My Town Monday - An odd fact!!!!

I was out and about taking in the local scenery when I came across the below plaque, so I photographed it with the intention of doing a bit of research on it. Its an informational Historic event kind of plaque, but it struck me as funny to celebrate such a minor event!!!

To start with it was a piece of 'History' that I have never heard talk of before, so I went off in search of further information. Well it has been very hard to come by and I did wonder at one point if the present cottage owners had decided to have the plaque made to 'big up' the history of their humble abode. The more I thought about it the more I thought that this was unlikely. If I had been trying to improve the history of my house (which I think in my case would be hard as we have lived here for 50% of the time it has been in existence, all the previous owners can claim is that they left us with the effects of numerous County Court judgements recorded against our address!!!) I would have chosen something more exciting!!

So Rose Cottages' claim to fame...... Anne Van Gogh lived in the cottage for a whole year between 1875 and 1876 and on AT LEAST a couple of occasions it is BELIEVED that her, at the time ordinary brother, Vincent Van Gogh, walked from London to visit her. It was reputed that at the time he was living in Ramsgate, he somehow managed to get to London whilst being penniless and then completed his journey on foot. We are around 22 miles North of London, so it was a reasonable trek for him. On checking on the history of the great artist, I can confirm that he was in England at the time, I can confirm that he has a brother called Theo, but info on Anne is not available!!

The fact is so unimpressive that of you do a Google search you will find only two references to this amazing fact!! (possibly three soon if enough people read this blog!!!)

So there you have it, you are now party to a very secret fact about my town, should I inform the Tourist Board????