Vanessa Collingridge and the team answer listener’s historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all ‘make’ history.
Programme 11
12 June 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.
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.
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.
Vanessa has presented science and current affairs programmes for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for BBC 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 BBC Radio 4 PO Box 3096 Brighton BN1 1PL
Vanessa has presented science and current affairs programmes for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for BBC Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald. 