W K P S 50th Anniversary Mugs

As a part of the programme of activity and events to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of WKPS next year, we have decided to enhance the WKPS web site (www.wkps.org.uk) . As some may have already noticed, we have made several changes to it in the last few months. Coincidentally, the number of people looking at the site in the last three months has doubled over the 4-500 or so that visited before.

This gratifying increase in traffic to the site suggests strongly that we should continue to enhance the site. One addition to the contents has been the information page, which inter alia provides links to all the web sites for the towns and villages of the WKPS area that we have been able to find. At present, that is all we do. However, we feel that the addition of concise histories to the town/village web addresses would both transform the value of this part of the site and encourage visitors to click through to look at the individual town/village web sites that we list.

We felt the best way to bring this about is to tap the well of knowledge and expertise within WKPS. So we are asking those members who have detailed knowledge of the history of their respective towns/villages to contribute short histories that we can load onto the web site. To quote our web site, ‘The Society's area includes: Appledore, Benenden, Bethersden, Biddenden, Boughton Malherbe, Charing, Cranbrook, Egerton, Frittenden, Great Chart, Goudhurst, Hawkhurst, Headcorn, High Halden, Hothfield, Iden Green, Kenardington, Kilndown, Kingsnorth, Little Chart, Newenden, Pluckley, Rolvenden, Rolvenden Layne, St Michael's, Sandhurst, Shadoxhurst, Sissinghurst, Smarden, Stone in Oxney, Stone in Ebony, Sutton Valence, Tenterden, Ulcombe, Westwell, Wittersham and Woodchurch’ . Please note that we have contributors for those towns/villages shown in bold type.

This leaves the great majority unaccounted for, so to speak. This is why we need members’ help. If you would like to contribute to this project, notes of what to do follow:

• We would suggest a length of c 300 words per town/village, that being close to the maximum wordage that can be incorporated into the existing grid of web addresses shown on the web site.

• For ease of handling, we would much prefer that histories be submitted electronically, by email and/or MS Word.

• When ready, please send your contributions for the attention of Mary Adams through the ‘Send Us Your Comments’ facility at the foot of this page’.

• We would like to acknowledge each contribution by showing the author’s name. If for any reason you would prefer us not to do so, please let us know.