A question posed on 9/Dec/2006

Q. Who was Joyce Green ? Her name appears to be used in the local area quite a lot, but I cannot find any history of who she was ? Anonymous.

A. In her excellent book (details of which can be found an earlier blog posting), Francine Payne - a local historian/writer - suggests that four local farms, including one referred to as Joces or Joyces Farm, can be identified on a 1778 map in a book entitled "Hasted's History of Kent". The land was owned apparently by a certain Richard Joce.

When the hospital was constructed it also occupied a piece of land belonging to one of the neighbouring farms called Marsh Street Farm and thus, because the name "Marsh Street Hospital didn't seem to have quite such an interesting sound to it the hospital came to be called "Joyce Green Hospital", after the-green-belonging-to-Mr-Joce .... on which the hospital was (partly) built.