Up until the mid-1800s, Wouldham's working population was mainly agricultural workers. However, this was soon to change, with Wouldham becoming at the forefront of the cement making industry, having both the Wouldham Court and Peters/Wouldham Hall works operating on the banks of the river.

This growing industry meant that houses for the workers were built and the village expanded. The population of Wouldham between 1801 and 1901 is as follows:

1801 - 165
1811 - 159
1821 - 176
1831 - 247
1841 - 284
1851 - 343
1861 - 433
1871 - 818
1881 - 1,268
1891 - 1,373
1901 - 1,272

There are many photos of Wouldham residents which I have put together into groups in order of surname. There is a section further down the page for those who were not named on the original photos. If you happen to know the identity of any of the people, please let me know at history@wouldhamvillage.com.

Baker

Click on the photo above to enlarge. Photo kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Anne Martin kindly sent in the following information regarding the above photo:

"On the website, Adam, is a photo taken at the wedding of 'Waz' (don't know what his real name was!) and Lydia Baker. I've had the attached photo of the bride and groom & best man for many years but had never seen one of the group which includes my grandfather and uncle George and a few other familiar faces at, I believe the Black Robin.

2nd photo. The wedding of Lydia Baker's sister, Beryl, to Jock. Both died at an unfortunately young age. Lydia is the bridesmaid on the right. Looks like Les Brooker at the back on the left."

Bell

Click on the photo above to enlarge. Photo kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Best

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Cook

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Cornhill

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Goodyer

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Gore

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Harvey

Dave Wright from Gillingham kindly sent in the following information regarding his ancestors.

My ancestors moved in to Wouldham in approximately 1870. Alice Loker married Daniel Harvey, they had five children, including my great grandmother, Ellen who married Joseph Rogers in 1890 in Gravesend. They went on to have six children, Ethel b1893. Ada 1895, Alice 1897, William 1900 who died two weeks later, Queenie b1903 - d1919, Lily 1905.

Ethel - Went on to marry William Smith 1917, they had 6 children. All born at no 16 Portland Place/Road, High Street, Wouldham;
Queenie b1919, my mum.
Beatrice 1920,
Vera 1924,
Henry 1927 who died at birth,
Ken 1930,
Brian 1935
Beatrice - Married Jess Smith, a warden at Borstal Prison, they had two sons and lived at Brambletree Cottages, Borstal (now under the motorway bridge) until he transferred to Lincoln Prison. Beatrice passed away in 2011.

Ken - Married Vera Diddems in 1952, no children, Ken died in 1996 and Vera is still alive.

Vera - Married Dick Owens, also a prison warden in Borstal. Transferred to Lincoln, they had four daughters, transferred to Durham prison. Vera died in 2007; I am still in touch with all four girls.

Brian - Married June Hawkins in 1958, no children and divorced in 1966. He died in 2007.

Queenie - My Mum. She married Herbert Wright in 1939, they had three children, they lived in St Margaret's Street, Rochester as he worked at Shorts. The house was damaged in an air raid on Short's so dad sent mum and my brother to live in Portland Place/Road until I was born. The he got a house in Gillingham in 1941. Here she gave birth to my sister. My brother died several years ago and mum died in 1987. The three of us as kids spent happy holidays in Wouldham at Brambletree with our cousins. We were taken down Ferry Lane to see the Narwhole in 1949. Played in the derelict cement works and the chalk pit - before the council filled it in. Fishing in the Medway and helping Dave Kitney with his allotment. How I miss the good old days.

Ellen Rogers is buried in the church graveyard with her husband and Queenie. One of my cousins and me visited the grave early this year - I am hoping to get there soon to clean the headstone. Dave Kitney's dad, Moses, is also buried in the next plot.

Ada - Married Will Wickens in 1920, they had one son and lived in Gravesend (lost touch).

Alice - Married Dave Kitney in 1920. They had no children. Dave Kitney is well known around the area as he and his brother started the Kitney bros :- Motor Proprietors Coach Company until being brought out by M&D (Maidstone and District). He was also the local policeman during World War 2. Alice died in 1962.

Lily - Never Married, she contracted yellow fever as a young girl, it affected her back as she was always bent over very badly. She still lived at home with her mum, she passed all her exams as a hairdresser and opened up a saloon in her mum's front room. All our family would get their hair cut cheap. She died in 1974.

I am enclosing some family photos, are you able to put a date and answer the reason of the Parades and is it a fireman's funeral? Which G.R. Coronation is it?

Hawk

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Horton

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Anne Martin kindly sent in the following information regarding the Horton family:

"I noticed on the website, several photos of William (Billy) Horton. This is a photo of his wedding (July 17, 1937) and a very informative press cutting plus photo from the Kent Messenger. My mother, Lilian Norris, is the bridesmaid on the right. She rediscovered Evie Eaton (bridesmaid 2nd left) in the late 1990s and they exchanged several letters until Mother passed away (in New Zealand) in 2000."

Knott

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Lee

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Mallard

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Manklow

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Click on the photo above to enlarge. Photo kindly provided by Roger Webb.

Martin

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Maynard

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Norris

The following information was sent into us by Anne Martin:

"I wondered if you might be interested in the attached photo, of a 1930 Wouldham wedding. The groom is Henry Norris, grandson, I believe, of the whiskery Mr. Norris pictured on the website on a garden seat at the Homestead. Henry's father and mother, Ernest and Sarah, are on the left of the bridal couple. My mother, a member of the Norris tribe, is in the back row & various relatives dotted around. (How many copies of this photo are still in existence!!)

The people in the wedding photo are:

Back row: Mrs. Watson, Mrs. Horton, (unknown woman), Lilian Bennett nee Norris (my mother), Harry Swadling, Lucy Swadling nee Botley, Mr. Bonwick, Mrs. Bonwick,Rita Norris, Hilda Norris, Phil Timothy.

3rd row: Mrs. Gadd, Stanley Norris (brother of Ernest)*, (unknown woman), Clara Botley, Ernie Norris, Minnie Norris (my grandmother), Harry Botley, Rosie Botley, Win Timothy with baby Roy, Jesse Norris (my grandfather).

2nd row: Henry Norris ('old Uncle Harry', father of Ernest)*, Ernest Norris (father of the groom), Sarah Norris ('Aunt Sally' - mother of the groom), Henry Norris, Ada Norris nee Botley, Mrs. Botley with a little boy, Tim Timothy, George Norris (my uncle)*.

Front row: Jesse Norris jnr (my uncle Joe)*, Albert Swadling, (unknown boy), ? Watson (bridesmaid), Clarence Swadling, ? Watson (bridesmaid), Percy Botley, 'Ginger' Norris.

(My mother said she was looking grim in the photo because the gentleman next to her was a horrid man known as 'Old Sod'. His son in the sailor suit in the front row was also horrid and known as 'Young Sod'!!)

* Stanley was a gentle little man who never spoke and lived with Ernest & Sally at the Homestead.
* Henry Norris - I think this is the whiskery old gent on the garden seat at the Homestead on the website.
* George Norris, my mother's brother, is still living, aged 91 (in Faversham).
* Jesse Norris Jnr., (Joe),my mother's brother - died in the submarine 'Urge' near Malta in 1942. His name is on the WW2 plaque on the Wouldham Church lychgate. I have newspaper cuttings reporting him missing and then when it was confirmed he had been lost.

I spent many happy hours as a child visiting Uncle Ern and Aunt Sally at the Homestead, a serene place with a ticking long-case clock and a big kettle bubbling on the hob. I am still in touch with a school friend whose grandfather used to row the ferry across the river. Her mother was a Stevens and was at Wouldham School with my mother.

p.s. 'Aunt Sally' on the wedding photo was a Blackman before her marriage - another well-known Wouldham family.

p.p.s. Photo 246 - Bernard Norris, the boy with the dog. He might have been the 'Bernard' who was killed during the war along with two of his friends - teenage, I think - when they found a live shell and threw it on a bonfire with fatal results. My grandma used the incident as a warning to me not to pick up any unusual objects - 'remember what happened to cousin Bernard!' I was reminded frequently."

Anne Martin later provided the following six photos, with information about them as below.

"1. About 1926 - My grandmother, Minnie Norris with her children, Joe (Jesse), the one who joined the Navy, Lilian, my mother, and George. I think this was taken at the Bothy (elsewhere on the website called the Boffy) where they lived for a while. Grandma complained that being so close to the river it was damp and she suffered from bronchitis & pleurisy every winter.

2. About 1931? - members of the Wouldham wolf cub pack including George on the left and Joe on the right. Don't know who the others are.

3. My grandfather, Jesse, at, I think, the Bothy.

4. Joe and Lilian

5. Lilian in Izzy Kemsley's pony trap. She and Izzy (Isobel) were good friends. (Izzy was a friend of Dame Sybil Thorndike when they were both pupils at Rochester Girls' Grammar.)

6. 'Old Jesse Norris', brother of Ernest Norris's father, 'old Uncle Harry'. 'Old' Jesse and his wife, Zeboriah (nee Clarke, the village midwife), adopted my grandfather as a baby (b.1876), which was very generous as they already had children of their own. Grandfather was in fact the child of Zeboriah's unmarried sister, Rachael.

7. Henry and Ada Norris whose group photo I sent you. Love his hat and gloves!

8. Wedding of Jesse and Ada Humphrey with Jesse's parents. The mother, Carrie, is Bertha 's sister.

9. The wedding of another of Ernest and Sally Norris's sons - it's either Percy or Stanley, my mother couldn't remember which nor could she remember the name of the bride.

10. The people are (of course!) members of the Norris family, Ernest and Sarah (Sally) and their sons - Henry (of the Henry and Ada wedding photo) leaning against the white horse with little Bert on its back and his twin, another Jesse, on the right. 'Young Ern' is on the horse and cart on the left. Percy is looking out of the stable. (Don't know who the sailor is)"

Reynolds

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Ruck

Anne Martin kindly sent in the following information regarding the Ruck family:

"Bertha (my grandfather's cousin/adoptive sister) and Ernest Ruck with their toddler, Girlie. The first photo was taken at Girlie's wedding with her sisters Kath and Cis as bridesmaids. No idea what the groom's name was. I'm responsible for the red bouquets - at the age of about three I livened them up with a crayon."

Julia Maton kindly sent in the following additional information:

"The picture of the wedding is my Auntie Girlie and the groom is George Matthews, the bridesmaid to the left is my husband Stewart is my Auntie Kath later Kath Pert and the other bridesmaid is my husbands mother Bertha Silvia Ruck later Bertha Maton. "

Storey

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Wilmot

Click on the photo above to enlarge.

Misc Photos (with name labels)

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Misc Photos (names unknown)

Click on the photos above to enlarge. Photos kindly provided by Wouldham Parish Council.

Guestbook

Do you have any comments or want to contact other people visiting the website? If so, please leave a message in our Guestbook.