Christmas In The Snow

A Memory of Robertsbridge.

My maternal grandparents owned "Old Timbers", the 15th century cottages in the High Street (numbers 55-59, I think) from the early 1950s to around 1970 or 1971.  They actually lived in one of the cottages from 1960 to around 1966 or 1967.  My family spent many happy summer holidays with my grandparents during the mid 1960s, but my favourite memory was the Christmas of 1964 when we travelled by train to spend that holiday with them.

It started to snow as we journeyed and I remember the train journey was long drawn-out.  We had to change several times - I particularly remember sitting in the waiting room at Tunbridge Wells - in order to get there in the evening.  It was dark when we finally arrived and the snow was on the ground.  It was wonderful to get to the cottage with a fire blazing in the hearth.  My sister and I slept in a small bedroom at the top of the cottage which you had to reach by what seemed to us to be a very steep, narrow staircase.

Great was our excitement on the following morning to awaken to the results of what Father Christmas had brought us all.  A cowboy outfit - complete with a silver toy pistol -and a plastic figurine of Admiral Lord Nelson - were the gifts I most recall from that Christmas.  I think my mother has some photos of that time, including one of me with my cowboy stuff on standing next to my grandmother.

Robertsbridge in the 1960s - just after many of the Frith photos were taken - was a fairly quiet place but for the busy A21 which then ran through the village.  I know that my grandparents were not happy with the traffic disruption, especially as the pavements by their home were very narrow.  This is why they moved out after only a few years although, as I have said, they retained ownership for about three or four years before they sold the cottages.  Nevertheless the village and their home will always remain a very blessed memory for me: the beautiful countryside; the proximity to Battle and the coast at Hastings and Bexhill.  I am pleased for the village that it was eventually by-passed and the cottages and other dwellings in the High Street can enjoy relative peace.

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