Kemsing
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Kemsing books (12 available)
Kemsing memories
Read and share memories of Kemsing and Kent inspired by Frith photos
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Kent memories
During WWII
I lived on Seal High Street (pretty well opposite the half timbered building & the horse trough in the photograph) from 1939 to 1951. My father was in the fire brigade. In those days you auditioned to become a choirboy. The Church music was very elaborate & mostly we enjoyed it - although we were discreetly naughty, especially during the vicar's deadly boring sermons. Wide knicker elastic & tiny black throat sweets provided excellent catapault material. We got paid - about 3/6 (17p) I week I think although most of got lost in 'fines'. Society weddings were very lucrative. Seal was a feudal kind of place with very wealthy people in big houses served by the 'village'.
Although the ...read more here
A memory of Seal contributed by Mike Turner
Re Meddicks in Knatts Valley
My parents bought land and built a house in Knatts Valley named Holmwood in 1926. My mother was the first postmistress in the valley. My brother and I both attended Kingsdown Primary School from 1932-42. We grew up knowing the valley like the back of our hand. We left the valley in 1942 and have lived in Australia for the last 58 yrs My grandparents are buried in Woodlands Cemetery. My grandfather Meddick was the chief air raid warden in the first part of the war and died in 1942.
A memory of Knatts Valley contributed by ronald meddick
Eagleton Family living in Otford
My Grandparents, Thomas & Marie Eagleton lived at The Charne in Otford. As a child I would always play amongst the weeping willows that grew by their house. My grandad would take me for long walks across the fields where we would occasionally pick corn on the cob and even some hops. We would search for owl pellets to retrieve the tiny skeletons of small vermin and birds. We never did make it up to the chalk cross on the hill. My Nan worked in Mrs Mac's Tea room on the round-a-bout by the pond. My father, David Eagleton attended Otford Primary school. I'm told that an Eagleton also lived in the bungalow next to ...read more here
A memory of Otford contributed by Faith Nicholson-Eagleton
My subsequent visit 29.10.2008
My wife and I had pre-arranged to meet my sister and her entourage in the Fox and Hounds at midday yesterday. The long and winding lane from Eynsford became muddier and narrower with each passing mile and we were suddenly confronted with a large lorry coming in the opposite direction. The driver couldn't back up because he was being closely followed by a white-van-man so we had to reverse for about 50 yards into what passed as a layby which tested my wife's driving skill to the utmost. However that little episode quickly passed and we continued uphill until we saw the sign for the Fox and Hounds, I swear that particular sign was the one that I first saw in ...read more here
A memory of Romney Street contributed by peter collihole
Extracts From Kemsing & 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".