plants, courgettes and squashes if they hurry up and get a little bit bigger for the day. We also have some garden plants and some of our very decorative tree spinach too. Always looking for recycled additions for our garden, Rita offered a beautiful slab of slate retrieved from a neighbour throwing it out from a house renovation. We matched the slab up with some concrete blocks, hid them from view with strategically placed logs and we now have a new bench, just in front of the pond, a great place to have a sit and a chat, or a seat to work from. We are indeed very fortunate at the garden for all the kind people who donate time, energy, or other gifts to make the garden what it is today. A very special thank you to Paul for making such a fabulous job of the boundary fencing, now finished, it just looks terrific, and we are receiving many compliments on how good the Sandgate Community Garden is looking – now all we need is RAIN. What’s next? • Finish planting up the second tomato bed and start planting along the wall. • Repot the winter squashes • Clear some of the beds and prepare for replanting • Check on the number of hop shoots per plant 10

2022 AGM 19th May at 17:45 All welcome

All now available in paperback and on Kindle Set in Folkestone in the heady days of the late 60s. They say if you can remember it, you weren't there!

Two plays. One an imaginary meeting between Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan in a Fitzrovia pub. The other is Caitlin Thomas reminiscing after the untimely death of her husband.

This is the tale of Hana, a young girl who moves from where she was born in London, to the Kent coast. They discover a wonderful area called Prince's Parade which is full of amazing animals, has a beautiful canal and is right next to the sea too! By buying this book you will be helping to protect it. All profits from it will be donated to the Save Prince's Parade campaign which aims to halt plans to develop the area into a housing estate. Very funny, and surreal story about a man and a woman on their first date: Bolton Brady and Veda, set in London, November 2001. Bolton is forty, not into assets, has never lived with a woman and looked into the future and seen loneliness. So he decides to do something about it. He advertises in a lonely-hearts column, and receives six replies, but after experiencing one disaster after another only Veda remains between him and his sanity. As the day unfolds the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred, building to a surreal, yet poignant, conclusion. 18

This walk through the history of Sandgate to the present day was first performed at the Chichester Hall a decade ago on Wednesday, 9th June. It is now available on Kindle or in paperback.

Now available on Amazon. Great evocative yarns of worldly travels.

A Loose Cannon tales of a lapsed activist

Ted Parker

The title of the book hints at how, as a ‘loose cannon’, Folkestone born Ted’s risk-taking got him into trouble on a number of occasions whilst being a considerable advantage in his working life.

As a young journalist, Reg Turnill met most of the prewar political personalities and later became the BBC's space correspondent being the only one in the press room when the historic Houston we have a problem message came from Apollo 11. 19

All now available in paperback and on Kindle Janet Holben. Paperback. Folkestone Cemetery has around 15,000 graves (27,000 people) there are stories of skulduggery and innocence, murder and bravery, grandeur and squalor – but mostly there are stories of everyday people living their lives. This account brings some of those stories back to life and will perhaps bring an understanding of how Folkestone was shaped by terrible wars, widespread disease, the unforgiving sea, the new railway and fashionable society – but mostly, by the people who lived, loved, made their livelihood and finally died here.

Westbrook House School Folkestone was a fee-paying preparatory school for boys aged 6 to 13 years. It was situated in three existing adjacent former late Victorian private houses in Shorncliffe Road with a 3-acre playing field to the rear which backed onto the main railway line. It was the life-time ambition of Kenneth N G Foster (1903-1984) (photo c.1958) who initially bought up the first house in 1946. Under his Headmastership the school started taking both day and boarding pupils in 1947. By the 1950’s the school was thriving requiring a sizable number of characterful teaching and domestic staff.

Us he rs no fru w it a on nd -l i n v e eg

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We deliver to Folkestone, Cheriton, Hawkinge, Capel, Alkham Valley, Saltwood, Sandgate, Seabrook, Hythe

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