I used my bus pass again yesterday and I took the bus from Hempstead valley Shopping Centre to Medway Hospital in Gillingham. I noticed two things whilst on the bus. The first thing is, there is still a small patch of woodland on the Park Wood Estate off Deanwood Drive across to Mierscourt Road called Foxborough Woods, It It seems to me that this is the only remaining patch of what we used to just call The Woods. It makes you realise just how big " The Woods" were before Parkwood and other areas were built. The Maidstone Road entrance was a track opposite The Queens head pub which is now where Deanwood Drive starts. The woods stretched all the way to the top of Maidstone Road behind all the houses on the left going towards Bredhurst right to where the M2 Motorway cuts through. They then stretched right across the valley to Mierscourt Road at Farthing Corner (The Motorway Cafe), down nearly as far as Arthur Road. Our bottom entrance was up the Church Path in Rainham past the end of Tudor Grove, Broadview Avenue, Herbert Road and Arthur Road. All these roads had dead ends at where Lonsdale Drive is today, and all that is left is this little patch called Foxborough Woods. How many woodland animals and birds must have been driven out to make way for houses?

The second thing I noticed from the bus, is that they are now building houses on the area of land where Orchard Street school canteen buildings used to be, across the athletics and football field at the Maidstone Road entrance. A lot of the kids hated school dinners but I loved them and it was probably the only good meal I got in the week.

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