A small ragstone former school building has found a new lease of life as the Ditton Heritage Centre and Victorian Classroom.

The heritage centre was opened by the chairman of Kent County Council, Cllr Peter Homewood, who represents the local division. He cut a tape to the applause of other guests, who included the deputy mayor of Tonbridge and Malling Council, Cllr Owen Baldwin; the centre’s patron Simon Webley; members of Ditton Parish Council, and many of those who contributed to the fund that financed the centre.

Centre volunteers dressed in Victorian costume for the occasion.

Cllr Homewood recalled visiting the building as a seven-year-old when it was still a school. He said he never expected to return decades later to open it as a heritage centre.

The project has been 18 years in the making. It sprung from an idea of parish councillor Tony Mulcuck, who had seen similar local heritage centres while on holiday in America.

The building in St Peter’s Close was constructed in 1893 as Ditton Church of England Junior School. But it has been redundant since the transfer of the school to new premises in New Road 25 years ago.

Part of the centre holds a collection of artefacts, documents and photos charting Ditton‘s past and part has been recreated as a Victorian classroom.

Ditton is mentioned in the Doomsday book, where it appears as “Dictum”.

A charity has been set up to run the centre and has leased the building on a peppercorn rent from the church diocese.

At present the centre is open to the public on request only, but it is intended to open it on a regular basis come the spring, when schools will also be invited to visit the Victorian classroom as part of their history studies.

Mr Mulcuck said: “We have several volunteers who were teachers and they will be able to give children an authentic-sounding Victorian lesson.”