The Society’s 73^rd AGM held on 24^th September was a momentous occasion as it marked the passing of the Chairmanship of the Society from David Green to myself. David had been in post for virtually a decade and felt that the time had come for him to step down.

In taking over from David, I should like to acknowledge the huge debt that the Society owes him for his steadfast leadership and unwavering commitment over the past nine years. He thoroughly deserves our gratitude and thanks, not least in steering the Society safely through the turmoil caused by the Covid era. Among other things, the move to Zoom meetings and back was seamless. David’s term of office has seen a number of achievements for the Society that have significantly raised its profile in the town and local community. Among these are the Society’s efforts to campaign against harmful development and to call for action on vacant sites – the Society has consistently pressed SDC and the owners for the redevelopment of the vacant Farmers site and others, including raising a petition with more than 1500 local signatures. Under David’s watch, efforts to protect the Green Belt have also been positive - the Society joined with local Residents’ Associations to successfully defeat an appeal for development in 2023 of a Green Belt site south of Brittains Farm. David has set a high standard of excellence which I will endeavour to follow. I should also like to thank him most sincerely for his willingness to continue to serve on the Executive Committee. I value both his help and his friendship.

Introducing myself, some of you will know me from my work relating to local history.  My involvement in the Society goes back some 12 years when I was asked if I might be able to assist a retired High Court judge – your current President Sir Michael Harrison - with compiling a Local List for Sevenoaks. Developed in a collaboration between us and the District Council, it became a landmark project for the Society. I headed the research for that project. Following that, I was invited to become a member of the Society’s Executive Committee since when I have co-authored two local history books and a local Town Heritage Trail and organised Society heritage exhibitions in 2019 and 2022. Most recently, I organised the Society’s highly successful Open Day in June this year.

These achievements however are by no means mine. The success of these projects is due to all members of the Executive Committee and many Society members themselves, notably Elizabeth Purves and Victoria Granville. I mention these events to stress how much time and effort is voluntarily given by Society members in the interests of the town and the local community.

To conclude this section, I am both delighted and honoured to become Chairman of the Sevenoaks Society, a charitable body that can trace its origins back over one hundred years. I thank you again for electing me as your Chairman and I look forward to working with you all. 

By Geraldine Tucker

The Derelict Farmer’s Pub Site: Progress at Last?

Samuel Bligh, farmer and inn-keeper of Sevenoaks, was a smart man, with an eye for the main chance. In 1852 when licensee of the Rose and Crown in the High Street, he bought a lease on the 16^th century farmhouse owned by the City of London parish of St Botolphs without Bishopsgate, turning it into Bligh’s Private Hotel.  Once work had started on building a new railway line to Sevenoaks, he acquired another lease for 99 years from Bishopsgate on land opposite the building site for the new station at Tubs Hill and set about erecting another hotel. Publican and now also entrepreneur William Pawley had the same idea, on the other side of the road. The race was on. It was a dead heat. Both Pawley’s Railway Tavern (soon to be the Railway and Bicycle) and Bligh’s Sennocke Hotel (later the Farmers) were awarded a license in August 1868, just five months after the station opened - the magistrates concluding that the increase in traffic and need for respectable accommodation justified the presence of two establishments.

Indeed, both thrived: they were popular with travellers, locals, market-goers and families. But both are no more.  A block of apartments and shops now occupies the site of the Railway and Bicycle, and the land on which the Farmers stood has been derelict since the pub was knocked down in 2006. Bishopsgate Foundation was eager to sell its last remaining property in the area, and an application to demolish the pub and build flats and retail units was granted on appeal in 2005. Despite strong opposition, the site was sold to developers, the pub closed and bulldozers moved in. The site lay empty but a second application for a larger scheme with 39 flats was submitted. Again it was refused by Sevenoaks District Council but in 2015 was again granted on appeal. The conspicuous plot still lies vacant and forlorn. As public concern at the lack of action intensified, in 2020 The Sevenoaks Society presented a petition of over 1,500 signatures to the Council, urging it to engage with the owners and consider issuing a Compulsory Purchase Order, arguing that the site is an embarrassing eye-sore at a main entrance to the town and if developed could help meet the chronic need for housing. But SDC’s view was that a CPO was not in local taxpayers’ interests.

However there is hope that after 20 years the site will be developed at last. In December the Council passed a resolution to grant a fresh planning permission in response to a renewed application (SDC reference 24/01339/FUL). The new proposal is for a car-free 6 storey building of 56 apartments and 697sqm of commercial ground floor space, with 3 disabled parking bays and landscaping. A Design and Access Statement on the Council’s web-site provides an overview of the scheme which in the developer’s words “respectfully benefits the local setting, creating a suitably contemporary celebration of this remarkable opportunity to enhance this important gateway into the town of Sevenoaks ..” . Planning permission will not be granted until there is a S106 agreement in place which requires the Council to work proactively with the developer to reach agreement on a number of detailed issues. Progress in this area appears to be slow and the Society hopes that this is not a precursor to more delays and continuing inaction by both parties.