Westgate On Sea, 1890

Photo ref: 27458

Pavs started as a large wooden hut made by Ray Henikier, a carpenter. I used to help him take down the hut in the late Autumn and put it back up the following spring. Then Pavs was rebuilt in block work. My father used to work for him after Dad retired from his job. My son, Steve, used to work for him as he was a chef. So my family has a lot of good memories of Pavs.

I wonder if anyone is old enough to remember Westgate on Sea before the war! Our family would go there every year for 2 weeks and stay at a guest house not far from where the railway crosses the road that leads down to the beach. It was run by Miss Prior. We had so many happy years there - my grandparents, my mother and father and me aged from about 4 until the start of the war when I was ...see more

As a child the East Kent coast was a regular destination for our 2 week family summer holiday. We usually stayed in Westgate. In the late 1950s the excitement started with the journey from Bromley aboard a train pulled by steam locomotive. As a 5 year old it was like venturing into another world - even though the trip was only an hour and a half (i.e. 60 miles from ...see more

Pav's Tea Gardens in St Mildred's Bay was a place where I spent my youth, owned by Herbert Smith the famous film producer, the cafe was full of stills from the films he had worked on, there must have been over three hundred photos covering all the walls. Great music coming from the Rock-ola juke box.