Kemsing
Kemsing maps (2 available)
Map of Kent
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Kemsing books (30 available)
- 1 photos on Kemsing appear in 1 Frith books - View photos of Kemsing
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Kemsing and Kent
Kemsing memories
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Kent memories
During WWII
I lived on Seal High Street (pretty well opposite the half timbered building & the horse trough in the photograph) from 1939 to 1951. My father was in the fire brigade. In those days you auditioned to become a choirboy. The Church music was very elaborate & mostly we enjoyed it - although we were discreetly naughty, especially during the vicar's deadly boring sermons. Wide knicker elastic & tiny black throat sweets provided excellent catapault material. We got paid - about 3/6 (17p) I week I think although most of got lost in 'fines'. Society weddings were very lucrative. Seal was a feudal kind of place with very wealthy people in big houses served by the 'village'.
Although the ...read more here
A memory of Seal contributed by Mike Turner
Re Meddicks in Knatts Valley
My parents bought land and built a house in Knatts Valley named Holmwood in 1926. My mother was the first postmistress in the valley. My brother and I both attended Kingsdown Primary School from 1932-42. We grew up knowing the valley like the back of our hand. We left the valley in 1942 and have lived in Australia for the last 58 yrs My grandparents are buried in Woodlands Cemetery. My grandfather Meddick was the chief air raid warden in the first part of the war and died in 1942.
A memory of Knatts Valley contributed by ronald meddick
Family connections.
One of my brothers worked at the fish shop 'Packman's' next to the greengrocers and the lady with the pushchair and small child is my sister-in-law and her children.
A memory of Sevenoaks contributed by Mr AR Norman
Ightham 1960s
Interesting to see this picture though I don't think that by the 1960s Ightham was ever this free of traffic except early in the morning.
The building in the centre of the picture was a petrol station and provider of all sorts of bits and pieces. Was it run by Mr Arthur? My father would drive down there (with me in tow) to find whatever he needed to keep the lawnmower and other garden equipment going as well as getting a can of two stroke fuel. Possibly our mini is in the picture (but not if this was taken early in the morning).
Mrs Cox ran the newsagents, just out of picture to the left and ...read more here
A memory of Ightham contributed by Jonathan Green
Extracts From Kemsing & Kent books
The pretty village of Kemsing, on the Pilgrims’ Way, boasts St Edith’s Well, which is just by the walled war memorial at this road junction. The daughter of King Edgar the Peaceful and Lady Wulfrith, Edith was born in the village in 961, but lived most of her short life at Wilton Abbey in Wiltshire. After her death at twenty-four, a cult developed around her name, and the local priest would bless corn and other crops in her name to protect them from mildew and blight.
An extract from from"Kent Living Memories".
In 1933, 70 acres of chalk
downland were acquired by
Chatham and Gillingham
councils to create this
beautiful open countryside
nature reserve between the
two towns. The local wildlife
includes several species of
orchids and butterflies. At
the centre of this picture,
we can see the horses of
travellers whose mobile
homes are among the trees.
An extract from from"Chatham and the Medway Towns Photographic Memories".
The bus advertises Fremlins’
ales outside the Red Lion,
a Style & Winch house of
flamboyant grandeur, but
now no more, sad to say.
There are now traffic lights
and a great deal more
traffic where this policeman
stands on point duty at the
junction of High Street with
Corporation Street (left) and
Star Hill (right).
An extract from from"Chatham and the Medway Towns Photographic Memories".
The virtual absence of
motor traffic suggests that
this photograph may have
been taken in 1956, during
the Suez Crisis petrol
rationing, which did not
end until the following year.
The restrained architecture
of The Eagle Tavern
contrasts with that of both
the Town Hall and the
Chatham Constitution Club
on the right of this picture.
An extract from from"Chatham and the Medway Towns Photographic Memories".
This part of the High Street is very different today, with The Sun Hotel gone from its Medway
Street corner site. The dome further down the street was on the old Empire Theatre, which
could seat 2,500 people. It specialised in music hall-style entertainment before it closed
during the 1960s.
An extract from from"Chatham and the Medway Towns Photographic Memories".