HARRY NEAME: Shepherd Neame brewery chairman
Harry Neame (1869-1947) was the eldest son of P. B. Neame, sole proprietor of Shepherd Neame, the Faversham brewery. Harry Neame was managing director (1914-40) and chairman (1913-41) of the company formed upon his father’s death.
Details: Shepherd Neame, by Professor Theo Barker
JASPER NEAME: mayor who led Shepherd Neame
Jasper Neame (1904-1961), elder son of Harry Neame, was chairman of Shepherd Neame from 1941 to 1961. Mayor of Faversham from 1946 to 1949, his second year in office being extended by six months as a result of a national reform altering mayoral elections from November to May. High Sheriff of Kent for 1955.
PERCY BEALE NEAME: took his family into brewing
Percy Beale Neame (1836-1913) was the first of his family involved in the Faversham brewery now called Shepherd Neame, in which he became a partner in 1864. The former firm of Shepherd & Mares was briefly known as Shepherd, Mares & Neame before becoming Shepherd Neame. P. B. Neame was its sole proprietor from 1877, when the last Shepherd (Henry, junior) ceased to be involved, until his death, whereupon the business was made into a company, with ownership shared among his ten children. Percy Neame lived at The Mount and maintained its cricket ground for Faversham Cricket Club.
Details: Shepherd Neame, by Professor Theo Barker
CLEMENT NORTON: vicar in Tudor times
Clement Norton, Vicar of Faversham for 24 years from 1535, is traditionally said to have been Mayor of Faversham in 1536 and the only vicar to have held the post. This view, taken in
Herbert Dane’s
The Mayoralty of Faversham (1964), is queried in Patricia Hyde’s 1996
Thomas Arden in Faversham, which says that evidence for Norton’s having been mayor in 1536 is “not clear” and that he “certainly never appeared in the lists of jurats in Faversham wardmote book”. Norton, third son of Faversham gentry, was a Fellow of All Souls’, Oxford, before becoming vicar. He is described in Eamon Duffy’s
The Stripping of the Altars (Yale University Press, 1992) as an “incorrigible traditionalist” who, in his failure to conform to the new doctrinal requirements of Henry VIII’s Anglican church, “continually sailed close to the wind”.
ARTHUR OSBORNE: creator of Ivorex plaques
Arthur Osborne (1855-1943) was the originator of Ivorex plaques, collected worldwide. Born in Ospringe Street, Faversham, as Arthur Monk, he emigrated to North America in 1878, but was back by 1899, now known as Arthur Osborne and making artworks at 49 East Street, since demolished. By 1902, Osborne had focused on making the three-dimensional Ivorex plaques, which sold so well that he moved to bigger premises at 83 Abbey Street. A thriving Faversham industry grew from producing finely detailed scenes and portraits in plaster of Paris with a wax coating that gave an ivory-like finish. The business, with 50 staff at peak, lasted till 1965.