Post by Les on Nov 30, 2017 19:34:41 GMT
Maidstone I remember it well:
Oh yes! Maidstone in the 50's and 60's was the place to be.I remember fondly the Gatland Estate prefabs where I lived with my family.I think those little homes were built at the end of the 40's and were ultra modern for their time.
We all trekked happily along the road to West Boro' school past Mr Lampard's Bakery (you could buy a 'yesterday's bun for 1d then!) Sometimes we would change route and run along the Forstal just off the Tonbridge Road.
Wickens was the dairy further down towards Barming and there we often were sent to buy a carton of fresh milk from the vending machine if the shop was shut.
Mrs Sharp was the lovely lady running the corner shop at the top of Farleigh Lane where she patiently opened jar after jar of Robertson's jam so we could get the 'golliwog' stickers needed to complete a book and be rewarded with an enamel 'golliwog' brooch.
We spent hours down at Farleigh locks during summer holidays catching tiddlers and minnows and we waited excitedly for the rag-and-bone man to come down the cinder track around the estate to get our old clothing exchanged for a goldfish!
My grandma lived in King Edward Road and her groceries were delivered by Mr Esland with his horse-drawn cart and we used to love to give the horse a bucket of water and watch him snuffling about with his nose-bag!!
I wonder if anyone out there remembers the name of the horse? Our favourite past-time on a Sunday was to walk to the West Station just to watch the traffic!!(so few cars then - a sight to behold)and a 2d ticket for the platform at the station allowed us to run onto the bridge over the track and be engulfed in the huge bursts of steam from the train after which we would get into trouble for going home covered in all the little black bits thrown up in the steam and needing our hair washed.
Few people locked their doors and there was a great sense of camaraderie from the folk living in the prefabs - no child ever seemed to be aware of any danger.Everyone smoked in the cinema too and on the buses and in hospitals - crikey - no-one grumbled about it either!!Cigarettes were bought in packets of 5 and some off-licences would sell them singly along with vimto and oxo crisps.Yes - I remember it well - it was lovely in Maidstone then.