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Cranbrook
Cranbrook maps
Historic maps of Cranbrook and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Cranbrook maps
Cranbrook area books
Displaying 1 of 24 books about Cranbrook and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Cranbrook
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Cranbrook.
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or of a photo of Cranbrook.
Where my Father Worked
My father worked at the mill in approximately 1958. I recall it being repaired by Dutch engineers at that time. Next door was a grocer's shop, but I cannot remember the name. We lived at the time near Goudhurst. What a terrific place for a young person to play!
Kent memories
Shopping
This, I believe, is me as an 8-year-old shopping. This road is now so busy you can hardly get across it. The pub in the background has gone and so has the shop I am walking towards. At the time of this photo there were 5 shops, a butchers, a baker's, two pubs and a garage. Now there are two shops and a pub.
Park Farm
I lived in Colliers Green at Park Farm, at that time a dairy and fruit farm. I went to school at the primary school. Just down the road was a charcoal burners. Latterly I went to Bethany School at Curtisen Green. Good memories.
My G Great Aunt Mary Jane Snowden
My G Great Aunt Mary Jane Snowden was a servant for Edith Marie Germon who owned Gills Green House. I would be very interested in connecting with anyone who knows anything in relation to these people
Kind Regards
Nicki
Life in A Kent Village During World War Two
Benenden was my home for the first 5 years of my life. We lived in Greenwood, a lovely white Kentish weather-boarded house on the Cranbrook Road, sadly knocked down and modernised a couple of years ago. I was born on February 14, 1940 in a glorious country house in Langley called Rumwood Court, which is still there. It was a maternity home in the War. Of course my mum called me Valentine, because of my date of birth, but luckily Anthony came first. My brother, John, who was six, wrote to my mum, saying 'Call him Chysanthemum.' She kept the postcard for years, to show what a clever boy he was to spell it correctly. My parents had moved to Kent to escape the bombing in London, but of course the Battle of Britain was fought right over the homes of Kent. I remember seeing planes being shot down in flames just above where we lived. Later when the V-bombers came I remember running into the house... Read more
Shop Owner
My husband's great-grandfather was the Rayner on the shop in the photo. We like the name so much that both our eldest son and eldest granddaughter have Rayner as their middle name. We are hoping to keep the tradition going. If anyone knows any more about the Rayners I would be please to know.
Forge Farm
Just found this site while looking for Chinley which I believe is close by.
Forge Farm memories of the fun times we had as children hop picking with nan and gran-dad, dad and mum, aunts and uncles and of course my siblings. At that time the farm supplied student teachers for the children's education, no one went as we were all too busy playing or fishing in the pond in the middle of the common.
Home was a corrugated iron hut, very basic, the bed was made from timber poles with slats laid across. I remember we always took a large cotton mattress case with us and it was our job to fill this with straw supplied by the farmer, if you have never slept on a straw mattress it was always warm. Because there were so many of us the farmer allowed us to take away a section of the joining iron sheet to make two huts into one and put in real glass windows.
Cooking was over... Read more
