The Lodge Gate

A Memory of Patrixbourne.

I was born in 1919 at Bifrons Lower Lodge Gate, which at that time comprised two dwellings. The part we lived in had been a school provided by the Marquis of Conyngham for estate children. It was shaped like a letter T. The lower room was almost circular and just before our time, the tenant of the lodge was expected to open the gates to let the Marquis through.
My earliest memory is waking up in the big bedroom at the top of the letter T, looking out of the lead lattice window, to see cobwebs stretched across the road from the yew boundary hedge opposite to the telegraph pole. I also recall lying in my bedroom overlooking the road and being given an early morning call. Each morning Barny Coombs passed by, driving his horse and waggon, in summer loaded with cherries to be taken to London by train from Canterbury. With his long whip he would tap on my window and call, "come on, wake up young Davey"!