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

A KHAKI WEDDING 1902

The first wedding solemnised in Ashford parish church this year was that between Corporal Edward Nicholas Wakefield, Royal Engineers, third son of the late Mr. Edmond Wakefield, blacksmith, Elham, and Miss Maggie Rate Mortimer, daughter of Mr. W. Mortimer, of Ashford, and late of the Royal Engineers. The marriage was performed by the Rev. E. W. Winstanley." The bride was attired in khaki, and the bridegroom in scarlet, while the bride's sister wore a scarlet costume, and the best man, the brother of the bridegroom, in the khaki uniform of the Imperial Yeomanry. Corporal Wakefield has lately returned from South Africa, where he went through the Natal campaign with General Buller: Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 11 January 1902

New Inn 1824

ELHAM. TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, By Mr GEORGE FINNIS, at the THREE TUNS INN, in ELHAM, on ..24th May 1824, all that FREEHOLD MESSUAGE or TENEMENT, (In two dwellings,) with the large brick building formerly used as a Wine Vault, but now converted into stables; fifty perches .. of garden ground .. situate in Middle-Row, in Elham, and now in the occupation of James Rootes and Henry Crouch, as yearly tenants. K.G., 21 May 1824, 1c K.G., 15 June 1824, 4a

Bill Green 1940

Sgt Bill Green had been part of the Battle of Britain for nine days when he was shot down by a German fighter. On 29 August, Mr Green was an inexperienced pilot flying at a height of 20,000ft above Deal in Kent. He said: "If you had said to me, 'Is there any chance there would be any aircraft in the sky that you haven't seen?' I would have said, 'No chance.' "But suddenly, a hole appeared in the bullet proof windscreen in front of me and I immediately started to get covered in glycol (engine antifreeze).

I realised I had to get out. I had got as far as taking the weight off my bottom and onto my feet when I was sucked out." The force with which Sgt Green rushed through the air ripped the boots off his feet. He pulled the rip cord of his parachute but nothing happened. As he plummeted to earth at 120mph, the 23-year-old's thoughts turned to his wife, Bertha. "I had only been married for about 12 weeks and I supposed I was seeking my end - for I was sure it was going to happen - through thoughts of my wife," he said. "I remember praying. I wasn't Christian at the time, I am now. "I remember saying, 'Please God open this bloody parachute' and quite magically the wind got under one of the folds with some vigour and kicked me back with a jolt. . "The quietude that hit me had more impact than any noise I've ever heard. and with that I thought, 'My god I'm alive.'"

He had joined the Royal Auxiliary Air Force as an engine fitter in December 1936, and shortly before the outbreak of war, he trained as a pilot. Just 11 days before he was shot down above Kent, he flew a Hurricane for the first time. It was 20 August and Sgt Green had officially joined the Battle of Britain, one of the most crucial battles in British history. Nine days later, he was shot down. After his parachute finally opened, he landed on a farm in Elham. He said: "I sat in a field on my bottom and looked around. The field was full of thistles and cowpats and I thought, 'I've got to walk around this old trash in my stockinged feet'. "Then two blokes came out of the farmhouse with shotguns and realised I was English. "They helped me up and I couldn't stand because I'd been hit, without knowing it, in the leg. "They took me back to the farmhouse and gave me a cup of tea and that was the end of the Battle of Britain as far as I was concerned."

Mr Green continued to serve with the RAF, reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant. BBC video

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.

1905 Les Ames CBE

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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.

1905 Les Ames CBE

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

1905 Les Ames CBE

Kent and England cricketer born in Elham.