Road Mending

Roman Hill now had a much better and more usable harbour than the nearby town. We could export and import goods direct to the estate and move them around on good well-surfaced roads within the estate but not beyond because the surrounding appalling roads outside.

Mr Van Der See suggested that I appoint a harbour master to look after the harbour and the ships that used it. He and I interviewed Jake, a tenant farmer's son who had been a Royal Navy able seaman before he lost his left arm in a shipboard accident. Jake suggested, and arranged with my consent, for the estate's carpenter to make some marker buoys and leading marks for the channel to the harbour. Next year we might add channel markers down the estuary to the sea. I had one of the houses made for the Dutch workmen, nearest the harbour, converted to be a harbourmaster's house and office, adding a tower so Jake could watch out for shipping.

I wrote to Cecilia, her father and my family reporting our successful works and inviting them to visit me, coming from London by ship. I did not expect them to make the journey until next spring when the weather improved.

I wrote a separate letter to my father, asking him to use his London agent to supply some modern horse drawn agricultural machinery that had not been feasible before because it could not be delivered to Roman Hill. Until now, everything used on the farms of the estate had been restricted to that which could be produced on the estate by the carpenter and blacksmith. The blacksmith had been severely limited by the amount of iron and steel that could be brought in by the roads. Although they had done well, the farm machinery was small and had not progressed beyond that used in a previous century. Modern manufacturers could supply much better equipment that would make farming much more efficient.

Jake and I were surprised when a collier arrived in the harbour shortly after it had been scoured. The captain explained that he had been unable to enter the town's harbour because of the lower tides and mud deposits. He had a load of a hundred tons of coal which I bought at a reduced price so he could leave instead of waiting a week for a higher tide.

The coal, in large sacks, filled most of the ground floor of half of the cottages formerly used by the Dutch workers. If and when I could, I should build a covered store for the coal. Until now, everyone on the Roman Hill estate had used wood for cooking and heating but coal was much more efficient. I sent another letter to my father asking for him to order a kitchen range for the house and several small cottage ranges for the tenants.

In the meantime I asked the estate workers to build a wooden shed to house the coal. Felling and maturing the timber took a year which was just long enough for the tilers to produce roof tiles. Most of the coal could not be used yet because no one had the fireplaces or stoves that could use coal.

My father's response to my letters ordering agricultural machinery and coal appliances was surprising. The machinery would be supplied by a company based in Suffolk and shipped to their London depot. Because I had ordered so much the company suggested that they send a mechanic to erect and maintain the new tools, and a skilled user who could demonstrate their use. Both would stay for six months until the locals were competent, and the mechanic would train a local to maintain the machinery. As for the coal ranges, my father had increased my order to supply enough for all the new houses, and with each range a complete set of pots, pans and kettles because the ones currently in use on the estate could not stand the fierce heat produced by a coal appliance. That company was also supplying a person to install the stoves, and Cecilia's father was lending me an assistant cook who knew how to cook with coal because no one on the estate knew how.

Unknown to me, the assistant cook had been arranged between Amelie and Cecilia.

My father's agent had arranged for the machinery, tools and people to be shipped by a vessel that was proceeding otherwise empty to Ramsgate to load a cargo for Bordeaux. Everything should arrive in about three weeks, weather permitting.

The new harbourmaster, Jake, and I were pleased that the harbour was frequently used to ships proceeding to the nearby town. They had to wait to enter the town's harbour until the tides were right to avoid the mud banks and used our harbour as a refuge. I had set the harbour fees low and was prepared to reduce of waive them for ships that could take goods from the estate to the town and collect items from there for us. Jacob, my long-suffering coachman, no longer had to risk injury to the horses on the bad roads as he could go by ship to deliver and collect mail and packages.

My father and Cecilia had sent me several books on the use of new farm machinery and practices. Cecilia had found in London a book on how to build all-weather roads. Mr Stokes, the Reverend Roger and I had found it invaluable. We were using broken stone from the quarry and mason's offcuts as a base for the new roads and gravel cambered to throw off water. The main estate roads were now thirty feet of metalled surface with a six foot ditch on either side. At the bottom of each ditch was a half-round ceramic pipe leading to a drain or to a soakaway. That pipe was covered with three feet of gravel. Minor estate roads were twenty four feet wide and the farm tracks were at least eighteen feet both with smaller drainage ditches. We could move heavy loads around the estate and to the harbour much easier, but not beyond the estate's boundaries.

Jake had a suggestion for the Harbour now we were seeing many more ship movements than we had expected. There was an ale-house in the village, trading much better than it had because almost every able-bodied man was in work and being paid cash wages, but it was a long walk for sailors waiting for a tide. He suggested that another of the now empty houses should become an ale-house for visiting seamen. The landlord of the village ale-house had an adult daughter. She was prepared to open another ale-house, initially selling beer brewed by her parents but eventually she would like to brew her own. Six months after opening she had her own brewery and an-ex sailor husband to help run the ale-house.

A ship's chandler who had a shop in the town asked me for a lease of one of the harbour houses to open a branch because ships could stay in the estate's harbour on any tide which they couldn't do at the town. Within six months he had closed his town shop and moved his whole business to Roman Hill. It was followed by a grocer's shop, and I had to move the coal outside under tarpaulins so that the houses could be used for the growing community who worked at the harbour.

As yet the productivity of the farmland had not shown much improvement. What we could export was stone, bricks and hay. The stone and bricks went to the town; the hay to London.

By the second spring of my stay at Roman Hill I felt that I was meeting Great-Uncle Horace's wishes. The rebuilt harbour had provided a reliable and cheap way to bring goods in and out of the estate. The improved roads had made moving around in the estate much easier. The new agricultural machinery had made work on the fields more effective but so much still needed to be done about land drainage and general crop management. It would be at least another five years before I could think about extending the farmland into what was current waste ground and freshwater marsh. If and when that was done the output from Roman Hill might be four times the levels it had been at when I arrived. The capital costs had been substantial but should be repaid within less than a decade.

My father came in the family coach to the town, stopping at the hotel. He had brought Cecilia and her father as well. After a couple of days they were able to take the short journey down the estuary to Roman Hill's harbour. The morning after their arrival I took Cecilia's father and mine on a tour of the estate in an open carriage driven by Jason. Mr Stokes and the Reverend Roger were with us. The fathers were impressed by the state of the roads and the harbour but very unhappy about the state of the farmland compared with their own properties. They felt that Roman Hill's current best was only like the marginally useful land they had. They saw that I and the tenants would have years of work to rectify a hundred years of neglect. Back at Roman Hill house the four men were engaged in a serious discussion over tea. I joined Cecilia and Amelie in the small drawing room, to be confronted by Cecilia who wanted to know my intentions towards Amelie.

"She wants you to build a schoolroom and although she's too shy to say it - she wants you. William."

"How do you know that, Cecilia?" I asked.

"I know. She and I have been writing to each other for over a year, mainly about you, William. I'm a town person which you are not and would be unhappy to be. You and Amelie are country people who are made for each other. She has been supporting and helping you. She could do so much more, with a schoolroom and as your wife, William."

"Which is more important?" I said in a weak attempt at humour.

"Don't be obtuse, William. It doesn't suit you. Well? What are you going to do?"

"Propose?"

"That's more like it. I'll leave you two alone for a few minutes."

I took me more than a few minutes to persuade Amelie that my proposal was serious and I meant it. At first she thought I was only proposing because Cecilia had forced me into a corner. What Cecilia had done was make me see what Amelie had done for me and what more she could do for me if she became my wife and the mistress of Roman Hill.

I was delighted that she accepted me, but she made a proviso. She wanted a schoolroom built and equipped by the end of the year. I agreed even if that meant taking longer on other projects around the estate.

We went to find Cecilia who congratulated us on our engagement, as did Cecilia's father and mine. Amelie's brother, the Reverend Roger, was astonished at first but congratulated us both.

Over the next week I wasn't sure whether our marriage or the schoolroom were more important. Amelie and Cecilia were planning both. The two of them, accompanied by two maids from Roman Hill, went by ship to the town to acquire the bride's dress and trousseau. Cecilia wheedled two hundred pounds out of me for that since Amelie had very little money. Some of that was spent on materials for the temporary school that Amelie had been running in a room at the vicarage.

The two fathers agreed on a suitable wedding present for us. Both are Members of Parliament. They sponsored a Bill to set up a Turnpike Trust that they financed. It would create a straight well engineered road from Roman Hill, through the three villages, to the town. The turnpike fees would be set at a low rate, enough to pay for running and maintenance and a small repayment over many years of the capital costs. The Trust would buy the land from the landowners and the impoverished villages would have to pay nothing except the turnpike fees to use the new road.

It took four years after our marriage before the road was usable but now we and people from the other villages could send produce to market and receive goods without wrecking their carts. The prospect of the new road worried the burghers of the town because they thought Roman Hill's harbour would make theirs useless when it had a good access road. They employed Mr Van Der See to improve their harbour and remove the awkward mud banks, making their harbour nearly, but not quite, as accessible at most tides as Roman Hill's harbour.

Roman Hill was beginning to become much more prosperous and the town with their improved harbour was trading better than it had done for decades.

At the time Amelie and I married, in a service conducted by her brother, the site for the schoolroom next to the church had been cleared and the walls were beginning to rise. The schoolroom would also be the church hall when not in use as a school. The work on the coal barn had been suspended to allow the schoolroom to be built first.

Cecilia was Amelie's only bridesmaid. We had hoped to have a quiet wedding but everyone on the estate wanted to attend. We had an open air reception within the incomplete walls of the schoolroom to be.

I am happy that I have fulfilled Great-Uncle's Horace request that the estate needs William and delighted that I have married Amelie even if I had to be pushed into it by Cecilia who had rejected me.

We have years of work to do but are happy doing it as husband and wife.

***

Appendix - Locations

The main Roman Road is the A2 Watling Street from London to Dover.

The Reverend Andrews' parish and church is Graveney in North East Kent, South of the Swale dividing the Isle of Harty (part of the larger Isle of Sheppey) from the mainland.

'Roman Hill' is assumed to be on Graveney Hill but is based on Syndale Park which has Roman remains close by, the other side of Faversham near the A2.

The Old Harbour is assumed to be east of The Sportsman Public House but one actually exists on the edge of Uplees Marshes within The Swale and half a mile east of the Oare Marshes Nature Reserve jetty for the old ferry crossing to Harty.