A talk by Dan Tuson
(Natural England)

Date: Monday 9 November 2026
Time: 1–2PM
Venue: Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone, ME14 1LQ
Admission: Free

For further information and to reserve a seat:

Call: 03000 420673
Email: archives@kent.gov.uk

Image: Part of an OS map (3rd ed., sheet LVI. 1) showing Kettlebender in the parish of Waltham, with inset photograph of the property (courtesy of Dan Tuson).

On Saturday 3rd June 1922 the lone isolated house of Kettlebender, situated high in the remote wooded hinterland of the East Kent Downs, became the centre of attention of a crime that was remarkable not least for the longest police pursuit of a three wheeled pram in history. Two journeymen labourers, tracked down eventually to Shottenden, were charged with the theft of a double-barrelled gun, a quantity of ammunition, pillow slips, sheets, scissors, a pair of boots and a cycle cape. Journeymen labourers living itinerant lifestyles, stealing from a house that would become a ruin, on the forgotten hinterlands of a parish boundary marked only by communal memory, crossing a Nailbourne stream that endures only through disappearance. The countryside is defined by impermanence, a land forever on the edge of change. Dan explores the ephemeral features, places, traditions and rituals of the East Kent Downs that have shaped its history.

Dan Tuson has worked as a farm adviser in the East Kent Downs for 25 years and is author of ‘The Kent Downs’, a tribute to the enchanting beauty of the downland landscape, the legacy of its rich and varied natural treasures and the inspiration it has given to poets, artists and authors.

For further information and to reserve a seat:

Call: 03000 420673
Email: archives@kent.gov.uk