Villages in kent, GREAT CHART.

You seem to have found your feet with this project. Keep 'em coming. (y)
 
Often the way. Once you make a start (the hardest bit) you begin to find out what it is that interested you in the first place. You can't beat just diving in and seeing what happens!
 
The second convenience store in Charing,
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Peirce House below is half its original size, The Hairdressers was part of the original house many moons ago.
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The Old House on the junction, was a poor house for a while,
Memoirs of a Man say a pauper Family were evicted from here, dressed in sacking and no footwear, there were eight children and two of them died from exposure and being underfed.
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Below the old workhouse, where alms were handed through the window(SHOWN IN PHOTO) to poor travellers
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Life was tough then.
 
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Changing Times indeed, Charing today is a fraction of times gone past, I can't help but think it must have had more of a sense of community,
With my visits there it seemed a bit soulless, bear in mind I only scratched the surface, the village has no pub now arguably the hub of any village.

changing times.jpg modern charing.jpg school.jpg
Bit of a contrast with the modern style Housing, and the prefab style building at the school.

I have found Charing to be a very interesting place, the strangest thing is I don't live that far from there, and I have never really gave it a look before.
There is so much I could say about the place, as with its history, but I feel an overview of Charing will give some insight, so I will draw a line under Charing and move on.

I saw a Village in the flesh,
Not always at its best,
It gave me joy,
With my toy,
To snap away ,
I digress.
 
Next Village is Lenham,
A Medieval Village, between Maidstone and Ashford, it lies at the southern edge of the North Downs, split by the A20 trunk road.
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The Chalk cross below (200ft) is carved out of the chalk, it was constructed in 1922, to commemorate the fallen in the Great War, it was filled in between 1939 and 1945 to avoid being a navigation aid for the Luftwaffe,
It now commemorates the fallen in both Wars.
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Pic taken with DJI Phanthom Pro. Distance 2529FT Altitude 394FT
The Fallen in the Parish.
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I love these board they give quite an insight into what is going on locally,
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We have had fish and chips from here, generally they are pretty good. always a big queue Friday nights,
There used to be an Inn here, one of the Inn keepers used to leave pints of Beer outside in a sentry box for the Lime carriers, it is said the Beer was always gone by the morning, and one night so was the sentry box.
The Lime carriers used to get the Lime from the north downs, and do trips to Maidstone and Ashford.

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This is the Saxon Warriors Pharmacy, when it ceased being a Grocers in 1946, it was being renovated and a workman dug down and put his pick in a skull, the man duly ran over to the Dog and Bear pub, and said to his governor, come quick I have just put my pick through a mans skull, there were three bodies found, they seem to think it was the corner of a Saxon cemetery.
Hence name of building Saxon Warriors.
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What an amazing project I have thoroughly enjoyed looking through this thread. I love the old Bedford and the lime green roller and its good to see some people now in the shots. Keep em coming (y)
 
This is the modern look to Lenham , the old square and Medieval part of village is the top end of the wedge,
the road to the left was the old road, to the right the by pass
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This was oringinally the mortuary, for the workhouse behind. Later called the lock up for Saturday night drunks,
It has also been used to house the parish hearse, and has been reinforced, and used as an air raid shelter in second world war.
Now used as a store and maintained by parish council.
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The Dog and Bear was an old coaching inn, with the coming of the railway, a lot of local businesses of the day relying on coaching went under, and the landlord of the day died penny less.
One claim to fame of the Dog and Bear was a visit from Queen Anne, legend has it she stayed a night, the coat of arms in the pic, is that of Queen Anne in the day it was obligatory to display the coat of arms after being paid a visit.
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The fire station and mortuary make a nice contrast. And the fire station might not last as long as the mortuary if this austerity business carries on.
 
Even if it does, you've a record of it, which is a great reason for taking photographs. (y)
 
It might be stating the obvious, but some pictures of the land that is under threat of development could be a worthwhile inclusion.
 
Indeed on next visit,
I have read things on certain characters in Villages which I would like to highlight, but after looking deeper into it, there doesn't seem to be much more than a brief description of such person.
 
Ed Sutton said:
It might be stating the obvious, but some pictures of the land that is under threat of development could be a worthwhile inclusion.
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I agree. I hate the idea of building on green field sites and 1500 houses is an awful lot. That amount of development would change the whole face of the village.
 
This is the road where one of the future devolpments will be built with over sixty houses.
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Council land is a buffer for now, just a hunch i can see it changing.
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This is the site for building, it goes up to the main A20 trunk road, hard to see anything but major congestion on an already heavily used road.
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The skate park is on the land which is a buffer to the proposed building land, lets hope the youngters get some decent facilities out of it.image.jpeg
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As shown in pics the equipment has seen better days.
 
Good to see this is still ticking along. (y)
 
Ed Sutton said:
Good to see this is still ticking along. (y)
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jennyb said:
I am glad to see you still posting in this thread. The skate park is not the most pleasing to the eye but at least it gives the kids something to do. Sad to see the building land in the previous post.
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Thanks,
Bad timing from my part made the thread stall, wont bore you with the detail,
Always appreciate your comments:)
 
This is all part of the proposed plan for a 1500 house development in Lenham it is between factory units and some houses, aptly called infill. I couldnt get a number for the amount of houses to be built here, going by other sites in area i would say 50ish.
Most of the other housing i couldnt identify, but was told it runs from Sandway back up to Lenham, all for the projected plan for 1500, i would think the powers that be could have a bit of a fight on there hands.

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jennyb said:
You've completely convinced me that it would be a tragedy if the developers get their way here, Walter. I especially like the last pic with the strong lead in line.
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Sure would be such a lovely Village, as i say they will have a fight on there hands, a small amount of building has some merit, but 1500 ahhhhhhh!
The place will creak.
 
This is the new kid on the block, only been open a few weeks, it replaced the Ironmongers, which was like a Tardis to walk into, sadly burnt down.
Spoke to a couple of Locals who will be using Co-Op as opposed to the General Shop that has been in the Villages years, reason its cheaper.
Sound familiar.
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If it's not supermarket chains it's the internet. But it was ever thus, I guess.
 
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