Maude Finch is ready for duty in this photograph taken in the back yard of ‘Belleview’ New Street, around 1915. The uniform typifies the period with mop-cap and starched detachable collar and cuffs and a long apron and underskirt. The house known as ‘Belleview’ is now called ‘Dolphin Corner’
Reference: WH0749
As the economy began to grow after WWII it was common for larger businesses to treat their workers to a day at the seaside and this would, for many, be the only holiday they got! Whole families would be invited to join the occasion, Hastings, Margate and Southend being popular destinations at the time.
Reference: WH0470
Peter Finch “…I was stationed oversees in Palestine for 1946-48 and promised Maisie we’d get married as soon as I was demobbed and back home. That was quite a drawn out process, as we got detached from our unit by lack of transport – at one point we were declared AWOL and I thought we ...
Reference: WH0735
The top building on the left of Vicarage Hill is Colthurst Almshouses. The gap beyond led to ‘Church Alley’ – undeniably the towns’ poorest housing area – tiny back-to-back cottages with few windows, and towards the end, corrugated tin roofs on some of them. The next row of cottages bordering the road were ‘Red Cottages’. ...
Reference: WH1065
L-R Mrs Richardson, Mrs Pattenden, Edie Wood, ?, ?, Vivian Talbot [Knockholt], Les Gorrick [Manager], Mrs Laurence [Brasted], Gertie Dix, Mrs Jones [Cobblers wife, Brasted] Charlie Sharp’s garage (where Squerrys Mead is today) was the other major site of ‘war work’ in Westerham apart from the Sterling Works at the bottom of Hosey Hill. With RAF ...
Reference: WH0728
Note the spelling gaff on this 1900s photo postcard. It should say ‘Spring Shaws’, the name comes from a ‘Shaw’ meaning a thin but dense woodland strip of forestry grown as a wind-break and used in valleys and hill-tops alike.
Reference: WH1133
Peter Finch “…The army erected two big water tanks – just an iron frame supporting a canvas liner – and they put one on the Green and the other beside the new fire station in Croydon Road. The fire engine could fill-up rapidly from these water tanks, but to us boys, the fire station tank ...
Reference: WH0719
Early on in the war, the Ministry of Food and the Ministry of Supply formed reserve or ‘buffer’ depots from within Command to feed the civilian population, and it often became necessary to share railheads, such as at Westerham, where the Ministry of Supply built a large ‘buffer’ food supply depot, alongside where 6 AA ...
Reference: WH0716
Back row L-R: Ernie Terry, Bob Taylor, Reg. Goldsmid, Wm. Streatfeild, Cyril Fuller, ?, Jim Charman, Ben Holman, ? Front row: Dick Taylor, Tom Godfrey, Bernard Chilman, Bill Richardson, Bill Godfrey
Reference: WH0409
Top row L-R: Sid Fuller, Bert Jupp, Ron Dean, Ted Turner, Bill Newell, Ernie Hammond, Frank Blake, Arthur Sherry 2nd row: Walter Bennett, Bill Fuller, Joe Whitbread, Bill Barrett, Dick Bellingham, Ted Penfold, Dennis Burgess, Arthur Abbott, Sid Morrison, John Istead, Alec Whiting, Alf Pointon, Ben Holman 3rd row: Dave Blake, Ron Turner, Bill ‘Beasle’ Richardson, Dick ...
Reference: WH0412
Peter Finch “…my wife Maisie chose to join the Women’s Land Army during the war and she worked in the walled vegetable garden at Oveny Green farm near Sundridge with two other local girls, Peggy and Ivy Everest, from Brasted. It was hard work but I think they quite enjoyed it and the foremen whose ...
Reference: WH0732
L-R Maisie Randall with Peggy and Ivy Everest in Oveny Green Farm vegetable garden
Reference: WH0733