I've seen reference to Fairyland Club in Wigmore Gillingham Kent but no firm details yet. Can anyone help? It appears to have been on Hoath Lane in the 1950s/60s. Looking at Kelly's Directory there was a Wigmore and District Sports Club listed next to Sherlodge Garage and what appears to be a private property called Fairyland further up the road. Was this the club?

Wigmore Cycling Club have this interesting snippet on their website https://wigmorecyclingclub.org.uk/awards-for-2018/

The Fairyland 100 mile trophy

In the 1950s the club met at the Fairyland social club every Monday evening. It was at the top of Hoath Way, just before the Spyglass and Kettle pub. A Skoda garage occupies the site now. Most Mondays about 50 members would arrive on their bikes and left them outside the club. Every now and again a bike would be missing but we knew where to find it.

It was nearly always taken by someone late for work at BoWaters packaging factory at the bottom of Hoath Way and left outside the factory gates. This is now a Tesco shopping store. The trophy was given to the club in 1964.

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Category: Historical life

• old wigmore

Kemp Brothers (Kemp Bros Rainham Kent Ltd) was a local building firm in Rainham that operated before the Second World War. Our house was built in 1935 and I spotted this manhole cover in our path. The signs of local history are all around us! Obviously Kemp Brothers were large enough to be able to commission their own cast iron drain covers.

 

 

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Category: Historical life

These sketches of old Hempstead Village were drawn from memory by Ted Quy who grew up in Hempstead and were kindly shared by his schoolfriend Roland Bird who now lives in Wigmore.

Below: Karting at Gibraltar Gun Emplacement 1944

Below: Mr Dovey helping crashed Mustang pilot near Hempstead Gibraltar Gun emplacement 1944

 Below: Hempstead School, teacher Miss Webb 1944 

Below: Mr Green serving petrol to Mr O Quy at Hempstead Garage 1946

Below: Grooms Bakery Van 1944

Below: Mark Oak Dairies Rainham 1945

Below:  V1 Doodlebug being shot down by RAF 1944 at Hempstead Gibraltar Farm Gun site

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Category: Historical life

• hempstead
• lidsing old photos
• lidsing

News from local press in 1971!

Angry Commuters Catch a Mudbath!

Anyone going to catch a train from Rainham station is likely to get covered in mud before their journey begins according to commuters. Rainham station is being rebuilt and the road outside is a mudbath every time it rains. Travellers say lorries, buses and car spray mude as they walk into the station. One of the suffering commuters is Edward Cox of Chalky Bank road, general manager of a London computer consultant firm. He said "Every time it rains the road turns into a quagmire with pools of water several inches deep and a few inches wide. I dont believe British Rail are doing enough.The least they could do is full in the holes and ruts that fill up with water when it rains.

British Rail said "The station is being rebuilt and unfortunately a certain amount of inconvenience is being caused while this is done but we are trying to keep it to a minmum and finish as quickly as possible. In fact the ticket office will be finished ahead of schedule to coincide with decimalisation"

He said that there was still more work to be done, but an effort would be made to make the road “more presentable.” Mr. T. Gordon Clarke, secretary of Medway Commuters Committee of Bettescombe Road said: “I do not think it is fair to lay all the blame on British Rail. "Frankly the station is in a bit of a mess during the work but you have to put up with it for a while. People should realise this and many of them are to blame themselves. They insist on using their cars on the road and then get annoyed about mess it causes.”

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Category: Historical life

• rainham station
• rainham 1970s