Tonbridge
Tonbridge maps (2 available)
Map of Kent
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Tonbridge books (30 available)
- 9 photos on Tonbridge appear in 5 Frith books - View photos of Tonbridge
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Tonbridge and Kent
Tonbridge memories
Read and share memories of Tonbridge and Kent inspired by Frith photos
Can anyone help?
Can anyone help? I am looking for a photo or info about my great grandfather's shop in Tonbridge at 84 Barden Rd. It was called the Domestic Oil Stores and was owned by Frederick Albert Nice. My grandad, Reginald Cecil Nice (Jock), and my two great aunts, Irene and Gertrude Nice, also worked there. Apparently my great grandad or grandad owned the first motor car in Tonbridge. I left Tonbridge when I was four years old in 1966 and it was still there then. I would be so grateful if someone can help or has any memories of this shop.
Contributed by heather marchant
Bank Street School
This is the year when the school finally closed. It was worn out but much loved. The roof leaked, the knots in the floorboards stood high while the wood was highly polished with years of wear. The teachers had large baby boomer classes. Many pupils were bussed in from Higham Wood. We sang "Now the day has ended" at the end of every school day before putting the chairs on the tables to help the cleaners. There were large oil heaters and big black chimneys in every classroom and on cold and wet winter days the classroom would be filled with the aroma of the drying woollies draped over the guard rail. In summer, jam jars of sweetpeas would sit atop ...read more here
Contributed by Jenny Saggers
Date of photo
In 1953, the 400th anniversary of the school, the Queen Mother "opened" the entrance with newly erected boars' heads on each pillar. I have a photograph of this ceremony before the assembled school.
Contributed by John Crates
floods in tonbridge
I was born in Tonbridge in 1957. I went to Sussex Road primary school and Hillview for girls. I remember the most is the flood we had and the carnivals when I was younger. I still come back to visit my sister who stills lives there. A lot has changed - I prefer the old Tonbridge.
Contributed by janice black
hop picking. Telephone exchange Tunbridge Wells
DOES ANYONE EVER ANSWER TO OUR MEMORIES?. THERE MUST BE SOMEONE OUT THERE COME ON JOIN IN I joined Tunbridge Wells telephone exchange september 1948 I remember so well the evening the man would come to George St. to tell us we started picking next day. Äll to work." "pull no more bines". all wonderful memories. We picked at Larges farm top of Quarry Hill I have contacted Ann re Mabledon. We would run into the bines when the German bombers came over and hide from the machine guns, a german pilot was escorted by us with pitchforks after he had parachuted ...read more here
Contributed by daphne hooker
Mabledon Estate.
My mother, Joyce Clark (formerly Smith) born in 1924, recognises this photograph of Quarry Hill. Her father William Smith was the sawyer for Mabledon Estate (on the right) and was responsible for felling the trees on the right of the photograph. Mabledon Estate (the gates are just off the photograph) was owned by the Deacon family who were London bankers. Mum's Uncle Charlie (Charles Eastwood) was the bailiff for the estate alongside William. Mum's grandfather (Charles Smith) was a sawyer before William took over.
Contributed by Anne Allan
Extracts From Tonbridge & Kent books
Boys on bicycles, shoppers and motorists throng this street, and there is every sign that the public library (left) had a regular flow of readers who still did not have the luxury of owning a newly invented television set. Meanwhile, local schoolboy Michael Colin Cowdrey, 17, made his debut for Kent County Cricket Club in this year.
An extract from from"Kent Revisited Photographic Memories".
Into the early fifties, the Capitol Theatre, on the left, still provided the residents of Tonbridge with a regularly changing programme of live entertainment, whilst the Red Lion Hotel on the right offered more intoxicating pleasures to its patrons. The adjoining premises were for many years a dairy, and the remnants of its painted sign are visible on the gable end above.
An extract from from"Kent Living Memories".
On the extreme right is the doorway of the timbered 16th-century Chequers Inn. A swinging sign, which was formerly suspended from the two hooks above the roadway, had allegedly been installed there during the reign of Elizabeth 1.
An extract from from"Kent Living Memories".
The crowded and busy pavements on both sides of the street, and the pedestrian crossing marked with belisha beacons in the middle of the photograph, show little indication of the enormous weight of motor traffic which this section of the main High Street had to bear; the construction of a by-pass brought an end to the regular bottlenecks and hold-ups.
An extract from from"Kent Living Memories".
The formidable 13th-century gatehouse of the castle, with four massive circular flanking towers and four portcullises in the entrance, stands on the site of a former Saxon fortress. Richard de Clare, a kinsman of William the Conqueror, initiated the castle’s construction in 1070. But the family, who were the most powerful in England during the Middle Ages, were constantly in conflict with the king, and the building was finally rendered indefensible by the Parliamentarians during the Civil War. The adjoining Gothic mansion was built by a Mr Hooker in 1793, and is now a local government office.
An extract from from"Kent Living Memories".