Tonbridge Daily Photo

Tonbridge Daily Photo #231 - Church Street/East Street

Tonbridge Daily Snippet

Up to the early 19th century Tonbridge Market took place between Church Lane and  East Street.  The cattle and sheep pens were set up in the centre of the High Street with a narrow space either side for passing carriages.  In 1856 the market moved from the High Street to open land between Bank Street and The Slade.

Following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 1971 the cattle market closed and became a general Saturday market until 2003.

Tonbridge Daily Photo

Tonbridge Daily Photo #47  - East Street

Tonbridge Daily Snippet

A small cricket ball workshop was set up by Gradidge in 1932 in a building on the corner of East Street and The High Steet. The company was founded in 1870 by Harry Gradidge.

Gradidges became part of the Slazengers Sykes Gradidge & Ayres group of companies in the early to mid part of the 20th century.

Tonbridge Daily Snippet

The first gas street lamps to be lit in Tonbridge were in The High Street, Bordyke and East Street. This took place on 12 November 1836 amidst a town celebration. The lamps were only used during long dark winter nights.

By 1856 Tonbridge Gas Company supplied gas for about 51 street lamps  and 150 consumers including Tonbridge School & the Parish Church

Big Bridge Tonbridge

The lamps on the Big Bridge and Little Bridge are surviving original gas lamps which have been converted for use with electricity.

Recognising Tonbridge Recognised

Cleanliness is next to Godliness was the clue in this Recognising Tonbridge post, but only one person recognised the foot-scaper situated outside the former Methodist church in East Street.  It is a reminder of a time when roads and walkways around the High Street were muddy, and shared by both animals and humans alike.  Originally two foot-scrapers were in place outside the church but unfortunately now only one remains.

Tonbridge Daily Snippet

The Port Reeves House in East Street is believed to be the oldest building in Tonbridge with its cellar dating around the 12th/13th century.

Recognising Tonbridge Recognised

Many of you recognised the bronze roof finial on the building on the corner of Church Street and East Street.  It was suggested that The Judd School was on this site, however the adjoining building on East Street displays a plaque stating the school was once housed there.

Recognising Tonbridge Recognised

Many of you recognised that the letter D was part of the word COURTYARD that is inscribed in gold on the wrought iron gates of the former Courtyard Restaurant in East Street.

Thankyou for all your comments on the Recognising Tonbridge posts I am pleased that it is so popular.

The Courtyard Gates

East Street Tonbridge

Point of Reference

Bench mark on the former Methodist Church in East Street

Bench marks were used during the period of 1912 to 1921 as a point of reference for a measurement by Ordnance Survey surveyors.  These chiseled horizontal marks that surveyors made in walls, or permanent stone structures, consisted of an arrow below a horizontal line into which an angle iron could be placed for a leveling rod. These marks were introduced to record the height above their standard reference point of sea level at Newlyn in Cornwall.  If the exact height of a Bench mark is known, it follows that the exact height of a neighbour can be established, by measuring the difference in height with the process of spirit levelling. This all happened before the GPS satellite system took over.

The photograph above is of a Bench mark on the corner of a wall on the former Methodist Church in East Street.  There are two more known in the town.  One is chiseled into the wall of 38 High Street (Lamberts Yard) and another can be found on the wall of 10 Bordyke.

Is anyone is aware of further Benchmarks in Tonbridge?

Lead is disappearing in Tonbridge

While walking along the riverside path I noticed that the lead flashings on the Pizza Express wall had been heavily vandalised. Kent has seen a recent spate of lead being stripped and stolen from buildings, and Tonbridge has not been spared. Only last month I heard that the lead flashings from the roof of the Castle Council Chambers were taken, and one of the town's schools was also a victim.  In September the lead flashings were taken from a hall roof in Lyons Crescent, and October also saw lead disappearing from the roof of an office building in East Street and a shop in the High Street.

Could the photo above show a bungled attempt at a spot of lead pilfering?

A Bygone East Street

East Street Tonbridge

I was recently looking through the 1932 Kelly Directory for Tonbridge and noticed how the quiet East Street we know today was once a thriving row of small businesses.  How times change!!

Below is a list of occupants from the corner building which is now Lloyds Bank to the properties directly opposite Lyons Crescent.  The sights and smells I will have to leave to your imagination.

(The Kelly Street Directories and the South Kent Traders Directories are available for the use of the general public and are kept in the Reference Library in Avebury Avenue)

No.2.    Bunting, Herman, Dewey, Tuckett,  PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS

                               
No.4     Mrs E Coote, CONFECTIONER

No.6     Smith,  FRIED FISH SHOP

No.8     Burrs,  BOOTMAKER

No.10   Lockyer & Sons, WATCHMAKERS

No.12   Allen Osborne & Son, BLACKSMITHS

No.14   Jack Wheeler, BEER RETAILER

No.16   Isaac Race, AUCTION ROOMS

Here is Church Street

No.18   THE VICARAGE

No.20   Joseph Goodland, MOTOR ENGINEER

Snippets of Tonbridge Past

I received an email from a resident who has lived in Tonbridge all her life.  Some of the information is really interesting and throws a light on what life was like in the 1950's/1960's for those living in the town.  I especially found the paragraph about Warders Surgery fascinating as it shows how booking an appointment to see a doctor, and the waiting room experience has really moved on. I loved the idea of having to save up for a chicken at Christmas. No factory farming then.  How times have changed!!!! 

"We used to have Carnival queens, I think they held the beauty contests in Lyons Crescent (YMCA?) and the winner was paraded on a float in the carnival. There was also a river carnival for a couple of years.

You can just see a carnival queen on a float passing the old Fisher Hall in Lyons Cresent

When Higham Lane was built they were blowing up tree stumps for weeks and chickens were running about the fields.

When the town flooded Gunners had to sell all their stock that hadn't got wet, but had been in the shop, I had a lovely time rumaging and bought what had been a very expensive brolly for 1s.6d.

The delivery tradesmen:

Blakeley's delivered our beef joint every saturday.

We also had the milkman, baker, fishman, knife and scissor sharpener, greengrocer, rag and boneman in his horse and cart, and then the 'modern' rag and bone man, who came in a big van, he weighed your bundle of rags and gave you a gift depending on the weight of your rags. we all hankered after the ear-rings and necklace set in a presentation case, all gold and 'glittery', but I think we would have had to have had a shop full of clothes for that! 

Beef was the normal sunday roast and you saved up for a chicken for christmas!

I remember seeing the old guy whose photo is in the doctor's (Warders in East Street), riding around the town delivering medicine. The surgery was over the bank in East Street. We would start queuing about 8am to get an early number and then have to sit on hard chairs for hours, asking everyone who was leaving what number they were.

The 'private' patients had their own waiting room along the corridor, it was smaller, just as dark and depressing, but better chairs, I think they had arms!"