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July 21st: Prospecting in East Kent has revealed the presence of extensive deposits of rich coal believed to be the best in the world for iron-smelting purposes and work has already begun on sinking an option owned by Messrs Dorman, Long and Company, the great Middlesborough iron firm.
This news was broken today by the Deal correspondent of theDailyExpress who says that southeastern Kent is not likely to remain the Garden of England much longer as excavation activities will soon transform it into a vast coalfield.
He writes: "I was this afternoon informed by Colonel Standen, an authority on Kent coal, that new collieries with an output of one million tons have been planned. Further pits are to be sunk in the neighbourhood of the old Chequers Inn in the sandhills midway between Deal and Sand wich from which workings will be carried out under the bed of the sea in the Downs towards the famous Goodwins.
Immense deposits of the most valuable steam coal undoubtedly exist under the Downs from the northern end of the roadstead to somewhere near St Margaret's
It is understood that Messrs Dorman, Long and Co have set aside the sum of £7,000,000 for the development of their holding."The company has already bought a number of huts from the Admiralty yard at East Cliff and erected them at Finglesham, near Betteshanger where preparatory work is under way.
A railway connection is to be made from the proposed colliery at Betteshanger to Deal but nothing has been done yet apart from the marking out of the course. A colliery under the sea was to have been undertaken by the Downs Colliery Company in which Messrs Schneider, the cement firm, was interested.
| January 20th: The Royal Navy submarine, K5, sank today in the English Channel with the loss of 56 crew members. |
| February 16th: The Government is to increase unemployment benefit from 15 shillings to 18 shillings as those out of work tops one million for the first time ever. |
| March 31st: Winston Churchill, now Colonial Secretary, tells Jews in the UK that Britain will abide by the Balfour Declaration and find them a homeland in Palestine. |
| July 2nd: Four Irishmen, members of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, have been sentenced to long terms in prison up to 12 years for the attempted murder of two policemen in Bromley. The Kent Assizes were told that they have been involved in a campaign of violence and sabotage. |
| July 14th: The young Duke of York visited Sittingbourne today for a whirlwind tour of farms and industry. His first stop was at Rainham and on the road to Sittingbourne he was cheered by fruit pickers and schoolchildren as he passed through the villages. At the town hall the Duke saw a sale of work which is raising money for disabled soldiers. |
| July 22nd: A truce has been declared in Ireland following three months of the bloodiest fighting ever known. |
| August 30th: The Cenotaph in Brenchley Gardens, which is a smaller replica of that erected in Whitehall, London, was unveiled today in memory of the Queen's Own West Kent Regiment soldiers who died in the Great War. |
| August 2nd: Following two of the most memorable summer months ever known, thousands of Britons have packed excursion coaches and trains breaking all records on the fiftieth anniversary of the first Bank Holiday The approach to the Isle Thanet yesterday was jammed by charabancs and trains arriving at Margate at 10 minute intervals.The summer of 1921 will always be remembered thanks to a wedge of high pressurewhich has stretched from Azoresthe and refuses to budge |
