Good news for Aveling group

Following the group’s first public event last September (Thomas Aveling’s Birthday Celebration 2019), the Thomas Aveling Society rolls into 2020 with three positive developments to report.

Firstly, Hoo resident and talented artist Alan Page presented Michael Pearce with a fabulous painting showing an imagined scene featuring Thomas with one of his steam road rollers outside the Invicta Works in Strood.

Secondly, thanks to a donation of £200 from the Blakemore Foundation (owners of Hoo Spar), plus additional support by Village Voices Publishing, the ‘Mobile Thomas Aveling Museum’ will be launched later this month (January). The project is part of the group’s ‘Reaching Out Education Programme’ and will see an exhibition placed in schools and local groups for set periods.

Lastly, the Thomas Aveling Society recently lobbied Medway Council and housing developer Taylor Wimpey to assign Thomas Aveling themed names to roads on a new housing development along Stoke Road in Hoo (yet to start construction). Thomas worked for farmer Edward Lake (of Abbots Court) on the fields around Stoke Road (and Abbots Court) as a young man - possibly developing his early inventions and engineering ideas on the very fields now being developed. The Thomas Aveling Society has agreed for the following road names to be assigned: Thomas Aveling Road, Invicta Drive, Harvest Rise, Plough Close, Foundry Close, Blacksmith Lane and Edward Lake Drive.

The Thomas Aveling Society was formed in 2014 to promote and celebrate the life and legacy of pioneering engineer Thomas Aveling, who lived in Hoo as a boy and young man. He was buried in the churchyard at St. Werburgh Church following his death in 1882, aged 57.

  

Military airfield recognition

During the many Armistice centenary commemorations last November, Lt. Col. Fred Beringer (retired) unveiled a plaque to mark where RAF Allhallows once stood. 

The plaque, pictured below, was created by the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and is located outside Allhallows Village Hall - the airfield was nearby - on what is today neighbouring farmland. 

The airfield was active between 1916 and 1935.  Various fighter types from ‘No. 50 Squadron’ initially used the airfield, as a Home Defence landing ground during World War One.  By the late summer of 1918 ‘No. 143 Squadron’ had taken charge of the site, with Sopwith Camels remaining in service for this unit after the end of fighting, although Sopwith Snipes had begun to replace them during 1919.

The Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust is now planning to install a memorial in Hoo, at the site of what was RNAS Kingsnorth (RAF Kingsnorth), active between 1914 and 1921.
 

Happy birthday Thomas Aveling

As co-founder of the Thomas Aveling Society (Hoo), I'd like to post the following birthday greeting.

You can stay in touch with the Thomas Aveling Society (Hoo) by visiting the group's website here (where you'll find social media links).

Get to work on your archive

Nearly all of us have a box or two of old family photos tucked away in the loft, cellar or sideboard. These boxes usually provide a fascinating insight into family life - with a mix of old black and white images and colour photos with the odd Polaroid thrown in. 

But what happens to that treasured box of photos when we’re no longer around - do they get passed on to someone else in the family? Will they know who is actually pictured in all those personal memories?

Well, I’m encouraging everyone to dig out their old photos and have a ‘family day’ to sort through them and to make a note on the back of each photo of who is pictured (and to add any other useful details). 

Each box of photos is a great source of social history - your own personal history archive. Who knows where our photos will one day end up, but at least if someone has made a note on the back - whoever is looking at them will know who they are looking at.

  

Contact

Through the 'Get In Touch' section on this blog - I receive many requests for assistance with family history research, as well as others simply looking for more information about villages on the Hoo Peninsula. I always try responding as quickly as possible, but due to the nature of many of the requests - I can't always provide an immediate answer.

I will be including some of the requests (particularly those relating to family history research) in my monthly local history article in the Village Voices Community Magazine (delivered to 15,100 properties on the Hoo Peninsula, Frindsbury, Higham, and Wainscott). This will enable the widest possible exposure and hopefully help with some of the requests.

So, either through Village Voices or the contact section on this blog, please stay in touch.