Vanessa Collingridge and the team answer listener’s historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all ‘make’ history.
Programme 11
12June 2007
Whore’s Harbour
A listener who lives in an old hall-house near Maidstone in Kent discovered from old maps that either the area around his house, or the house itself, was once known as ‘Whore’s Harbour’. Why such a name in such a tranquil, rural setting he asks?
Making History consulted Jane Davidson of House Historians and the Centre for Kentish Studies. They explained that it was highly unlikely that prostitutes would have been working so far from a major road or a major centre of population and that it probably goes back to the early Ordnance Survey maps which, for Kent, was in 1801. It could just be that the mapmaker (a Colonel Mudge) misheard the name ‘hall’ for ‘whore’. A guess, but the Tithe maps and other local parish records throw up no further clues.
Useful links:
Ordnance Survey
Following on from the search for ‘Whore’s Harbour’, Vanessa Collingridge paid a visit to the Map Library at the British Library to find out more about the history of mapping and the Ordnance Survey.
Useful links
Picture Post
Vanessa Collingridge caught up with Sheila Hardy, the widow of Bert Hardy who was a photographer for the Picture Post which closed 50 years ago. She also spoke to Bert’s son Michael and Professor Jeffrey Richards of the University of Lancaster.
Useful links
Further Reading:
“My Life” by Bert Hardy Paperback ISBN: 0918825377 (July 1986)
“Picture Post” Album by Robert Key ISBN-10: 0712620583 ISBN-13: 978-0712620581 Barrie & Jenkins (11 May 1989)
Vanessa has presentedscience and current affairs programmes for ѿý, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ѿý Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to:
Making History
ѿý Radio 4
PO Box 3096 Brighton
BN1 1PL
Vanessa has presentedscience and current affairs programmes for ѿý, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ѿý Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.