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

Caleb Caister 1833

Caister's Tavern ca.1845-1854. Caleb Caister came from Elham in England to Oxford County in 1833. In 1836 he settled on this site, cleared farmland and built a one storey log dwelling. This dwelling was his family home but also served as an inn and tavern. Until 1848, when what is now Tavistock was established, Caister's home was the only public accommodation in north-central Oxford County for pioneers moving along the Huron Road and thence southerly into the Zorra settlement. By the 1840's Caister held an official municipal licence and a survey map of the time shows that his log dwelling was known in this locality as Caister's Tavern. Location: East side of HWY 59 south of the curve south from Tavistock (East Zorra-Tavistock) 597112 Oxford 59 RD Tavistock, ON Canada plaques

Natural Death 1852

On Thursday last, Mr. Delasaux held an inquest at Elham on the body of Ann Keeler, who died suddenly. Her mother Hannah Webb, an aged woman, called in to see her the previous day, and while talking to her, she suddenly fell forward into the grate, from which her mother immediately lifted her, and obtained assistance. She was found dead. Verdict—“Natural Death.” Kentish Gazette - Tuesday 27 April 1852

The School House 1620

This house was built in 1620 - possibly with an earlier core - partially rebuilt around 1700 following damage. Has mid-to-late C18 facade. Front elevation red brick in Flemish bond. Right gable end older brick in Flemish type bond. Plain tile roof. 2 storeys. High painted moulded brick plinth - returned along right gable end. Plat band to right gable end only. Plain brick eaves band. Roof continuous with The Old Bakery left - hipped to right. Multiple brick ridge stack towards left end. Irregular fenestration of three twenty-pane sashes in open boxes - with splayed rubbed brick voussoirs; one left of stack - and two broadly-spaced to right - all set well below eaves. Similar windows to ground floor. Door of six sunk panels under stack. Doric porch with moulded triangular pediment and slate roof. Two-storey tile-hung rear-wing to left - with lower ridge than main range - plan tile roof hipped to rear - and stack to long left side. Rear lean-to to right - brickwork integral with that of gable end.

When the school moved away, the house was sold, and in recent years it has been admirably restored, and inside it one can still see the large school room with its timbered walls and wide fireplace. Behind the fireplace is a smaller room which was once the Master's sitting room.The roof is of oak, and is original and in excellent condition. One extraordinary feature is that the wall-plates which support the base of the rafters both at the front and at the back of the house are in one piece, each over fifty feet long, and may be more, as they project into the adjoining house. The Georgian style porch has been added in modern times.

1725 date stone to right gable end is wrong as Sir John Williams' will, made April 1723, says "my house which I bought and rebuilt". The house was left to the parish in the will - to provide for the education of six local poor boys with land to provide income.

C.P.R.K. Elham - A Village Study 1968

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.

c 1929 Telephone

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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.

c 1929 Telephone

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

1929 Telephone