00:17Hello and welcome to Kent Chronicles live here on KMTV where we turn back time on all of Kent's
00:23history from the Mesolithic era to the Industrial Revolution and everything in between. I'm Tia
00:29Chalice and join me as we turn back time and discuss all things history. But for this week
00:35we're looking at industries in Kent and how they've impacted communities over time. But first
00:41I spoke to our reporter Zach Smith about Kent's paper making history and one of the country's
00:46biggest paper mills. Here is this week's long-standing landmark.
00:56The Sittingbourne Mill is one of Kent's most important paper mills in history and in fact
01:01it's particularly important because it's one of the mills which is still in some shape
01:05or form operating to this day. The paper mill was built in 1769 but really became a big important
01:11mill after it was bought by Edward Lloyd in 1863. Edward Lloyd was a previous newspaper publisher.
01:18He in 1863 he rebuilt the Sittingbourne Mill and he moved it closer to the railway station
01:24to increase the productivity between deliveries between London and Kent. And alongside this he
01:29introduced new machinery to the Sittingbourne Mill which increased the output and by 1876 it
01:35was producing 1,300 square feet of paper per minute. This is just about enough to fill up a football
01:41pitch every two hours and in 1912 it was considered one of the biggest mills in the country. While the
01:46original mill is no longer with us today its sister location the Kemsley Mill was built slightly down
01:52the road from Sittingbourne and is still in operation. And speaking of the paper industry and you know
01:57the wide developments it had can you tell us a bit more about that in Kent generally?
02:02Yes well the paper making industry was incredibly historic in Kent. It can be traced all the way back
02:07to the 16th century but it really picked up speed in the 17th and 18th century. Kent's geography proved to
02:13be
02:13perfect for paper making due to the abundance of clean water rivers we have in the area and also
02:19the close proximity to London. So in fact we can also trace the increase in paper making in the county
02:25to the increase in literacy rates in London. In the 1800s the literacy rates in London was 30%
02:31while in 1900 it was just above 80%. Though these facts can't be accurately verified it gives a good
02:37indication of how the paper making industry was quite influential around the time of literacy rates increasing.
02:50And up next our reporter Eleanor Gonzalez went down to Deal to learn about the last colliery to close in
02:57Kent
02:59coal. For this week's Town Through Time I've come to Deal to learn a bit more about its links with
03:08coal
03:08mining history and how the discovery of coal just outside the town in 1912 turned what was once a
03:14small seaside town into an industrial community. Coal was found in Betsanger on the outskirts of Deal in 1912.
03:20Kent Coal burned especially hot making it suitable for the steel industry.
03:24Betsanger was Kent's largest mine with 24 foot shafts that were 2,126 feet down and in 1927 the
03:32miners reached coal. Once the shaft was up and running 1,500 miners and their families came down
03:37to live in Deal to the dismay of Deal residents and quickly houses cafes and pubs had signs reading
03:43no miners. In 1929 the farmlands of Mill Hill on the outskirts of Deal were acquired for a new colliery
03:49estate. By 1945 the workforce had grown to over 2,000. Then in the 80s there were the miner strikes.
03:56I spoke with Dr Gavin Hawkton to find out about the causes of the miner strikes but also how they
04:01impacted communities like Deal in the long term. Although the strike was about coal it was also
04:06about power, work and really whether mining communities had a future. What struck me really
04:11was that the media coverage of the strike often focused on conflict disorder and high profile
04:17individuals such as Scargill and Thatcher. But the everyday experience of miners, families and
04:22pit communities were often pushed into the backgrounds. Kent was a particularly you know important
04:27coal field in Britain at that time and Kent had a really strong mining tradition. Miners throughout the
04:31strike fought really hard. They knew that their area was in a threat of pit closures which happened not
04:35long after the strike. So I think that the memory of their struggles still matters because when you
04:41think of the long-term consequences of the strike it wasn't just that pits were closed it was also
04:46that jobs disappeared as well. It was clubs, routines, institutions and really that sense of a shared purpose.
04:52Bettsanger was the last colliery to remain open in Kent closing in 1989 and today the men who worked
04:58and died in Kent's coal fields are commemorated by the statue The Waiting Miner located outside the site of
05:04Bettsanger Colliery. Eleanor Gonsalves for KMTV.
05:10And in this week's Alluring Artifacts we are delving into the alternative cabaret scene
05:15to explore how its fundraising efforts was a vitally important backing to the striking miners as they
05:21fought to save their livelihoods.
05:29We are in Canterbury and we have been invited to have a look at the comedy special archives.
05:33Let's see how this week's artifact supported the workers of the mining industry.
05:38So this is a poster for an event that happened on the 11th of February 1985 which was just a
05:45few
05:45weeks before the miners strike finished and it was a two-part event. The more conventional bit was an
05:54Islington Town Hall in the evening and it was a benefit gig to raise money to support the miners. One
05:59of the
05:59things that the Thatcher government did was move away from traditional heavy industries like steel
06:05and coal and move towards you know more sort of service industry stuff.
06:12Okay the pits close but that means the corner shop closes. That means the youth clubs close and then
06:20the kids are hanging about on the street. Every miner swore that they would not want their son to follow
06:26them down the pit
06:27because it was a hard job but a lot of them did.
06:30These things here belong to, they were donated by the daughter of a local miner.
06:39We've got quite a lot of stuff next door and he was heavily involved in the union, he wrote poetry,
06:47he sang in a male chorus, you know like the Welsh male voice choir.
06:52Yeah. So he sang in the equivalent but in Kent.
06:56I mean if you think about miners, one of the traditional ways that miners bonded as a community
07:02was by having brass bands, you know colliery brass bands, which the 90s comedy Brassed Off is about.
07:11But you know once the colliery's not there anymore, some of the colliery bands kept going but it's really
07:17hard to keep the community together. Kind of former mining communities were really plagued by heavy
07:24unemployment and a lot of the things that go with poverty and unemployment.
07:28If the pits had closed because they were being replaced with renewables,
07:32that would have brought the employment, I think.
07:41Now put on your thinking caps for tonight's Tea Time Trivia with Lucy Keane.
07:51This week we took to the Old High Street in Folkestone to see if the locals could answer this week's
07:56Tea Time Trivia.
07:58This week's trivia is, what was the pseudonym used by workers during the 19th century Swing riots?
08:05The pseudonym? I'm afraid I've no idea.
08:10Absolutely no idea.
08:12I mean Captain Swing, the Luddites, I don't know.
08:17Bingo! The answer was Captain Swing.
08:21Okay, thank you.
08:24Captain Swing, I regret to say I've never heard of that.
08:28Very good, excellent.
08:30After the Industrial Revolution, the introduction of freshing machines
08:33spurred rebellion as it cut wages and jobs and agricultural workers used its name to sign on their
08:39protesting letters to farmers, demanding the destruction of these machines and higher wages,
08:44indicating it was a widespread and leaderless protest in East Kent.
08:49That's all the time we have for this week. See you soon.
08:55And now, this week's periodic profile is Arthur Burr, an entrepreneur who sought to develop
09:00Dover as the coal mining centre of Kent in the late 19th century. And joining me now in the studio
09:06is Louis Stevens to tell us more. So, Louis, what can you tell us about Arthur Burr?
09:10Well, he was a hugely interesting person. I mean, he went over to Dover, sort of saw that there
09:15weren't much competition for coal mining over here in Kent at all. So, he sort of came over,
09:21he managed to get investors into sort of putting money into coal mining. And from that,
09:27the, it took decades to even make a profit on coal over here in Kent. You know, they spent a
09:35million
09:36pounds at the end of it and didn't really see much coal, commercial coal being produced. And so,
09:41it was a story, sort of more of a story, less of success and more of dedication to make coal
09:47mining
09:47industry here in Kent something important. And what were some more of the difficulties he faced?
09:52Well, some of it was natural stuff. We're a coastal county, so flooding of the tunnels was,
09:59you know, a huge problem. You had to dig down further to get the coal, which, when you did,
10:06the coal was bad quality. In terms of the investors, a lot of media and investors started questioning,
10:12sort of, where the money was going. Of course, two decades without seeing much commercial coal was
10:17was suspicious. And so, what Burr ended up doing was sort of subdividing the process of coal mining
10:25and creating smaller businesses in order to sort of move the money around and sort of cycle the money
10:31around. So, when he went to investors, he sort of said, look, we are making money. There is money
10:36being transferred here, when in reality, it was just all him. Of course, he got caught out and was
10:42labelled sort of a con man and a bit of a fraud at the time. Fascinating. And very quickly, can
10:49you
10:49tell us one main thing about his legacy that sticks out to you? Well, the main word I'd use is
10:54controversial. You know, of course, like I said, he's sort of seen as sort of this, some people saw
10:59him as this trickster who was just in it for the money. But he clearly really wanted to make this
11:05industry important here. And, you know, he was praised at the time. But I think over time now,
11:11he's seen as someone who's tried to start this industry at such an economically difficult time,
11:16and sort of someone who really wanted the coal mining industry here in Kent to be successful.
11:22Thank you so much for that. Thank you. Well, it looks like that was one for the history books.
11:28You've been watching Kent Chronicles live on KMTV. Don't forget, though, there's always history
11:33happening around us. So if you have a story you think we should be covering, get in touch.
11:37That's all we have time for tonight. Goodbye.
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