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This site is meant as  personal view of East Malling as remembered by me, so, if you remember the greasy pole! the slow bike race! Robins, Dears, Diamonds, Clarepark school, Mr Pape, Mr Val, Mr Crowhurst etc then you may be interested in this site, all of the pictures have been taken by me, but you are welcome to send your own and I will attempt to put them on the site with your memories, My Email is stphsharp@blueyonder.co.uk   0796 225 2000 All pictures on this site are the property of, or have been donated to  Steve Sharp and are not for reproduction or resale without express permission from the owner

SORRY HAD TO ADD THAT AS I HAVE FOUND SOME REPRODUCED ON OTHER SITES!!

BY STEVE SHARP         PLEASE SIGN MY GUESTBOOK

RECOVERING FROM MINOR SURGERY, SO WILL BE SPENDING SOME TIME UP DATING, WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM ANYONE WHO HAS PICTURES OR MEMORIES FROM THE PAST

The Park taken during the summer of 2004, During the early sixties whole sections of the park would be covered in nettles, in which Kevin Handley,Steve Watson and I would make camps in, we would hack our way through the nettles with sticks,of course the odd casualty was inevitable, these stings would be treated with a dab of spit on a doc leaf  then rubbed in to the affected area, we used to think it worked but... who knows? Many of the trees have now gone but there were many more, we used to spend most of our time trying to climb them, in fact we had names for most, step ladder, single barrel double barrel, Bee hive in which, rumour had it, Kev and I was up when it blew down,  Oh and the shit bugger tree.These were the days when summer seemed to go on for ever, we would go out after breakfast and not come in till tea time, Kev Steve and I along with the others would decide on what was going to keep us amused for the day, we might start with a kickabout up the top end of the park if anyone had a ball, and "Mugsy" would show us his fancy stuff, this meant he would wiggle his legs over the ball in positions only he could, or we might go up to the swings, they were outside the institute in those days, as I recall we had a really big slide in the middle of two sets of swings  a see-saw and a roundabout, and our favourite the sand pit especially when it had just been refilled with fresh sand, the outline of which can still be seen in front of the bench there today

This was Deers ,we would buy firework matches here during October, if you remember they were matches which had a really large head, and would glow bright green or blue phosferouse, god only knows how they were ever able to sell them to us! Oh and do you remember the jamboree bags with the filling pullers for toffee and the small plastic cup filled with chocolate 3 old pennies, and what about the man with a limp who used to be the lolly-pop man seeing us across the road in front of the King and Queen, what was his name?

This  was the old butchers with the stable door and saw dust on the floor, I believe they used slaughter the cattle on the premisses.And if you are really old you will remember the circus used to parade past here when it was in the village, we would scare the poo out of each other with rumours of escaped lions from the circus or escaped bulls from the butchers!!, Oh and just up the road lived the dreaded PC Bubb, I was lucky enough to speak to him recently, pleased to see he is still going strong

This is a shot of the watercress beds, taken during the summer of  04 this place hasn't changed at all over the years, it was one of those places we visited every now and then as kids, it has taken all this time to really appreciate its beauty, it truly is a magical place, and I never get bored, the wild life is something special too.

I class myself as being extremely fortunate to have been raised in such an idyllic area, if you have a chance, go for a walk and see for yourself, especially early in the morning its well worth the effort, and if you bump into an overweight  bloke with a Golden retriever, then , that'll be me, say hello!!

Here's a resident you dont often see, pleased to see, as of last week he is now protected

Each time I walk past this place I see something new this picture doesn't do it justice, the morning I took this I stood watching a big grey heron wading in the water, I guess he was looking for his breakfast, I have been lucky enough to see him on several occasions

The school lake was also a nice place to be, its a shame it isn't appreciated as much today, where else could you get such a scene, it was also the scene of two lots of heroics by yours truly  but thats another story. I would often find myself on hot summer afternoons just sitting on the banks of the lake, basking in its atmosphere................. would I buggary!! too busy chasing the female form !!! The thought was there though, you have to admit this picture does drum up memories of long hot summer days, you know....  when the bills that come through the door never had your name on!... when all your meals just appeared on the table... and your clothes suddenly turned up washed and ironed in your drawer, I personally think we are all ,"base over apex" as Mr Crystal would say, we should be born old and frail, we would then have all this to look forward to.

My life so far has been blessed, I was born into a family where mum and dad stayed together, it wasn't always sunshine and roses, don't get me wrong, but, now, looking back, its been good, the only problem I have now is  I feel like someone has crept up behind me an nicked the last 30 years of my life, thats how quick it feels like it has gone!!

This an unusual shot, as there are no beer cans to be seen! why is it we have to put up with yobs who think its OK to leave their waste for us to have to look at, where are their parents!! Its actually taken from under the favoured conker tree of our time, many a stick was launched into its branches and its fruit gathered up ready for the seasons annual conker championships, you could always tell it was that time of year as we all had bruised hands, and knowone had any shoe laces! we would try alsorts to toughen the skins up, nothing seemed to work, but, we kept trying, I think my best ever was a sixer. Once that season was over, or we just got bored, we would go onto ,maybe, marbles, remember? holesy's, smacksies, tipsies, and no rebounds!! there was somethine about a bag of marbles, and mum used to make us a small draw string bag for them, or was it just a sock!!

It seemed like all the kids on the estate used to join in with whatever game was in season, POM POM, HOPSCOTCH, or just playing in the park we never seemed to run out of things to do

Now, is this Windsor or is it East Malling church, we've got some scenery round here haven't we!! but its been there for hundreds of years!! I have known it for 49 of them, so where was it hiding! I think I must have spent all those years looking at the pavement....something else.... you know the little stream that runs out of the wall on the way up to the church? well it has dried up!! please tell me this is a normal occurrence for this time of year, and not some moron deciding to divert it or whatever!

UPDATE IT HAS STARTED TO FLOW ONCE AGAIN I think we should all meet up under the railway bridge and have a game of "PooSticks"!!!

I know it may look strange to show a picture of this roller, but, it was the subject of much fascination as kids, we would play on this for hours, and on my first revisit I was amazed to see just how small it is, we would climb in and out of the triangular slots on the sides, sad weren't we!! By the way, it still makes the same noise when its being towed

This is a picture of Stickens Lane just where the railway goes over still as I remember it even down to the ragstone banks

And this is where we all cut our teeth on our first pint of beer, in them days it was owned by Mr and Mrs Woodger, and there was a little "Snug" to the side of the main bar which had a bar billiards table in it