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Launched 09/04/2011

Latest update

05/09/2025 06:26

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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

New Inn 1834

Manor Rental. Mesrs Flint & Co., owners, Margaret Marsh, tenant. Messuage or tenement formerly called the Three Tuns now the New Inn, etc., in the Upper Market in Elham formerly occupied by John Rigden senior now Margaret Marsh, Kings street west, mess. and premises William Noble north, land of William Noble east and premises next mentioned south. One piece of land on which a stable is now erected(formerly a messuage) abutting New Inn north, stable of William Noble south, street west, land of William Noble east. All above John Rigden the elder then Thomas Fenner and his heirs now Messrs Flint & Co. CKS: U47/3

SUICIDEOF A BRICKLAYER 1898

The East Kent Coroner (R. M. Mercer, Esq.) held an inquest on Friday, at the Rose and Crown Inn, Elham, on the body or James John Richards, bricklayer, aged 49. (Probably only 46) Deceased was found hanging to a tree in Collis Wood, Elham, by some children, who told a policeman, who proceeded to the place and found deceased was dead. —The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide whilst of unsound mind.' Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 22 October 1898

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


What's in the database
11822 People
6789 Demography entries
2422 Events
1300 Marriages
415 Properties
427 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.

1898 SUICIDEOF A BRICKLAYER