Kent’t New Military History Shop “Still in the trenches’ opens in Folkestone Old High Steet during May and already word is spreading about this new shop and trade is beginning to build.

Walking up the Old High Street from the Harbour I came across a new business which only recently opened its doors to the public. ‘Still in the trenches’ has a significant collection of: medals, badges, trench art, helmets, uniforms, gas masks. edged weapons, de-activated firarms, inert grendades, intert ordnance, flags, books, aviation items, webbingk photos, documentation, postcards and military models for sale - in fact more than enough for anyone interested in military paraphanalia.

I popped my head into the shop where there were several people browsing through the artefacts and I stood chatting for a while to the proprietor who told me that the shop had only been opened a few weeks but already he was seeing a steady stream of people popping in to look and buy various items. Over the coming months he also intends to run some events locally for people interested in military history and paraphenalia.

With our close proximity to the coast I am sure this shop will do very well - as interest grows in the rich military history of the area especially as various local projects start to gather steam such as the Step Short project and the Shorncliffe Redoubt project which is a little further down the timeline.

www.stillinthetrenches.com

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At the Queens birthday many good folk were honoured with awards - and amongst those receiving the well earned spotlight was our very own Helen Tait - Head Teacher of Sandgate Primary School and Folkestone Academy Primary.

Helen, who was made a CBE for services to education, said “I’m quite overwhelmed and very excited too. What an amazing honour, an honour I just would never have expected. I feel immensely proud to have even been considered for it.

“I just don’t even know where it came from.

“I received a letter - I came home from school and there was a letter on the table and my husband was intrigued as it had Cabinet Office on the envelope. I opened it quite innocently.

“To say my breath was taken away was an understatement. It was the most emotional moment you could ever imagine and very humbling…”

Mrs Tait grew up in Winchester but moved to Kent to start teaching in 1977, when she began at George Spurgeon - now Castle View - in Folkestone. Before she moved to Sandgate Primary she was head teacher at Tenterden Juniors and she recently took on Head Teacher role for Folkestone Academy Primary too. She added: “I’m lucky that I truly love what I do - I’m lucky to have a rich life… Kent has been very good to me and it’s a county I’m very proud to belong to

“What I feel about this whole award is that it truly is in recognition of so many people, it’s not just about me, it’s about everyone who’s connected with Sandgate Primary and Folkestone Academy and all the very fine head teachers and people at the LEA that work in Kent…and we are lucky to work with so many fine people and children in Kent”

A full report can be obtained from Kentish Express

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By invitation of Richard Moffatt, a Trustee of the Sellindge Locomotive Preservation Group, I visited newly leased site just outside Sellindge where old steam engines and locomotives go when they have finished service - if they are lucky.

Richard and some of his colleagues walked me round the site where I could see many engines of all types awaiting expert attention by the skilled men who have a love of engines, and have mostly been involved with trains, for most of their adult life.

Several groups from across Kent and London use this site and have their own engine project on the go there - and to complete their own projects which may take many years they share skills across all the groups. It really is a labour of love for them - because when faced with the size of the task ahead most of us would just turn around and go home.

Recently the group acquired a 99 year lease so they are now making plans to build a new workshop - currently most of the work in bad weather is done in a huge tarp covered construction or in one of the many workshops on site. Once the building is in place they would like to offer training to other, maybe younger, railway enthusiasts to share the learning and increasingly rare skills that they have.

Today was the first of the Sandgate Gardens open day events - and having bought my ticket a month or so back, and as it was a lovely sunny day, I was looking forward to a relaxing afternoon checking out some of the local gardens. The Sandgate Gardens open day was organised by Mrs Susan Cowell with proceeds going towards the Chichester Memorial Hall - Sandgates community hall.

Anybody who knows Sandgate knows that there is not many flat areas around - and that proved the case with the 8 gardens we looked at. Many of the gardens were on multiple levels - but regardless of the challenge multipe level gardens present to their owners - all of the gardens were absolutely stunning.

Sandgate is set into a wooded escarpment and most of the bigger gardens featured informal woodland areas - but there were also formal gardens, herb gardens, courtyard gardens, terraced gardens, water gardens, vegetable gardens , rock gardens - even the roof of a garden building had been planted with sedums - and many gardens were a combination of features  - some with a stunning sea view too.

Although fairly early in the growing season all gardens were showing a wonderful display of colour making this a very successful event and hopefully one that will become a regular occurance in future years.

The following pictures show just some of the lovely gardens visited:

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Report from David Cowell about Society Talk: Sandgate in People, Prose and Poems. David says “Sue Blakesley was really good with what I can only call a Radio 4 voice. Ken Colley (narrator was none other than Ken Colley who played Admiral Piett in two Starwars films and recently was the Duke of Edinburgh in one of Channel 4’s The Queen series) was Ken - very professional.”

“I had a gift for my introduction for two reasons 1. in last week’s Folkestone Herald they said the evening was about Joyce Grenfell and 2. in the audience was Holby City actor George Irving so when I apologised if anyone had come to see the Joyce Greenfell production (two had) I theatrically looked around the audience to Irving and said “George, don’t do that”. It got a laugh, I relaxed so it set the evening off on its way quite well.”

“Sandgate in People, Prose and Poems isn’t brim full of humour but as Ken said if you get an audience to laugh at the end of the the production it shows they are still awake. After the talk the audience were very complimentary and I felt comfortable with the performance so I guess that’s all that matters. ”

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