Lenham
Lenham maps (2 available)
Lenham books (30 available)
- 3 photos on Lenham appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Lenham
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Lenham and Kent
Lenham memories
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Kent below.
Kent memories
My ancestral home
I'm American and live in Northern California. This is my first trip to England and I'm hoping to visit Bicknor. My great-great-grandfather was the Vicar of Bicknor. His last name was Seager; I never knew his first name. I have a watercolor of the vicarage where he and his family lived. The Vicar and his wife had 4 sons - Robert, Charles, Edward and Edmund Seager. All were graduates of Oxford University. The two youngest were twins and emigrated to Ontario, Canada. One of Edward's children was Mary Seager, my great-grandmother. I have about 30 letters, dated in the 1870's, written by Edward to his daughter after she was married. She married Charles Muldoon and emigrated to Buffalo, New York, where ...read more here
A memory of Bicknor contributed by Sarah Kauffman
Hop Picking
I used to go to Little Chart Farm, Pluckley as a child, being born in the East End in 1946. My memories are of freedom and adventure, long, happy carefree days spent in the beautiful Kent countryside, for a few weeks each summer. My aunt and uncle Ivy and Tom Smart had a wooden hut on the farm and my parents and I used to join them for a holiday. The picking of hops was a hard, thirsty and dirty job, their hands were stained green and smelt strongly of the hops. We kids used to explore, the surrounding area, scrumping apples from the orchards, and being chased by then farmer, visiting the spooky ruined church, of which there was supposed ...read more here
A memory of Pluckley contributed by alexandra mustin
Flying Horse
My parents Bryan and Margaret Hills-Johnes had the Flying Horse pub for a couple of years after he left the Navy 1958-60, I was around 6 yrs at the time and used to play with the Tilleys and Blacks. The car park across the road was a vegi garden where fresh produce was included in Mum's food. Eating lunch at the pub was a novelty because of the stigma about the 'wife's' cooking! but it was soon very busy. I learnt to write and spell on the dart board's blackboard, I went to the kindy at Headcorn by local M&D bus every day on my own, the school was behind what is now the Post Office /store and I still have ...read more here
A memory of Smarden contributed by Rod Hills Johnes
Happy days in Smarden
I spent three years living in and around Smarden, at the Chequers, The Bell and often visited The Flying Horse on my days off!
Fond memories of Frank and Jenny Stevens at The Chequers, and Laurie at The Bell.
Afternoons spent at the cricket ground, was it called the minnis or something similar?
I also worked at the peanut factory on the Headcorn road, this was my introduction to working life!
A memory of Smarden contributed by Penny Airlie
Extracts From Lenham & Kent books
Evidence that this village existed in Roman times was unearthed just after the Second World War. Workmen in the Square found the skeletons of two men and a woman; both men had been buried with a sword and shield. Archaeologists believed that they were early Christians. Today, the village and its Tudor buildings is one of Kent's largest and busiest on the A20 road to Maidstone and Ashford.
An extract from from"Kent Revisited Photographic Memories".
The village stands under the downs near the source of the Len and has a broad, attractive market square fringed with lime trees, which create a shadowed path over the uneven setts and cobbles. Fortunately, as the village is bypassed, it now escapes the worst ravages of modern traffic. In the background a Masons’ dray is delivering beer to The Dog and Bear, an old traditional coaching inn built in 1602. Queen Anne stayed here in 1704, and her royal coat of arms is displayed above the front door. The church is partly Early?English but mostly 14th century, with nave, aisles and two chancels.
An extract from from"Villages of Kent Photographic Memories".
Once an important and flourishing market on the old coach road, Lenham embodies a fine mix of building styles from medieval through to Georgian in its houses and shops. Now bypassed by the M20 motorway, half a mile away, it has been able to regain some semblance of its former tranquillity.
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".







