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Wingham memories

Here are memories of Wingham and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Wingham or a Wingham photo.

The Happiest Days of my Life

My  maternal grandfather, Archie Greatorex, was the licensee of the Anchor Inn from 1957 until his death in September 1974. Most of my family holidays, until the age of 10, were spent with him. My parents used to pack my sister and I up and we would catch either the coach or train from London's Victoria to Canterbury, thence by number 13 bus to Wingham, where we would be deposited right outside the front door. How did my parents manage with two small children, large suitcases and, if it was Christmas, reams of presents as well?
If it was summer, Archie, and his partner, Mill, would have a week away somewhere while my parents, Fred and Vera, looked after the pub, then, upon Archie's return, we would have a week of days-out by 'bus. Most-visited places were Ramsgate, Margate, Canterbury and Whitstable. I particularly loved the model village at Ramsgate and the boat-trips on the River Stour in Canterbury.
Lovely memories of blue sky days spent playing in the garden... Read more

Memories of Kent

Treasury Farm

The Forge And Street c1960
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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

The Forge And Street c1960
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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

The Rectory c1960
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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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