Interesting things I found whilst researching Folkestone Harbour

These bits & bobs are not necessarily relevant to what I was writing about Folkestone Harbour Arm & the deserted railway station, but are interesting none the less & I wanted to make a record of them.

 

Some of these things are undated and I do not know the background stories to many of them.

This photo of Gandhi arriving at Folkestone Harbour in 1931:

 

 

He arrived in Folkestone around March 1931 to attend a 'Round-Table' conference to discuss the political state of India after the signing of the 'Gandhi-Irwin Pact' negotiated with Lord Edward Irwin (a representative of the British Government). As a result of the pact all political prisoners were freed by the British in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement.

 

This was not Gandhi's first visit to the U.K. In 1888 he arrived in London to study as a barrister at University College London, and after being called to the Bar in 1891, he left London for India due to the news of the death of his mother (interestingly, his family kept this information from him, presumably so as not to interrupt his studies).

 

Mrs Sarojini Naidu was known as the 'Nightingale of India' and was a poet and Indian Independence activist. She later became the President of the Indian National Congress (the first woman to hold such a position).

 

I admit to being totally ignorant of her life and work, but her poetry is utterly beautiful from what I've read so far. This one is titled 'Coromandel Fishers' and seems to be the most appropriate one to put into a blog entry related to Folkestone Harbour!

Rise, brothers, rise; the wakening skies pray to the morning light,
The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night.
Come, let us gather our nets from the shore and set our catamarans free,
To capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for we are the kings of the sea!

No longer delay, let us hasten away in the track of the sea gull's call,
The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother, the waves are our comrades all.
What though we toss at the fall of the sun where the hand of the sea-god drives?
He who holds the storm by the hair, will hide in his breast our lives.

Sweet is the shade of the coconut glade, and the scent of the mango grove,
And sweet are the sands at the full o' the moon with the sound of the voices we love;
But sweeter, O brothers, the kiss of the spray and the dance of the wild foam's glee;
Row, brothers, row to the edge of the verge, where the low sky mates with the sea.

 

 

This picture of (now gone) Folkestone Lifeboat Station, undated but early 20th century from the buildings & clothing:

 



 

This British Pathe film recording of a man cycling across the English Channel in 1921:

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/cycling-the-channel/query/folkestone

 

This footage of WWII Mine clearance being done on the Warren in 1953:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/minefield-clearance/query/folkestone

 

These beautifully Kitschy Folkestone postcards:

 

 

 This slightly mawkish, but nonetheless cute painting of a dog awaiting the return of his (probably dead) master, who has gone to fight in WWI:

 

 

Artist Unknown - Titled 'Will he come back?'

 

I expect that the framed document on the wall would give me a clue to the Masters Regiment and possible identity, but the image is not a good enough resolution for me to enlarge successfully.

 

This postcard of the Pool on Bayle Road - 1907, now covered over with a garden containing a fountain:

 

 

I did not know there had been a pool here, but I have been told that the fountain is fed by a 'miraculous' spring, believed to be miraculous because the water flows up instead of down and comes out at this point, It was apparently found by St Eanswythe whilst she was living at the nunnery attached to the nearby church in the early 600's. However I do not know how true any of this is.

 

These gorgeous 1937 stamps from the 24th Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, held in Folkestone:

 

 

This 'Ghostsign' located inside the Rennies Seaside Modern building.

 

 

Apparently it is very rare to find such a sign inside a building and shows that the wall must once have been an external wall, with the attic of Rennies being added at a later date.

 

I asked Paul & Karen Rennie about this & they tell me that it was what made them fall in love with the building in the first place. They wanted to conserve it but due to the builders reservations about structural elements it has been covered over to preserve it.

 

1920's footage of Folkestone and Dover railways:

 

You can click on all the images above to see a larger version.