Frittenden Diamond Wedding

August 1934

Mr and Mrs John B Cox of Little Buckhurst Farm Frittenden who celebrated their diamond wedding August 4, were honoured with a telegram of congratulation from the King and Queen, The message was sent from the Royal Yacht:-
"Mr and Mrs B Cox of little Buckhurst Farm Frittenden Kent, The King and Queen send you hearty congratulations and good wishes on your diamond wedding day,-Private Secretary."

Mr and Mrs Cox both belong to well known old Frittenden families and have lived in Frittenden and adjacent parishes of Smarden and Staplehurst all their lives. The Cox family of which no less than five generations have been laid to rest in Frittenden churchyard were all agriculturists and yeomen of the good type.
Mr Cox who has passed his 84th year is not only hale and hearty as he is himself pleased to term it, but is of a remarkably bright and cheerful disposition which is keeping with his fresh complexion and his activity and nimbleness would put many a younger man in the shade. This is perhaps due to some extent to his happy-go lucky disposition and his love of sport, for in recounting some of his early experiences to representative of the Kentish Express, he remarked with a smile of satisfaction, "Oh I have seen some fun in my time,"

He was born on May 24 1850 at old mill farm Frittenden which is also situated partly in two other parishes. There is a three cornered boundary stone on this farm, by standing or leaning upon which is possible for one to be in the parishes of Bibbenden, Cranbrook and Frittenden at one and the same time.
It was on this farm that there resided in 1557 two of the Kentish Martyrs, William and Katherine Allin, who were burnt at the stake at Maidstone on June of that year.

Mrs Cox [Susanna] is the daughter of the late Mr. I. Gurr, who was a farmer and builder at Frittenden, she is her husband's junior- by a little over two years, having been born in September 1852. Although not quite so robust as her husband she carries her 82 years with comparative ease, and when seen by our representative the other day was busily engaged in her domestic duties assisted by her daughter.
Mr and Mrs Cox were married at Frittenden church on August 4 1874 by the then rector the Rev. T.W.O. Hallward. They resided for some time at Gilham Farm, Smarden and subsequently at Chittenden and Milking Pail farm, Staplehurst Pond farm, Frittenden and now at Little Buckhurst farm.

All his life Mr Cox has been fond of hunting and when the Linton beagles were disbanded he was the oldest follower. In his younger days he was keen on cricket and as he himself described it used to play like "winkle."
Mr Cox can recall the times when dogs were used to draw carts and remembers a man named Nelson Price coming into the village with a fish cart drawn by a pair of dogs. Not only does he remember the village constable and his staff, but also the local lock-up which he says was square but for some unaccountable reason was called the round house. When anyone was incarcerated in this form of "durance vile" they came in for a good deal of attention at the hands of the small boys. Mr Cox and his playful companions used to prod them with small sticks and a stone or a frog would at their instigation occasionally drop through the bars. The building was afterwards bought by Mr Osborne a local butcher, and although now merged into dilapidation is still in existence.

Mr Cox's grandparents used to live at Sissinghurst Castle and sometimes when visiting them he used to sleep in one of the towers. He has clear recollections of his grandmother [Lousia Dann born 1820] wearing a very large black silk contraption upon her head which he described as more like a hen-coop than a bonnet. On some of these visits he used to ask her if he could go into the garden and gather some strawberries, but he said he omitted to tell her that he had already "blown his kite full". In the days of his early boyhood he used to have attend church regularly on Sunday afternoons, the attention of juvenile members of the congregation was however not infrequently centred upon an official whom they used to call "yellow stick," owning to his having a long rod of that colour with which he administered a "poke" to anyone who was seen to have forgotten themselves and their surroundings as to have fallen asleep. Those were in the days when sermons presumably were somewhat lengthy.
Mr Cox also remembers when there was a fair at Tenterden and the cattle used to be tethered in the street. There now remains only two others in addition to himself who attended the school when Mr Cox was a boy, they are Mr Alfred Croucher and Walter Rofe.

At the family gathering which was held at Little Buckhurst Farm on Sunday the day following the 60th anniversary of Mr and Mrs Cox an honoured guest was Mrs William Taylor of Lake house Frittenden who attained her 81st birthday on that day and was bridesmaid at the wedding 60 years ago.
Mr and Mrs Cox have three sons and two daughters, sixteen grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

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