You are here:
Langley
Langley maps
Historic maps of Langley and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Langley maps
Langley area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Langley and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Langley
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Langley.
Add your memory of Langley
or of a photo of Langley.
Born in Rumwood Court.
Rumwood Court was the country home of Lord Rootes (of motor car manufacturing fame). During the war, the house was used as a maternity home for army wives to have their babies. I was born there in August 1942. My brother was also born there in July 1945. I have photos of myself and my father in his army uniform helping with the haymaking on one of our visits to my mother. I also have a photo of us standing beside the army ambulance which was to take us all back to Dover when she was discharged with the new baby. My father was in the RAMC and was stationed in the underground hospital in the cliffs under Dover Castle. My mother said they were told there was a 'whispering gallery' which was reputed to be haunted. Rosemary Richards, nee Quy.
Rumwood Court, Langley
Further to the note I found on your site from Rosemary Richards.
I too was born at Rumwood Court ( I believe my mother called it Rootes Hall). I was born at Rumwood Court in late 1939. I have a photo of a room in the "hall" where the nurses are at a table and it looks as though a group of mothers were having a meal together. I visited Rumwood Court in May 2004 and discovered it was transformed into apartments.
I of course do not have any further recollections of Rumwood Cout as I understand we were there for only a short time and my mother was returned to her home in Romford Essex.
Kent memories
Duck Pond
In the sixties my inlaws (Mr & Mrs F King) used to keep ducks on the pond and in the evenings would drive them home, to bed them down in a duck house in their back garden of 27, Holden Corner. In latter years the Council built a house for the ducks in the middle of the pond.
The corner shop that Michael Willcocks refers to, where he bought his Tizer was owned and run by Mrs Petty.
Richard Stronghill.
Pondlife
From the 1930s, when I first saw it from a pram to about the 1960's, Holden Pond was a wonderful place for wildlife. Each March hundreds, maybe thousands, of frogs and toads, hopped and crawled there to breed. The water was clear, and from the roadside you could see them swimming about on the bottom among Canadian pondweed, along with smooth and palmate newts. Weeks late,r the water would be black with shimmying tadpoles. Once, I also saw a grass snake and lizard basking close to each other on a grassy bank, above the pond. The only downside, was the many toads run over crossing the road. There were fishes too, of course, but the pond was not overstocked with the large carp whose foraging, now annihilates aquatic plants and by stirring up mud and detritus has turned what was once clear water into an opaque, unhealthy-looking soup. Nor, I believe, were there so many ducks as there are now. No wonder few frogs and toads still survive. ... Read more
Holden Pond Fishing
Southborough, Holden Corner 1896 (ref: 37896)
Year: 1940s Fishing
This is the Fish Pond at Holden Corner, Southborough. This was one of the two accessible and popular places for boys to go fishing in Southborough - the other was the Great Bounds Lake, near Bidborough.
As a boy in the 1940s and early 50s my Dad, Jack, bought me a fishing rod and my Dad and I would go down to the pond to go fishing.
As I recall there was very little change from when the photo was taken.
For a time in the late 40s and early 50s the cottage in the top corner was a small corner shop which was handy for snacks, ice cream or bottle of Tizer!
For some reason the bigger boys fished from the bank on the other side of the pond, whilst we always fished from this side, over the railing, pretty well from where the photo was taken. We always used a float with a small ball... Read more
Childhood in Worlds End Lane
I am almost certain that this photo shows my great-grandfather walking from Chelsfield village to our house. He did this every week with a sack of vegetables over his shoulder. He would never get in a car, and walked everywhere. He lived in the village and had 2 allotments behind the recreation ground where he grew everything from potatoes to soft fruits. You name it, he grew it. He died in 1953.
The Shops I Remember
I think the photo must have been taken in 1961 or 1962, as the "new" or "top" shops are there; the original parade from the 1930s are taller than the later ones which can be seen at the top of the hill.
From left to right, and as far as I can remember were:
Out of shot to the left Walker's grocers, to which I referred in an earlier memory; W Haselden the chemist, Maison Calypso (ladies hairdressers at rear, mens' barbers at front), Hardware and Domestic Store (I went to school with the son of the owner), White's Greengrocer, Bon Marche (sub Post Office, wool, toys and stationery amongst others), Lakers shoe shop, can't remember the next, Lucille (haberdashers), can't remember, Pearks Grocery, Coop Grocery, Coop Butcher, and the end shop (of the original parade) was always changing hands but was an electrical store for some time.
On the new parade, there was Guys and Dolls (clothing), Hayletts (confectioner and tobacconist) a pet... Read more
