seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Peru
seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from Colombia
seen from Italy
seen from China
seen from Argentina
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Yemen
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Argentina
seen from Ukraine
seen from United States
seen from Peru
seen from Peru
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
#OTD in 1957 – Birth of musician and singer, Shane MacGowan.
Shane MacGowan was born in Pembury, Kent, to Irish parents. MacGowan spent his early childhood in Tipperary before his family moved back to England when he was six and a half. He lived in many parts of the south-east, including Brighton and London. Drawn to the punk music scene, he formed the folk-punk band the Pogues in 1982. The band gained fame by touring with the Clash. MacGowan brought a…
View On WordPress
Pembury, basking in the morning sun
#OTD in 1957 – Birth of musician and singer, Shane MacGowan.
#OTD in 1957 – Birth of musician and singer, Shane MacGowan.
Shane MacGowan was born in Pembury, Kent, to Irish parents. MacGowan spent his early childhood in Tipperary before his family moved back to England when he was six and a half. He lived in many parts of the south-east, including Brighton and London. Drawn to the punk music scene, he formed the folk-punk band the Pogues in 1982. The band gained fame by touring with the Clash. MacGowan brought a…
View On WordPress
#OTD in 1957 – Birth of musician and singer, Shane MacGowan.
#OTD in 1957 – Birth of musician and singer, Shane MacGowan.
Shane MacGowan was born in Pembury, Kent, to Irish parents. MacGowan spent his early childhood in Tipperary before his family moved back to England when he was six and a half. He lived in many parts of the south-east, including Brighton and London. Drawn to the punk music scene, he formed the folk-punk band the Pogues in 1982. The band gained fame by touring with the Clash. MacGowan brought a…
View On WordPress
#OTD in 1957 – Birth of musician and singer, Shane MacGowan.
#OTD in 1957 – Birth of musician and singer, Shane MacGowan.
Shane MacGowan was born in Pembury, Kent, to Irish parents. MacGowan spent his early childhood in Tipperary before his family moved back to England when he was six and a half. He lived in many parts of the south-east, including Brighton and London. Drawn to the punk music scene, he formed the folk-punk band the Pogues in 1982. The band gained fame by touring with the Clash. MacGowan brought a…
View On WordPress
13th April
Ann West’s Tomb
Source: Deborah Contessa on Facebook
On this day in 1803, Ann West died and was buried in Pembury Old Church, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent. Her tomb has a small hole in the side, a not uncommon precaution in the early nineteenth century when over zealous declaration of death led to the horrendous situation of comatose people being literally buried alive - Edgar Allen Poe’s gothic horror story was based on real events. Ann was particularly worried about this fate and specified that not only should her enclosed tomb have an air hole but that her coffin should be lidless and that bread and water should be placed next to her grave for twelve months after her supposed death. Fortunately for Ann, none of these precautions proved necessary because she turned out to be well and truly dead when interred.
The hole in the tomb however led to a macabre children’s game, in which kids would drop stones in the hole in order to hear them bounce of poor Ann’s skeleton. Whether it was this desecration that disturbed her ghost is not known, but Ann continues to haunt her former home at Great Bayhall Manor in Pembury, appearing as a white-clothed apparition or as disembodied footsteps. No supernatural vengeance visited on the annoying local children has been mentioned, however.
Chest tomb. Dated 1803 in memory of Anne West. White marble on a brick plinth. Rectangular in plan with fluted corner pilasters and panelled sides containing oval plaques. Moulded base and flat lid with moulded edges. The southern plaque is inscribed with Roman serif upper and lower case lettering and records the death of Anne West of Bayhall in 1803.
Apparently Anne West was so afraid of being buried in a trance that she left instructions that, when she was buried, the lid was to be left off her coffin and one end of the tomb was to be left open, and her butler was instructed to bring food and drink every day for twelve months in case she woke up. The east end was open until 1947.
Free today, Monday, August 17: Ghosts of Kent: UK/US
Google Map | Kindle Unlimited UK/US | Audible [trailer] | peterunderwood.org
