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Kingswood
Kingswood maps
Historic maps of Kingswood and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Kingswood maps
Kingswood photos
We have no photos of Kingswood, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Leeds Castle| Sutton Valence| Langley| Bearsted| Headcorn| Lenham| Boughton Monchelsea| Woodside Green| Egerton| Loose| Maidstone| Detling| Staplehurst| Smarden| Bredgar| Pluckley| Boxley| Marden| Allington
Kingswood area books
Displaying 1 of 24 books about Kingswood and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Kingswood
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Kent memories
Otham School
l started my first school in Otham in1935 at the age of four, l was living with my grandparents opposite the school called Primrose Cottage. l then moved with my mother and two brothers and sister to the Vicarage Cottage next to the vicarage until 1939 when we moved to Gillingham. My grandfather worked for the Betts family as a shepherd for 35 years. And my mother and her sisters and brother all went to Otham school.
The Bearsted Boys
I have put 1947 but infact it is from earlier than that to 1954.
I think this was a great place for us as kids as we had freedom and not much parental control, I think mainly due to our parents who had just survived the war years, and thinking how lucky we were all to be alive and not under Hitler.
One of my memories was being lifted from the tin bath to watch Spitfires chase 'doodle-bugs' over the village.
I remember sleeping under the table made from steel with mesh around so if we got bombed we may survive. I also remember a shell or bomb going off very close to our house and we as kids were digging the shrapnel out in the morning, the blast broke tiles from our house and the blue tits nested in there every year.
If they had any money for a drink they met with others from the village down at the Royal Oak, and got... Read more
From 1944
Memories from that long ago tend to stick in the back of the mind until an association brings them out. Being a small child, the village green at Bearsted seemed gigantic and the village pond was just a pond. We used to paddle in the pond up to the top of our wellies, hoping that the water wouldn't run over the top and give us wet feet. The green was a favourite gathering place for a lot of children. One particular place was the village pump. There was no pump, only accomodation which looked like a church lich gate with seats around the inside. As kids we had a lot of freedom to wonder the local fields and the golf course. We even went as far as the hills where there was a ruined church/castle. In those days we didn't appreciate the archaeological value of a castle built of flint stone which had fallen into ruin and was largely buried, even tho' there was a standing wall with an arch.
Evacuee
I was evacuated to Bearsted about a week before the outbreak of the last war. I lived at the White Horse Inn on the green, it was run by Mr & Mrs Brook they had a daughter called Tinkle (nickname). I was very happy there and stayed for the duration of the war. If anyone knows where Tinkle lives now I would be grateful if you could let me know, the last I heard she and her husband were living beyond Bournemouth somewhere. I went to the little church school on the green then passed my scholarship and attended the old girls Grammar school. We were not integrated with the Maidstone girls we had a couple of the rooms upstairs. I went to visit the school a couple of years ago but it was no longer there. I always have a soft spot for Bearsted that's where I grew up. I now live about... Read more
{Rev} Henry Doyle Sewell
My great great grandfather was the Vicar or St. Peter and St. Paul. Please see http://www.robertsewell.ca/sewell.html#gen9 for further details. I suspect his remains were interred in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul. Does anyone have any knowledge of this or perhaps a photo of a headstone?
Arthur Smith Was 12 When This Picture Was Taken
My dad was born Headcorn in 1891, grew up in the village. He served in the First World War and, later, moved to other areas in the south. He ceased travelling after arriving in Bedfordshire with my mother, during the Second World War when I was born.
We visited Headcorn in 1958 and 1964 but did not meet any of his relations. He had a brother John, who had a barber's shop at 6 Rochester High Street, which was still listed in the phone book until 1992.
Although I'm not 100% sure, I think Dad's father's name was George Smith and his mother's name was Jane Collinson, which I found researching the Census records.
I would be very interested to know if there is anyone left in the village that remembers the Smith family.
My Local Parish Church
Living at Ashburton, St Luke's was my local parish church where I got married in 1968, a lovely church. Although 40 plus years have passed, I still have good memories of living in the area.
