Frank Proudfoot was born in 1909 and
brought up in Sidcup, which he saw transformed from a Kentish village into
a London suburb. His loyalty was always to Kent, and a Cambridge double
First in History and Law equipped him both for his career as a London
solicitor and his hobby in local history.
He moved to Fawkham in 1947, and published Fawkham, the
Story of a Kentish Village in 1951, as Fawkham’s contribution to the
Festival of Britain. His research continued, particularly after 1961 with
the publication of census returns each decade and the accession to the
County Record Office of a huge |
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archive from the Selby family, whose possessions in the
18th century had included the Pennis estate.
The overlap of properties and families into adjoining
parishes extended his interest from Fawkham, particularly into the parish
of Ash. Much of the current work was written, ironically, after he had
moved from Fawkham to Ash next Sandwich, in the east of the county.
Frank Proudfoot died in 1999, leaving in unpublished form not
only his history of Ash-by-Wrotham but also one of Hartley and another, in
nine volumes of typescript, on Fawkham.
Christopher Proudfoot
September 2005 |