Registered Charity No. 1070698
Last Updated 25/3/08
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About
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| Personal
Memories Here we record such personal memories and stories that relate to Sittingbourne and its villages. Do you have memories of life in Sittingbourne ? Your working life last century ? The war ? The town as it was ? Your childhood? Please share them with us by e-mailing or sending them to us so that we can display them either in the museum or on this web site. It doesn't have to be an essay of any length, just a few paragraphs will be interesting and perhaps a photograph ! Tunstall pre-war - Hugh Farrington Tunstall in wartime - Richard Kite The Bull Hotel - Queenie Field (nee Allen) Childhood in Tunstall - Peggy Jackson Tunstall School - Margaret Lock Wartime Memories - June Morgan 40 Years of Dance Music - Jack Whitnell
Tunstall, (pond on the left) where Gerald grew up |
Gerald (Dixie) Dean b. 25 Jan 1926
I was looking at the item about Bowater Lloyds Paper Mill in the museum web site with interest. In 1944 I had a girl that lived in Charlotte St next to the mill, we used to stand at the shop at the end of the street and get covered in fine paper dust coming from the mill. In 1950 I was working at Gravesend Welding Company which was situated in Crown Quay Lane Sittingbourne and most of the work we did was for the mill. The main items were safety guards for the belts running the machines plus we pulled all the old extractor systems down an replaced them with new ones to stop the pollution from fine paper dust dropping all over the place. We used to fit these things on Sundays when the paper machines were shut down. I think the boss of the Welding Company in Sittingbourne was Mr Monday. I hope this is of some interest to the Museum from your Australian Member. Regards to all from Irene and Gerald Dean in Australia
Workers leaving the mill in the 1960s
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Volunteers We are always looking for volunteers to act as guides and to help out in the museum when it is open. Any members willing to help for a couple of hours should contact the secretary, Peter Morgan.
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Can you answer any of these questions or help our readership with their research ? Click here for some questions on local history.
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Tunstall:
I remember Hugh Farrington, at times we played cricket in Woodstock Park and used the pole holding the "trespassers will be prosecuted" sign as our wicket. We also played in the trenches across the road from the park. These trenches were dug during World War one for the soldiers to train for battle in.
Running down from the trenches was a hill and during the winter if it snowed we made sleds and slid down the hill often coming to grief.
My sister mentioned boys and learning knitting, sewing on buttons and rug making, also we did raffia work and work with cane, most of this was very handy and I knitted baby clothes when I was married and jumpers for myself. There were also percussion instruments that sometimes we used
I met my sisters husband before she knew him, we were in the same class at the Council School. We used to go down to the railway yards and play in the wagons until we were caught.
I lost touch with Frank when I went to Sheerness Tech School until he met and married my sister.
Gerald, April 2007
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