Happy And Wonderful Memories Of Magical Leysdown

A Memory of Leysdown-on-Sea.

From 1950 to 1955 our family, spent whole summer holidays in our caravan at Leysdown on sea. Sometimes we travelled by steam train From Victoria to Sheerness and then bus to Leysdown. Once we used the car but the forty odd mile journey was not appreciated by our old Austin car and we had to give it several cooling off breaks.As far as I can remember only the platform remained of Leysdown station.There was a bus station with a cafe where we kids bought penny banana chews and Tizer. Dad went back to London to continue work, and every fortnight he posted us a food parcel which we excitedly unpacked, unfortunately dad was not too good at packing and usually jam ended up mixed with pickles and soap. I can remember the site sports days, with prize day usually at the end of the week.We loved having late nights in the club house and collecting brightly coloured beer bottle tops from the bar which were used as badges. Adults played bingo at the amusements whilst we kids played on the penny machines and pestered our parents for a candy floss. We used to go for walks around the new sea wall building work, and often returned with items we had found such as once an unexploded bomb or the odd hedgehog. We played board games when ever it rained. After spending months in south Lambeth with its smokey atmosphere the aroma of fresh air and mown grass was magical. I did return once with my own children but unfortunately the magic was gone. Ah


L godfrey

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