Apologies to Arris & Phantasm if any offense came from my post. Was just trying to explain the differences between the States in America & England, Scotland, Wales & NI here.
West Kent (and East Sussex) is one of the richest areas of the world (in fact the most expensive house in the world is in Croydon, owned by a relative of the Sultan of Oman). Property prices here are rediculous, there's not much under half a million pounds sterling. Take a train to Yorkshire and similar property is £100k, or so I've been told.
Tarmac(adam) (road surface), Alexander Graham Bell (from Edinburgh in Scotland),
Television - A photo-mechanical device invented by John Logie Baird in 1922.
Penicillin - Discovered in 1928 by the bacteriologist . Sir Alexander Fleming.
Anaesthetics - James Simpson, an Edinburgh physician
Pneumatic Tyres - John Boyd Dunlop patented his pneumatic tyre in 1888.
Ah, ok then.
Groombridge has donated several mountain climbers (including the first woman to climb Everest), and was the Summer residence to Stuart noblemen, and home of
an infamous Smuggling gang. The Church was built in celebration after King Charles the first
decided not to marry the Catholic Spanish Infanta.
The village is 13th century, although nearly all houses are built a couple of centuries laterly.
Other than that, the two local towns (
Royal Tunbridge Wells and Crowborough) were the home to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes), the Beau Nash, Dido, Sir Patrick Moore (who taught Astronomy at the School I go to), Sir David Salomons, and a couple of miles away from Bateman's, the home of Rudyard Kipling. The Pantiles were built after Queen Anne decided Tunbridge Wells was too muddy. Oh, and Tunbridgeware originated here (as if you couldn't tell that from the name
)
http://www.tunbridgewells.gov.uk/tunbridgewellsinpictures/
The nearby village of Speldhurst is one of the oldest in the South of England, and has a pub over a thousand years old.
The battle of Britain, free Europe in its darkest hour, took place over these very skies.
We have a lot of History, but there's not really much going on at the moment. The population of Groombridge is just a couple of hundred.
Oh, and please don't say people are nicer where you live because they vary wherever you go, and from day to day too. You may ask a miserable get in London, and there may be someone perfectly willing to help you stading behind you.
