Post-war
A recent gift to the local history archive has brought the harvest season of 1959 back into focus. Keith Davidson, now 88 and living at Ardullie in Leigh, has sent us a collection of village material recalling his time here. Although he was only in his twenties at the time, Keith lived in the village from autumn 1957 until 1963, and he threw himself into local life. He was active with the Church and the Youth Club, and with the Conservative Association, and he served as a lay reader, being licenced by the Bishop of Rochester. When the time came for him to leave Leigh, he marked the occasion by giving a farewell sermon.
One of the treasures among his papers concerns the Harvest Festival at St Mary's in 1959. The hymn sung that year made mention of tractors, a suitably practical note for a farming community, and it credited the increase of the fields as a gift of God's almighty hand. It is a small detail, but a telling one, catching the moment when mechanised farming had become part of village worship.
The wider parish was busy in those years too. Lord and Lady Hollenden came to judge a children's fancy dress event, while Lady Kindersley, who lived at Ramhurst, was a firm supporter of flower arranging. St Mary's also looked outward, helping to support the building of a new church at Cray, which was finished in September 1963. Closer to home, the tower staircase at St Mary's was completed in July 1963. The parish was guided through this period by Rev. John Bounds, Vicar from 1957 to 1980, and his wife Mary; the couple also made a journey to Jerusalem. At Oak Cottage, Charlie and Ethel Ingram marked their Golden Wedding.
Our Parish Magazines fill in the everyday picture, covering the choir, hop picking and WI meetings. The archive holds magazines going back to 1957, though there are gaps between 1965 and 1979. Keith Davidson's reminiscences will be placed on the website in due course.