A walk down Memory Lane to Kent in June 2011

The bakery in Snodland where my mother used to buy me
battenburgs when I was about 3 or 4 years old.

We left for Kent with our caravan on the 6th June. We had a good journey down the A1/M25/M2 and even the cat behaved herself. We stayed at Manor Farm. Marsh Road Halling. This was always going to be very much a wander down memory lane as I was born nearby and spent the first 25 years or so of my life in this part of Kent. Despite this area only being a 100 miles from where we live now, I had rarely been back. The first thing we noticed was the difference in driving and the volume of cars, the pace of every thing in Kent seemed so much faster than home.

Nursery Cottage, where I was born.

One of the places I particularly wanted to visit was the house where I was born. This is situated quite near the village of Harvel. The actual house is Nursery Cottage and it's located near one other house, Poundgate. The only other nearby inhabited place is the White Hart which hasn't been a public house for many years. Over the years the house has seen many changes, for example when we lived there, there was no electricity and our lighting came from oil lamps. The house was also much more closely surrounded by trees, the garden (now open lawns) was an orchard. When we visited there appeared to be no one at home so we weren't able to learn anything about what has been done to the inside of the house etc.

The two bungalows built on the plot of 55 Rochester Road

A small section of what was the rear garden of 55 Rochester Road.

 From Nursery Cottage my parents moved to 55 Rochester Road Halling, this was also known at 'Glen-Avon' This had a large garden and when eventually my parents wanted to move on, 55 was bought by a developer who pulled the original bungalow down and filled the garden with two bungalows, 53a and a new 55. Although obviously we weren't able to get pictures of the original bungalow with it's veranda style we did get some of the two new buildings and more importantly the lovely view from the back. I spent much of my childhood with a telescope looking at the view with in the foreground the railway, then the River Medway and finally the beautiful countryside. The other side of the river has marshes that give way to wooded hillsides. In the 50's when I lived here the army sometimes came to a temporary camp over the river and conducted mock battles and built bridges etc, all amazingly interesting for a 10 or 11 year old boy.

Peter Lingham in his 80's and still working hard at Court Farm

 Whilst living at 55 Rochester Road I went to work on a local farm each summer holiday, this was Court Farm at Upper Halling. Peter Lingham who was the farmer in the 50's still lives there and currently works the farm with his son Andrew. Peter Lingham had quite an influence over me and it was a pleasure to meet him again. Remarkably although I hadn't seen him for almost 50 years he seemed to have changed very little! We talked about things like him originally paying me 1/6d an hour when I was about 7 years old and me learning to drive a tractor at that age towing huge trailers of straw, all enough to give current health and safety people a fit. Near to the farm I saw the house where a friend of my parents (who I hadn't seen since I was about 10 years) old lived. When I enquired I was astonished to find that although the husband had died four years earlier the wife (Heather Homewood) still lived there. Her son Ken (who I played with as a small child) was visiting and we all had a great chat.

25 Copperhouse Road.

 After 55 Rochester Road my parents moved to 25 Copperhouse Road, Knights Place, NR Strood.

The first property I bought, 9 Woodhurst Close Cuxton.

The first property that I bought was 9 Woodhurst Close Cuxton. I dug a drive out at this address by hand, taking all the soil away in bags to the local tip!

My parents property at 27 Stanhope Road Cuxton.,

In order to be near to me my parents later moved to 27 Stanhope Road Cuxton. My father sadly died at this address and my mother then moved to Cambridge as by that time my work had taken me there. This and her subsequent moves are not covered by this blog.

Halling Ferry steps.

Our caravan CL (the site we stayed on during this trip) was near the Medway and we spent some time walking on the banks of the river. We were able to see the ferry steps where some 50 years earlier a Mr Stevens (the ferryman) had used a small rowing boat to take people between Halling and Wouldham.

The bit of Margate's Dreamland left standing.

We also visited Margate which in my opinion has become rather down at heel and only a shadow of its former self. What used to be the huge amusement park called Dreamland has shut but a small section of it remains undemolishedRamsgate which seemed more up to date than Margate and perhaps worth a further visit later.