Growing Up In Groombridge, My Home.

A Memory of Groombridge.

I moved to Groombridge with my family in 1960, My dad worked as a railwayman. We lived in the Station House. I don,t really remember the early years because I was only 18 months old when we moved into the village. I had three Sisters and 5 Brothers me being the second youngest. My earliest memories are around the time that I started School in 1964, I attended St Thomas primary in the village. At that time the School had only 4 classrooms. The headmaster name was Mr Woodford and he lived with his wife in the school house. He was very strict as I remember, I felt the back of his hand a few times. I enjoyed my time at the School, in the summertime I remember we did a lot of outside activities. We never had a football pitch, so when we did football we had a mile walk to the pitch which was situated by what was known then as the tan yard. We played our school cricket on the village green. Swimming was a coach ride to the Monson swimming baths in Tunbridge Wells, My mum always gave me 6d on swimming day so that I could buy a packet of crisps from the pool shop on the way out.
Our house was a very large Victorian house with very high ceilings. Its looked very grand from the outside but inside it was very cold, the large open fire in the winter was very welcome indeed. The trains ran and stopped right underneath my bedroom window. I used to love watching the trains come and go, its was quite a busy Station in the last 60,s My dad had an allotment, it was situated just over the other side of the station, you had to walk over the railway bridge, and then go through a small gate, down a narrow path, there was a few allotments, and at the bottom there was two railway cottages. We kept some Chickens, and grew lots of veg. We also had apple trees there.
I loved the village, it was quite small and everyone knew everyone, not a good thing sometimes. We played in the rec and down the woods alongside the coal yard.
For a small village there was quite a few shops, A small grocer shop owned my Mr and Mrs Saxby, My mum helped out in there a couple of times a week. There was a Sweet Shop, (Kandy Stores) that was my favorite shop. The Bakers Shop, a Post Office, Butchers Shop, and a Paper Shop. Not to mention 3 Pubs. It had community There is so much more I could write about this lovely little village.
We moved away in the mid 1970,s. I will always consider this lovely place called Groombridge my home and now I live in Northumbland and have not been back for over 20 years. One day i will return to reminisce for one more time.