Greatstone memories
Here are memories of Greatstone and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Greatstone or a Greatstone photo.
Childhood Memories
Wonderful memories of Greatstone. My fifth birthday. A picnic on the vast sandy beach, playing hide & seek in the sand dunes, swimming in the sea-the water I recall was rather murky & the beach very muddy when the tide went out but we kids didn't care.
Later a trip on the Hythe Dymchurch Dungeness miniature railway from one end to the other. Stopping at Dungeness to visit the lighthouse. Later when the new lighthouse was built, my parents nicknamed them cigar & cigarette. I can still hear the booming yet mournful siren on foggy nights.
We would stay in a little black wooden shack on Dunes road called Foamcrest. Later we moved to a little bungalow called Laurel which was in Hardy road-someone had a sense of humour!!
This was just one year of many. Happy days.
Memories of Kent
The Grand Hotel
I used to have some great times and go dancing at the Grand. Does any one else remember? Jean
Grand Hotel, Littlestone, 1963
I remember attending my aunt's 21st Birthday Party at the Grand Hotel in 1963. I was 3 years old. They had strung a fishing net from the ceiling of the ballroom and filled it with balloons. Every now and again one of the balloons would get loose and float down to the dance floor where the people would do their best to stamp on it. I loved balloons and my cousin and I collected up the pieces of the broken balloons hoping to put them back together. Imagine my dismay when - at the end of the night - the net was released and ALL the balloons came down at once to the accompaniment of much stamping.
From A Lyddite
I was born in Lydd in the 1930s, there are so many things that I remember, so my memories go from 1930s to 1960s: playing in the Gashouse Field when the German planes were flying overhead, Lydd Club Day every June with the parade of floats & the fair in the evenings, all of the shops (nearly all gone now) where you could get just about anything you needed, the soldiers from the army camp marching up the High St. to church playing their band, the Fete at Elm Grove & dressing up for their parade, the railway closing; later on I worked at the Ferryfield Airport & saw quite a few celebrities flying over to France. I visit quite regularly from Canada so see the changes that are happening to my lovely town.
Frank Barnes School For Deaf
When I was around 11/12 years old I stayed at this holiday camp several times. We all came down from London and had a great time playing war games with the local kids. I remember my friends and I buying children size army hats from the corner store. Our teacher saw us with our hats on and asked us to line up like soldiers and walk in a straight line. We often had a ride on the little train. We went to Dungeness to visit the lighthouse and had our picture taken. I recently returned to Dymchurch and enjoyed exploring and retracing my steps.
Holidays in The 1950's
My parents and I used to stay in a bungalow owed by a Mr & Mrs Tidy and I was made to keep it tidy! I loved the sandy beach and remember playing deck tennis on the sand. Next door was a family with three girls, their father was the local postman.
I will be back in England in September 2008 (I have lived in Australia since 1963) and hope to revisit St Mary's Bay and ride on the railway.
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Places this week
Here are some of the places you've shared memories of this week:
- Aldershot, Hampshire
- Shoreham, Kent
- Diss, Norfolk
- Ealing, Greater London
- Frodsham, Cheshire
- Bushey, Hertfordshire
- Borehamwood, Hertfordshire
- Broadstairs, Kent
- Perivale, Middlesex
- Huyton, Merseyside
- Greenock, Renfrewshire
- Consett, County Durham
- Riddings, Derbyshire
- Borth, Dyfed
- South Woodford, Greater London
- Crowborough, East Sussex
- Frizington, Cumbria
- Wimbledon, Greater London
- Stroud, Gloucestershire
- Doncaster, South Yorkshire
- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
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I Remember When...
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A colourful treasure trove of memories, "I Remember When" is an
irresistible mix of personal stories and recollections that affectionately reveal the detail of everyday life in Britain.
