St Pauls Cray memories
Here are memories of St Pauls Cray and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of St Pauls Cray or a St Pauls Cray photo.
Around The Chalk Pit
I lived at 1 St. George's Close, off Chalk Pit Avenue from 1946 to 1954. At first, the Chalk Pit was still there, as was the Oast House, where the shops are now on the corner of Chalk Pit Avenue and Main Road. I first went to St. Paulinus Infant School, next to what was then St. Paulinus Church in Main Road and then to St. Paul's Cray Rectory Paddock Junior school, which, at the time, was old Nissan Huts. Each surrounded by a brick wall and, presumably previously an old Army depot of some sort. The chalk pit and oast house provided great adventure playgrounds for the local kids. From St. George's Close, you could look across the Cray Valley and see virtually nothing but corn fields, later all housing estates. The top end of Chalk Pit Avenue petered out into a dirt track by what was known as 'The Clump', a stand of trees on the right hand side. There were then open fields and a little further... Read more
St. Paul's Cary
Was born in front bedroom of 76 Beddington Road. Went to infants at top of road in 1956, remember the huts and playground, it's now a car park. The junior school still there just the same as it was in the fifties. Can still remember the teachers; Mrs Stevens, Mrs Robshaw, Mrs Flipping and Mr Parish. All the kids played in the street, few cars then, in an area known as 'the mountains'. Remember the toy shop at Cottmandene Crescent, shame things are not the same anymore. Went to Midfield Girls School, later known as Walsingham Girls, it was demolished for housing.
Shoreham Road
I lived at 21 Shoreham Road, I remember playing in the woods before they started cutting them down. Hanging around the shops at night, going to Chislehurst caves to see the bands play and I remember what it was like before the pub and the flats were built. I still like to walk around the old estate when I go back to the uk, I now live in the states.
The Boys Brigade, Congregational Church
Hello, I often recall living on St Paul's Cray and the happy times at the Church fellowship. The Boys Brigade was my speciality. Well, I am doing fine here in Yorkshire and retired from both Health and Social Services following much success. Does anyone recall those days of the 60's and do we know each other from then?
Cotmandene Cresent
We lived at 9 Cotmandene Cresent from the late 50's to 1968(ish). Went To Midfield Secondary School from 1960-64. Bought my first record, a 78rpm by Little Richard, at Electrico in Cotmandene High Street. Had friends in Whippendale Way, Longberry Drive and Shoreham Road. Used to get the 229 bus into Sidcup regularly. Went back for a visit in 2004, the school was still there. Cotmandene High Street looked the same as I remembered it, and wondered what had happened to some of the friends I had way back then.
Midfield Way
We lived at 24 Midfield Way from 1940 until 1950, when we moved to Sidcup. When I was a boy we used to catch great crested newts in the pond at Greys Farm, and scrump apples around the back, from the orchard. I watched the country getting dug up and built on. I lost the raspberry patch I used to visit in the summertime. It had been neglected after the war. I went to the Cray Valley School before Greys Farm School was built. I still have lots of wartime and after, memories.
Dawsons Avenue
I was born in the front bedroom of 63 Dawsons Avenue on the 19th December 1954. I went to Grays Farm Primary School, then on to Midfield Secondary School for Boys. My local shops were Cotmandene Crescent. I remember the rag and bone man coming round on his horse and cart. My neighbours and friends at the time were Paul and Ian Biggs, Brian Cook, Gerald Tilney, Jeffrey Sparrow. We used to play football in the road, until way past 10.00pm at weekends. Happy days.
Shoreham Road
I was born in Shoreham Road in 1955. My mum and dad used to play darts at the Partridge pub which you could get to via a lot of steps at the bottom of this road. They used to sell large biscuits for 1p cannot remember what they were called: Arrowroot? We used to play on the green most days and school holidays. I always remember the alley from our road to Whippendell, it was scary at night, because very often the light did not work! I now live in Norfolk, but visited St Pauls Cray last September and very sadly noticed flats I think in place of the pub. Mum and Dad used to leave us sitting in the car with crisps and lemonade, we loved it. I went to Grays Farm Primary School and remembered there used to be a large fish pond if you went a different way to it, then onto Midfield Secondary School which became Walsingham. I hated it... Read more
Whippendell Way
I was born in the front bedroom in June. I can remember a greengrocer came round by horse and cart up till about 1960/61. There were only two cars in the whole street. I went to Grays Farm Infants, now retail units, and Grays Farm Primary, still a school, and Midfield/Walsingham Secondary, it was only round the corner so we came home for lunch. The curry house in Cottmandene was then a toy shop and also sold bikes and prams. Happy days.
Memories of Kent
Snellings The Butchers
Not so much as a memory but an observation. The butchers shop shown in foreground - Snellings - is still there and the board to the front of the railings had what was on that week at the local cinema - The Commodore, long since demolished.
Up And Down PoverestRoad
When my wife & I were courting I walked up and down Poverest Road many times. She lived at 1 Forest Way at the top of Poverest. I lived in St Pauls Cray. It was such a serious courtship that I was out in all weathers and at all times of the night. I knew that route house by house and stone by stone. In May this year we celebrated our 50th anniversary. We no longer walk Poverest Road as we live in Prescott Valley, Arizona. But who knows one day we may take trip back if I can get my wife on a plane. You can go back in time.
Memories From my Parents During WW2
My parents Leo Landy and Mary Casey, then engaged, were coming back from Petts Wood in the evening when the bombs started falling, they began to run, but my mother started having hysterics and my father had to slap her round the face to calm her down. They ran to Bluefield Terrace where my mother lived with her parents. Another recollection, during a time when the air raid warning was going off, my father went into my grandparents kitchen, no one had bothered to go to the shelter as they hadn't heard anything as my mother was trying to make icing sugar out of sugar cubes, banging them on the wooden kitchen table with a rolling pin.
Sidcup Hill, Alma Road And Bexley Lane.
My father, Michael Vinton, turns 70 this year and I am looking for people who knew him during his younger years, either from the schools mentioned above or out and about in Sidcup. Names of people he regularly mentions are Jack Taylor, Billy Beattie, Colin Friend, Antony Godsill, Fred Nash and Jeff Hughes. If anyone would like to get in touch please email me on michelle.vinton@yahoo.co.uk.
A Schoolboy in Petts Wood
My parents Arthur and Hilary Cork bought their house in Towncourt Crescent in 1927 from Mr Coleman for £1000. Twice a day I would walk to the station to go to school at St Dunstan's in Catford. In those days there was the Daylight Inn and only two shops, Willet's cafe and Nelson's newsagent on this side of the station. The walk along Towncourt Crescent was always difficult in winter because of the huge pot holes in the road and on the footpath. My feet were always wet before I got to school. I left Petts Wood to come to Australia in 1949, but it is nice to see that over the years my beloved wood where I played as a child has changed very little. Tony Cork
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