Photos

St Margarets Church Hall Orchard Street 1937-2000

St Margarets Church Hall was built on Orchard Street Rainham and opened in 1937. By the late 1990s the hall had become outdated and it was decided that a replacement could be built nearer the church on land that was freed up by the cancellation of the Rainham Bypass project

Construction of the new Millennium centre began in the late 1990s for opening in the millennium celebrations and the old church hall in Orchard Street was demolished to make way for new flats in 2001.

These photos were taken by Virginia Smith, proprietor and manager of the Peter Pan preschool.

Former Church Hall site, now flats on Hurst Close/Orchard Street

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Rainham Rangerettes Photo from 1970s

This photo is of the Rainham Rangerettes performing at Gillingham Carnival in the 1970s. Do you recognise anyone or know the date it was taken?

The car being driven with the music system on seems to be an Austin Maxi registration AKE934K

Wigmore & Hempstead Snow 1987

The photos kindly sent in show the serious quantity of snow that fell in January 1987. You can see how deep the snow is on the roads and how they are totally impassable. The whole of Medway as well as the wider Kent area were majorly affected by the snow and the amount of snow cut off various areas enough to warrant army food drops in some places.

I remember when trying to clear the snow from paths and the road was the problem of where to put it. There had been so much snow fall in a short time that if you cleared the paths you had to block part of the road and if you cleared the road the paths ended up getting blocked.

I can also recall driving from Bredhurst to Boxley after the snow had been cleared and being amazed how high the snow was at the sides of the road where the snow ploughs had cleared the way through. The snow was so high & deep that there was still snow melting months later at the top of Boxley Hill.

Thanks to Tony Gutteridge for these fantastic pictures

1) Looking up Hempstead Hill towards Gillingham Business park (tunnel would be to the right hand side of the photo)

1987 Snow - Looking up Hempstead Hill towards Gillingham Business park (tunnel would be to the right hand side of the photo)

2) Looking down Hempstead Hill towards Hempstead. Spekes Road to the left in the dip

1987 Snow - Looking down Hempstead Hill towards Hempstead. Spekes Road to the left in the dip

3) Hoath Lane looking north towards Courtney Road

Hoath Lane looking north towards Courtney Road

4) Hoath Lane looking South towards Woodside and Wigmore Road

Hoath Lane looking South towards Woodside and Wigmore Road