Holidays In The 1930's

A Memory of Sheerness.

I lived in Gillingham and before the war we usually went to Sheerness for a weeks holiday always staying at the same Guest House. The Guest House was about a mile from the sea front and we had to be out in the morning by 9.30 a.m.and were not allowed to return before 5 p.m with "High Tea" served half an hour later. These stringent house rules proved somewhat tiresome when the weather was wet and I can remember a number of occasions when the whole day was spent hiding from the rain in the shelters along by the swimming pool, in amusement arcades, or shops.
I always looked froward to these holidays as it was the only time I got to travel on a train, we had to change at Sittingbourne and on more than one occasion were held up by trouble with the bridge over the Swale.
Forty years later my job required me to visit Sheerness and I was amazed to find how little the place
had changed!