IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Station Road, ROMNEY MARSH, TN29 9EA

Church Road is the side street to the left.

Together with numbers 2 and 3, it is a grade II listed building dating from the mid 19th century http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-175204-chestnut-cottages-lydd-kent#.VhwDCsKFPcc There is a plaque, to the right of the scaffolding, that reads “these cottages were restored by Shepway District Council to commemorate European Architectural Heritage Year 1975”. The council changed its name to Folkestone and Hythe District Council in 2018.

Thomas Edgar's grave plot is marked by an unnamed, flat grave marker in the centre of the photo. The photo is situated in the churchyard of All Saints' Church, in Lydd, Kent. Edgar's original headstone was removed from the churchyard because weathering was effacing the stone to such an extent that it was making the inscription hard to read. Faint cracks were also starting to appear in the stone and it was thought preferable to place the headstone inside All Saint's Church for its own protection. Originally the headstone was placed vertically in the churchyard but the replacement marker lies in a horizontal position.

Thomas Edgar was born in Woolwich, London, and he joined the Royal Navy at the age of ten. He led an adventurous life which took him to many places in the world including: Quiberon Bay in 1759 where he served under Admiral Hawke in his decisive and pivotal victory over the French; he followed Hugh Palliser when he was appointed Governor of Newfoundland; he was master of HMS Discovery and was directly involved in the events that led to the fatal stabbing of Captain James Cook on the island of Hawaii during his third voyage to the Pacific; he was captain of the Oroonoko, a sloop in the Leeward Islands; he was master of the Hope in the Falkland Islands during 1786-1787 and there his name was commemorated by the names Port Edgar and Edgar Ridge. Edgar was appointed master and government agent aboard Lady Juliana which transported 226 female convicts to Australia. The ship arrived there in June 1790. In a voyage on board Gorgon, in 1794, Edgar was reported as having a drink problem and this may have been a factor that led him to quit his life at sea. Another factor in his decision to retire from the sea may have been that he had married Sarah Bean in 1789 and that he was now desirous of a home life on land, In 1795, Thomas Edgar became the keeper of Dungeness Signal Tower in Kent and he remained in that post until his death in Lydd, Kent on the 17th October 1801. He was laid to rest in the churchyard of All Saints’ in Lydd. Due to weathering and potential damage, his headstone was removed to the North Chapel in All Saints’ for safekeeping.

John Newman in Pevsner's volume of "The Buildings of England: West Kent and The Weald" describes All Saints Church "The church is archaeologically of the highest interest and architecturally on a grand scale." The total length of the church is 199 feet and the tower is 132 feet high. The west tower was built in the 1440s by Thomas Stanley, one of the senior masons at Canterbury Cathedral. It can be seen from great distances across Romney Marsh. This was a thoroughly wet day and a street party was due to be held at the same time in the centre of Lydd - see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4993169