Strood memories
Here are memories of Strood and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Strood or a Strood photo.
Summer Holidays With Granny
I was brought up in Ireland, but we spent a month of the summer every year with our grandparents, who lived in Frindsbury and, later, Wainscott. Going by the Maidstone and District buses into Strood, Chatham, Rochester or Gillingham for the day were big events for us during that month! I remember this view of Strood High Street very well. Once a week, my grandmother would take us into the Westminster Bank, as it then was, where she conducted some sort of mysterious (to us!) financial transaction. If, as I think, this view is facing towards Rochester Bridge, then the Westminster was half way down on the left. The Angel, where the bus stopped, would have been just out of sight around the corner on the bottom left of the photo.
School Days
MY memories of Strood are of school days, of playing in the grounds of Rochester Castle, of a cold Christmas with all the lights, of catching the bus to and from school. I remember walking to the bakery on Sunday to buy fresh bread, going to the pub in Darnley Road to buy Dad cigarettes of an evening. We used to play in the street or go off to an area up near London Road to a large area that was not built on, we called it the sand banks. We went to the pictures - I am not sure if it was Rochester or Chatham. I also remember the market in Rochester, and the little milk trucks that used to deliver to our house, also a truck that used to sell food stuff in our street, it was run by a man called Mr Lake I think. I have so many memories of Strood TOO MANY FOR HERE. So much has changed, but I still have the memories, I may never return to... Read more
Commercial Road Strood
All the comments made here by others regarding Rochester bring back fond memories. However, as a long shot...I would be pleased to know if anyone knows of any photographs, info etc.. regarding the small group of houses and/or inhabitants of Commercial Road, Strood from around the 1940's to 1950's.
Memories of Kent
Name Search
I am looking for details of Florence Gammon, formally Dunk from Rye, Sussex. She was married to Herbert Gammon, also from Rye. The children were Arthur Eaton Gammon, 9 and Alice Gammon, 12. Her father was my great great grand uncle, Leaf Temple Dunk, 1834, from Rye.
The Day Family
Does anyone remember the Day family who lived opposite the Bell pub overlooking the River Medway? The late Fred Day, my uncle, was the skipper of the 'Arethusa' training ship. Yours truly, Clive Jeffrey, Mission City, Canada.
Rochester Sweeps Festival And Whitethorn Morris
The Rochester Sweeps festival celebrates the traditional May Day holiday that chimney sweeps used to enjoy. It is a glorious mixture of dancing, music and dressing up with visitors from all over Britain bringing their entertainment to Rochester High Street each year.
The festival attracts morris dancers and musicians who are delighted to perform in front of the huge crowds thronging the High Street. Most years the dancers from Whitethorn Morris join in the Rochester Sweeps Festival together with the Whitethorn Band of accordians, melodeons, fiddles and drums. Its a colourful display of red white and blue with lively music and always draws a crowd of onlookers all day long.
Fortunately most of the dance venues arranged by the Festival organizers are in front of the pubs in the High Street so traditional refreshments are always available!
M2 Bridge Worker in St. Bart's Hospital
I remember being in St. Barts Hospital in 1961 or 1962, aged 11 or twelve, to have my appendix removed. At that time there was a construction worker recovering from a very serious injury received while working on the bridge. His whole arm had been removed, leaving him only his right shoulder.I met him during a mass held in the ward and he was amazingly cheerful and determined to stand and kneel as required by the service.
Traffic Jams at Star Hill
I regularly went across this junction on the bus to and from home in Rochester and school at Chatham between 1955 and 1961. The Gaumont cinema was directly across the road from Bourne & Hilliers Dairy. I went to Saturday morning pictures, and ocassionally to the Victor Sylvester Ballroom Dancing classes, also at the cinema. Unlike the photo, Star Hill and the New Road were gridlocked morning and evening for the school run.
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Places this week
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- Upton, Cambridgeshire
- Llansamlet, West Glamorgan
- Greystoke, Cumbria
- Thurstaston, Merseyside
- Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire
- Great Holland, Essex
- Maesgeirchen, Gwynedd
- Lundin Links, Fife
- Netherbury, Dorset
- The Green, Cumbria
- Cefn Fforest, Gwent
- Guildford, Surrey
- Easington Colliery, County Durham
- Strood, Kent
- Dovercourt, Essex
- Patshull Park, West Midlands
- Luton, Bedfordshire
- Medge Hall, South Yorkshire
- Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
- Knypersley, Staffordshire
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