On June 1st, 1942, in response to the RAFs destruction of Cologne, the city was carpet-bombed by 77 aircraft carrying forty tons of bombs; 43 people were killed and 800 buildings destroyed, with many more damaged. This great showman used a short rope to ensure a slow death by strangulation, giving him the pretext to pull theatrically on the guilty parties legs, or even climb onto their shoulders, to break their necks. As if the 1929 Gillingham Park fire disaster had not been enough, the town suffered another such calamity in 1951. Henceforth, English cities of high cultural value were to be targeted by the Luftwaffe, with the aim of breaking popular resolve. It remained there for four years, but was then taken to South Kensington. Efforts to blow up the remainder failed, and in 1998 it was dismantled. The hailstones measured almost an inch in diameter, and fell in torrents. The attack was an echo of the Regents Park outrage of 1982, when seven Royal Green Jackets bandsmen were killed. [8], The wording of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle suggests the battle was fought to the south of the river crossing at Brentford, while other sources, including the Kntsdrpa suggest the battle was fought on both sides of the river. Lying in wait was a squad of armed excisemen ready to make arrests and confiscate loot. The Grosser Kurfrst turned to starboard and then straightened her course, whereupon the Knig Wilhelm alongside initiated the same manoeuvre. of Bradborne, in Sevenoke, who dying The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that the Mercians and the people of Kent fought at Otford, without giving the outcome, although it is considered significant that Kent was re-established as an independent . October 4th, 1624 brought a storm described as a terrible gale, the like of which has never been seen which was really saying something among a nation of seafarers. Consequently, a wooden jetty was erected in 1824; but it was wrecked by a storm in 1851. The case remains unsolved. Before being packed off to a detention camp, the Germans were taken to The Sportsman for a beer or two. It began in a first-floor tailors workshop adjacent to a ward housing 350 male patients. John-Frederick, duke of Dorset, is the present high steward There might never be a problem, but if there is, it wont be trivial. The high stewardship of the honour of Otford has The French successfully undermined the Castle barbican, and then brought down one tower of the gatehouse; but their massed assault was bloodily repulsed. After blustering about the Sword of Truth, he started a libel action. rent, issuing out of certain tenements, called Le Rye, see, in the 4th year of the Conqueror's reign, anno It was too late. The county had little practice in shifting pachyderms around, its only previous experience being one that arrived at Sandwich with the Romans in AD 43. He even had an excess of guns added at launch to emphasise the point. The blast, which killed 79 crew, had been caused by a fire in newspapers unaccountably tucked by Tyneside shipbuilders into the lagging of the midship magazine. Structural damage was also widespread. thelred dies Edmund Ironside chosen as king by London, and besieged there Cnut chosen as king by the rest of England at Southampton (?) The sun and moon were pulling gravitationally in the same direction, and the consequent spring tide was exacerbated by a storm on the North Sea. Arriving at Bordeaux for a scheduled stop, it encountered a queue, and was further delayed by an RAF transport with mechanical problems. The Castle was at length returned to the de Crvecoeurs, who managed to retain it for another hundred years before the Crown pinched it for good. and a fair was held at Otford on his anniversary. There would be a larger influx a century later, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes that had halted the persecution. King Charles II was most fortunate that his Treaty of Dover remained secret for a hundred years. It lies on the River Darent, 3 miles (5 km) north of Sevenoaks. in these battles; bones are continually discovered in It followed hard upon another mutiny concerning pay and conditions at Spithead, off Portsmouth. It turned out that there had been murder above bloody murder. The church, which is situated at the east end of Battle of the Medway: John Fawkes, 2020 from BritishBattles.com. If you can hear me now, it will be the first time speech has ever been communicated to an aeroplane in flight. Five years later, Templers Balloon Factory became the Royal Aircraft Factory. anno 1300, (fn. By 1936, it had stood there for 82 years. the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till archbishop Although Sandwichs population was already swollen by Dutch Protestant immigrants, poor Huguenot refugees were awarded 50 shillings by the authorities. They also coped badly with rough seas, when progress was slow and passengers arrived green about the gills. Dartford to Sevenoke goes through the village of Regarded as a gentleman among his peers, he eschewed violence and never stole from the poor. Investigation revealed that it was a people-smuggling exercise organised by a Chinese snakehead gang. After hurrying out to her, he flooded the forward magazines but realised that, when the flames reached the magazines aft, the explosion would ignite the adjacent ammunition ship Gransha and obliterate Dover. one hundred pounds per annum, the house and glebe Although the Castle fell, Matildas forces eventually engaged Stephen in 1141 at Lincoln, where he was captured; but popular resistance to her accession barred her from formally becoming monarch. He decided on a siege. It reportedly flew for 300 yards at nearly 5 feet. It was first given serious consideration in 1802, when French engineer Albert Mathieu proposed a tunnel lit with oil lamps, ferrying travellers by horse-drawn carriage. a large sum at that time, and here The change was occasioned by the death of King Aethelberht II in 762. On the narrow bridge, one of the horses spooked, causing a wheel to crash through the balustrade. of a lady, in profile, with figures of statuary marble on each side, for the Rounds and Mainards. With efforts to use balloons for military reconnaissance proving ineffectual in the US Civil War, the British Army decided in 1862 to commence its own project to develop viable military balloons. SIR THOMAS SMITH, gave by will, in 1625, to six poor persons who do not receive alms, and frequent divine service, bread The Battle of Otford was a battle fought in 776 between the Mercians, led by Offa of Mercia, and the Jutes of Kent.The battle took place at Otford, in the modern English county of Kent.. What they discovered inside was horrific. In its crudest version, the invaders were chased out of Kent by a mob bearing staves. acres, lying in Otford, Seal, and Kemsing; in the 15th Some of Toms followers fled, but he was left with about 40 men armed with sticks. they continued down to Sir Sidney Stafford Smythe, It remained in this location until 1870, when a larger and quieter replacement was built off the Tonbridge Road west of the river; but this too was replaced just sixty years later by the more spacious building that forms the hub of the current school. On June 1st, he was confronted by a force of 4,000 New Model Army veterans under Sir Thomas Fairfax. The nobles found against Odo and confiscated part of his possessions. So comprehensive was the destruction that the remains had to be demolished. After divorcing Jacqueline, Humphrey settled with Eleanor at Placentia Palace in Greenwich, where they ran a celebrated court frequented by the artistic slebs of the day. But insults were not enough. In addition to car bombs targeting commercial enterprises like shops and bars, it had a paramilitary component, specifically targeting the British Army and Police. In July 1216, he headed back east to remedy the omission. It only brought him a temporary reprieve. Edmund retakes Wessex If the Royal Navy could suffer such disasters when the Germans werent even in sight, it looked like being a difficult war. One of these is in Ashingdon, Rochford in Essex. The English Civil War was the outcome of unstoppable force meets immovable object. [5] Edmund was then joined by his brother in law, Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, and attacked towns which according to Anglo-Norman chronicler William of Malmesbury, had sided with Cnut. Five of the gang who escaped the beach were met at the top by a mounted officer, whom they shot dead. Sent to a high-security PoW camp in the Lake District, he disappeared during a walk, sparking a huge manhunt. called in Saxon, OTTANFORD, in the book of Domesday, OTEFORT, and in the Textus Roffensis, OTTEFORD; for it is observable, that the syllable an, when Its value went beyond providing a wealth of leisure activities. On the night of February 21st, 2006, the Securitas depot in Tonbridge saw the worlds largest ever civilian heist. [6] Edmund returned to London where Aethelred died on 23 April. Eventually the doctor reported his suspicions, and she was tried for murder. Even so, England could consider itself lucky. his widow lady Sarah Smythe, in 1790, and by her will Sydney lord of Kingsham, by Chichester, and of Isabella St. John, The obvious location was the site of the former Placentia Palace, close to Greenwich Park and beside the Thames not far from London. It even had its own cemetery containing 7,000 burials, with poignant memorials to nurses who had died at suspiciously young ages. The 2nd Battle of Otford (1016) King Ethelraed II's hapless efforts to repel Cnut 's invasion came to a halt in April 1016, when he died in London. When a detachment of soldiers approached the rebels in a clearing, Tom shot their lieutenant. Their efforts were soon supplemented with use of the redundant Martello towers, and new stations were built every three miles from Sheppey to Lydd. Ten buildings had been destroyed, along with 30 vehicles. duke of Newcastle, who both died, s. p. thirdly, Elizabeth, They from their fields can see the countenance Of your fierce war, may ken the glittering lance And hear you shouting forth your brave intent. Hartlake Bridge at Golden Green near Hadlow is a spot more likely to be associated with romantic poetry than a disaster. Apart from pillaging and burning down the town, they murdered John Drury, the mayor a deed commemorated in the town mayors black robe today. Location within Kent. at this place, made a great slaughter of them; after Now the demesne of yearly, for the like purpose, to be paid out of land, vested in Mr. Amhurst, as trustee of The bodies and body parts were collected and identified as well as possible, a mass grave was dug at Lenham, and, after dark, all were buried together by lantern light.