KAS 22/11/2024 KAS 22/11/2024

The Goose is Getting Fat

The next meeting of the Smarden Local History Society is Thursday 21st November when Imogen Corrigan returns to Smarden to give us her talk "The Goose is Getting Fat" about the historical origins of our many Christmas traditions.

KAS 09/10/2024 KAS 09/10/2024

The History of Weather Forecasting: from seaweed to super computers

A talk hosted by Smarden Local History Society with weatherman and broadcaster Ian Currie.

KAS 19/11/2021 KAS 19/11/2021

Making History in Smarden

This film is about the things we do in Smarden as a local history group: our talks programme, the way in which we catalogue and preserve archives in our Heritage Centre, our research projects, our interaction with the village and the services we provide to researchers and other groups like ours.

KAS 22/05/2021 KAS 22/05/2021

The Mapping of Smarden

Smarden has been on the map for 500 years, but probably not as you know it. For example, do you know where Udden Bridge is? Or Harbileden? Or Spiers Ash? If you are familiar with Smarden will know them, but not by these names.

KAS 30/01/2021 KAS 30/01/2021

Power Politics and the Man from Maidstone

This film is about power and politics in the years leading up to the 1914 – 1918 war. It tells the remarkable story of how one man challenged the world’s most powerful oil empire… and won. But having achieved his aim he decided there were more important things in life.

KAS 21/12/2020 KAS 21/12/2020

The Way We Were: Smarden 2006

Filmed in 2006 this is the story one year in the life of Smarden village told as each season passed. Happy times!

KAS 15/09/2020 KAS 15/09/2020

May Day! May Day! May Day!

To mark the 80th Anniversary of The Battle of Britain our new film looks at the life stories of two pilots who came down in Smarden in 1940, one Canadian and one German. However the film begins with earlier crashes involving two planes, each of them carrying gold, one in 1929 and the other in 1931.

KAS 14/08/2020 KAS 14/08/2020

Germany is in Smarden: So is North America

You may be puzzled by those two lines, but we promise you they are true. We are taking a fact-finding tour around Smarden’s lanes and fields but geography apart, we’ll be talking about some of the interesting characters who have lived in Smarden: sportsmen, writers, craftsmen and entertainers. Some of them with local reputations, others known around the world.

KAS 01/07/2020 KAS 01/07/2020

Smarden v Napoleon

In this film we go back over 200 years to follow the fortunes of three Smarden men who enlisted to fight the French in Spain, Portugal and at the Battle of Waterloo.

KAS 05/06/2020 KAS 05/06/2020

A Disorderly Parish

In 1688 the Reverend Richard Rands described Smarden as "A Disorderly Parish" so this film explores some of the more notable transgressions which have taken place in our village, ranging from treason and murder to affrays of various kinds.

KAS 15/05/2020 KAS 15/05/2020

The Lion from the West

The life story of John Sella Martin, a man born into poverty and slavery, who became a Baptist minister and a forceful proponent of abolition. In Britain his powerful oratory attracted huge crowds who came to hear him speak during the American Civil War. He spoke in Smarden in 1863.

KAS 07/05/2020 KAS 07/05/2020

Wartime Memories of Smarden

The Rathbone family lived in Smarden at Hegg Hill during World War Two. This film is based on the fascinating memoir written by Lettice Rathbone for the Women's Institute and covers events such as the army coming back from Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and how the village prepared for invasion. Her sister Marion also wrote about village life in WW2 which you can read here.

KAS 30/04/2020 KAS 30/04/2020

The Story of Smarden’s Shops

To celebrate the opening of Smarden's new Community Store and Post Office, this is the story of our village shops, Post Office and shopkeepers over the past 600 years.

KAS 14/04/2020 KAS 14/04/2020

Smarden’s Deadly Year

A heroic doctor, contagion, lockdown, shocking fatalities. A scenario only too familiar to us today, but this is what happened in the Kent village of Smarden 350 years ago. This is a forgotten episode in the history of a rural village that resonates strongly with us now.

KAS 06/04/2020 KAS 06/04/2020

The History of Smarden (part two)

Shot in 2005, this film tells the story of Smarden from early obscurity to its golden age of broadcloth and back again, as told by present-day villagers. This is the second of two videos.

KAS 31/03/2020 KAS 31/03/2020

The History of Smarden (part one)

This film was shot in 2005 and tells Smarden's long and eventful story, from obscurity to its golden weaving years and back again, described in the voices of its present day villagers. This is Part One of Two episodes.