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My great grandfather, John Relf, born 1832 at Brightling, (probably at Twelve Oaks in the house which was greatly enlarged around ten years ago), left the area in the mid-19th century and became a Kent police officer, eventually landing up at Gravesend, where he died in 1916. His descendants are many! He had married the girl next door at Brightling - a house which I remember very well, as with my parents in the 1930s we often visited my father's great aunt, Mrs Tom Mewett and her daughter, Harriet Church, who lived there. It had previously been occupied by Mrs Mewett's father, William Church, the local shoemaker. Mrs Mewett and Harriet both appear in one of the photos arrayed on the walls of the village hall. Harriet was Mrs Mewett's illegitimate daughter. They were so close in age, I used to think they were sisters!

Mrs Mewett had a cousin, Flora Church, who lived in Little Hollingrove and my parents spent their honeymoon there in 1922. We often stayed with the Crouch family before the Second World War and my husband and I did much later into the 1960s when the property was occupied by the Pont family, Mrs Pont being a daughter of Mr and Mrs Crouch.

I remember Brightling Post Office very well, since on the occasions when we used to stay at Hollingrove my mother often walked up the path from there to the shop and I still have the post cards of Brightling she bought there...

Over ten years ago, prior to the formation of the International Relf Society, my own particular branch enjoyed a weekend family get-together at Whatlington, and made a pilgrimage to Brightling on the Saturday. During the walk-about, one of my relatives found the memorial plaque at the Hollingrove Chapel (mentioned in the article on Page 4 of this issue) and copied out the details.

Rhoda Windiate-Blackmore, # 006.

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Page last revised October 2006.

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