Seal, The Drive To Dorton House c.1955
Photo ref: S712025
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Photo ref: S712025
Photo of Seal, The Drive To Dorton House c.1955

A Selection of Memories from Seal

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our website to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was, prompted by the photographs in our archive. Here are some from Seal

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Strange to read all the memories of Oakbank in the 50s which are so similar to mine! I remember being taken there by my mum and gran in August 1954, excited at the 40-mile bus journey but then downcast at realising I would not be on the journey back. Then there was the handover in a big lobby to the headmistress Miss Hardy and my great distress at being taken upstairs - God knows what it was like for my mum and gran. I ...see more
Oak Bank Open-Air School was the first of its kind in England and opened in 1954 by C. Mitcheson, although the school may date back to the 1930's. I was an inmate in the mid 1950's aged 8. Mrs Hardy was principal and Nurse Spice dominated the dormitories. Three of us 'ran-away'; headed through the woods and onto the main road where those searching for us picked us up in a car. Where we were going I ...see more
My stepfather, Mr John Few, was at Oak Bank between 1942 and 1947. He was a teenager whose father was the head gardener billeted at the lodge alongside the golf course. John and his older brother Eric worked at the school. John's jobs included lighting fires and boilers in the hall, nursing quarters, classrooms, and dining room. (6 rooms). Mrs Mitchel was the matron. Her daughter was Molly. They were said to have ...see more
My ancestors the Corkes apparently loaned the money to build the workhouse. One was also the local Surveyor, builder etc. They are buried in Seal Churchyard. I have a large family tree of this family. My maternal grandmother`s father was a local dairy farmer and she used to tell us stories of driving cattle back to Seal from Sevenoaks Market.They also had a dairy in Sevenoaks somewhere..