Seal Chart
Seal Chart maps (2 available)
Map of Kent
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Seal Chart books (30 available)
Seal Chart memories
Read and share memories of Seal Chart and Kent inspired by Frith photos
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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
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
Housemaid at Ightham Mote
This memory is not mine, but that of my mother in law, Beatrice, nee Head. She grew up in the Girls Training Home in Boxley Road Maidstone until she was 14 when she had to go 'into service'. One of her first jobs was as a housemaid at Ightham Mote where she also looked after the two little boys belonging to the family. Unfortunately she no longer remembers the family name but says they were very kind. She remembers that the house was 'very big' and that she had to cross a wooden bridge to get to the house. I wonder if anyone else remembers working there in the early 1930s, or if anyone can remember ...read more here
A memory of Ightham contributed by Josie Gurnsey
The Village Square
This view was seen by me every day that I went to school at Judd School in Tonbridge. I caught the bus here. There were two bus routes through the village - Number 9 which ran from Maidstone to Sevenoaks and operated by Maidstone & District - and the number 122 which was operated by Southdown and ran from Gravesend to Brighton. Both buses arrived in the village on the hour. I lived at Cobtree Cottage at the top of the village next to the Village Hall and the builders yard of F & G King who were related to me. I was in the church choir for many years and joined the RAF in 1951 following in the footsteps of ...read more here
A memory of Ightham contributed by George Morley
Extracts From Seal Chart & Kent books
The church of St Lawrence was built in 1867. It is situated next to the primary school in wooded country on the chart ('la chert' means 'common'). The Reverend Thomas Offspring Blackall, vicar from 1846 to 1874, who created the separate parish of Seal Saint Lawrence, is buried here. A window on the north aisle was installed in his memory.
An extract from from"Kent Revisited Photographic 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".