by Eunice Doswell on behalf of the Marden History Group – July 2024
What a valuable contribution Catherine made to Marden History Group. She joined the group in 2000 when the History Group was first formed; also becoming involved in a history weekend event. Catherine also worked as a member of the steering group. Her belief that the village was quite class based made her determined to help newcomers identify with Marden through information about local amenities including roads and shops etc.
One of her passions was for family research. In 2009, through an analysis of our diary, she set up a database of family visitors. This resulted in a very successful family weekend where each family, from far and wide, displayed their own history in Marden. Working 3 days a week in the History centre in the library for a long time, she added to our catalogue with personal items, copied relevant chapters from books and assisted with displays such as the one we participated in at the Museum of Kent Life featuring Hopping. One interesting outing was to The Palace of Westminster when we were working with Kent Archives on the coming of the railway. The sites of wells in the parish were also investigated.
Another great strength was her writing. Combined with her love of walking she part wrote the History of Marden Aviation and the walk covering this. Several family histories were written along with taking oral histories. All this effort alongside her working with the Marden Medical Centre’s Patient Participation Group and originating walks round the village earned her the Kent Association of Local Council’s Community Award. Warned by her Doctor to ease up a bit she said, “At 80 I’m hoping to lessen the number of things I try to do at once … maybe 2 things instead of 4.”
When her health started to decline Catherine still co-operated with Roger Pitchfork in research and writing. We still have a bag of her work to look through and I guess there is much more to come.
Catherine – Marden village salutes your life and all the various contributions which you made.
