At the heart of the Hoo Peninsula - Village Voices for Stoke and St. Mary Hoo (Issue 11)

The latest edition of Village Voices for the parishes of Stoke and St. Mary Hoo is now available online. Click the image below, which will take you to the relevant editions page on the Village Voices website - then all you have to do is click ‘Issue 11’.

This edition includes updates and reports from both Stoke Parish Council and St. Mary Hoo Parish Council, the latest news from Stoke Village Hall, more great photos of the ‘muddies’ working on the Stoke Saltings and lots more other useful community information. 

Take a look at the Village Voices website by clicking here.

Visit the website for Stoke Parish Council here, and visit the website for St. Mary Hoo Parish Council here.

  

Muddies get national exposure

Since starting this website a couple of years ago, I’ve learnt lots about the Hoo Peninsula from the growing number of people who get in touch to share their stories and old photos.

I’ve even discovered quite a few ‘new’ distant cousins. Always nice!

Early last year I was contacted by Jill Warby (nee Mortley). Jill was born in Upper Stoke and her family are well known in many local villages, but especially Stoke and Allhallows. But it was only last week that I worked out Jill and I are third cousins, through her mother’s side of the family. We share the same great-great-grandfather, John Watson, who was born in Allhallows in 1833.

As I mentioned the other day, Jill has written a wonderful article about her ‘muddie’ grandfather, Sidney George Mortley. The article has been published in the March edition of The Countryman magazine.

Here’s a photo of Jill with her copy of the magazine. She is pictured with a photo of her late father Ronald Sidney Mortley on the wall behind her.

Well done Jill - it’s really good to see the ‘muddies’ getting some national exposure. They form a fascinating part of our local history. 

If you missed the article I wrote about muddies last week, just click here to take a look.
 

Think you’re tough?

The 'muddies' certainly were - they had to be!

Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, gangs of men from local villages competed for the much sought after, though incredibly exhausting, job of digging clay or ‘mud’ from the marshes and saltings of the River Medway. The men were known as the 'muddies'.

The muddies had to load up to one hundred tonnes of clay, from sites including Hoo Flats and Stoke Saltings, onto barges for transportation up the river to one of the many cement works.

It was clearly a very tough job, and many of those men suffered unimaginable health problems as a result. Reports describe men suffering from chronic rheumatism, arthritis, sprained wrists and strained backs. Many also suffered from ’scaffleman’ - torn skin on parts of the back, as a result of continual lifting, turning and throwing. Calluses on hands, sometimes causing fingers to join together, were a common result of the constant use, and rubbing, of a spade.

Despite this, the men would only ever take a few days off work to repair serious damage to their bodies - no health and safety or 48 hour working week regulations around then!

The only consolation was that it was one of the best paid jobs around, paying much more than farm labourers earned. Muddies kept the work within a tight knit circle - with the work normally becoming a father and son tradition in many families.

At the height of this local industry, in the early 1900s, a barge load (100 tonnes) of clay would earn the men 35 shillings - shared out amongst a gang of about 10 muddies. They could often load two barges every low tide and, it is said, there would always be about 50 barges waiting to be loaded on the Stoke Marshes at any one time.

The income they earned was sufficient for many of the muddies to buy pubs once they had finally laid down their shovels. This is quite possibly the case with my great great grandfather, Henry Spencer. Described as a ‘Cement Labourer’ in several census documents, I can’t imagine how else he managed to land so firmly on his feet!

I have mentioned the muddies a couple of times before. Back in May 2010 Peter Cook from the Medway Messenger ran a special feature in the local paper - click here to take a look. And in August 2010, I mentioned a book by F. G. Willmott called ’Cement, Mud and Muddies’. Most of what I know about the 'muddie tradition’ comes from this excellent book, apart from the many chats I’ve had with ‘village elders‘ in Stoke and those from much further afield. Their tales certainly bring home to you what a tough existence it was - but one that came with much camaraderie and life long friendships. Click here to visit that item.

Stoke Saltings in more recent times.

The photos of the muddies appear courtesy of Dr. MacDonald of Stoke, whose long association with the Stoke Saltings is well known to many.

I will be mentioning the muddies again later this week, as former local resident Jill Warby (nee Mortley) has written a wonderful article about her great grandfather Sidney George Mortley, a well known local muddie, for the March edition of The Countryman magazine - available in all good newsagents!!!
 

Cement, Mud and Muddies, Frank G. Willmott

I had a stroll around Rochester yesterday and spent considerable time rummaging around the plethora of books and other interesting items at City Books (41 High Street, Rochster, ME1 1LN). I found a copy of the book 'Cement, Mud and Muddies' by Frank Willmott, which was first published by Meresborough Books in 1977. Although more than thirty years old, this book accurately explains the history of Medway's cement industry and includes many fascinating photographs and illustrations. Due to my own clay-digging family heritage in Stoke, I am particularly drawn to the section about the Muddies from Stoke and Hoo.

On the subject of Medway's cement history, there is an excellent section about this on the website of Berengrave Local Nature Reserve (the Friends of Berengrave), which can be viewed by clicking here.

History Walk (Stoke), Saturday 26 June 2010

On Saturday morning (26 June - my birthday) I took part in a history walk around Stoke (Lower, Middle and Upper). The event was organised by Alan Marshall and, accompanying him, was Paul from the Wildlife Trust. At the start of the walk, I was given a leaflet, which was called ‘Marshes, Muddies & Hogarth’s Buddies’.

Starting in Lower Stoke, Alan went through the history of the village, which included the history of Stoke School, the Windmill, The Ship Inn, Forge House and The Nag’s Head pub – with particular reference to when William Hogarth stayed the night in May 1732 with four friends. The account of their stay suggests they had a reasonably good time. The Hogarth group went on to Grain and later boarded a boat to Sheerness.

From Lower Stoke the walk continued to Middle Stoke, where we went down Burrows Lane towards the site of Middle Stoke Halt. On crossing the railway line, we passed the airfield, which was buzzing with microlight activity. The small airfield is home to Medway Airsports Club, whose website contains good aerial photographs of the area.

 

 

 

 

  

The views of Stoke Saltings were excellent and Alan talked about the history of the Muddies who, from the 1850’s to the 1920’s, tirelessly dug clay from the Saltings for cement production. This is a fascinating part of our local history, so I was especially keen to hear about this.

 

 

 

Paul, from the Wildlife Trust, talked about different types of wildlife in the area and, particularly interesting, was his reference to the ‘marsh frog’. This frog only exists in certain parts of the Hoo Peninsula, as well as in Dungeness. Whilst on the Saltings, Paul spoke about different edible plants and I then tasted a few!

 

On leaving the Saltings, we passed through a boatyard and along Creek Lane into Upper Stoke. We headed for the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, where we were met by Church Warden, Ian Bett.

Ian handed out literature about the Church and, along with Alan, recounted aspects of its history. Although I have visited the Church many times, I had never been inside, so this was a real pleasure and I wasn’t disappointed. Whilst having a look around the Church, I came across a commemorative plaque with a list of local men killed during World War 1. I noticed that two of these men were ancestors of mine – William Stephen Watson and Harry Stratford (both nephews of my Great-Grandfather Herbert Watson).

Ian then led us up the narrow steps to the top of the Church tower. The views from the top stretched across Stoke and the surrounding landscape and River Medway. On our return back down, we had a look at the three bells, all of which vary in age.

Following our visit to the Church, the walk continued through Upper Stoke until we stopped at Court Lodge Farm (once occupied by Ian Bett). The house sits on the side of the road (on The Street). We then walked further along to look at a darkly coloured farmyard barn, which is said to be more than 300 years old.

The entire walk was fascinating and it was 3 hours well spent. My special thanks must go to Alan Marshall, whose knowledge and enthusiasm gave me a fantastic morning. Thanks also to Paul, from the Wildlife Trust, and to Ian Bett (Church Warden) at the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul in Upper Stoke.

Visit the website of the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul by clicking here, and visit the website of the Kent Wildlife Trust by clicking here.