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Gillingham
Gillingham maps
Historic maps of Gillingham and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Gillingham maps
Gillingham area books
Displaying 1 of 23 books about Gillingham and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Gillingham
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Gillingham.
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Sharps Green
We had some great times in the summer hollidays. A crowd of us would get on our bikes go along to the Strand and then along the sea wall to sharps Green. We passed a boat yard, but I don't remember the name. We were gone all day. We played "bike scrambling" up and down the mounds, the boys were always better at it than us girls. There were always loads of damsons and blackberries that we could pick and eat. We came home at six tired out. I first got my love of the countryside then and since then have always respected it. I also remember going to the war memorial on Mill Road with my dad and all the men removing their hats in respect. We went to fairs on the lines, Navy Days. I remember the Dockyard hooter morning, lunch time and evening, no excuse then for being late for school. Time off for the Queen's visit to Gillingham, she wore green I remember. "Happy highways where I... Read more
Gillingham Tech
I lived in Wigmore - the prefabs - and after passing the 11+ went to the Tech. I believe this was once Rochester Tech but had now started up in Gardener Street. We were the first year to attend in Gillingham and it was also the first time you could go to a Technical school at 11 (used to be 13). As the first group we had the school to ourselves. 90 pupils split into 3 classes G, T & S. the next year another 90 came and some time after the rest of Rochester Tech joined us. Some classes were held upstairs in the Odeon cinema which was right next door. I used to travel back and forth on the No. 45 or the No. 8 bus caught in the High Street and terminating in Fairview Ave Wigmore (45) or Queen's Head/Spyglass & Kettle (alternate) for the No. 8.
Those were also the days of SMOG and I remember that one day after school I tried to go to... Read more
Sharps Green
I spent a lot of time at Sharps Green in the 1940s and early 1950s and have very fond memories of the times my friends and I spent there. I lived not far away in Grange Road and my grandmother, Emily Randall, lived at Rose Cottage, the house on the corner of Lower Rainham Road and the road down to Sharps Green. The Cuckow family lived in the house right at the entrance to Sharps Green. My mother was raised at Rose Cottage which still stands on the corner. When I was a boy I sang in the choir at Twydall Mission Church next to my Gran's house. Sadly it was burnt to the ground by kids in the 1960s. I still visit the area occasionally even though I have lived abroad for most of my adult life.
Co-Op Shoe Shop Gillingham High Street
My first job when I left school in 1961 was at the Co-op shoe shop. I worked in the men's dept, and on my first day I had to open every box of shoes, dust them, and the box, and put them back on the shelf. After 2 days I reported I had finished, only to be told "go back and do it again". But whenever a customer asked for a size ,colour, or style, I knew exactly where the shoes were. We closed at 5.30 but there was always some clever so and so who would come in, look at severel pairs of shoes, then go because he didn't like any of them, and so I finished at 6.30. Then in 1962/63 a new shop front was built, while we worked on with a huge gaping hole in the wall, who can forget that winter? I rest my case!
Odeon Pictures
After the war I used to go to the Salvation Army flicks, almost next to the Odeon. They were free on sat ams I believe. I lived at 191 Gillingham Road till 1955,then went to Canada. Memories of Kerridges, Livingstone Circus, Darland Banks, Gill grammar school, David Frost, Strand, ice cream wafers...handmade...damson jam made at home, scrumping,gooseberries, Byron Road Sschool, Cubs and Scouts, St. Barnabus church, first girlfriend Deanna Cox..then Jean Wallingdon, soccer at the park, swimming at Strand pool, Byron Road School, Ted Jennings, Mike Meade, Johnny Brundle who died in helicopter training RAF,never forgotten... Eric Howes, Mike Greene, Gills fan...Jssreels...RAF cadets...
Gillingham Tech & The High Street c1960
I went to the Tech as well, in the 1960s before they moved to Pump Lane. Down from the school to the High Street, turn left and stood outside the Co-op, opposite Debenhams? OK I admit I did not learn much there but surely you had to turn right at the High Street to be standing outside the Co-op, looking at the station opposite Debenhams?
Just Asking
Does anyone remember the old Brittania pub in the old high street, not the high street where it is, it was in Pier Road? I am looking for photos of it as my nan owned it.
Usherette
I worked here and the manager was Mr Tremaine, good times then. The boy who worked the lights was Len Bowgen who lived at The Brook, Chatham but emigrated to America. I used to sell ice creams in the interval.
