Displaying 3 of 18 old photos of Robertsbridge. View all Robertsbridge photos
Robertsbridge, High Street c1950
Robertsbridge, an Old Corner c1955
Robertsbridge, the Kent Garden c1950
Historic maps of Robertsbridge and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Robertsbridge maps
Historic map of Robertsbridge
Illustrated Victorian map of East Sussex
Historic Map of any Robertsbridge postcode
Displaying 2 of 4 books about Robertsbridge and the local area. View all Robertsbridge books
Worthing Town and City Memories
Hardback
rrp £16
£4.80
Villages of Sussex Pocket Album
Paperback
rrp £4.99
£1.50
Haywards Heath Living Memories
Paperback
rrp £12
£3.60
1 Robertsbridge photos appear in 1 Frith book titles. You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Robertsbridge
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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.
Shared on 23 September 2008
Visits to my Uncle at Robertsbridge
As a small child I would travel down by train with my nan and stay at my Uncle George Bowen who lived in Langham Road,
Most important thing before boarding the train in London was to get in the right section for Robertsbridge, the platform was too short for the train - get in the wrong place and you would be outside the actual station.
His sister Ethel got on the wrong section on one occasion and found no platform so tried to get out and ended up falling out onto the railway line - she was always doing silly things like that.
We would walk along from the station and along a stony road, soon knew if my shoes were a bit thin by the pain of the stones through them.
My uncle lived next door to his neice and strange as it would seem the lady on the other side of him had the same surname though no relative.
Nan and I would walk into Robertsbridge shops, I loved going past the old houses the type that when you walked into the front door you would immediately enter the front room with their windows showing nick-nacks.
We would walk along one part out into the countryside where there was a blue bell wood, very sad to say when I returned there many years later the wood was gone and there were now houses.
Traditionally we would visit Battle and have a cream tea at the little shop near the castle, we would also go into Hastings.
My memories of a quaint village staying with my uncle, although retired when I visited, he used to work at the cricket bat factory.
He had a dog called 'Pip' which went missing the whole village went looking for Pip and he was eventually found caught in a 'trap' after that Pip always walked with a limp.
Uncle George also had a huge garden where I used to help him with all his vegetables and fruit. When we travelled back by train we would go back laden with apples, pears etc.
It was the high-light of my summer holidays my visits to Robertsbridge I remember it always being warm and sunny when I was there and a sense of stepping back in time - not much traffic coming through the village at that time. Old fashioned shops which most of them when you went into them you went down a few steps.
Ah happy days.
Shared on 20 July 2008
I was born at 19 London Road, Tanyard Cottages near Holy Trinity Church. My grandadparents lived in Station Road near the village hall. My great aunts owned Hope Cottage Farm, Station Road. Many times when I was a kid I would stay on the farm and helped in the shop, milking the cows, bottling the milk which then would be delivered by the family. Also helped at Christmas time plucking turkeys and chickens. The family had several P.O.W.s. helping on the farm. Look at the photos on this site, this is just as I remember the village when I was a child. My parents still live in the village and we often still go for walks in Burgh Wood. I also went to the primary school, brownies etc.
Village life is not the same now, I remember my mum could buy everything she wanted in the village but now has to go to Hastings.
Shared on 21 February 2008
I have many fond memories of Bodiam and the Castle, from when I was 1 year old in 1943, until I was 15. Along with dear Mum and my two sisters, our whole extended family on my mum's side consisting of several families would move to Bodiam, to our tin huts to go hop picking. We used to pile into a number of open backed lorries for the journey which used to go through the Blackwall tunnel and along the A21 to East Sussex and Bodiam singing all the way. Great excitement for all us kids. On arrival each family was allocated their own tin hut which were painted green outside and whitewashed inside. Many families would bring wallpaper to cover over the whitewash. Any one who has been hop picking as a child will tell you it was probably the best adventure they ever had. In the six or seven weeks we spent there the weather was usually hot, sunny and carefree. The only exception being when my dear old Dad used to visit (he couldn't go because of work) and it invariably poured with rain when everything turned to mud. For kids it was pure heaven because, although we had to do our share of picking, most of the time was spent exploring the local area. Especially the Castle, the entrance fee being about threepence. I remember falling or being pushed into the moat a few times. Also there was an old single track steam line running through the village which followed the river Rother. On a number of occasions we 'borrowed' a rail cart from the station sidings. A contraption with two handles which you pushed up and down to propel yourself at great speed along the railway, I shudder to think what would have happened if a train had come the other way, but they only ran about one each way daily with the occasional freight train. Night times were great, each family would all sleep in the same bed top and tail fashion in a bed that consisted of a large wooden slatted platform with a mattress case stuffed with straw and pillows full of hops and finished of with a curtain along its length to separate it from the sitting area - a good nights sleep guaranteed. All cooking was done in tin pots hung over a wood fire, even Sunday roasts. We used to bake spuds and apples in the fire which was made up with faggots, bundles of twigs collected daily from the end of the field. Toilets were very basic and consisted of a hole in the ground over which a tin hut with a plank was placed and when full another hole was dug and the hut moved. To add to the enjoyment all us schoolkids used to get 2 extra weeks away from school as the picking season ended 2 weeks after the summer holidays much to the annoyance of our teachers.
Shared on 15 April 2009
Displaying a selection of extracts from Frith books about Robertsbridge, inspired by Frith photos.
Villages of Sussex Photographic Memories
Robertsbridge is a medieval village near the Kent border. There is no church in the village, the nearest being at Salehurst. An iron-smelting furnace, controlled by the Churchill family, made cannon in 1754. The Seven Stars Inn, a picturesque 15th-century timber-framed building, is seen on the right, with a temporary sign. At Abbey Farm the remains of a Cistercian abbey are now part of a house and farmyard. The area is noted for making high quality cricket bats from locally-grown willow trees.
Villages of Sussex Pocket Album
Bodiam is located on the River Rother and was once a port that shipped iron ingots and cannon, which were made in the area. Bodiam Castle was constructed in 1388, the last castle to be built in England for coastal defence. In the picture we can see the 14th-century Castle Inn on the right and Bodiam Stores on the left.The scene is similar today, but the shop is now a tearoom.
Hastings and Bexhill Photographic Memories
Before 1902, Bexhill was governed by an Urban District Council. However, with the rapid growth of the resort, it acquired borough status; its area extended from Pevensey Sluice to Bulverhythe.
