General Chat

Just waiting for Maz now. Looking forward to meeting you all later. Jean x.

See you all soon. Sue

Hi all, The fair was yesterday, I just wanted to say how good it was to meet you all. I spent about an hour (tops) in there & then about 2 & half hours in the pub with everyone, chatting about our hard to find rellies. See everyone going to the London meet in 2 weeks! Carole

Hello, had a lovely time yesterday meeting all my friends! Am putting some pics up later. Maz. XX

I must have got there about 12.15 but would not have recognised any of you!

oh Kate what a shame - we were standing in the hallway in a huddle - we wondered what had happened to you! next time we will have to make sure that everyone has someone else's mobile number. Perhaps you can make the London meet in 2 weeks, or the Maidstone meet in May?? Maz. XX

I was there for opening at ten but gave up just before 12. I had the kids with me and they were acting up so I was ready to kill them!!! I didn't see anyone from GR but did manage to get some bargains on the bookstalls. One of my famiy branches is from the Bexley/Bromley area and it was good to find some background information. I also scared myself silly as I got a starter pack from the archeaological society including a book on deneholes. I had a suspicion we had one in the back garden, now I'm pretty sure we have!!!! Angela

oooh Angela - whats a denehole lol sounds scary!!!! Maz. XX

Maz Deneholes were dug from 1400s through to late 1700s in this area of Kent. They were used to dig down to chalk under the local clay and sand. The chalk was used to condition the soil making it suitable for growing stuff where the clay was relatively infertile otherwise, and also for road buiding etc. The local farmers paid people to dig them and then spread the chalk out over the fields. Deneholes are narrow shafts down into the soil through the sand or clay through to the chalk layer below. They often had footholes in the sides so the digger could kind of 'stagger' down them without needing a ladder. When they got to chalk, the diggers then fanned out creating little alcoves or caves - style of these varied over time. After they'd dug out what they wanted and hauled it up in buckets on ropes they threw a treestump down the shaft till it wedged stuck and then backfilled the holes with earth and flint. but the treestumps rot and sometimes hundreds of years later this makes the shafts cave in. I remember as a kid that there were several local people who lost their gardens into them, and a road disappeared once! I've moved house last year and there is a perfectly round mound of the expected size at the end of the garden which we didn't find till we'd completed, moved in and were sortin the garden, and the surveyor didn't spot as it was hidden by rubble. We're on thick clay soil on the edge of victorian farmland (owned by my ancestors actually) and also backing onto woods - ideal denehole country. I've been hoping our mound is a badly flattened rockery or treestump but the more I find out about deneholes the more worried I'm getting. Especially as I have bad luck so if anyone's gonna get a denehole in the garden its me! Angela

oh blimey Angela - sounds really dangerous! hope you haven't got kids or pets running about out there and in danger of disappearing down a hole. I bet your insurance wouldn't cover you for any damag either. What will you have to do - dig it out and then fill it in? Hope you get it sorted. Maz. XX

Yep it is. Trouble is you don't know you've got one till the shaft opens up - and their around 40ft deep with caves at the bottom. And insurance probably won't cover it if it happens. They have to be profesionally filled. The usual practice is to fill them with 'fuel dust' from power stations, whatever that is, which doesn't sound nice.There's hundreds if not thousands of these things across Kent and many are as yet undiscovered. They can open up several hundred years after they were first dug, giving people a big surprise! They are fascinating but only when they're not in your garden. Fingers crossed my 'bump' in the garden is something else- trouble is I don't really want to investigate as it will affect the value of the house if it does turn out to be one. Angela Angela

perhaps you could put one of those decorative trellis things in a ring around it and grow climbers over!! at least no-one would step on it then! hope it turns out to be nothing more than a bump Maz. XX