Snodland, Kent

The Bricklayers Arms

The Brick was my home from 1954-1972. My parents Ted and Doris Simmonds were the publicans and maybe there are people out there who still remember them. My Aunt Ethel used to entertain everyone on the piano which she loved to play and was a big attraction. Dad used to make such enormous fires throughout the winter, which were so hot... [more]

Memory of Snodland

I remember the Brick and Terry. Ted worked with my dad in the paper mill. I remember Mr Dodd as well. He was my woodwork teacher and a very nice man, unlike a lot of the other teachers at that establishment. I was in the Bull pub a few months ago, on one of my rare visits to the UK. I... [more]

Where I lived in 1960

We moved into the flat above Snodland station on 9th January 1960 (my 8th birthday) and the extreme left upstairs window was the view from our lounge (or, rather - sitting room). I attended Brook Street CoE Primary school from then until 1963, when I moved to the "top school", known then as Snodland County Secondary School. The name change to... [more]

Jim Iles

My husband Jime Iles was at Holmesdale School from 1956 to 1960. He won many awards for his metalwork and wood work with Mr Dodds. He lived in Tomlins Cottages in Snodland which have now been demolished. He worked at Holborough Cement works for a few years as his father Jim Iles (snr) who is 90 this year. We all now... [more]

Teacher Mr Charles Dodd

My grandad was a Mr Charles Robert Dodd who taught woodwork up till 1967 at the school from about 1948 till he died in 1967, can anyone remember him?

Kent Living Memories

The narrow High Street, with its branch of the National Provincial Bank (later to become the National Westminster Bank) on the right, and the local Post Office, shoe-shop, and newsagents on the left, was bedevilled by the heavy traffic from the local cement works. Major roadworks, and the building of a by-pass in the 1980s, have helped to resolve the problem.... [more]

Chatham and the Medway Towns Photographic Memories

The camera looks towards The Bull (right) on the corner of the High Street where it separates Malling Road from Holborough Road, and The Bricklayers' Arms is on the left just past the shops. The tobacconist and newsagent has a pavement weighing machine outside its door.

Kent Living Memories

This industrial village on the outskirts of Rochester, now surrounded by cement works and paper mills, was the site of famous vineyards in the 14th century. So perhaps it is appropriate that its classically-styled railway station might almost have been transported here direct from France.