This is the time of year to go on a summer holiday. The Mediterranean and more distant places beckon. It may be felt to be stretching things a bit to include the Isle of Sheppey as one of the far away places yet in a report prepared before the First World War it was stated “ One can sail around the island and view the cliffs but the interior is little known”. This was not entirely fair since the Sheppey Light Railway ran between Queenborough and Leysdown. The railway started in August 1901 and was closed on the 4th December 1950.But south of a line running through Minster and Eastchurch, even today the island is not well known. Sheppey is really three islands—Elmley island and the islands of Sheppey and Harty. How many have actually visited Elmley or Harty? During the 19th century, Elmley village was created to serve the cement works on the island. In 1861 it had 35 houses and over 140 residents. There was a church, a pub and a school. By 1874 the population had risen to 204. The Rector of Elmley at this time was Canon Scott-Robertson who lived at Whitehall in Bell Road Sittingbourne. His researches into the history of Sittingbourne remain to this day essential sources of information. The cement works closed in 1881 having found local raw materials unsatisfactory. There was no alternative employment and the population left. Today virtually nothing remains of this once thriving village.

After the Second World War Sheppey was marketed as a popular holiday area . To quote the brochure: “The accessibility of Sheppey makes it a good holiday centre for South and East London, South East England and the Medway Towns, for there are millions of people there who want something new for the holiday months, something they have not seen before. Freedom, sunshine, wide open spaces: they are yours on the Isle of Sheppey. Sheerness caters for those who do not shun the great crowds of holiday-makers on the shore or in the town while miles of open country lead us by way of Minster and Eastchurch to Leysdown on the East coast. For those who want something different from the ordinary run of holidays, for those who want a little world for exploration, Sheppey provides at least one of the answers. Even getting to Sheppey is interesting. The bridge which spans the Swale has to be raised to allow a vessel to pass, an experience which would thrill every small boy” How innocent it all seems. While reclining on the beach you could practice saying: “She shall see Sheerness and seaside Sheppey in shimmering sunshine”

Despite the undoubted lure of Sheppey as a holiday resort, in the 1950s we were looking for the really faraway places. This happened at the same time as the start of the love affair with the Ford Popular and the Morris Minor. How to combine car and holiday? Take your beloved with you. This gave rise to a short lived industry in Kent — transporting the car by air. On the 14th July 1948 a Bristol freighter plane of Silver City Airways took off from Lympne airport  with two cars and 12 passengers for the twenty minute flight to Le Touquet. A total of 70 cars were carried in that year. Progress became quite remarkable. By 1951 the fleet had increased to 8 aircraft and carried 13,124 vehicles and 2,000 cows. The new planes could carry three cars and twenty passengers. Presumably the cows travelled economy class. A new route from Gatwick to Le Touquet was opened.

In 1953, 175,000 vehicles crossed the channel by sea and by air. 24,063 cars went by plane, plus 8,227 motorcycles, 6,751 pedal cycles and 96,625 passengers. You could fly from Lympne to Calais and Ostend; from Southampton to Cherbourg and Gatwick to Le Touquet.The fare from Lympne to Calais for a small car was £6.1.6d one way; close to £250 as a comparison with present day earnings, bicycles 4/6d and passengers £2.5s. Silver City Airways built a modern airport at Lydd, calling it Ferryfield at a cost of £250,000. With hindsight it is easy to see that this ambitious programme could never compete with the emerging  jet flights to more distant sunny climes thus saving expense and long journeys by car.