Wickhambreaux memories
Here are memories of Wickhambreaux and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Wickhambreaux or a Wickhambreaux photo.
Baird
Apparently, The Willows was occupied in 1911 by Alexander Baird, a retired Bank Manager, his wife, Elizabeth, son Capt Henry Hume Chisholm Baird DSO and Capt Henry's wife. Alexander Baird was born in Alloa, Scotland, in 1841, the son of a shipowner. He and his family had lived previously at Robeston Hall, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, where four of his five children were born (1870 - 1879) and later in London before moving to Wickhambreaux. Alexander Baird and his wife (and other members of the Baird family) are buried in Wickhambreaux churchyard. They died in the 1920s. Does anyone have any more information about this family?
Wickham Court
My grandfather, Byron Kelsey, lived and farmed here. My father, Hugh Edwin Byron Kelsey, was born in this house.
1901 Wickhambreux
Sarah Clayden Rudd nee Wacey and her daughters lived in Wickhambreux. They were listed there at the time of the 1891 census as living 'the green' and in 1901 she and her daughters, Sarah and Rebecca, are living there and recorded as 'lodging house keeper'. Sarah the mother lived there until she died in 1916.
They are distant relatives of mine.
Family Connections
I understand my great grandfather worked in this forge. He was born Charles Holness around 1830 and married Ann Marsh in the 1850s. My father's mother Agnes Annie Holness was one of their children. She had an older sister Alice, brothers Fred and Bert and William Henry who died of smallpox in May 1902. He worked on boats at Fordwich. My father's father was Charles Albert Tucker who was a blacksmith in Jubilee Road, Littlebourne and later had his own forge and cottages (May 1913) at East Rangdon near Dover.
Memories of Kent
Treasury Farm
The building on the right-hand side of the photo in the foreground is in fact the wall of the garage which belonged to Treasury Farm, my home for many years. Many a time I was in the forge with my ponies getting them reshod ... to think this is how it looked just one year before I moved there.
School Holidays
I used to spend all my summer school holidays with Mr and Mrs Curtis who used to live in the school house in Ickham. He used to play the organ in Wickhambreux church. I was adopted in London, and Mr Curtis was a good friend of my birth mother(I will leave it at that). I always remember the awful day that I was put on the coach outside the pub to go back to London (a place I have always disliked). I used to dread that each summer. I remember Mrs Clegg who used to have the sweet shop where I used to buy sherbert powder. I now live in the Peak District but I still have wonderful memories of Ickham.
John Travis
Living in The Rectory
I lived in the Rectory for the whole Universty year 1968-1969. There were four of us - male students from the University of Kent. A fantastic place to live. I have revisited the place - now an old people's home, still just about the same. The pub was a pub in the 60s - it is now a posh restaurant.
Best wishes from Andrew lissa@lissa.dk if you want to comment
Seaton Mill, Ickham
My great uncle Henry Charles Rudd was an India Rubber Manufacturer at Seaton Mill, Ickham, in 1891. He is on the 1891 census. He died there the following year, in 1892. I believe my grandmother, Margaret Hagar Rudd also worked at the Mill. She was married to my grandfather Herbert Edwin Rudd, Henry Charles' brother. They were both sons of my great grandmother Sarah Clayden Rudd, who lived at the Green at Wickhambreaux. I would be very interested to learn of any further information about Seaton Mill if anyone has this.
Summer Holiday
I used to go to Ickham for my summer holidays visiting my grandparents who lived in the High Street, their names were Mr and Mrs Couchman, it was around 1955, my gran used to clean the church, they are both buried in Ickham. My grandparents lived next door to a old gentleman who used to have a parrot, he kept the cage on the kitchen table, I can't remember his name. I remember going to the shop just along the road from my gran's, it used to sell everything.
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