Catch up on all the latest history news from across Kent with Finn Macdiarmid.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Chronicles, where we turn back time on all of Kent's history,
00:26from the Mesolithic era to the Industrial Revolution and everything in between.
00:30I'm Finn McDermott and join me as we turn back time.
00:33We'll be looking first into Fort Amherst's VE Day celebrations ahead of the 80th anniversary tomorrow.
00:38We'll then hear about the Lees Lift's new time capsule and we'll also be doing some sport with Bridge Tennis Club,
00:44taking us back through their 50 years of swinging, serving and other tennis clubs that might begin with the letter S.
00:49And our reporter Etterley will be putting my artistic eye to the test by showing me historically quite inaccurate paintings
00:55of animals throughout history.
00:57But first, it's a quick round-up of all the history news from around the world.
01:00Now, I know it's called Kent Chronicles and Kent does have a lot of history, but there's no harm in travelling elsewhere.
01:06On tonight's feature, we'll go back to the 5th of May in 1215, when rebel barons renounced their allegiance to King John,
01:12a chain of events that led to the signing of the Magna Carta.
01:15Then, to the 7th of May, 1765, we'll see the HMS Victory, the flagship of British Admiral Horatio Nelson,
01:22that was launched in Chatham.
01:23And on the 6th of May, 1954, when Roger Bannister, a 25-year-old British student,
01:29became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.
01:32His time was 3.59.4 seconds.
01:35And ahead of VE Day, searchlights are being set up across Medway.
01:39The champagne is coming out and bunting is being laid for miles across the county.
01:43So let's take a look at, sorry, let's take a look at that history roundup.
01:47Sorry, that's a sneak peek of the next link.
01:49First up, on this week's history roundup.
01:52This week marks the 810th anniversary of rebellious barons breaking their allegiance to King John,
01:58beginning what would turn out to be a key milestone in the history of the country.
02:03After losing much of his lands in France to King Philip II,
02:06King John had raised extensive taxes on the barons to pay for the expensive war.
02:11This led to the 5th of May, 1215, when the barons renounced their fealty to the king and,
02:17led by Robert Fitzwalter, formed an army to march south towards London.
02:22The aim was to limit the king's power with a particular focus on taxes and land ownership.
02:27This marked a significant step towards the eventual signing of the Magna Carta,
02:31which is seen as a landmark document in English history and a precursor to modern democracy and law.
02:36Next, today marks the 260th anniversary of the launching of HMS Victory.
02:42The flagship of Admiral Horatio Nelson, Victory was built and launched at Chatham Dockyard,
02:48before famously seeing action in the French Revolutionary Wars.
02:51Initially ordered during the Seven Years' War, the ship was first commissioned in 1778,
02:56during the American Revolutionary War.
02:58However, it was in 1805 that Victory saw her most famous battle at Trafalgar.
03:02The ship now stands as a museum and, since 2012, has been the official flagship of the First Sea Lord.
03:09And finally, 69 years ago, on the 6th of May, 1954,
03:14Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.
03:18The 25-year-old British medical student achieved the feat at the Ifle Road Sports Ground in Oxford,
03:24managing a time of 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds.
03:28He only had minimal training for the attempt and had been practising as a junior doctor at the time.
03:34Bannister had previously set a British record for the 1500 metres in 1952 at the Olympics in Helsinki.
03:41That's it for this week's History Roundup.
03:43Now, you may have noticed that the last link didn't quite make much sense.
03:49I was actually so excited for this story, I gave you a little sneak preview.
03:52Now, tomorrow is obviously VE Day and searchlights are being set up across Medway.
03:56The champagne is coming out and bunting is being laid for miles across the county.
03:59So let's take a look at how Kent is celebrating the 80-year anniversary tomorrow.
04:03But first, what was VE Day like in the county back in 1945?
04:07I've been finding out just that.
04:08Life in Kent during World War II was tough.
04:15The county was closest to occupy Europe and being so close to London,
04:18buildings and people were hit with bombs across the county.
04:22Street lamps would shatter, homes would fall,
04:24and even schoolchildren had to be trained in the case of an air raid.
04:28But the Kentish spirit, just like the rest of the country, meant people refused to give up.
04:33Whether it was gunners and searchlight teams downing German planes,
04:37firemen keeping homes from burning, medics aiding wounded soldiers,
04:40or even rescuing furniture from the devastation of the Blitz.
04:44And then, the announcement came through.
04:46And it was over.
04:48Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight,
04:55Tuesday the 8th of May.
04:58Today is Victory in Europe Day.
05:01When the rubble cleared and crowds lined the streets,
05:05the people of Kent no longer feared the skies and the seas.
05:08And now, 80 years on, how are we in Kent celebrating and honouring the Day of Peace?
05:13Rochester Cathedral, which once had to have walled defences put up outside its near 1,000-year-old doors,
05:19will now be able to see Medway 6 searchlights lighting up the sky in honour of our fallen soldiers.
05:24Ashford, which once saw heavy bombing and multiple enemy aircraft crashing into its fields,
05:28will be raising the 80th anniversary flag and ceremonial lighting of the beacon in the evening.
05:34And children and adults alike will be able to enjoy Maidstone, maybe not with a cigar though,
05:38but they'll be holding a ceremonial flag-raising service in Jubilee Square and a special exhibition with re-enactors.
05:44And wherever you are across the county, street parties will be held, just like in the 40s,
05:48with some already popping up before the big day.
05:51It's fantastic to be here in Park Crescent, one of the brilliant street parties that have been held across Medway.
05:57Thanks to the local organisers who've invited me along, it's great to be here.
06:00And this is happening across the Medway towns, both this weekend and next weekend.
06:05We're going to be having beacons lit across Medway to reflect and remember those who made sacrifices 80 years ago
06:12for our democracy and freedom, and to give thanks for where we are now as a country.
06:17For all the music, excitement and fanfare that will ring out across the county,
06:21there will also be moments of silence, of thanks and remembrance for those who gave their lives
06:25so that we might live ours freely.
06:28Finn McDermid for KMTV.
06:30And as Kent celebrates the anniversary tomorrow,
06:43we'll be looking back at the stories of how Kent celebrated VE Day,
06:47starting with Bernard Crowhurst, a 90-year-old man from Dartford
06:50who's been sharing his stories of the celebrations.
06:53Now a book writer, Bernard's shared his story with us of the bonfires held in Darenth back in 1945.
06:58I can't imagine anyone having a bonfire bigger than ours because we had everything on our doorsteps,
07:06mums, dads, kids.
07:08We collected everything, bracken trees, sword-down trees, and our bonfire burnt for weeks.
07:16It didn't just burn on VE Day.
07:18We used to get out there on the green that was in front of the house, and we used it as kids for roasting potatoes.
07:26But there was all jolly round the bonfire, singing, dancing, and doing all sorts of silly things.
07:35And we'll have that full interview with Bernard on the Kent Morning Show and the KMTV website tomorrow.
07:42But now it's the 140th anniversary of the Folkestone-based water lift called the Lees Lift.
07:47And to celebrate their past, they're looking to locals to help inform their future.
07:51The lift is creating a time capsule that donators can leave hand-engraved brass plates with a message for the next generation on it.
07:57Well, joining me with more on this is Flautcher Hoet, the CEO of the lift.
08:01Thank you so much for joining me, Flautcher.
08:04Thank you for having me.
08:05No problem at all.
08:06Now, first off, can you explain why Lees Lift, for anyone that maybe hasn't heard of it, is so important to the area's history?
08:14Yeah, so the Lees Lift is a funicular lift that links the Lees Promenade and folks into the seaside.
08:23And it's been there for 140 years.
08:26It's an ingenious Victorian piece of transport infrastructure that we are now restoring and hope to reopen to the public in the spring of 2026.
08:39Amazing. And did you always want to do a time capsule for your 140th anniversary? Was that always the plan?
08:46The idea has come up recently.
08:48It's one of the ways to raise funds for the restoration project, which is now in full swing.
08:55We've started. People who live in Folsom will probably have seen the hoarding going up and big work starting on the lift.
09:03So, yes, we're still fundraising for that project.
09:06And the time capsule campaign seemed like a really good way to raise those funds, but also to celebrate the place that the lift has played in the Folsom community for so many years.
09:20I see. And for anyone out there who might want to, how can people get their message into this capsule and when is it planning to be opened?
09:28So, the lift itself, we hope to reopen in March 2026 and spring 2026.
09:36The campaign is running from today up to the 30th of July.
09:41People can go to our crowd funder page, just go to our website, Lee's Lift in Folkestone, and on our home page is a link to donate.
09:51On our crowd funder page, you can give a donation.
09:55And if you give a higher donation, you can have a message engraved on a brass plate, which we will then attach to one of the new railway sleepers of the rail track of the lift.
10:08So, the messages will be literally, yeah, interred, semi-interred in the cliffside.
10:15If you want to give less than those big amounts, we will still love to have your message, and that will enter our digital database.
10:24So, we'll have a digital database of messages, and the bigger donors will get their message engraved on a brass plate.
10:29We also make 20 brass plates available to local community groups in Folkestone, so they get to put their message on there for free.
10:39And, yeah, that's our way to involve everyone in this momentous event that is the restoration of the lift.
10:47Amazing. Well, I'm afraid that's all we have time for, Flortje.
10:49Thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate your time.
10:52Now, it's time for a history question to test your knowledge that I like to call trivia through time.
11:00This week, it's all about the amazing Lord Rokeby, who lived four miles outside of Hive,
11:05and would reward anyone he saw on the street with a half-crown coin, if he saw them doing what.
11:11We'll read that one more time.
11:12That's the amazing Lord Rokeby, as he was called, who lived four miles outside of Hive,
11:16and would reward anyone he saw on the street with a half-crown coin, if he saw them doing what.
11:23Well, the clock, sorry, has hit its halfway mark, but there's still more history to be uncovered.
11:29Join us after this very short break, where we'll hear about a local Kent tennis club in the village of Bridge,
11:35turning 50 years old.
11:37And we'll also see some very strange medieval animal art.
11:42We'll have all that and more just after this very short break.
11:45Now, I will preface this animal art, it doesn't look like any animal that I've ever seen,
11:49and I did struggle quite a bit.
11:53You won't want to miss it.
11:54Well, thank you so much, and we'll see you just after this short break.
11:56Oh, good.
11:59Oh, good.
12:00Oh, good.
12:01Oh, yes.
12:01Oh, yes.
12:02Oh, well, that's a long break.
12:03Oh, yes.
12:04You won't want to miss it.
12:08Oh, yes.
12:14Oh, yes.
12:16Oh, yes.
12:17Oh, yes.
12:17Oh, yes.
12:18Oh, yes.
12:20Oh, yes.
12:21Oh, yes.
20:12My father-in-law was in Bomber Command, flew his last mission on D-Day itself.
20:20And so it's really important for us to remember these family connections.
20:26D-Day to me is a remembrance of my relatives who served and who unfortunately passed away.
20:33But I think about my grandfather who served in Burma and what his thoughts were
20:38when he found out that there was victory in Europe, but he was still fighting in the Far East.
20:43And what his thoughts were, and what he came back to afterwards,
20:47was not only do we have to remember V-E Day, we remember V-J Day as well.
20:51But the celebrations also recognised the firefighters of the time.
20:55Linda Lewis of the National Fire Service says these forces are often overlooked in the face of history.
21:03It's important because they shouldn't be forgotten.
21:05And people these days don't know anything about the fire service.
21:13They don't know anything about the war.
21:16They don't know what people at home did.
21:20A lot of the time they will know what happens in other countries.
21:26But you don't find out what happened for ladies and gentlemen at home.
21:32Generations, both young and old, reflected on this trip to the past.
21:37I think everybody's joining in.
21:39Yeah, it's lovely.
21:40It's a really nice community event.
21:42I've enjoyed the afternoon.
21:44I feel it's well attended.
21:46I think it's something that's got to be remembered.
21:48And it's great to see so many generations here.
21:52It's very important that we'll come together and remember this day and appreciate what we've done.
21:57BU Day will be officially taking place on the 8th of May.
22:02Henry Luck for KMTV in Tombridge.
22:06Well, a very important package there from Henry.
22:09Lots of people don't realise the efforts of the people who stayed back home in Britain,
22:13whether that was the fire service or local medics,
22:17or even those, as you might remember, digging for Britain,
22:19having to garden to make sure that the country had just had enough food.
22:23I do have to say that man in the bowler hat,
22:24he might have to teach me a thing or two about style.
22:27Now, let's take a look back to the art of medieval times.
22:31You might have seen them doing the rounds on social media.
22:34These pictures and images of animals, whether they're exotic ones or pets,
22:39having really strange artistic depictions.
22:42Sometimes there's cats holding swords or standing on two feet.
22:46It's quite a sight to behold.
22:48And our reporter, Etalee Reynolds, joined me earlier right here on the sofa,
22:53showing me some of these paintings.
22:54And I did my very best to make sure I could try and understand what kind of animals they were.
23:00But you'll understand why I had such a hard time when you see some of these creatures.
23:04Let's have a look at that now.
23:06So, yeah, there was a lot of crazy art in the medieval times,
23:10which is really interesting because it comes in between two points of pretty cool art,
23:14the Roman Empire and the Renaissance.
23:16Whereas those both looked more into realism and more into the achievements of, say, the Roman Empire,
23:22medieval art was a lot more about symbolism and using pictures to bring certain stories to life.
23:29And additionally, world and international trade was becoming more of a thing around this time.
23:35Therefore, people were just hearing about these creatures, not seeing them.
23:39So it kind of created for some very interesting art.
23:42And I've actually put together a little quiz for you today.
23:45Okay, brilliant.
23:45I have found some very interesting images, and I just want to see if you can guess what they are.
23:49So if we look at number one.
23:51Let's have a look.
23:52All right, well, off the bat, I'm seeing claws.
23:54I'm seeing a long tail.
23:55I'm seeing stripes.
23:57I don't know what it looks like.
23:58A bone that this creature is on.
24:00There's also, I love the really vacant look in the eyes.
24:03So it's really interesting how they give them kind of, you know, anthropomorphic features.
24:09I'm going to assume this is either like a big cat or a regular cat because of obviously the whiskers, the ears.
24:15But the fact that it's standing on two legs makes me think this could just be a regular domesticated house cat.
24:22This is a bit of a tricky one.
24:24I'm thinking because of the stripes, you know, I'm thinking maybe more of a tabby cat.
24:28You're not going to give me any hints, are you?
24:30No.
24:30I think we'll have to go with the final answer.
24:36Regular tabby cat.
24:37I, well, yeah, you're right.
24:39It is literally just a cat.
24:41A cat?
24:41And cats were seen as both evil and protectors because they got rid of rodents.
24:46So they were often portrayed very human-like but also kind of like evil and mysterious.
24:51Okay.
24:51So that's why he looks like that.
24:52So if we move on to the next one.
24:54Yeah, let's have a look.
24:55What is this?
24:57I would not be able to tell you.
24:59I'm, it looks like a ship but it's got claws.
25:04A dragon?
25:06No.
25:06Okay.
25:07This is a crocodile.
25:08What?
25:08Yep.
25:09You can really tell that kind of people heard and not seen about the different types of animals.
25:13Yeah.
25:13But, yeah, let's move on to the next one.
25:16Let's do number three very quickly.
25:20This is a bit of a wild card.
25:22Dog.
25:22It shocked me.
25:23Yeah, so kind of right.
25:25Okay.
25:25This is a hound at the bottom and a rabbit is riding the hound.
25:30Oh, two for one.
25:30Okay.
25:30Yeah.
25:31Rabbits were often painted in very, like, battle-like ways.
25:35Oh, right.
25:36Okay.
25:36Let's very quickly have a look at the last one.
25:41That's...
25:41I think this is my favourite.
25:44That's your favourite.
25:45I don't even have an answer.
25:48That does not resemble any animal to me.
25:50It's a whale.
25:51It's a whale.
25:52It is a whale.
25:52That's not a whale.
25:53I've spelt it wrong, but it is a whale.
25:55Brilliant.
25:56Well, on that bombshell, thank you so much for joining me, Atalee.
25:59Maybe next time I'll have a better go of it.
26:01Clearly, they'd never seen a whale before, but I'll take two and a half out of four.
26:08Well, that's the end of our show, and it looks like that was certainly one for the history books.
26:12You've been watching Kent Chronicles live here on KMTV.
26:16Don't forget, there's always history happening around us, and if you think you have a story
26:20that we should be covering, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
26:23Now, if you are more interested in the present than the past, I guess I'll have to understand you on that one.
26:29But we do have our other special programmes.
26:32Invicta Sport, Kent on Climate, Kent Film Club, Based in Kent, and The Kent Politics Show.
26:38You can watch all of those throughout the week or catch up with them on our website.
26:41Well, that's all we have time for for now.
26:44See you very soon.
26:45Goodbye.
26:53Goodbye.
26:54Goodbye.