Thursday 15th October 2009 Britain’s car crime capital revealed
Data released by financial services website moneysupermarket.com
points to south east London’s Chislehurst as the car crime capital of
the UK. According to an analysis of insurance claims Chislehurst has
the dubious position at the head of the table, beating Wingate in
Durham into second place. Redbridge in east London is third followed
by the Hatfield district of Doncaster in South Yorkshire. Manchester
city centre is in fourth place in the league table that illustrates
just how important it is to secure your car and not to leave valuables
in an unattended vehicle.

In the last 12 months a total of 3.82% of motorists in Chislehurst,
which part of the London borough of Bromley, claimed for a stolen car
or items taken from a car. Kent

Friday 2nd October 2009 Things have gone batty in Wildwood
Thanks to a lottery grant of £5,000 the Kent Bat Group plan to build a flight cage for bats in a woodland area. The facility will be built at Wildwood near Canterbury for use in helping rescued bats return to the wild. The group rescued over 80 bats last year but research shows the mammals have a low chance of survival when returned to the wild.

Wildwood conservation officer Hazel Ryan said: "The RSPCA recently carried out research which showed that hand-reared bats were very unlikely to survive if released into the wild.“

She added that all the bat’s needs would be catered for in the flight cage. It will have a pond and compost heaps to attract insects for the bats to catch themselves. Kent

Tuesday 22nd September 2009 Wartime tunnels sell under the hammer
An unnamed buyer has snapped up a piece of British wartime history by buying Capel Battery, near Folkstone for £144,000. The battery is part of the WWII defences that looked out over the English Channel towards to the Nazi threat from mainland Europe.

The site is on the top of the cliffs at Capel-le-Ferne and was built in 1941. It had originally been purchased from the MOD in he 1980s but the owners haven’t touched or used the place since buying it. The labyrinth of tunnels was used as a hospital in the war but the auctioneers say they have no idea what the mystery buyer plans to do with them. Kent

Thursday 3rd September 2009 Old oak dated at Canterbury Cathedral
Archaeologists currently working at Canterbury Cathedral have dated
wooden rafters in part of Anselm’s Tower in the south east transept as
far back as William The Conqueror. Previously it had been thought the
rafters were from the Middle Ages but the latest study confirms the
oak trees used were cut down in the late 10th Century.

Using bore samples taken from the rafters the archaeologists assessed
their age using dendrochronology, a technique that dates wood by
looking at the growth rings. The archaeologists work was made possible
when the lead came of the roof for replacement exposing the timbers.
The cathedral has suffered many fires which have destroyed many of the
original rafters. It is believed that the oak used came from a local
forest that once stood near to Canterbury. Kent

Thursday 3rd September 2009 Old oak dated at Canterbury Cathedral
Archaeologists currently working at Canterbury Cathedral have dated
wooden rafters in part of Anselm’s Tower in the south east transept as
far back as William The Conqueror. Previously it had been thought the
rafters were from the Middle Ages but the latest study confirms the
oak trees used were cut down in the late 10th Century.

Using bore samples taken from the rafters the archaeologists assessed
their age using dendrochronology, a technique that dates wood by
looking at the growth rings. The archaeologists work was made possible
when the lead came of the roof for replacement exposing the timbers.
The cathedral has suffered many fires which have destroyed many of the
original rafters. It is believed that the oak used came from a local
forest that once stood near to Canterbury. Kent

Thursday 13th August 2009 High-speed rail services expanded
Southeastern Rail is to step up the services on the high-speed rail link through Kent. The firm have been running limited services between London and Ebbsfleet and Ashford since June but will now add more trains to it’s timetable.

More services will soon be added including trains to serve Dover Priory, Canterbury West, Ramsgate, Folkestone Central and Folkestone West stations. The company is using the latest Japanese built Class 395 140mph Javelin rolling stock. Dover will soon be within one hour’s train ride from London, making it a viable commuter run in some people’s eyes! Kent

Tuesday 14th July 2009 Call for poet’s shelter to be listed
A group of literary figures are calling for a seaside shelter at Margate to be listed. The Nayland Rock shelter is the place where TS Eliot sat to compose one of his best known works, The Waste Land.

The shelter has been described by the one of the group, former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion as “a shrine to modern poetry”. It is hoped that the shelter will be granted listed building status and that a blue plaque placed there to mark Margate’s role in 20th Century literature. Kent

Tuesday 7th July 2009 Napoleons chair turns up in Kent
An antique chair believed to have once been used by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte has been found in storage at the Maidstone Museum. The Maidstone Borough Council owned museum recently rediscovered the chair, once part of the furniture at Bonaparte’s South Atlantic home on the island of St Helena.

The chair arrived in England after being purchased in St Helena by Richard Boys, the vicar at the Kent village of Loose. It was put away in storage in 1996 after having been on display at the museum for many years having been donated sometime around 1866 upon the death of Reverend Boys. The chair will soon be back on display at the museum. Kent

Monday 22nd June 2009 Olympic gold cyclist starts kids race
Jamie Staff, winner of an Olympic gold medal at Beijing last year, was on hand to start a charity bike race in Kent on Sunday.

The sprint cyclist, from Ashford, turned out at the Bikeathon Kidz event, at Lydden Race Circuit near Canterbury. The event had been organised to raise funds for Leukaemia Research.

Although the event was primarily for children aged from two to 14, parents were also allowed to enter the race. Organiser Annette How welcomed Staff to the event, which Leukaemia Research have now been organising for 20 years. Kent