Borden
Borden maps (2 available)
Map of Kent
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
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Borden books (11 available)
Borden memories
Read and share memories of Borden and Kent inspired by Frith photos
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Kent below.
Kent memories
Courtlands Stores
The shop on the left was where I lived as a child. My father (Ron Stone) bought the property which was an old doctor' surgery and transformed it into a general store. My Mum and Dad used to open the shop in the evenings selling peas pudding and faggots and all the family used to join in preparation. My job was to make onion gravy on a paraffin stove. This was very popular and there were often people queing with their own basins right along the street outside. Those were the days!
A memory of Milton Regis contributed by lynda hollister
My ancestral home
I'm American and live in Northern California. This is my first trip to England and I'm hoping to visit Bicknor. My great-great-grandfather was the Vicar of Bicknor. His last name was Seager; I never knew his first name. I have a watercolor of the vicarage where he and his family lived. The Vicar and his wife had 4 sons - Robert, Charles, Edward and Edmund Seager. All were graduates of Oxford University. The two youngest were twins and emigrated to Ontario, Canada. One of Edward's children was Mary Seager, my great-grandmother. I have about 30 letters, dated in the 1870's, written by Edward to his daughter after she was married. She married Charles Muldoon and emigrated to Buffalo, New York, where ...read more here
A memory of Bicknor contributed by Sarah Kauffman
Jenkins Farm / My Grandparents' Orchard
I remember visiting my Grandparents orchard which was on the bend at the bottom of the hill leading into Upchurch coming in from Gillingham, and opposite was a cattle farm owned by the Jenkins family.
I spent many a wonderful weekend there up until probably the early Sixties when Grandma Young (I think her first name was Maude) moved into Rainham.
Does anyone else remember these times and maybe my family?
My Mum and Dad along with the rest of the family helped in the orchards, their names were Bill and Win and they worked alongside my mum's brother who I only knew as Uncle Son.
The Jenkins' farm always intrigued me as a youngster and they ...read more here
A memory of Upchurch contributed by Steve Tallamy
Death of Bargee at Kings Ferry Bridge
My grandfather James Britton was a sailing barge skipper. On the 18th or 19th of April 1906 he was negotiating passing under Kings Ferry bridge, linking the mainland to the Isle of Sheppey, this involved lowering the mast. While thus engaged he complained of feeling unwell. He was taken to the nearby Lord Nelson public house where he subsequently died of a heart attack. The incident was reported in an obituary in the East Kent Gazette. If you have further information or wish to discuss the barge families of the Milton Creek and Conyer area I would like to hear from you. email: britpacific@gmail.com
Jim Britton, Umpqua, ...read more here
A memory of Kingsferry Bridge contributed by First name Last name
Extracts From Borden & Kent books
The impressive facade of the Hotel Metropole, with the Ship Hotel next door, faced the end
of the Jetty to greet the thousands of holidaymakers
who travelled down on the paddle steamers. In the
foreground is a ‘guess your weight’ machine, where
you only paid if the proprietor guessed your weight
correctly. He could do this by cleverly adjusting
the weights to his advantage. Six houses to the left
was the lodging house of Mrs Sophia Booth, where
J M W Turner stayed between 1827 and 1851. From
here he painted watercolours of golden sunsets over the
sea to the west and the misty dawns to the east.
Between 1939 and 1945 the Hotel Metropole and
surrounding properties were demolished as part of
the town’s Fort Road Improvement Scheme. The area
as it was before demolition can be seen in the aerial
photograph on pages 8-9.
Three acres of rundown cafes, souvenir shops and a
wooden arcade were cleared, and a new dual-carriageway
swept down the hill offering a clear panoramic view of the
sands and bay.
An extract from from"Margate Town and City Memories".
The list of `Fashionables` taking rooms in the Cliftonville Hotel would be published weekly in the local newspaper, again emphasising the separation of the social classes.
An extract from from"Margate Town and City Memories".
Margate received its Charter of Incorporation in 1857.
Communal action and a progressive Town Council
aided development with the building of promenades,
bandstands, concert halls and the provision of a good
water supply and drainage. The resort spread eastwards
into Cliftonville, and later westwards to take over Westgate
and Birchington. The boarding houses of Margate became
the private guest houses and hotels of Cliftonville; dinner
was served in the evening and not midday, and amateur
landladies with old-fashioned rules were replaced by
professionally trained staff.
Frith’s Margate has now almost disappeared.
There has been a partial rejection of the traditional
bucket and spade family fortnight by the sea. With
competition from continental holidays in sunnier
climates and the mobility brought by package tours
and private car ownership, visitors are demanding a
higher standard of amenity and more sophisticated
entertainment. The town’s population is also increasing
with a larger number of permanent residents enjoying
their memories and pensions in their retirement years
by the sea.
An extract from from"Margate Town and City Memories".
RECORDS of a harbour in Margate go back to the 14th
century, when it appears to have been a small wooden
structure sheltering the local fishing vessels. Prior to the
building of Jarvis’ wooden jetty in 1824 the stone pier
around the harbour was the main landing point for most
visitors, but only at high water. The building of the 1824
jetty then allowed disembarking at all states of the tide.
Through the centuries Margate Harbour has always
suffered from the destructive forces of the strong northerly
storms. The most disastrous was the winter storm of 1808,
which destroyed most of the stone pier and the neighbouring
sea front. This resulted in the construction of a new stone
pier and wharves built by John Rennie between 1812 and
1815. The lighthouse shown in 54762 was added in 1829.
However, it suffered storm damage and fell into the sea
during the winter storms and floods of 1953. It has now
been replaced by a smaller and simpler structure.
The disadvantage of the stone pier was that vessels had
to anchor offshore at low tide. This was overcome by the
building of an unsatisfactory wooden jetty in 1824, which
in turn was replaced between 1853 and 1857 by Birch’s
iron jetty. The structure jutted 1,240 feet out to sea and a
small rail link brought passengers and their luggage down to
landside porters.
An extract from from"Margate Town and City Memories".
At the landside end was
the Camera Obscura. This
had been an attraction in
Margate since 1797 when it
was on the Fort. It consisted
of an ingenious system of
prisms, mirrors and lenses
which projected a panoramic
view of the sea front and
sands on to a circular white
table. A ‘guess your weight’
chair is at the door.
An extract from from"Margate Town and City Memories".