Photos
This gallery shows a selection of images of the immediate aftermath and of trees uprooted taken some weeks later near Queendown Warren. You can see the scale of the tree roots that have been ripped out of the ground compared to the person standing next to them which gives an idea of the ferocity of the hurricane force winds that hit Kent on 15/16 October 1987
Photos of the Theatre Royal building in Chatham prior to demolition
This gallery of photos were taken in 2001 on film and have been scanned into digital copies. There are photos of Rainham High Street including the former post office sorting centre demolished to build retirement flats opposite the Green Lion pub.
Along with the rest of the South East and much of the whole UK Rainham had a heavy covering of snow in 2010. These are some photos taken in and around Rainham in the evening after one of the heavy snowfalls. The snow wasn't anywhere near as bad as 1987 when rather than 22cm we had 22 inches (60cm) fall over a day or two.
This is a selection of some key newspaper front pages and their headlines during the 1980s. A further selection will be added later. Some key events covered by these newspaper headlines are the Great Storm of 1987, first articles mentioning global warming, IRA Brighton Hotel bomb in 1984, Romanian Revolution 1989, Lockerbie PanAm plane terrorist bombing, Chernobyl nuclear accident headlines showing crisis developing in April/May 1985, Black Monday share crash in 1987, Herald of Free enterprise ferry disaster, INF Arms treaty signing, Poll tax riots, PW Botha South Africa clampdown
These are photos taken of the M2 motorway being widened during 2002-2004 and show the bridges at Bluebill hill before, during and after demolition and construction.
This photo shows the A229/M2 junction 4 while the roadworks to widen the M2 were in progress
Kent was hit very badly by snow in Jan 1979. I remember waking to massive snowdrifts and cars buried in snow as a result.
Snow looking towards former Army & Navy pub, Rainham Kent 1979
Kent was hit very badly by snow in Jan 1983. I remember walking to school for several weeks with snow still covering roads and paths as a result.
Snow looking towards former Army & Navy pub, Rainham Kent 1979
Rainham and Kent in general were hit particularly badly by snow in 1987 and for some days were cut off completely. I recall milk being flown in by army helicopter due to roads being impassable and major roads being blocked for many days. As outlined below the weather station recorded 22 INCHES of snow in Jan 1987 in Gillingham (in 2010 the roads were brought to a standstill with less than 20cm!!)
At the time I was working at Rainham Co-op as saturday staff, the shop now occupied by Wilkinsons. As school was closed due to the snow and being one of the staff that could walk to the shop I worked many extra hours during the snow building up my savings! Later on in the year the great Hurricane hit Kent during October 1987 leaving many trees blown down.
In 1987 the sea at Rainham (Motney Hill) even froze showing how cold the weather got. See the photo above of the frozen sea at Motney Hill.
Severe snow also hit the South East and Kent in 1991. This article from The Telegraph explains some of the recent snow events including the infamous wrong kind of snow quote from British Rail. The article says "During the 1991 event level snow lay 12 inches deep in central London, and on January 12-13, 1987, the deepest snow was in south Essex, Kent, Surrey and south London with 22 inches reported in the Maidstone and Gillingham areas. "
Video of the snow from Thames News 1987 BBC News Great Storm Oct 1987
More photos of the 1987 severe snow that affected Kent and South East England
Train stuck in snowdrift Kent 1987
Photos of 1987 snowdrifts in Kent
Snow in Kent-Photos
Kent snow photos from 1987
Medway snow photos January 1987
Further pictures of the 1987 snow in the South East
Photos on this page are clickable to view higher resolution versions. These snow photos were kindly supplied by Steve Murdoch.
These are a collection of photos of Rainham kindly provided by Hazel Thorn and taken over the last 20 years around the town.
The photos on the site are primarily of Rainham but there are a few pictures of other areas of Kent that I've found.
These photos of Earl Street Maidstone were taken in February 1981 and show the gas holders across the river where the St Peters Street shopping centres and new housing blocks have now been built.
You can see sign for Wrights TV rentals, Sketchleys cleaners, The Company Store and the old pub sign for the Druids Arms. In the distance is part of the Norwich Union Insurance societies offices and a Pickfords removal van.
While not an old photo by any means this was the school photo taken of Rainham Mark Grammar School in summer 1988. Some of the teachers present in the photo are:
Dr Keen
Mr Lawrenson
Mrs Berry
Mr Gulston
Mrs Pilgrim
Mr Flowers
Mr Parsons
Mr Mudge
Mr Bowen
Mr Payne
Mrs Timms
Mr Kitney
Mr Wood
Mr Boothby
A larger version of the photo is available to click but is a 120 megapixel image so very slow to download and hard to open! I'll load the photo split into sections shortly
RMGS- School Photo 1988 - Section 1 - Click to view in High Res
RMGS- School Photo 1988 - Section 2
RMGS- School Photo 1988 - Section 3
RMGS- School Photo 1988 - Section 4
Roads around the Rainham - old photos of how roads used to look in days gone by
Old photos by decade
