Monica Honeysett passed away on the 12th January aged 90 in a nursing home in Pembury after a short illness. Monica grew up as part of a close family living in West Farleigh where she spent nearly all her life living in St Helens Lane and Charlton Lane. Monica went to school at West Farleigh Primary with her siblings Peggy and Jackie and she kept a bible which she was presented with as a 14 year old pupil of West Farleigh School for the rest of her life.  

Monica married her late husband Doug in 1951 and after a short period of living in Coxheath they moved to West Farleigh in 1959 where they remained for the rest of their lives.

Monica and Doug loved tending to their garden, which, thanks to their hard-work and green fingers always looked a beautiful array of colour, whilst they also grew plenty of fresh produce.  Doug was also a keen fisherman, a hobby that Monica shared in later years. Initially, she went to make sure Doug didn’t fall into the water, but she soon caught the bug and was soon fishing herself, often catching more that Doug. 

Throughout her life in Farleigh, Monica worked on the land, hop and fruit picking and over many years was an employee of Days Farm, Goodwins Farm and more latterly, Castle Farm where she worked for Jack and Yvonne Martin.  

To everyone who knew her, Monica was a lovely lady. Kind, easy-going, placid and gentle, she was distinctly non-confrontational, and at her happiest when in the company of those she knew well.  

Sadly, it was in February 2013 that Doug passed away. He and Monica had shared a very happy marriage lasting over 61 years, and she naturally missed him endlessly when he had gone.  Over the past year Monica became frailer, and she was devastated by the passing of her son Mark from cancer last June, an unimaginable loss for her and the whole family. 

Having spent time in hospital in July, Monica moved to Hazeldene House Care Home in Pembury where she could receive the additional support she required. She settled well there, especially enjoying getting her hair and nails done, whilst she also appreciated the company of the staff and residents. It was at the home that on the 12th January, she passed away.

Monica was the last Honeysett in Farleigh with Doug’s mother Elizabeth living in West Farleigh since 1931 at 2 The Green, 11 Charlton Lane and later 1 Goulston bungalows until her death in the early 80's. Doug’s brother also lived in Charlton lane for many years, this meant there were Honeysetts in Charlton Lane for over 90 years.

She will be continually missed and loved by all those she knew, however it is her family’s hope that, wherever she is right now, she’s been reunited once more with Doug, Mark and all those precious loved ones who passed before. She leaves 5 children, Paul, Julie, Richard, Carl and Matthew.

TERRY AYEARS

31st July 1938 - 21st August 2022

Terry and his family moved into the village when Terry became manager of Courage’s local hop farms and they immersed themselves in village life as soon as they arrived

in West Farleigh. Soon Terry was well known in the village - a larger than life, warm, friendly and humorous character.

Terry was an only child, he was brought up in Cliffe amongst his extended family. He left Rochester Technical school and completed a 5 year apprenticeship at Burnett and Rolfe. He met Ann, his wife, while working at Wingets in Rochester. During his life he had many jobs, including going back to Burnett and Rolfe, this time as general works manager.

Terry was always busy and he played tennis, sailed, road motorbikes fixed and rallied cars.

Terry and Ann built their own house in High Halstow, where they had their two daughters: Caroline and Joanne. The girls were 13 and 11 they moved to West Farleigh and they still look upon their time growing up in the village as very special.

When Courages sold up the farms and the new buyer chose not to continue growing hops, Terry needed a new job. Using his network of friends and former colleagues, he found that Shepherd Neame breweries in Faversham were looking for an engineer – and so another era began!

We will all remember Terry fondly for his Christmas drinks parties and his Harvest Supper entertainment,  his place on the original Fireworks committee, as the parish clerk and treasurer of Evergreens and much, much more!

Heaven look out! You are about to be re-organised!!

Facebook – the Marmite of Social Media, love it or hate it.

Facebook first launched in February 2004, founded by Mark Zuckerberg and a few others; membership was restricted to Harvard students but later expanded to other Ivy League colleges and by September 2006 had reached most universities in the US and Canada.

Membership was offered to employees of various companies and by 2007 Facebook had 100,000 business pages. Its International Headquarters were set up in Dublin in October 2008 (according to wikipedia).

It is virtually incalculable as to how many accounts there are now but the latest statistics state there are roughly 2.8 billion monthly active users, making it the biggest social network media worldwide.

BUT all this activity brings its own set of problems.

Profiles are constantly being hacked, from people being told they have to pay for a parcel to be delivered to grand fraud.  Many people using Facebook are unaware that when they answer a simple question such as “Where was your favourite holiday”; “what food will you never eat”; “name the favourite place you have lived” the information they give together with information on their profiles can, at the very worst, give hackers information they require to clone to accounts and take over your life.

Be very careful about what you say about yourself. Facebook is flooded with ads which they also ‘match’ with your likes and dislikes, as do most browers these days..

Many people joined Facebook to keep in contact with families around the world to share photos and stories. Later a large number of interest groups were set up for like-minded people.  Hence the decision by the website team to set up a Facebook page for West Farleigh. We do get regular critics who can sometimes be quite rude but these are outnumbered by the positive and helpful comments

On the pro side, our Village page informs our friends and neighbours of local events and fundraisers for the church and local charities.  How many more people attend our village events because they have seen them advertised on Facebook?

Filling our West Village Facebook page can be an onerous task as previous editors have found, especially when no-one likes or comments on the various pieces of information that is shared. It can be time consuming searching for interesting titbits such as local road closures, events in Maidstone town and the wider county; information about police, the council and other major organisations.

On the whole it is very rewarding to receive so many messages from friends and neighbours asking us to post images or stories from around the village. Our most successful postings over the last few years have around West Farleigh In Bloom and especially the Annual Sunflower Competition, village celebrations, scarecrow competitions.

I hope we can continue to grow our Facebook page, which we like to link to this website www.thefarleighs.co.uk and the parish magazine, Lifeline.

Sincerely Jacky Taylor 

BILLIE-ANNE FLEMING

After a long battle with cancer, on the 21st of June 2022, at the age of 59. 

Billie passed away in the Heart of Kent Hospice, surrounded by her family. She will always be lovingly remembered by her daughters Emilie and Alex, and by her grandson Isaac. As well as the scores of other people whose lives she touched. 

Billie was born on the 11th of September 1962, in Pembury, to parents Agatha and Thomas Turk. The family settled in Farleigh and Billie attended Cornwallis School. She always loved music, particularly classic rock and blues, and had seen all sorts of bands through the years. The house was never quiet when she was around. 

She was full of energy, silliness and positivity, she was no nonsense and straight talking and always hilarious. 

Billie was a devoted Mum, Nana and friend. Even through her cancer battle and right to the end, she put others before herself. She would take in people who were having a hard time and still managed to make sure everyone else was loved and cared for. 

Billie was absolutely one of a kind, adored by those around her and, even though we miss her terribly, our family feels blessed to have had her for the time we did. 

There will be a private memorial held for her, however the date is yet to be confirmed.

Hugh Grainger

1st May1931 - 24th January 2022

Hugh was born in Wimbledon.  He was the eldest child & had three younger brothers, Stuart, Christopher and Peter. 

His brothers were all talented artists musicians or dramatists and Hugh did his best to support them although he did not share their talents.  He always tried to support their exhibitions and dramatic performances.

The family moved to Plymouth when his father’s work took him there and at ten he was sent to Kings School Canterbury which had been evacuated to Cornwall.

Their parents divorced in the 1950s and Hugh, still a teenager, kept the brothers together as a unit. Doing many things together including, forming a family band, with Hugh on drums.

After school he did 2 years National Service in the army and then tried his hand at farming, keeping up his drumming with Billingshurst Town Band.

Increasingly he became sure he was called to the ministry.  After his exclusive type of education, he felt he needed to mingle more with those less fortunate so enlisted in the army for a further 3 years.

In 1957 he went to Kings College London to study theology for 3 years.

Valeria went up in the same year to study at Bedford College, University of London.  Her Hall of Residence for 36 female students in a beautiful Queen Anne house in Regent’s Park held an annual dance in October to which they invited male students from male Halls of Residence.  Hugh went to the dance in 1958 and Valeria opened the door to him.  They married 2 years later on New Year’s Eve 1960.

 In his final year at King’s Hugh began to feel that perhaps a dog collar might be a barrier so thought of social work instead.  After getting a Social Work qualification he worked as a Child Care Officer at Hammersmith, then Reading, Abingdon and then Slough, where he was Area Director of Social Services in the new unified Social Care structure, finally moving to Kent where he was Director of Social Services for the Tonbridge and Sevenoaks Area. Which is when they moved to The Barn.

The church was not forgotten and for over 50 years he was a Lay Reader taking services and assisting in the ministry of his local area. Latterly, at All Saints West Farleigh, supporting the incumbent and supporting the church through

several inter regnum, when we had no vicar. With Valeria as church warden, they were a formidable pair!

He and Valeria had 3 children, Karen, Sarah and Richard who in turn gave them 10 grandchildren and to date 7.5 great grandchildren.

Hugh’s great love was dancing and this was something he and Valeria enjoyed until Hugh lacked the strength to continue.  He also enjoyed DIY, for which his children were grateful, when they had their own homes. He even took a plumbing course so that he and Val could improve conditions in an orphanage in Romania. He loved his gardens. Travelling was important, for many years they had a caravan and on retirement progressed to a Motor Home which they used to travel throughout the UK and Europe, Turkey being the most distant country they toured in the van. With Val he visited countries further afield, sometimes cruising. Cruising being an ideal way of combining his love or travel and dancing!

Our thoughts and condolences go to Val and her family.

WELCOME TO STEVE DAVIES

Steve moved into Dawson’s Cottages, in November but he is no stranger to West Farleigh.

Steve has known Steve, from the Good Intent, since they were at playschool together, in the WI Hall in Forge Lane., East Farleigh. They have been friends ever since, so it would have been rude not to frequent the pub! Consequently, Steve has got to know a lot of the West Farleigh people who are regulars at the pub.

When he has time, he likes to fish in the Medway and in his youth swam in it also.

Steve has travelled the world, the furthest place he has lived was Sidney, but he always came back to base in East Farleigh, to his Mum, who lives in Priory Close.

He is working for the NHS Technical Services and working from home at the moment.

He is enjoying the house and its views, but is curious to know who Dawson was and why he needed four cottages!

We hope that he enjoys living in our friendly and sociable village.

Baby Neo was born to Zoe and John Fenlon, of Garden Cottage, Smiths Hall.

He was born on 8th July  2021, wighing 6lbs 3oz. Congratuations, another young villager.

Lets hope Lucas and Neo will be mates!

Lucas Joseph Easterbrook Norman

Lucas was born on 6th August 2021 to Alex and William Norman, of Elmscroft Charlton Lane. He was born in Pembury Hospital, weighing in at 7lb 13 oz. 

Congratulations, its great to see new life in the village.