Bill Shine's Shop
A Memory of Yorkletts.
I lived in Yorkletts from 1953 until late sixties. I used to go to Bill Shine's to get paraffin, which he kept out the back. While he was filling my can his old mother would lift the lid on one of the many sweet jars and give me a sweet. If she heard Bill returning she would hurriedly replace the lid so that he didn't know what she had done. I also used to love his ice cream. I remember that he used to cycle to Whitstable once a week to buy bacon and various other odds and ends to sell in the shop. Weatherlies used to deliver the tastiest, crustiest bread which I used to collect from the shop. It cost 11 pence and my mother used to give me a shilling and I could spend the change, Oh how times have changed!
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Comments & Feedback
I particularly remember the Guy Faulkner’s night fireworks that Mr Tong would set off in the garden and that would often extend on to the lane (now known as Dargate Road).
The garden of the PO was approx an acre - I believe part of it at the side was sold off by the next family who moved in and consequently closed the post office. A fairly substantial house was built on this land.
As a child I had a goat and then a donkey who grazed on this site.
In the winter of 62/63 the service bus had to be abandoned in the village as it got stuck in a snow drift. The sea froze in Seasalter bay and my dad rode a Vespa along the frozen dykes on Seasalter marsh. I believe it was a similar time to when the Graveney Boat was found on the marsh; which can now be seen in the Greenwich Maritime Museum.
Yorkletts was a great place to bring up children and be able to give them freedom to explore. However, I am glad I left when I did!