Living in Stoke And Allhallows

I moved to a caravan in Hoo in 1967-68 and went on to have two more children whilst living in Lower Stoke - my three kids went to the local primary school and even now talk about the freedom they had as kids living in the village and how their own kids have had very different lives. Most days my friend Anthea and I would walk with the kids and usually a couple of other kids tagged along and we would spend the summer days at Allhallows and on winter days we would around Cuckolds Green. The kids would run and pick up vegetables that dropped off the back of the tractors, my now ex husband would spend days on the river fishing and so our freezer was always full of fish, fresh veg and "long tailed ducks". These were actually pheasants but we didn't want the kids to go to school and tell them they had had pheasant for dinner as most of the guys in the village didn't have licences to go hunting for pheasants. I can remember one winter getting snowed in the village but I was able to get out because I had an old ex army Landrover that I could get over the fields with but the army had to drop supplies. I remember the Queen's Jubilee when we had street parties. My son once got caught scrumping apples from Dr McDonald's garden. My kids were so lucky to have had those years. It was a lovely place to live. I haven't been back for many years and don't really want to now... I don't think I would like the changes.