People
When the village's local history society came into being, it was very much the creation of one man. John Parfitt, who lived with his family at Bombers on Lower Green, called the meeting that brought the village’s history society to life on 9 October 1981. From that first gathering onwards, the organisation's name has always carried the words 'and District', a small detail that reflects its wider ambitions beyond the village itself.
Parfitt brought serious archaeological credentials to the venture. At Great Barnetts he had carried out excavations within the moat there, uncovering the remains of two mediaeval houses built of timber framing. These structures were dated to a period running from about 1270 to 1320, and in 1977 he wrote up the site in a dissertation running to thirty pages. His interest in the historic landscape also showed in his cartographic work: he managed to obtain a large copy of the Tythe Map of Leigh dating from 1840, then set about redrawing it so that every field name appeared on it, accompanying the new map with a detailed report explaining what it revealed.
The first committee was a strong one. Roger Britten, Headmaster at Knotley Hall, acted as secretary, while Adrian Argent combined the roles of Treasurer and Membership Secretary. Bill Hayter, who had spent his working life as the village blacksmith, sat alongside Lawrence Biddle, who consistently declined the chairmanship on the grounds, as his wife Nancy explained, that he was busy enough already. Dick Wood was a character remembered for answering to three Christian names: Henry, Victor and Dick. The surviving minutes from those early days record struggles with the Kent Archives, membership income of £78, and debates over insurance and the programme for the following year. One particularly forward-looking decision was to capture residents' memories on tape; those early recordings are now looked after by James Cook.
John Parfitt died some years ago, but his connection with the village’s history society did not end there. His partner, Suzanne Hartley, generously gave the local history society twenty large volumes of Archaeologia Cantiana, a substantial run of Kent Archaeological Review magazines and numerous papers from the Society's early days. The Review issues, sixty-eight in all, cover the years 1966 to 1984.
This account first appeared in the Parish Magazine in July 2010.