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Bidborough
Bidborough maps
Historic maps of Bidborough and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Bidborough maps
Bidborough area books
Displaying 1 of 24 books about Bidborough and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Bidborough
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Kent memories
Life at Southborough as an Evacuee in 1939
I was sent to Southborough from London in September 1939 and was billeted with a lovely couple, Mr and Mrs Brown who lived at Holden Corner. I was with another girl evacuee named Audrey and she and l just loved the chickens and fishing (with jam jars) in the pond. We went to the village school, bought Tizer and ice-cream from the shop, and I seem to remember going to the church there, too. Thanks to the Browns' kindness my memories of Southborough are most happy. Several of us used to try and make 'dens' in the bushes on the common on our way home from school. I well remember Audrey getting a letter from her mum saying that she had had to put their cat to sleep in case it got hurt by bombs and we both sat in bed and cried, me because I had 2 cats and I feared that they would suffer the same fate! Sadly when my home in Blackheath got bombed in September 1940,... Read more
Fishing
This is the Fish Pond at Holden Corner, Southborough. This was one of the two accessible and popular places for boys to go fishing in Southborough - the other was the Great Bounds Lake, near Bidborough.
As a boy in the 1940s and early 50s my Dad, Jack, bought me a fishing rod and my Dad and I would go down to the pond to go fishing.
As I recall there was very little change from when the photo was taken.
For a time in the late 40s and early 50s the cottage in the top corner was a small corner shop which was handy for snacks, ice cream or bottle of Tizer!
For some reason the bigger boys fished from the bank on the other side of the pond, whilst we always fished from this side, over the railing, pretty well from where the photo was taken. We always used a float with a small ball of wet bread rolled up on the hook, whilst the bigger boys... Read more
Shopping at The Parade
The Parade, Southborogh, was where my mother, Ivy, did most of her shopping. At that time you could buy pretty well everything you would need in the Parade. Trips into Tunbridge Wells were only taken if there was a need for something very special or the "sales" were on!!
Just round the corner in Pennington Road was an Off Licence called "Fisters" which is where we bought our rationed sweets - usually Sharps Creamy Toffees in my case. On Sundays my brother David, would be sent up the Fisters just before lunch. We always had a bottle of "cream soda" or a bottle of Tizer and a block of ice cream. As a pudding my brother had his ice cream in a glass of cream soda - home-made ice cream soda!
Before I left school, I was the delivery boy for the Green Grocers in Pennington Road called "Crouchers". On Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings. My wages were 12 shillings and sixpence a week plus a sixpence tip from a... Read more
Choir Boys
Hello - I was a chorister at the church, I think between 1958/60 as I was born in 1947,o ur family the Schofields lived at no 10 Carville Avenue, Southborough, we were a Christian family. I have only found out by doing family research lately that my mother was of Welsh extraction and traced her ancestors back to Llanyblodwell in mid Wales - she always told me her family were chapel - which I didn't understand until now. Dad wasn't interested but Mum insisted we all went to C of E Sunday School until we got to 13 - then we were allowed to follow our own faiths - the 4 of us went in different directions -I to low church (whatever that means, especially in the present climate) and my two brothers became choristers at St Thomas Church, Southborough, my sister decided to become a Methodist and is still devout in that faith, but one of the brothers is now an atheist! I went on to a career at... Read more
My Long Walk to School
I lived with my parents in Southborough until I was 17 years old. My Gran also lived quite near to us. My dad and all his brothers and sisters went to St. Peters School on the common. So did my older brother and two young sisters. I can well remember my first long walk there, all the way down Manor Road, past Holden Pond, where we often used to take our jam jars to try to colect tadpoles, (Mrs. Petty used to have a shop there where we used to buy fizzy drinks.) then all the way up Constitutional Hill I think it was called, which was a long way for a five year old to walk. Then at dinner time we had to walk all the across the common to the canteen for our dinner, I well remember lumpy potatoes, fatty meat, that we were made to eat, and what we called frogsborn, tapioca really. We often had our art class on the common drawing the different trees... Read more
The Green Leigh.
I am unsure of the date my sister Grace married Bill Hallett and lived on the Green Leigh Village. My name is Daphne Russell, nee Hooker. My sister also being Grace Hooker before marriage. My nephews still live in the area. I am in Australia and have wonderful memories. We came from Tonbridge. I was a telephone operator at Tunbridge Wells.
Game Keeper
My Grandfather's name was Gerald Arthur Seale, his father was game keeper at Halls Place in the late 1800's and early 1900's and his name was Gerald Walter Seale, I beleive that he lived in the Keeper's Cottage on the estate.
My mother Violet Henson nee Seale remembered visiting Keeper's Cottage when she was young.
