Gillingham, Darland Banks c.1960

Photo ref: G144037

I lived in Malvern Road and remember the winter of '47 when we had six weeks of snow and wonderful tobogganing on the slopes. My dad was the manager of Park&Brown Jeffery Street and a skilled wood man who was able to build me an excellent toboggan with steel runners. Incidentally in '37 my cousin Sir Derek Barton was studying Chemistry at Gilligham Tech, Gardner St and spent some lunch hours with his sandwiches in his car ...see more

Our parents used to take us for picnics on the Banks. In those days we had nets and used to be allowed to catch the butterflies and identify them. My father taught us the names of the wild flowers, there used to be wild orchids on the Banks then. The woods surrounding the banks were carpeted with blue-bells, so vivid in my memory to this day. Chestnuts were abundant in the autumn and we used to collect ...see more