Early 1950s

A Memory of Dartford.

I was born in Dartord where I lived in Stanham Road until I moved at the age of 9 years. Childhood friends I remember are Anthony Artist, Janet Cork, Michael Burville (not sure of spelling of surname). My next door neighbour was the Robbins family and my elder sister was friends with David Robbins whose father had a small garage down Dartford Road towards Crayford. I remember the garage clearly which had a narrow frontage with a single petrol pump and a steep drive down into the garage building. I went to West Hill Primary School and remember one day going to school in my slippers so was made to stay in at break time. On the way back from Cubs we often used to have a bag of chips and throw the empty paper at trolley buses! I went fishing with a friend into Dartford Park in the River Darenth using jam jars and one time waded in too deep and filled my boots with water and I recall travelling back on a trolley bus with sodden feet. I arrived home and emptied the remaining water from my boots to the horror of my mum. My mother worked as a nurse at West Hill Hospital during the Second World War and told stories of walking back home with trolley bus wires bought down by bombs. She heard doodlebugs (V1s) passing overhead and one time a V1 landed in Swasiland Road badly damaging a house and the force of the explosion broke windows at our house in Stanham Road (where we had a small concrete air raid shelter. The family has a large box of correspondance between my mum and dad during wartime when dad was abroad in the army - this makes fascinating reading of life and emotions during war time.
That's it for now.
Roger