Queer Faversham

Declan Wiffen introduces some fragments of an untold history.

Words Declan Wiffen Photographs Various

Diva Magazine April 1995 provided an early clue to Faversham’s queer history. From the LGBT Magazine Archive

I started researching the queer history of Faversham shortly after moving to the area in 2022. A quick internet search didn’t yield many results, so I asked a friend, Victoria Golding, where I might begin (she’d done her PhD in Queer History). She recommended I look at the LGBT Magazine Archive, which I could access online. Here, I found a few scattered references to queer life in Faversham over the last thirty to forty years. In Diva Magazine there was a lesbian group called CLAN (Committee for Lesbian Action Now) advertised with a PoBox in Ospringe, showing gay women had formed community here in the 90s. However, the listing only appeared three times during 1995, suggesting it wasn’t a long-lasting group, or that a sufficient community had formed and advertising was no longer needed. Following that, I found a 1993 issue of Gay Times which contained a message on their personals page that read ‘Fred, Faversham. Please make contact. Eric. Box 9379’, giving the smallest piece of evidence that queer people were being searched for in Faversham well before my arrival.

Gay Times Classifieds, March 1993. LGBT Magazine Archive.

One of the most intriguing findings in this archive was a different listing in Gay Times, which appeared all through the 80s and 90s, for a ‘Male Only’ pen-pal service: “SAE brings details. Postal Penfriends. PoBox 14, Faversham, Kent.’ To extend the mystery, a lesbian pen-pal service started being advertised in Diva Magazine during the 2000s with the same PO Box: ‘all age groups, discreet service assured’. I’ve not been able to track down if they were run by separate people or whether the person who started the one for men branched out, but the fact that two national pen pal services were run out of Faversham is surely noteworthy in the queer history of the UK. It also indicates something about Faversham queers wanting to help other queers connect, or that they sought ways for themselves to connect with others outside of the area.

I also discovered that Kent’s first gay disco was organised by a Faversham resident. Pat Wilson was a member of The Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), an early LGBT rights group that was somewhat more conservative than the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). The group had a newsletter and, in the November bulletin of 1974, there is a full page add for a Gay Disco to be hosted at the Odeon Cinema in Ashford for all CHE members in the Southeast. It seems that in 1975, Pat’s partner, Robin, also organized a CHE Disco ‘every 4th Saturday’ at the Sidney Cooper Centre, in Canterbury. Although these events didn’t happen in Faversham, it’s interesting to note, again, that queer people in Faversham were active in the organisation of queer culture elsewhere in Kent.

Kent’s first gay disco advertised in CHE : Bulletin of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Nov 1, 1974)

I then found one suggestion of a gay venue in Faversham from an advice column called ‘Vale of Tears’ in Gay Times in 1984. A reader from Romney Marsh asks ‘Why is it that one cannot find one’s type in the country?’ to which the agony aunt replies ‘gay men in a small community are more likely to be closeted than they would be in a town or city’ but states that ‘Kent does have a number of gay venues—in Ashford, Blackfen, Canterbury, Chislehurt, Faversham, Ramsgate and Sevenoaks.’ However, no name or details are given. Where was the gay venue in Faversham during the 1980s?

Did Faversham have a Gay Pub like Canterbury? Image from Gay News, London, 10 Feb 1977.

Finally, I found a few listings for The Windmill in Preston that used to be on the A2 between The Mall and Macknades and is now residential. It was advertised a few times in the ‘Round Britain Gay Guide’ and described as a ‘friendly village pub that welcomes gay men and women’. So, not a gay pub in itself, but one which was hospitable to queer people during the 80s.

The Windmill, Preston, Faversham, 1987 (Dover-Kent.com)

Later on my quest for Faversham’s queer history, Posy Gentles introduced me to a Faversham resident who gave me a tip-off that, for a short time, The Crown and Anchor on The Mall (also now a house) had been run by a gay friendly landlord during the 1940s, until word got out and it was quickly clamped down on. As with many aspects of queer history, it has been impossible to find out more about this, as queer history was often not written down and survives only in the memories of those connected to it, most of whom are probably no longer alive, even if names could be tracked down.

It was through another friend that a surprising amount of Faversham’s queer history emerged in relation to one specific location: Davington Priory. Tina Hagger had been traipsing round local churches on the search for apotropaic marks when she saw that Davington Church was open for a coffee morning and took this as an opportunity to go and have a look. After visiting, she was curious about who had lived in the Priory next to the church before its current inhabitant, Bob Geldof. It was this question that opened something of a Pandora’s box of queer stories that was just the type of thing I had been looking for.

Lino print of Davington Priory by Tina Hagger

Over the next few months, Faversham Life will publish a few articles on those discovered in connection to Davington, including a previous Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

I have mentioned above the names of a few people who have helped in my research to find out about these aspects of history in part to thank them, but also to demonstrate that this type of project is not one that can be done alone. Queer History is a collective effort and a collaborative endeavour. It takes all manner of networks, interconnections, and chance conversations that sometimes spark memories and uncover details that may seem redundant to one person but become unsuspectingly useful when put in a different context.

This is also to say that, if you’re reading this and have information about things mentioned, or other aspects of Faversham’s queer history—from hard facts and documents, to gossip and speculation—please do get in touch by emailing queerfaversham [at] gmail [dot] com