Posted on Sep 21, 2025
GEORGE ORWELL was the pen name used by Eric Arthur Blair. He was born 25th June 1903 in Motihari in British India. His ancestral home there has been declared a National Monument. When he was one, his mother sent him to England with his older sister. They settled first at Henley on Thames. He was an English essayist, journalist, critic and novelist. Famous novels include 1984 and Animal Farm. Acclaimed non- fiction works include Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia characterised by well researched social realism. His work concerning totalitarianism created words and phrases such as Big Brother, Thought Crime, Cold War, Thought Police and Room 101 – which have become part of our language. Eric Arthur Blair stayed at West Malling Spike (workhouse) in 1931 and describes the characters and places with blunt realism. In the Hop Picking Diaries he describes trying to obtain work at Kronk’s Farm (Cronk’s Farm, Newbarns, West Malling) and working at Blest’s Farm (Best’s Farm). He travelled by train with other pickers. The realism of these experiences is reflected in his novel Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) and used extensively in his novel The Clergyman’s Daughter (1935). West Accrington Station referred to in The Clergyman’s Daughter is thought to be West Malling. He died 21st January 1950 in London. The Times considered him second on a list of the 50 greatest British authors since 1945. More information More information More...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
SILAS NORTON and his business partner Thomas Selby were solicitors and both from ancient Kentish families. Selby was part of a very ancient Kentish family of worldwide influence who had owned property in West Malling since at least the 15th century. The Bodleian Library holds documents relating to him. Norton was born and died in West Malling. He held his law licence almost until his death at the age of 90. He married Sarah Ann Bookham and they had six children. Cricket had been played in West Malling since at least 1705. Norton and Selby linked with William George 2nd Lord Harris (1782-1845) and formed Town Malling Cricket Club. From a woodcut in 1891 The “New Ground” (or St Georges Field) was established, and the first match played in 1827. The well-known cricketer Fuller Pilch was retained on a salary of £100 per year. His duties included being Landlord of the Cricketer’s Arms in Ryarsh Lane and cutting the grass! First Class cricket was first played in 1836 and attracted a “gate” of 8,000. The Lords Harris have since been enormously influential in the development of cricket in England and India. Long thought to be the inspiration and setting for Charles Dickens’s famous “Muggleton” match in the Pickwick Papers (1836-1837), Charles Dicken’s son wrote “Muggleton is perhaps only a fancy sketch of a small country town but if anywhere Town Malling sat for it being a great place for cricket in Mr Pickwick’s time.” Another woodcut of the High Street in West Malling was included in the edition of Pickwick Papers which celebrated the jubilee of Queen...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
The Rev WILLIAM NEVILL 4th Earl of Abergavenny (1792-1868) bought Lantern House and Estate (now called Malling House) in 1866 from the Heirs of Valentine Phillips, one of whom was Phillips of the famous Bond Street Auction House. William succeeded to the title of 18th Lord of Abergavenny in 1845. Chaplain to King William IV, he was Vicar of Frant and Rector of Birling. With General Luck of the Hermitage he let property in the High Street and Swan Street to finance four local schools. He married CAROLINE LEEKE and they had seven children. Five were living in 1866, Henrietta-Augusta, Ralph Pelham, William (later the 5th Earl and 1st Marquis of Abergavenny) Isabel and Caroline. The daughter, The Lady Caroline Emily Nevill 1829-1887, was an exhibitor at The Royal Photographic Society and a founder member of The Photographic Exchange Club, producing a series of Architectural views of Kent 1855-1858. She was a pioneer of early waxed paper negative and luminous lint photography. Together with her two sisters (called “The Trio”) she produced embroidered artworks. She spent her time fundraising and helping the poor of West Malling, living most of her life here. She died in London, her body being transported from West Malling Station at walking pace to Birling by Mr Viner, Funeral Director. All work and business stopped throughout the district for the duration of the funeral out of respect. RALPH PELHAM NEVILL (1832-1914) High Sheriff of Kent (married Louisa Maclean (1833-1919) and had seven children. They lived in Lantern (Malling) House until 1873. Ralph was a keen, able sportsman, huntsman, dog and cattle breeder. For eight years he commanded a troop in the West Kent Yeomanry. The family gave the small Green, on which stands the Town Sign and the statue “Hope”, to the Parish. PERCY LLEWELYN NEVILL enlarged the Lantern estate by buying property in Town Hill c.1900. During World War 1 the house was used as a Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital and the estate was eventually divided and partly built on. Malling House (Lantern House) is an ancient and commanding site. A 1986 survey showed it incorporated an early timber framed building with a gable end to the road with 17th, 18th and 19th century additions. In the 18th century it was a mansion owned by the Burt family. Mrs Burt wrote to Trollop’s, the wallpaper company in London, for advice on wallpaper. Valentine Phillips owned it before Earl Abergavenny but there are gaps in the record. More...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield The extraordinary action packed life of this brave man, although only 53 years long, was nearing its end. It was a life which encompassed most of the events of British naval history during the latter half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. His Will, written with beautiful calligraphy using a feather quill pen, was prepared by the long established legal firm of James Selby in West Malling, Kent. It describes how he wished his worldly goods to be distributed. Born in 1760 on the 15th November and christened on the 13th December, Charles John Moore Mansfield was the son of a dockyard officer at Stoke Damerel, Devonport. Childhood was a very brief affair in those days. At the age of eleven in 1772 he joined the Navy as Captain’s Servant to Captain Fielding aboard HMS Kent. The American Revolution Following the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1776, he transferred to HMS Foudroyant, and having been rapidly promoted to Midshipman he transferred again to the frigate Diamond, and saw action in North America. At the age of eighteen, in 1778, when he was two years younger than the usual age, he was promoted to Lieutenant, joining HMS Albion. He transferred to HMS Sultan in 1779 and was in action at the Battle of Grenada, and later the Battle of Martinique. In 1780 he was made First Lieutenant of the frigate HMS Fortune, and in January 1782 he was in action against the French attack at the Battle of Frigate Bay in St Kitts. He then successfully sailed through enemy lines at night to gain information from the besieged British fort at Brimstone Hill, leading to the recapture of the fort and the island. Return to England In 1782 Mansfield returned to England. He served for a short time at the start of 1783 as First Lieutenant on the frigate HMS Monsieur before joining HMS Irresistible. Five years of peace followed and he returned to shore in 1788. Marriage, Setting Up home in West Malling and Children. Still only 28 and with all that action behind him, Charles married Anna Spong on 21st August 1788 at St Edmond’s Church Lombard Street London. The Spong family owned extensive riverside properties on the Medway including those at Mill Hall, East Malling and Aylesford. The family’s business interests included paper-making and milling. Charles and Anne set up home in West Malling. Their first child Seymour Herbert Mansfield born on 5th December 1789 in Rochester died aged twelve. Mary Mansfield was born in January 1792 and their third child James Hawkins Hughes Mansfield was born on 5th April 1794. After two years ashore war threatened again and he joined HMS Lion in 1790 as First Lieutenant, followed by service on HMS Assistance and HMS Stately. French Revolutionary Wars On the 17th July 1793 he was promoted to Commander of HMS Megaera being elevated in 1794...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
GENERAL SIR GEORGE LUCK was born in 1840 at Blackheath. During the second Anglo-Afghan War (1878 – 1880) he commanded the 15th Hussars. He was later posted to India where he became the Inspector-General of Cavalry. He then took on this post in the UK before returning to India in 1898, to become the C-in-C of the Bengal Command. He retired to Salisbury in 1903. Between 1905 and 1907 he was appointed Keeper of the Tower – a position in the British Royal Household and the most senior appointment at the Tower of London. He died in 1916. He and his wife Ellen Georgina (Adams) are entombed in the family vault in St Mary’s Church, West Malling at the top of the High Street. Ellen’s father was Major General Frederick Adam, GCB, GCMG, a hero of Waterloo whose troops made a brilliant and decisive manoeuvre at the peak of the battle. He was later ADC to the Prince Regent and Governor of Madras. Together with the Nevill family, the Lucks let property in the High Street and Swan Street, and financed four local schools. The Luck family home was in West Malling at The Hermitage, Lucks Lane, where three other members of the family are...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
There were three successive generations of the Luck Family who served in the British Army and rose to the rank of Colonel. They have memorials in St Mary’s church, West Malling, at the top of the High Street. The Luck estate (including The Hermitage – the family home) was large and included the land on which now stands this school and the Roman Catholic church to the East. The Luck coat of arms is shown in a window of a building on the old Luck estate, and in stone above a door. The three colonels are: Colonel Everard Thomas Luck JP, 1844 – 1916. Colonel Brian John Michael Luck, CMG, DSO, JP, 1874 – 1948. Colonel Richard Frederick Luck, OBE, 1907 – 1963. Within the Luck family as well was General Sir George Luck, GCB a very significant figure in the Army. He has his own entry in this website. The family has pedigree from the time of Henry 11 and the Coat of Arms was proved by the Herald in 1634 at Rotherfield Sussex where they appear to have been inter-alia ironmasters. Brian John Michael Luck was born at Dane Court, Hartlip, the 11th child of 16 children born to Frederick Luck and his wife Harriet Elizabeth (Nee Goord). Frederrick, who for some unknown reason changed his name to Locke in 1877., was the grandson of Thomas Luck who came to West Malling living at Went House in 1824 where he died in 1857. Thomas was born at Ditton in 1765 where both his father George and grandfather William were owners of Ditton Court. Thomas’s son Edward Thomas was responsible for building the present Hermitage early in the 19th century on the site of a former moated house in an area where Saxon artefacts have been found. Edward Thomas Luck is recorded as paying rates on the building in 1827 and before that he was probably living with his father, Thomas, at Went House. Edward Thomas Luck was born in Middlesex in 1798 and lived at the Hermitage until he died in 1877. The property then passed to his son Everard Thomas Luck upon whose death in 1916 the property passed jointly to his widow and Brian Michael William Luck the son of Colonel Brian John Michael Luck (first cousin once removed of Everard Thomas), but upon his sons death in India in 1924 he became joint trustee with Everard Thomas’s widow Gertrude and upon her death in 1926 became the sole owner. Brian John Michael Luck is recorded at the Royal Artillery Academy at Woolwich in 1891 and by 1911 was serving in the Royal Garrison Artillery at Gibraltar. When he resigned his commission in 1924 he was a Lieutenant Colonel. He married Marie Haig and as far as we can ascertain had two children, Brian Michael William and Frederick. Colonel Brian Luck was a Justice of the Peace and...
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