Dickens under the hammer 
A sale of the novelist’s effects – including his stuffed raven, Grip – attracted ‘fancy prices’. But not Gad’s Hill itself

Nelson’s grief for ‘my son’
The admiral arranged a grand funeral for the young officer who died of his wounds after an ill-fated attack on the French flotilla.

Harding’s Armageddon
A Bexley clergyman was convinced that a new European war would engulf Britain. His fiery sermons left the congregation in no doubt as to who was to blame. 

Exquisite delicacy and refined politeness
You live in the higher echelons of Regency society and you fancy dancing a minuet or playing faro. Where can you go? The assembly room, of course.

Bygone briefs 
That lad Turner will go far; neoclassical town hall sold; newsmen line up for the camera; statue commemorates elephantine trek; wharf’s link with telecoms history; witches’ tale sounds a warning today; flint folly, hidden in the woods