Gravesend In Wartime

A Memory of Gravesend.

I was born in Gravesend and in 1939 we were evacuated to Norfolk and spent the first night on the Racecourse in Yarmouth.We then came back home as no bombing but it soon started in earnest. We lived in Bligh Road. I recall the Old Main just across the road where the Fairground people used to have their caravans etc which during the War was used by the Forces.I was staying with my grandmother in Northfleet the night Henleys was bombed and feeling the house shudder and my grandmother`s terror. After the war we moved to Swanscombe and I went to secondary school there and although I passed the Grammar School exam my parents could not afford the uniform etc and so my place went to a girl whose parents paid - you could do that in those days. Anyway I went to Gravesend Technical College when it was several buildings and then we were the first girls to move into Wombwell Hall. It had belonged to an RAF pilot I believe who was killed in the War and given to the County only to be used as a girls school. It really was a lovely building and I thought it was an act of vandalism that it ended up finally being demolished.I too did the secretarial course and I can remember how strict the typing teacher was and one brief look down at the keyboard meant a cover placed over it so you could not see anything at all! I think our shorthand teacher was a very petite lady called Mrs Belsey.As girls we used to go dancing at Harmer Street and our favourite was Trumans Brewery Hall in West Street - no alcohol allowed.I used to find West Street fascinating as a child with all the chandlers shops etc. Does anyone remember Papas the Icecream people who sold delicious real ice-cream served through the open window of a house and we used to queue on our way to the Promenade especially on May Day a very highlight of our young lives as we sometimes danced around the Maypole for our school. Nita Jenkins

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