Romney Street
Romney Street maps (2 available)
Map of Kent
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Romney Street books (30 available)
Romney Street memories
Read and share memories of Romney Street and Kent inspired by Frith photos
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Kent memories
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
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
This was my grandmas house as a child
This house was where my grandma grew up, and her father before her. Her father was a gardener and her mother was a seamstress, she grew up to be a nurse. She currently lives in Bromley and is now 72 and has been married for over 50 years. She used to tell us tales of how the cottage regularly flooded and they had to move upstairs.The cottage was damp and cold and had no electricity in the 1930s.
I am her grandaughter and I live in Dorset and my mum just spotted this in a book, so we looked it up on the internet.
A memory of Farningham contributed by Gillian cox
grandma's house
I grew up in and around london as a young girl, when my poarents divorced it was the hardest thing for me to get over. But I had the best nan in the world who lived in 6 acre cottages. This house and the surrounding area was a haven for any child, she worked in the school and used to work at the big house on the hill, when I stayed with my gran it was lovely to go the big house to see Mrs lemet. She was so friendly and so was her children. I remember walking down the path to the village in the summer and was enthralled at the wild life within the area. The path started just ...read more here
A memory of Fawkham contributed by belinda barton
Extracts From Romney Street & Kent books
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".
The town’s naval links
are illustrated by the
Unifit outfitters, which
advertises naval and
civilian tailoring.
The adjoining shop,
displaying the Spratts
Scottie dog, was that
of Charles Carvell,
bird dealer.
An extract from from"Chatham and the Medway Towns Photographic Memories".