Events
This section of the website contains information on notable events and major news items from the local area. The various entries below are presented in reverse chronological order. Where more information is available for a particular entry please select ‘Further Details’.
For a number of years Fairseat has had an annual visit from The Rude Mechanical Theatre Company. The Rudes have been producing outdoor summer tours and taking theatre into small rural communities across Southern England from Devon to Kent since 1999. They work best where there is adjacent muck spreading, bell ringing practice or the venue is a cow shed! The 2024 visit to Fairseat in Kent on 28th July presented ’The Dressing Book’, a play set in late 18th Century Tunbridge Wells. The weather was fine and there was an excellent audience.
In the lead-up to the 2024 Fairseat Fete, a scarecrow competition was held on the theme of recycling. Please click the 'Further Details' link to see the leading contenders in the competition
A thanksgiving service and dedication of a memorial stone was held on Friday 22 March 2024 at the War Memorial in Stansted, Kent, organised by the Shoreham Aircraft Museum. The memorial stone is dedicated to Pilot Officer Colin Dunstone Francis of No 253 Squadron who disappeared through the clouds over Stansted, Kent, at the height of the Battle of Britain on the 30th of August 1940. It was his first combat mission and he was shot down and reported as ‘Missing’. In August 1981 his Hawker Hurricane L1965 was discovered in a field near Coldharbour with his remains still in the cockpit. He was subsequently buried with full military honours at Brookwood Military Cemetery.
On 29th July 2023 a guided history walk was organised by the History Society. The route was from Stansted to Fairseat via Coldharbour and back again after a short break for refreshments in Fairseat Chapel; a rather hilly 4 miles. The group visited graves in St Mary's churchyard including the Hohlers, Willam Hickson and the Waterlows, WW2 memorials to The One Behind The Church and to Colin Francis, the Saxon earthworks and the Rodney Sheldon memorial bench. In Fairseat we were welcomed to Court House by the Sheldons and to Fairseat Manor by the Nelsons. 43 people took part, the weather was kind and five year old Oliver Burrowes did a fine job showing everyone various historic photos.
Stansted Village Hall hosted a Race Night on 25th February 2023 to raise funds and to provide a fun evening for those attending. This was the latest in a series of race nights over the years since 2010 and organised by the Village Hall Committee.
On 3 March 2022 Stansted and Fairseat Horticultural Society planted a beech tree in the Stansted Recreation Ground as part of “The Queen’s Green Canopy’ scheme to commemorate her Platinum Jubilee. Geoff Allgood, the current chairman of the Horticultural Society, thanked Donald Kitchener for unveiling the plaque. Donald moved to Stansted in 1966 and joined the Horticultural Society. In 1977 he was elected to the Committee and in 1995 elected as Chairman. He served 24 years as Chairman, our longest-serving Chairman, before stepping down. Don still serves on the Committee; a total, so far, of 44 years as a Committee Member. It was a lovely occasion with coffee and cakes in the Village hall afterwards.
On the 2nd of December 2021, at a happy, celebratory occasion, Penny and George Goring’s children and families gathered at Stansted recreation ground to unveil a plaque commemorating an oak tree planted in their parents' memory. The article includes photographs of the event and a copy of the speech given by Theresa Goring to mark the occasion.
After almost 18 months of Covid 19 related restrictions on free assembly, the virus vaccination programme had advanced enough to allow a diamond anniversary celebration of the opening of Fairseat Village Hall in 1961. As many previous committee members as possible gathered on a warm and sunny day and made the most of the newly restored freedom to meet and socialise.
Two recent events were held in remembrance of Pilot Officer Colin Francis who died in 1940 when his RAF Hurricane smashed into the ground at Coldharbour. In November 2019 a plinth-mounted model Hawker Hurricane was unveiled by Air Vice-Marshal Mike Lloyd. In August 2020 a group of residents gathered at the crash site to mark the 80th anniversary of his death. This included a flypast by Spitfire from the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar.
On 10th June 2019, almost three months’ worth of rain fell on the Stansted and Fairseat area in less than twenty-four hours. The unprecedented deluge caused serious surface water run-off and flooding in Malthouse Road. Dick Hogbin captured the Malthouse Road water flow on video and provides further detail on this unusual event.
An exhibition was held in the Cloisters, St Mary’s Church in November 2018 to mark the armistice centenary which coincided with Remembrance Sunday, it covered both World Wars and focused on the Fallen and on their life and times in the local area. The exhibition included some 140 panels, 3 research papers, several personal recollections, six studies of prominent local individuals and a 45 minutes AV display which ensured there was material to suit a wide range of interests. Over 600 people attended and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Flower displays have taken place at St Mary's Church, Stansted for several years. In September 2013 the village teamed up with Fairseat to incorporate a scarecrow festival. The scarecrows were on display in various locations in the two villages and added a fun element to the event.
May Day celebrations were held on the Stansted Recreation Ground on the 19th of May 2007 and captured on film by parties unknown. The online video was found in a box of miscellaneous items in the Archive store in Fairseat Village Hall by the History Society team in August 2022 and has been extracted from the original DVD and made available via this website.
On Saturday the 29th December 2007 the police were alerted to a man in Tumblefield Road, Stansted, brandishing a gun. Upon arrival, the man pointed the gun at the police and they opened fire and killed him. Dick Hogbin recounts the events and the subsequent inquest in 2010.
For the Easter Monday episode of EastEnders in 2007 the production chose to film in Kent at Stansted, St. Giles Church, Wormshill, The Ringlestone Inn, Nr. Harrietsham and Court Lodge Farm. In this episode of the popular BBC1 soap Jim (John Bardon) arranges a day out for Dot (June Brown) to the village where she used to live.
The Cloisters Bike ride was started in 2009 to raise money for the extension to St Marys church Stansted. Over the years it has raised over £73,000 with over 450 cyclists taking part. The idea was conceived by Tom and Poly Falconer, latterly being run by Moira Green.
In 2000, to mark the start of the third Millennium the Stansted and Fairseat Society organised a project to photograph residents at their front doors. This was an ambitious project and the 48 photographs taken have been digitised and are available to view by selecting 'Further Details'.
On the night of 6th October 1995, thieves used ropes and a lorry to haul the bronze figure from its plinth and drag it unceremoniously along Malthouse Road. The statue was never discovered and a replacement statue was cast at the Burleighfield Arts Foundry, High Wycombe, and erected in Stansted on Tuesday 5th November 1996.
Note: Details on the original War Memorial erected in 1923 may be found under the 'Landmarks' index page under the 'Places' section of the website.
On 9th June 1991, One hundred and fifty intrepid walkers accompanied the oldest bell in St Mary’s tower, named John and cast in 1420, back to Whitechapel Bell Foundry, a distance of 26 miles. Dressed in medieval costume they raised £15,500 towards the Bells project, a quarter of the funds needed to install a new bell frame, a ringing gallery, and cast three new bells to create a ring of six. A service of dedication was held at St Mary’s on 16th May 1992 to celebrate the completion.
In July 1991 Fairseat Fete was visited by The Red Barrows - a group of local men who were ‘Like the Red Arrows, but slower and lower”.
They impressed a large crowd with their intricately choreographed moves before parking their wheelbarrows and retiring to the beer tent.
May Queen celebrations at the Stansted recreation ground in 1990.
Photographs from the Fairseat Fete which was held in the recreation ground by the Village Hall in 1990.
The Great Storm of 1987 was a violent extratropical cyclone that occurred on the night of 15–16 October, with hurricane-force winds causing casualties in England, France and the Channel Islands as a severe depression in the Bay of Biscay moved northeast. Disruption to travel and electricity supplies affected Stansted and Fairseat and significant damage occurred in Trosley Country Park with the loss of a large number of trees. Overall some 15 million trees were blown down in the South of England.
The annual village tennis tournament ran officially from 1982 until 2010. The tournament origins were from a mothers and sons competition organised by Pam Sheldon in the early 1970s before expanding to become an adult tournament with a significant number of participants. Qualifying matches were hosted by residents with suitable tennis courts with the winning pair from each court going forward to compete in the playoffs to establish an overall championship pair. The finals were held at Fairseat Manor where the winners were presented with the Pasteur Porringer and the runners-up with the Jean Rogers Rose Bowl.
On 29th and 30th of August 1970 a festival weekend was held in Stansted Recreation ground with all proceeds going towards the Village Hall fund. Saturday saw a horse show and Gymkhana with sideshows and attractions, the Horticultural Society summer show, a tug of war competition and a dog training demonstration. On Saturday 30th there was a festival cricket match between the England Ladies cricket team and an eleven made up of sporting celebrities and local cricketers.
In 1962 Stansted parish had been included in draft plans for a new area of outstanding natural beauty. When the National Parks Commission drew up detailed boundary plans for the new North Downs AONB, in 1965, they drew the boundaries more tightly and Stansted was excluded. The Parish Council mounted an enthusiastic and concerted campaign against this proposal. Unfortunately, this was ultimately unsuccessful.
Three of the best-known names in English law and order in the last century were thrown together in 1947 after the body of a 48-year-old woman, Dagmar Petrzywalski, was found on the A20 halfway down Wrotham Hill. Dagmar Petrzywalski left home in West Kingsdown at the end of October 1946 but sadly she did not arrive in Woking and her body was found by a passing lorry driver halfway down Wrotham Hill behind bushes at the junction of the A20 and Devil's Kitchen. Robert Fabian, who led the murder investigation, was the subject of a popular BBC TV series in the 1950s and became famous as ‘Fabian of the Yard’.
Two weeks after a German aircraft crash-landed behind St Mary’s Church, a lone German airman, Kurt Hausberg, baled out of a stricken bomber above Stansted. His parachute failed to open properly and he died as he landed in a field near Rumney Farm. He was buried in St Mary’s churchyard. The pilot of the aircraft survived the crash and was interrogated by Denys Felkin, the father of Anne Walton of Stansted Lodge Farm, Tumblefield Road. This is the story of Stansted’s small part in what has since become known as the ‘Battle of Britain’ day.
Just one day after the Hurricane crash at Coldharbour, an enemy aircraft belly-landed in the valley behind Court Lodge. The pilot survived to be taken prisoner, but his gunner was mortally injured. Some thirty years after the event, local schoolboy Mark Charnley interviewed some of the local witnesses and presented his handwritten research to the Fairseat Archive. With additional information provided by Mark, Mike Goddings and Dick Hogbin have updated his work to provide a broader picture of the events that day.
On 30th August 1940, an RAF Hurricane smashed into the ground at Coldharbour, killing its pilot who was on his first operational flight. Pilot Officer Colin Francis’ remains lay buried in his aircraft for forty-six years. This article examines the discovery of the aircraft in 1981 and the subsequent recovery of the wreckage and its pilot, and the memorial plaque placed nearby in his memory by local resident Geoff Allgood. Note: Information on Pilot Officer Colin Francis is available on the ‘Casualties’ page of the website, under the People section.
Google Earth images of the local area which have been overlaid with reported incidents found in the Malling Rural District War Diaries. In many cases, additional information has been added from witnesses to these events, or from other published sources. The maps reflect three different aspects of the War. The aircraft that crashed at the height of the Battle of Britain and the bombs that were jettisoned by damaged enemy aircraft, either on their way or on their return from bombing Docklands during the Blitz. Finally, the V1’s which came down en-route to London.
In August 1873 Thomas Atkins was seen begging at the Horse and Groom pub before being arrested for the murder of PC Israel May near Snodland, Kent. He was found guilty of manslaughter (mainly on the grounds that he had not struck the first blow) and was sentenced to 20 years in jail. It was the first case of the death in service of a Policeman in Kent and made the headlines. He was released after 15 years and emigrated to the United States never to be heard of again. This is the story of Thomas Atkins’ abusive upbringing - his father, John, had been convicted of the murder of his wife, Thomas’ mother, and sent to a mental hospital - and the grisly and violent details of the death of the Police Constable.
The famous author William Hickson, who lived at Fairseat Manor, wrote to the Kentish Gazette about an earthquake that had affected mid-Kent in September 1860. He described people as being “startled by a violent shaking of doors and windows, accompanied by a noise, which to some sounded like the rumbling along a road of heavily loaded wagons, and to others as if the roof were falling in, or some heavy piece of furniture was being rolled overhead.”