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Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks maps
Historic maps of Sevenoaks and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Sevenoaks maps
Sevenoaks area books
Displaying 1 of 23 books about Sevenoaks and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Sevenoaks
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memories of Sevenoaks.
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Echoes of The 1950s ...
I entirely share the words posted earlier by Philip Dew, one of my colleagues at Kemsing Primary school at the time. That trek over the hills to Woodlands now would be seen perhaps as a long haul journey ! That old grey horse too was a distinct memory, but we used to go home to the top of Childsbridge Lane down the streamway that was beside the old Dartford road track, long before the waterways were rearranged by the Water Company. Poor St Edith's Well has been a casualty of that particular piece of 'progress' ...
Woodlands Holiday Camp Swimming Pool
I was brought up in Kemsing at the foot of the Downs and we children would walk up to Woodlands Holiday Camp to swim for a shilling or so. On a fine weekend you could take your swimming things and some refreshments and stay up there for several hours. The pool was generally freezing and by today's standards pretty unhygenic and often with green slime on the walls and bottom and dead flies on the surface - but we did not worry too much. On the way to and from the pool we had to cross a field which usually had an old grey horse in and I was always glad to get through there.
Walking to Lunch
When I first started school we would walk up the High Street in a "crocodile" to a cafe were we had our lunch. We then walked back to school for the afternoon lessons.
Bat And Ball Railway Station Near Sevenoaks
My wife, Elizabeth, and I bought a house in Sevenoaks when we married in 1971 and had nearly five happy years living just to the north of the town, close to Bradbourne Park lakes before business forced us to move away. I remember my daily commute by train to work at the Bank of England in the City and having experienced awful crowded and late trains from Sevenoaks station, I decided to travel on the other line from the Bat and Ball station not far from the cricket ground! This took me to Blackfriars or Holborn Viaduct stations in London and the journey was a lot more comfortable. Elizabeth had an easier journey to work as she started a new job with the planning department of Sevenoaks council. We enjoyed our time in Sevenoaks and I well remember the cricket on "The Vine" which I always associated with my commuting from Bat and Ball station!
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.
Kent memories
Our First Home Was in Robyns Way, Riverhead
Elizabeth and I married in 1971 and moved into our first home which we bought together at 21 Robyns Way. From our house we could walk round Pontoise Close and along a path at the edge of a sandpit, past a ramshackle village hall and into this church which we attended frequently. We lived in Riverhead for more than four years and loved the town of Sevenoaks, the local Scout Troop and Cub Pack where we were both leaders, and the Bradbourne Lakes at the end of our back garden. Evntually business took us away from this lovely place and we went to live and work near Glasgow in 1975.
My Best Years
I was born in Tunbridge Wells, but my parents had a flat in Riverhead and we moved to London Road, Riverhead when I was a baby. My grandparents lived at the Heights, next to the church. I remember the steps the way they are in the photograph, but also I remember when there was only the one road through Riverhead and there was a row of houses opposite us which were all pulled down when I was very young and the new through road was built. I went to Amhurst School as did my dad and aunties and my grandfather was a caretaker at the school but sadly he died in 1968. I'm now 53 but love going through Riverhead and seeing the places that were all familiar to me. I remember Mr Tye the butcher and Mr and Mrs Nightingale who had the shoe shop. My own great-grandparents came from Dunton Green where they had a cobblers, they are mentioned in another book about locals and he was known... Read more
