Westbere’s historic connection with the Bread and Cheese Field was lost when the 2018 Parish Boundary review moved the field into the newly created Hersden Parish.
The earliest record of this relationship started way back in 1701 when the Church Warden, announced that proceeds from renting out the Field would be used to pay for a Bread, Cheese and Ale Feast for the villagers, on Midsummer’s Day. To mark the three hundredth anniversary of the Charity in 2001 villagers took part in a celebration of the Charity at the Yew Tree Pub.
This annual custom continued for many years until, in the latter part of 19th Century, the Bread and Cheese Charity decided to provide food vouchers for the poor. In more recent times, the Charity was merged with the Westbere Friend Williamson Charity and became the Westbere Charities. It continues to function to this day and provides funds for the youth of the village in support of their educational needs
The Westbere Village Preservation Society believes that this Field should be returned to Westbere and to this end have sponsored a Petition which has two objectives: firstly, to return the Field into the Westbere Parish through a Community Governance Review and secondly to getting evidence of support to seek to designate the Field as a green space in the face of proposals to build 150 homes on the Field.
The petition seeks the support of all registered voters in Westbere to demonstrate the strength of feeling behind these two objectives.
If you have not already done so and would like to support this initiative, please click on the link below and put your name to the Petition.
The required number of signatories to trigger CCC to undertake a Governance Review for a change of the parish boundary has been reached, and Canterbury City Council will be checking the e-petition to ensure these signatories are registered on the Westbere voter list, and will then confirm the next steps and the timescale.
In addition to getting support for returning the Field to Westbere Parish the Petition also seeks to collect the maximum number of signatures for classifying the Field as a green space. Please note, whilst this aspect will not be considered under the terms of the Governance Review, and the trigger of the required number of signatories does not mean it is currently protected, the WVPS and the parish council may be able to feed the results into the Working Group currently reviewing the 2045 Canterbury District Local Plan. Both of the ward City councillors, Cllr Keji Moses and Cllr Harry McKenzie, have also been made aware of these plans. Furthermore, Hersden Parish Council resolved at its meeting held on 12 December 2023 that it supports the protection of the Bread and Cheese field, and will work with Westbere Parish Council if any proposed development of the Bread and Cheese Field arises (regardless of which parish it is/remains in).
The Link to the petition is at: