Nostalgic memories of West Kingsdown's local history
Share your own memories of West Kingsdown and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Displaying all 8 Memories
Hi. Richard. Great memories of times past. A world without the terrible events that surround us today. Days when we could walk for miles as children, have our sandwich's and pop on the top of a haystack, wander through woods and fields without a worry or care by our parents. If only we could return to those days. Kingsdown was a sleepy, peaceful place, We played in the street, walked through the 'Cornfield' ...see more
Hello Peter. My name is Richard Abbott I know the Hart family very well. We lived at "Manor Woods" Hever Avenue. My dad was a serving Army Officer and bought our bungalow off a Mr Knight in 1950, after my dads posting to India The 'Harts' had another son by the name of Ian. Ther shop was called "Handy Stores". It was on our land that a Doodlebug crashed, the wing ...see more
My name is Peter.I also lived with my family in Hever Road. In 1949 aged 5. Returning from living with my grandmother to my family at 'Selcroft' Hever Road. It was the white painted wooden bungalow opposite the shop, owned by Mr and Mrs Hart, on the cross roads with Hever Avenue.
They had two boys, whom I played with named John and Colin Hart.
I also knew the Roberts family that lived next door to the ...see more
I remember Hever Road as my cousin Doreen Meddick used to live there in the early 1950s, but she now lives in Canada. I myself used to ride my pushbike around Brands Hatch in the early 1940s as it was a dirt track then. I came to Australia in 1949 and been here ever since.
My mum is a Loveday and her mum and dad, Sid and Amy, ran Kaysland caravan park. Mum married my dad George Blewer, and they had us three kids. Grandad Blewer had the timber yard and then my Uncle Johnny took it over. We lived in kingsdown until I was about 7 or 8 and then moved to Snodland, then Larkfield and then Australia. I have wonderful memories of lying on the grass in the summer, listening to ...see more
Across the A20 from the windmill was the Windmill View Tea Rooms. Shortly after the Second World War, in the mid 1940s, my aunts would often take me to the Tea Rooms and while they sipped tea I played with my friends in the adjoining gardens. These gardens later became a caravan park. In my teenage years my friends and I often cycled to the Tea Rooms and used them as a meeting place. Following ...see more
Seeing the church photos brought back lots of memories, I was baptised there, my sisters Linda and Pam were married there and unfortunately my parents are now both buried there. In the 1970s my mum Elsie painted a lovely oil painting of the church which hangs on my sister's wall now. I also have memories of playing in the woods with the bluebells and the boys hanging a rope in a tree so we used to swing ...see more
I remember playing in the church woods, and getting to the church gate and being scared to go any further, because of the very old graves. I have many fond memories of climbing the big old beech trees that were there, also of being in the Scouts and laying trails for the other Scouts to follow. Also we made bike tracks in the old Second World War bomb craters and used to race each other.