Graveyard Memorial Inscriptions

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

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

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

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

Les Ames hits out

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

Abbot's Fireside c 1450

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

Audrey attends school

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

George V Playing Field

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

Swing Riots of 1830

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

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

SHOCKING Accident 1812

On Monday the 8th inst. a child, between three and four years old, son of Mr. Carswell, butcher, at Elham, being improvidently left in a room by its parents, set fire to its clothes. The neighbours alarmed by its cries, hastened to its assistance, and extinguished the flames, by wrapping it in a sheet, nor, however, till the poor victim was so dreadfully burned, that death relieved it from its torture in about four hours afterwards.- This is the second instance of the kind that has occurred at the above place within the last eight mouths, and it is hoped will prove a warning to those entrusted with the care of children. Kentish Gazette - Tuesday 16 June 1812

Emma Rigden 1938

News in Brief. FAITHFUL SERVICE On our front page is announced the death of Constance Emma Rigden, of Elham, Kent, the former governess and devoted friend for 51 years of the family of the late Dr. and Mrs. Vere Nicoll. Brigadier & Mrs Fryer (she was daughter of H W Selby-Lowndes, Master of East Kent Hunt from 1900).

USING THREATENING LANGUAGE 1869

Mr. Danzey Somerville Creswell, of Elham, was summoned before Thomas Deane, Esq., on Wednesday, on an information laid by James Sprinks, of the same place, charging him with using threatening language towards him. It appeared that the complainant, who is a grocer and draper, and the defendant, were in conversation on the previous day at Elham, and according to the statement of the complainant, the defendant said to him in a rather excited manner, "If I had my gun with me I would blow out your brains." The complainant now asked for protection, as he feared that the defendant would carry out his threat. Defendant said he was rather excited at something that was said to him by the complainant; but lie did not use the language imputed to him, neither had he any intention of doing the complainant any bodily injury. Mr. Dense said he mast bind him over to keep the peace towards the complainant —himself in £40 and one surety in £20, for six months. Mr. Cresswell said he brought no friends with him. Mr. Dense asked complainant if he would be satisfied with the bond of Mr. Cresswell alone, but he declined. Mr. Cresswell ultimately obtained a surety in Mr. Thomas Cloke, prior of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Hythe, who was accepted. Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 08 May 1869

EHS Database

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

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

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

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

1952 First listed building in village

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Les Ames (1905 - 1990)

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

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

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

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

EHS Database

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

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

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

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

1952 First listed building in village

EHS Database

Swing Riots

Les Ames (1905 - 1990)

Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)

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

Stats

1952 First listed building in village

Abbots Fireside is the first building in the village to be listed by English Heritage