Tunstall Village Hall

02/09/2025

Kent’s only Grain to Glass Distillery in the heart of Chatham’s Royal Dockyard. Home of Vela Vodka, Dockyard Gin and Son of a Gun Spirit.

17/08/2025

Come and join us tonight Tunstall Village hall 8pm to light the Beacon to celebrate Vj day.

15/08/2025

15/08/2025

Come and join us at next month's meeting. 11 September.

25/07/2025

Come along and have a lovely cream tea at our hall you will also be supporting a worthy charity. Need to phone to book your place

12/07/2025

Come and join us 2nd Thursday each month. 7.30.

Jay's July Meeting Report

This month we welcomed Neil Franklin from Brogdale, the home of the national fruit collection.

Way back in the early 1800’s it was decided to bring together a collection of fruit which was based at Chiswick. When they gathered apple varieties together they discovered that over 100 species were in fact just one species but called different names in different places. Nowadays identifying species is done quickly and easily using DNA analysis.

The collection was moved to Wisley but they were unable to successfully grow cherries there due to the soil. Brogdale opened in 1952 and became the home of the national fruit collection.

In total there are 3,100 types of tree there with 2 trees of each variety. There are 2,100 apple trees, 500 pears, 285 cherry, 385 plums, 19 quince, 48 cobnut and 4 medlars.

Did you know that quinces were symbols of love and fertility in ancient Roman and Greek times and were part of wedding celebrations. Makes you think when eating quince jelly with a piece of cheese!

The cheese Stinking Bishop was named because the pear Stinking Bishop is used in it’s production. Why call a pear stinking bishop – legend has it that it was grown by a man called Bishop whose personal hygiene left a lot to be desired. Sales of the cheese rose by 500% when it appeared in a Wallace and Gromit film.

During the course of the slide show we were shown pictures of many varieties of fruit, some dating back many hundreds of years.

Today Brogdale sends samples worldwide to aid in breeding programmes. This is so important in the light of changing weather conditions and of supermarkets demanding uniform sized fruit with good shelf life.

And even more important Neil brought along some varieties of cherries for us to try! Yum!

If you have never been to Brogdale I would urge you to go especially on one of their open days. They have a miniature railway that runs mainly on a Sunday and on open days a tractor
ride round the orchards with a tour guide.

I have been to the apple festival several times and can recommend it although the cider day sounds fun. Dates of open days and courses can be found on their website and, after all, it is only in Faversham.

Our next meeting is on August 14th when it is an informal social event with food provided by the members and no business conducted. The next meeting with a speaker is on September
11 th when the speaker is Dylan Britcher from the Copper Rivet Distillery. We start at 7.45pm but the doors will be open about half an hour beforehand so if you fancy giving WI a try please come along.

03/07/2025

Miss Vikki is at Tunstall Village Hall this evening! She can’t wait to see Street, Cheer, PTeam & Acro 💜

30/06/2025

Here are some lovely book marks that Tunstall art group have done. We will be selling these, cards and pictures all hand painted at an art sale later this year. Will update when have date.

11/06/2025

Term 6 already?!?!?!

We start back tomorrow & can’t wait to see all of our old & some new students starting too!

We’ve got spaces in some classes still so please do get in touch to book!

[email protected]

05/05/2025

Thankyou for everyone who came this evening an enjoyable evening well supported.