History

The Wanderer Returns To Staple 

This article first appeared in'Bygone Kent' (Vol.20, No. 10) in October 1999.It is reproduced here by kind permission of the publishers, Meresborough Books.

Staple is a village two miles east of Wingham and two miles south of Ash.  Many country guides ignore it, for Staple  is off the main road to Sandwich.  Its scattered hamlets are still quite distinct, the L-shaped  parish including Shatterling on the main road.  My family had a market garden called The Nursery, on the Lower Road for more than fifty years.  In only four acres just about everything edible was grown, including river plums and 'transparent' apples.

Once electricity was connected (about 1949) Mother added chicks in the greenhouse, kept warm by light bulbs inside old flowerpots.  Before that the wireless set had to be supplied with a bulky glass accumulator every Tuesday by Mr Jacobs, the Ash ironmonger.  A single tap in the scullery supplied a sink and a copper vat for washing.  Produce was stored in a timber barn from which rodents had to be kept at bay until the lorries arrived to collect our baskets for market.

Profits were never lavish, so that the whole year to settle bills by the Humber Fishing and Fish Manure Company was a great help.  Our neighbours in Mill Road Farm emigrated to New Zealand, whilst we moved to Canterbury in 1953.  The nursery soon ceased to be a market garden, and was heavily modernised in the early nineties, being known now as 'Fancy's Folly'.

I have noticed changes in agriculture since the fifties.  Although the land was fairly open, hop growing has shrunk to one garden at Pedding Farm, Shatterling.  I miss the cherry orchard just west of the Three Tuns, now pasture, with one surviving tree near the old chalk pit.  Pigs are no longer in evidence, but a covered barn in Fleming Road (Piglet Place) reminded me of a very noisy sty just down that road.  Further east, the Barnsole Vineyard began in 1992, following on Bill Ash's successful venture at Church Farm, Staple, which began in 1974.  The vintage is labelled Staple St James, after the church's dedication.

On the debit side, the wheelwright's business run by Mr Arthur Spinner had wound down by 1963. having been run by three generations since 1830.  The wheelwright's was at Rosebank Cottage near the Three Tuns, but Mr Spinner also doubled as a blacksmith and farrier at the forge, which still stands at the foot of Buckland Lane.  A photo' taken in 1900 shows a shop stood next to the partly timbered forge, but this was not trading in my time.  The other noticeable change in Staple is the number if horses in small paddocks all around the village.

Staple had a Post Office Stores until 1997, having operated in two converted cottages since the turn of the century.  It was where a Mrs Boakes, and latterly Bob and Barbara Miles would get to know everyone in the village.  The shop had become self-service, but had maintained its character.  It sold postcards of the village.  Fewer people want to give their time to village shopkeeping nowadays, so the less mobile are worse off, but with four bedrooms, the Old PO makes a spacious private dwelling.

Continued on Next Page ............

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