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Betteshanger

Coordinates:51°13′30″N1°19′12″E/ 51.225°N 1.32°E/51.225; 1.32
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Betteshanger
Betteshanger Park
Betteshanger is located in Kent
Betteshanger
Betteshanger
Location withinKent
OS grid referenceTR3352
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townDeal
Postcode districtCT14
Dialling code01304
PoliceKent
FireKent
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
List of places
UK
England
Kent
51°13′30″N1°19′12″E/ 51.225°N 1.32°E/51.225; 1.32

Betteshangeris a village and formercivil parish.now in the parish ofNorthbourne,in theDoverdistrict, in eastKent,UK, nearDeal.It gave its name to the largest of the four chiefcollieriesof theKent coalfield.[1]In 1931 the parish had a population of 55.[2]On 1 April 1935 the parish was abolished and merged with Northbourne.[3]

Before the coal mine

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St Mary's Church, Betteshanger

Betteshanger parish (with variation 'Betleshangre'[4]) has existed at least sinceDomesdaytimes. It remained a small scattered parish until the advent of theKent Coalfield.St Mary's Church sits almost alone in woodland in the centre of the parish. At 'Little Betteshanger' a cluster of houses surround Betteshanger Farm and are very close to Northbourne Primary School.

Mining in Betteshanger

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Betteshanger Colliery opened in the late 1920s and was the largest of the Kent collieries. Miners from other coalfields travelled to Deal in the hope of finding work at the new pit, and many lodging houses, cafes and pubs in Deal put up signs saying "no miners" owing to fear of the arrival of the often dirty men who spoke very different dialects.[5]It had two shafts of almost 2,300 feet, plaques can still be seen where the shafts were once sunk. The colliery was served by a railway branch which left the main line between Deal & Sandwich.[6]

Betteshanger had a tradition of union militancy. Many of the miners who moved to Kent to work at Betteshanger had been blacklisted in their home areas after the 1926 strike, so there was a high proportion of "hardline union men".[5]It was thefirst pit to come out on strikeduring theSecond World Warand took active part in the miners' strikes of1969,1972,1974and1984/85.

A sit-in was staged at the colliery in 1984 and those involved were sacked for trespass.[5]The Kent Area's NUM initially refused to return to work until those sacked were reinstated and continued to picket the rest of the country after the NUM's national executive had voted to return to work,[7]so Betteshanger was actually the last pit in Britain to return to work after the strike.[5]

Thereafter, Betteshanger became known for the brutality with which strikebreakers were treated. Posters had gone up in the village with photographs and names of the 30 men who had broken the strike.[8]It was the last Kent colliery to close, closing for good in 1989.

The village is also on theMiner's Way Trailthat links up the coalfield parishes of East Kent.[9]

Village layout

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The miners' houses were laid out in three streets: Circular Road, Northway and Broad Lane. Circular Road, often known simply as 'the circle' is in fact oval in shape and is a one-way street. Houses have even numbers on inside of the circle, and odd on the outside. Northway connects the circle with the rest of the world and is a shorttwo-way street.As a road Broad Lane predates the coal mine and has miners' houses on just one side. Additionally, the former village shop is now a domestic dwelling and although numbered as part of Circular Road, sits on an unnamed stub-road which used to serve as the entrance to the colliery itself.

Betteshanger Park Development

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With support fromSouth East England Development Agency(SEEDA), as part of the National Coalfields Programme (NCP)[10]a children's play area, including play equipment and a skateboard ramp, and more recently an industrial park, have opened on the site of the former colliery.Betteshanger Parkhas also been developed on a formerspoil tip(on the north of the site). Current plans for Betteshanger Industrial Park is the proposal fromHadlow Collegeto set up the agricultural centre, creating more than 1,000 jobs. But this is still yet to be confirmed. Local opposition to this proposal, wants to turn the site into a charitable trust with the development of free enterprise formulas and continued growth of the site.[11]

Betteshanger Sustainable Parks

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Launched on 6 November at the House of Commons,[12]this £40m scheme will re-develop the site of the former colliery and create approximately 1,000 jobs in the local area.

It is planned that Betteshanger Sustainable Parks, a scheme bringing togetherHadlow College,Dover District Council,theHomes and Communities AgencyandKent County Councilwill generate green energy[13]together with a Mining Heritage Museum, Visitor Centre and Sustainable Education Centre. In total, the Betteshanger Sustainable Education and Business Incubation Centre will provide 2,000 square metres of internal space[14]and provide an incubation service for fledgling businesses. The Business and Commercial Park will comprise 6,700 square metres of internal space.[15]

The development which, prior to launch in November 2013, took four years of preparation is a UK first, and aims to help regenerate Dover district, as well as the wider East Kent communities. It is planned that the project will start on site in summer 2015 and open in spring 2016. The Kent Mining Museum is scheduled to open in summer 2016[16]

Betteshanger Summer School

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Betteshanger occupies an important place in the history and development of organic and biodynamic farming. It was the bridge between these two forms of agriculture. The 'Betteshanger Summer School and Conference on Biodynamic Farming' was held in July 1939. It was the firstbiodynamic agricultureconference to be held in Britain.Ehrenfried Pfeiffertravelled fromSwitzerlandto be the lead presenter at the summer school which was held at the farm ofLord Northbourne.The following year Northbourne presented and expanded on these ideas for a British audience in his book 'Look to the Land' in which he introduced the term 'organic farming'.[17]

References

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  1. ^Betteshanger CollieryArchived23 April 2008 at theWayback Machine,Coalfields Heritage Initiative Kent
  2. ^"Population statistics Betteshanger AP/CP through time".A Vision of Britain through Time.Retrieved12 June2023.
  3. ^"Relationships and changes Betteshanger AP/CP through time".A Vision of Britain through Time.Retrieved12 June2023.
  4. ^Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; National Archives; CP 40/555;http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H4/CP40no555/bCP40no555dorses/IMG_0348.htm;sixth entry; with 'Stephen Peyntour' as complainant; the place where the alleged assault took place is given as 'Betleshangre'
  5. ^abcdDover Museum – Betteshanger Colliery
  6. ^"Eastkentlightrailway".
  7. ^Strike: 358 Days that Shook the Nation.London: Sunday Times. 1985. p. 254.ISBN0-340-38445-X.
  8. ^Winterton, Jonathan; Winterton, Ruth (1989).Coal, Crisis, and Conflict: The 1984–85 Miners' Strike in Yorkshire.Manchester University Press. p. 217.ISBN9780719025488.
  9. ^"The History of the Coalfield Parishes".dover.gov.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 13 January 2014.Retrieved20 November2013.
  10. ^"Coalfields projects | Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)".Archived fromthe originalon 14 May 2014.Retrieved14 May2014.
  11. ^"Betteshanger local trust proposed | This is Kent".Archived fromthe originalon 2 April 2012.Retrieved30 June2011.
  12. ^"New look for old Betteshanger Colliery site to create 1,000 jobs in east Kent".kentonline.co.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 9 November 2013.
  13. ^"'Green energy' for old colliery ".BBC News.
  14. ^"Betteshanger Sustainable Parks | Education - Betteshanger Sustainable Parks".Archived fromthe originalon 20 December 2013.Retrieved20 December2013.
  15. ^"Betteshanger Sustainable Parks | Tenancy - Betteshanger Sustainable Parks".Archived fromthe originalon 20 December 2013.Retrieved20 December2013.
  16. ^"Betteshanger Sustainable Parks | Investors - Betteshanger Sustainable Parks".Archived fromthe originalon 20 December 2013.Retrieved20 December2013.
  17. ^Paull, John (2011)"The Betteshanger Summer School: Missing link between biodynamic agriculture and organic farming",Journal of Organic Systems, 6(2):13–26.
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Media related toBetteshangerat Wikimedia Commons

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