All below is taken from Dover Express and East Kent News for 19th July 1929
The Disappointment of Aylesham
Archdeacon on its Difficulties
The fact that the idealists who have contemplated making the Kent coalfield something different from any other coalfield are by no means satisfied with the results achieved, has been known for some time and now the Archdeacon of Canterbury has publicly expressed disappointment in the church assembly news. In the North and Midlands, the fact that coalminers lived apart from all others in the villages, which often had very old houses, was a matter much criticized by well meaning people; and when the Kent Coalfield was started it was said that it would not be repeated. As pointed out from time to time in these columns, it has been repeated by the creation of such townships as Aylesham. The repetition of the mistakes in other coalfields was carried out by the private decisions of the Eastry Rural District Council and the East Kent Joint Town Planning Committee, who have worked in private, and there was no possibility of criticism. The financial risks that have been undertaken in the creation of such a town as Aylesham which would be derelict if there was no coal mining in the vicinity, is a matter that must very greatly concern the ratepayers in the Eastry Rural District and the agricultural Community there would receive a very great shock of the houses were in years to come not required for miners. The comments of the arch deacon are as follows:-
“Segregation in large villages or towns” he wrote, “was certainly thought at first to be the best possible plan, the most economic and convenient, and socially interesting arrangement. But one has only to remember the proximity of the attractive seaboard of East Kent, the interests and amenities of town life compared with rather bare upland country, to understand that a good many men prefer to run into the town in their bikes, if they can find comfortable houses or lodgings. Anyhow, such is the tendency up to the present; but it is early days yet and too soon to prophesy. The real underlying difficulty is that until the mines become economically profitable, and wages above the minimum level, there is no money to spend on the amenities which alone can make the segregated life of a mining village attractive,, nor any to reduce the high rents of most of the new houses to a point which is comfortably within the means of the men.
Where the Kent mining population, as at Northbourne and Eybourne, is in close proximity to agricultural villages and shares to some extent the village life, it is being found that the relations between industrial and rural workers have already become satisfactory, and still closer understanding is promised with the passage of time. At Aylesham, nearly 3000 people live in social isolation and are not in touch with the men and women of the surrounding countryside. The men have come from many parts: Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland and South Wales. It is almost certain that the majority were attracted south in a period of severe depression in their industry by the prospect of steady employment and better wages then they could hope to earn in their native places. Actually, there is, or need be, no unemployment in the Kent coalfield...
Men can work, I am informed, five or six shifts at a wage of 10s 21/2 d , a shift for colliers and 8s 4d for fillers. There are men in charge of working places whose wages meet 5pd. Or more a week. To set against this, house rents (as understood by miners and particularly those from Durham who are accustomed to free colliery houses) appear to be high. Rentals inclusive of rates and a certain consumption of electric current range in Aylesham from 14s. 6d. a week. And at that figure are uneconomic to the colliery company, which leases them to a public utility company. The rents can be paid when men are in full employment, but difficulty is created when men are ill, or on compensation for injury which keeps them from work and arrears accrue which becomes a charge on future earnings.
More then cheaper houses, however the Aylesham people want better opportunities for modest entertainment. These things may not be long in coming, in the meantime men and women accustomed to different conditions find existence a little dull. There is no cinema, no club or institute, and the only shops are a co-operative stores, a baker’s, a linen draper’s, a diary, a place where fried fish is sold and the post office. The women ask for a greater variety, which they have now to seek in occasional journeys by motor omnibus to Canterbury or Dover. A reason given why shops are so few in the village is that the purchase price or rents asked for the shops are prohibitive for the present size of population. The estate is not being developed for profit, however, and if the prices are high they reflect a necessity to make the commercial and trading plots cover the costs of the road making costs of the avenues laid out for the houses. Departure from this principle. It is stated would mean that the miners’ rents are higher then they are. To meet the traders difficulty shop sites for a limited period are given a monopoly except for the general competition of the co-operative stores, and it is hoped that traders not yet represented will be gradually introduced. Efforts are also being made to secure the erection of a cinema theatre as soon as possible. There have been enquiries from various quarters, and the only real obstacle to a contract is the reconciliation of capital and prospective income pending the expansion of the village.
Turning to the problem of the provision of an Institute or club, I am informed that a site has been allotted for a miners’ institute, and what is now awaited is a grant from the Miners’ Welfare Fund to enable building to proceed. The British legion would like to have a club, I have been informed that a site has been allotted for a miners’ institute, but the application for a club is presently “in abeyance”. The leveling and preparation of the recreation ground site is said to be a matter for the miners themselves. Here again help must be looked for from the Welfare fund, or young men might volunteer to give a part of their leisure to the task for the benefit of the community. Meanwhile, football and cricket in their respective seasons can be played through the generosity of a farmer who is allowing free use of a field.
It should be said that really good work is being done by the Church of England through the whole time pricat (huh?priest maybe, but looks like’ prica’[, t Brambled) in charge. The church hall was planned when the village expected to become a town of 10,000 inhabitants, and when it seemed to be settling down to smaller proportions it was decided to combine the church and church hall under one roof. This has been accomplished by the expedient of a moveable partition dividing church and church hall. When an extension of the hall is required the oak screen is mo0ved from one bay to the west end of the church. In this way the main part of the church is kept inviolate, while ample room can be arranged for concerts, weekly dances, and whist drives and parish meetings, It may be that some people participate in the secular recreations of the hall who are not regular church goers but the average Sunday congregation at services is about 100, and fully 500 children attend Sunday school classes which tax the available accommodation.
The immediate phase of boredom rather then unrest is likely to pass, but its passing could be helped by the more rapid development of the village A disconcerting sign of feeling at the moment is the neglected proportion of too large a proportion of the village gardens. Miners as a whole are interested in the cultivation of flowers and vegetables, and if the garden plots are left untended and ugly with weeds it is often an indication that the owner of the house intends to leave the district as soon as possible.
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