Reminising

The weather was miserable yesterday and I curled with my laptop and one thing led to another and I found my self looking at photo's of my old schools before finally going on to Friends Reunited and looking up what had happened to different people I had spent my early years with.  None of my best friends Christine, Heather and Denise are on there. Possibly the only ones I would contact after all this time but great to see other names and faces from the past.

I can't find any other photo's of my  primary school. It was a large village school built in 1937. We had outside toilets that frequently had a bird or two flying
around and the pipes froze in Winter.   
I can remember

sitting in coats one year in the classroom. 

This was definitely not taken
playtime as it looks like there are boys playing in the girls playground. The boys played at the back of the school in there own playground. In those days we were kept well apart from each other.

My secondary school ( known to everyone in the area as Forest) was built in 1963 on the outskirts of another village and was home to me for 6 years. I have happy memories of my time there.  I can' t recall any bullying or problems. It was also where I first set eyes on my hubby and before you say, ah. He was no looker!   He was fat had strange curly hair and glasses that his mum chose.
It wasn't until we met up several years after leaving I gave him a second look. By then he was slimmer and stopped letting his mum be his stylist! 

On the downside I didn't do that well at school as I was too busy having a good time and not working hard enough.
Although I did make up for it by going to college after leaving.
In 1985 the school was demolished and a housing estate replaced it. 
Those were the days.

Sunday

Pluckley near Ashford in Kent is famous for being the most haunted village in Britain and the village where they filmed The Darling Buds of May. 

I love watching  'Darling Buds'  and the tales of the Larkin family''s 'perfick' life in rural Kent.

It is also featured in Classic and Sports Car magazine this month as my son James who works for the magazine decided to do an article on the monthly meeting of vintage and classic cars at the Dering Arms. I enjoy going along and meeting up with the friendly car owners and looking at what turns up each month.

Because everyone meets mainly outside lots of people bring dogs along.

Outside the Dering Arms, Pluckley

James now has his own feature in the magazine the first of which was in last months (May) edition. It is all about purchasing and looking after his classic Mark 1 Golf. I think he he will be in there every other month for the foreseeable future.

This is the illustration they produced to go with his article.

It looks like him I think.

Elham

Elham is a pretty village at any time of the year but when it snows I think it is at it's best. One of it's most famous residents was Audrey Hepburn who lived there just before World War Two. She went to school in the village and join the local Brownies.

Hawkinge

I live on what was a famous airfield. Used during the Battle of Britain  for both Spitfires and Hurricanes it is now sadly a huge housing estate and very little remains of it's past except all the roads are named after planes or pilots. The local hostelry is The Mayfly and the school is named after Churchill. I can still see a Pill Box over in a distant field that hasn't succumb to the bulldozers as yet.
To imagine what it must have been like during those dark days is difficult but in 1969 the film The Battle of Britain was made on the airfield before it was finally covered in concrete and brick. In the film you can make some of the old houses and from the hills work out exactly were they filmed.  The also filmed at a pub called  The Jackdaw but called The Raven in the film in a nearby village that looks pretty much the same today. Go inside and you can still sit on the same seats as Susannah York and Christopher Plummer.

Not many of the old RAF buildings remain but we have a Battle of Britain Museum that is visited by hundreds of people even German coach parties sometimes. Although an interesting museum it is also very sad reading about the young men who lost their lives defending our country. 

It is a common sight to see and hear the Spitfires and Hurricanes in the sky over my home even today.  Whenever they are in the area for air shows or to visit the battle of Britain Memorial at Capel le Ferne a few miles up the road they like do a special fly over what was there home many years ago.  

The last month or so because of the 70th anniversary it has been more frequent. I love to hear the humming noise they make and run out into the garden when I do but I don't think that I would have had the same feelings in 1940.  They are due to go over again next week on Saturday when the village of Hawkinge holds its annual community day and this year we will be remembering the Battle of Britain.  In the evening there is a special concert. 

The airfiield may have disappeared but we still remember them. 

A couple of things that have made me smile.

Harley heard some twittering in the hedgerow at the bottom of the garden. The birds quickly flew away.

A few second later after wobbling around he realised he had made a terrible mistake and sheepishly came out.

Recently spotted on one of our many days out was this lane. Just around the corner we found.....

Presumably after finishing your work in the old days down Workhouse Lane you went down this lane.  OH want to go down it as he thought it was an excellent place to have a brothel. 

Smarden

Another pretty Kent village is Smarden, The main street has a wealth of old buildings which along with a butchers, village store, primary school, an art gallery, a shop a selling vintage items plus several public houses  it is to me the perfect English village. What do you think?

I am enjoying discovering so many pretty places so close to home. If it hadn't of been for the recession we may not have got into the car and ventured out and about the local area. 

Appledore

Today we visited Appledore a pretty village in Kent.

It had pretty cottages and houses all down the main street and also tucked away down little tracks behind them.

The Housemartins had made lots of nest in the eaves of this house.

We had lunch in the delightful Miss Mollet's Tea Shop. 

We are not going away this Summer so we thought we would make the most of the lovely towns, villages and countryside around us.