Happy Days

A Memory of Swalecliffe.

My memories of the caravan site go back to the 1940s when my parents had a caravan there. It was situated at the edge of the site where there is an open field and a footpath.
I went back last July for the first time in about 60 years and the memories came flooding back.
The caravans used to be very well spaced out with plenty of room to fly kites between the rows.
We spent most weekends there in the summer and had many very happy holidays. We were very friendly with the people who had the next caravan.
I believe the site was owned then by a Mr Pout. On my visit last year I met a very nice gentleman who told me Mr Pout was a farmer but does anyone know if he originally owned the site?
In the evenings we would go for walks through an area that had railways carriages converted into homes, some were rendered and some were placed one behind the other to make larger accommodation.These were surrounded by little gardens and there was a road or pathway running between them. I remember a lot of shingle in the gardens so I think they must had been close to the beach. The gentleman I was talking to lives in the area but he couldn't remember them but having read Roger Steer's memories I wonder if they went when the cliffs eroded. I can't remember exactly where they were but they could have been anywhere between Whitstable and Reculver as we walked there regularly. I always associate them with seeing Reculver Towers. I also thought there was a pond on the land at the side of the site but I could be muddling it up with the little river.
We had such fun collecting cockles and winkles and going shrimping. My father had a rubber dinghy and we and the friends in the next caravan would spend hours in the sea.
I remember there were taps around the site and to get our water my Dad would put a milk churn on the back of the car (when cars had pull down boots) and I would sit on his lap and "steer" the car between the caravans to get to the tap.
We had Aladdin lamps to light the caravan as there was no electricity
It was good to find this site with people's memories but I should really like to know what happened to the railway carriages - they always stuck in my mind - so if anyone has any memories of these or anything else from the mid 1940s to mid 1950s I would love to hear from you.