Littlestone-on-Sea

Littlestone-on-Sea is a small coastal village close to New Romney. Started in the 1880's by Sir Robert Perks, as a resort for the gentry, at the point of the local lifeboat station.^[1] At low tide a WWII 'Mulberry Harbour' is visible and along the coast there is a P.L.U.T.O. or Pipe Line Under The Ocean, formerly used to carry petrol across to France during the D-Day landings.

The First Men in the Moon

Littlestone is the location of Mr Bedford's landing in the sphere in H.G. Wells book The First Men in the Moon. Mr Bedford leaves the sphere on the beach and enters a hotel. A local boy called Thomas Simmons (the name of an old school friend of Wells) who witnessed Mr Bedford’s arrival later enters and takes off in the sphere and is never seen again!

Littlestone Golf Cub - first clubhouse

The entrepreneur Henry Tubbs established Littlestone Golf Club in 1888 on land bought with J Lewis. He built a house next to the course in 1889 to act as a Clubhouse until the current was finished in 1910.

This house, which seems to appear as St Andrew’s Villa in the census of 1901, was known then and now as Netherstone. The minutes of the newly formed club committee note that Henry Tubbs as a committed Methodist did not allow alcohol in Netherstone. His nephew points out that this may be contributing to the slow growth in the popularity of the club.

Netherstone is still a home, being the only house to have a balcony facing the links rather than the sea.

A similar pattern on a grander scale was seen in Barnet where Henry Tubbs built Nether Court in 1883. This was ultimately to become the clubhouse of Finchley Golf Club in 1929 after his death.

References

1. ^ Littlestone Kent www.villagenet.co.uk