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by Dorothy Hatcher Dorothy Hatcher, daughter of Kate Drury, was born and largely brought up in Tenterden workhouse. 1988 she published a history of her life, and experiences. It provides a fascinating account of struggles of people in these institutions, as well as life in Kent through the Battle of Britain and after. It was published by Meresborough Books, 17 Station Road, Rainham Kent. ISBN 0948193 360 - originally selling for £4.95. All Dorothy's proceeds went to charity. Her children, Joyce, Judith, and Gerald Hatcher have kindly allowed us to use photos from the book on these pages. We strongly recommend that anyone interested in this branch of the Drury family obtain a copy, although they are difficult to find as it was not a large print run. However they do appear from time to time. I obtained mine from Baggins Book Bazaar, Rye, Kent, through the web site www.abebooks.co.uk. for £18.50. It would also be worth checking eBay for possible sales. Below is a summary of the book from its back cover.
The Workhouse and the Weald Dorothy Hatcher was a ‘Union Child’ born in Tenterden Workhouse. As a child she was placed in several different foster homes as the authorities decided, and then at fourteen sent to a hostel at Maid-stone for a short period of training before beginning her life ‘in service’. But on several occasions she was returned to the workhouse, and the grim régime there which Dorothy describes so graphically is summed up in her phrase ‘We weren’t classed as people, we were inmates’.
Fortunately Dorothy’s strength of character and sense of humour enabled her to make the best of any situation, and eventually she was to find happiness in fifty years of marriage to Syd. She gives a vivid picture of wartime life in rural Kent: the Battle of Britain going on above them as they worked in the fields, rationing, the arrival of her baby daughter during a raid.
With peace restored the Hatchers took an active part in village life at Sissinghurst. At 60 Dorothy, always a fighter for what she believes to be right, successfully presented at 10 Downing Street a petition seeking bus fare concessions for Kent’s Old Age Pensioners. Dorothy now lives in retirement at Cranbrook, happy in the knowledge that today’s children will not have to endure the hardships she has seen in her lifetime.
One of the important stories from the book includes Dorothy's visit to 10 Downing Street: 
| Dorothy, in the 1960s, was amazed to discover huge variations between counties across England over the assistance available to pensioners. An example was the bus passes allowing free travel at non-peak times given out in the South Shields district of N England. She contrasts that with no bus concessions at all in Kent. On discovering that these subsidies were part of the local council rating system, set separately by each council, she determined to persuade the government (Prime Minister Harold Wilson) to introduce a national half-fare for all pensioners and the disabled. She raised a petition, and presented it at Downing Street. That was followed up by public meetings, newspaper stories, and an appearance on television. She had some success, though less than she hoped for. But she ends this part of the book with a wonderful insight into the difficulties of changing such issues: "I have come to realise that the result of any understanding will be a gradual process happening over a long period. Progress may be hardly noticeable. Now and again something one has been pressing to achieve for a long time comes to pass quite unobtrusively." |
Tenterden Workhouse - the main block - photographed in 2001 |
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