A LITTLE MORE of Old RAINHAM
ln a recent number of Action Forum mention is made of the cows being driven up Station Road between a meadow in Solomon Road and a farm opposite the Church. The cows belonged to Mr Jacobs who used the meadow known as ‘Jacobs Meadow‘. The so called farm was not actually a farm but Greenborough Dairy, named after Greenborough Marsh where Mr Jacobs kept other cattle. l have often as a boy helped drive the cows upStation Road and many Saturdays have l spent in the cow shod at the Dairy. Gordon and Douglas Wickens, old Rainham boys, were my companions and they could toll you tales of the cows and the dairy. On Sundays we were all angelic choir boys, singing our heads off.
Mr Keutenius was the cowman, a patient and kind man to his cows and to we boys. He had an unusual nickname, ‘Old Cakybun and Cheesepastry', he so loved these two items, always to he found in his lunch hag. There were never any bulls in the meadow, these were kept on the marsh, and all the cows returned to the Dairy each evening. The meadow behind the Old Parsonage was also used by Mr Jacobs for his cows, mostly during the winter months.
We boys often spent the dark winter evenings in Jacobs Meadow playing ‘Jack, Jack show your light’, and when we were cold we would warm our hands on the two big iron supports let into the wall forming tho back of Mr Cramp the bakers ovcn. The two iron bars are still there in Solomon Road in the side wall of what is now a motor spares shop, but then Mr Crarnp‘s bread and cake shop. After a warm we would bide our time ‘till the stableman at Wakeley’s Oast house, now the Community Centre. had gone for his evening pint. We would then raid the stable and pinch the locust beans from the horses feed. The young people of today don’t know the delicious taste of a locust bean or enjoy the fun we had. No wilful damage in those happy days, too busy having our fun.
Monday and Thursday evenings were for choir practice and if you missed one you were not permitted to attend choir the following Sunday. As a result you were a penny farthing short in your quarterly pay packet. A farthing for the choir practice and a halfpenny for each morning and evening service.
In 1919 the body of Nurse Edith Cavelle was sent to England from Belgium. For those unacquainted with the name, Edith Cavelle was a lady from Norfolk who as a Matron ran a training hospital for nurses in
Brussels. She was shot by the Germans in 1915 for hiding Allied soldiers cutoff during the Mons retreat. ln I919 the Belgian authorities exhumed the body and it came to England by a British Destroyer
from Ostend lo Dover. The old S.E. & Chatham Railway conveyed the body from Dover Marine to Victoria. ln the Spring of 1919 as a boy of the old C of E School l marched with others to Jacob's
Meadow. There we lined up facing the railway line.The usual train arrived from Dover and halted at the station. I well remember the large black carriage which our teacher, old Grace Campbell told us contained the remains of the heroine Nurse Cavelle. You can read more on the IWM site https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/who-was-edith-cavell
Two ladies of Rainham also of the C of E School remember parading in the Meadow and getting into trouble because they picked daisies in the Meadow and made daisy chains. Another remembers parading in the Council school playground which ran alongside the railway line. The train stopped at all stations between Dover and London to enable people to pay their respects.
Do any other people of World War I Vintage remember taking part in the parade in the Meadow?
Harry Hammond
Rainham.
Jacobs Meadow opposite the Railway Hotel in Station Road