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Launched 09/04/2011

Latest update

24/10/2024 08:30

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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
Les Ames in action

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
Abbot's Fireside

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

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
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
Swing Riots

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

Telephone c 1929

Telephones come to the village. These were a great help to the tradesmen. Life was getting easier for everyone. By 1930 there were 29 subscribers. "It has been interesting to see how the services have improved through the years. In the early days we had only horses and carts or shank's pony (that was another way of saying that you walked!). Today almost every household has a car or two."

Notice the base of the telephone also enclosed its bell and induction coil, obviating the old separate ringer box. Power was supplied to each subscriber line by central office batteries instead of the user's local battery which required periodic service

Memoires of Bill Watson

Thomas Thompson 1772

The Elham vicar was also near the close of his life when he wrote "The African Trade for Negro Slaves" which was shewn to be consistent with the Principles of Humanity and with the Laws of Revealed Religion, 1772: in which " without considering the subject very deeply, he draws his arguments from Aristotle and his illustrations from the Pentateuch."

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


What's in the database
11818 People
6789 Demography entries
2416 Events
1296 Marriages
415 Properties
425 Photographs
Completed projects ...
  • Properties 1841-1911
  • Demography records 1841-1911 (village only)
  • Cemetery & Graveyard burials
  • Memorial and graveyard inscriptions
Work in progress ...
  • Demography records 1841-1911 (parish)
  • Marriages within the Elham parish
  • Audio/verbal accounts by Elham residents
Coming soon ...
  • Mapping of all properties within the Elham parish
  • List of artefacts
Future projects ...
  • Audio village tour
  • Complete list of shops - past and present
What's new!
Michael Hayes
Doctor Who Producer
Arthur Frederick Broadbridge
Elham resident and diplomat
Charles Alfred Fortin
Elham assistant surgeon
William Lewis Cowley
Elham resident and author
George W Palmer
Graveyard burials
John Midgeley
Henry Clayson
STATS - Facts & Trivia
Windlass Cottage Title Deeds
Church Cottage history back to 1720
Anthony Eden
Prime Minister and Elham resident

EHS
Swing Riots
Les Ames in action
Audrey Hepburn
Letters

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.

2007 Earthquake