Proposals to fill-up Westerham’s Long Pond and put a petrol station on the site got no support from Westerham Parish Council on Monday evening. It was clear that, expense apart, there would be support for a campaign to clean out and beautify the pond… Thankfully this story which appeared in the Sevenoaks Chronicle in 1960 never ...
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A delightful watercolour painting by local artist Ken Wall
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An afternoon train photographed at Brasted station on the last day of services, October 28th 1961. Adorned with a Union Jack, someone had chalked on the boiler plate door “Farewell to the Flyer 1881 – 1961” the Westerham Valley Railway, come and gone in only eighty years…
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This and the following five photographs depict the closed brach-line at Westerham between 1962 and 1964. A rather dismal scene.
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Seen here in the late 1950s and standing close to the slip road up to Brasted station, this overbridge carried the single track of the Westerham Valley Railway over Station Road. Today, standing in its place is a six-lane overbridge carrying the M25 motorway.
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During the early 1960s there was an attempt to reopen the line by a body who formed themselves as the Westerham Valley Railway Association. Here we see two members of the ‘ganging team’ working on a plate-layer’s trolly in 1962.
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In 1915 army chaplain the Reverend Phillip Clayton was sent to the battlefields of France and then on to the town of Poperinge in Belgium. A few miles back from the trenches around Ypres, ‘Pops’ was a busy transfer station where troops on their way to and from the Flanders battlefields were billeted. ‘Tubby’ Clayton ...
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Members of Westerham TocH pack up Christmas goodwill food parcels to be distributed amongst the aged and infirm of the town L-R Lord Colgraine, Norman Peskett, Alan Hobbs, Fred Johnson, Harold Beale, Doug Major and Charlie Taylor. Seated is ‘the pilot’ Bob Strickett Photo courtesy Sevenoaks Chronicle Westerham Toc H gets the ...
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A cartoon of Westerham TocH members in characature sketched by Sevenoaks artist Mickey Durling in 1962
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Bushell, Watkins & Smith Ltd. went into voluntary liquidation on July 19 1961. The Black Eagle Brewery and ninety seven licensed houses were conveyed to Ind Coope (London) Ltd on October 1st 1962. Brewing at the Black Eagle continued until March 3rd 1965, when head brewer Bill Wickett mashed three barrels of a special bitter ...
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