I was born at 18 Sandgate High Street on 2nd December 1945 the eldest child of my parents Jeanette (Doris) and Tom Champion, next in line came my brother Allan, then my sister Jeanette (Jenny). My parents had met and married whilst both were serving in the army during the last war and I made my appearance after the war was over.
Number 18 Sandgate High Street no longer exists, the land where it used to be is now known as the Village Green, but when I lived there we lived in the end house of a row of four, two three storey houses and two with two storeys; its hard to believe now that there were four houses on that green butting up to what is now Gate 28.
I will start off by telling you some of my family history, my great grandparents came to Sandgate around 1875, they had previously lived in Cheriton and moved into firstly a house in Wilberforce Road and then into a coastguard cottage as Great Grandfather James Jago was a retired coastguard, who was at that time a lifeboatman. Its hard to believe that he and my Great Grandmother Elizabeth lived in one of those tiny cottages with their eleven children (which included one set of twins), one of whom was my Grandma Jeanetta. Elizabeth Salter as she was came from Cork in Ireland and had met James who came from Cornwall when he had been posted to Cork with his work. Apparently James was one of twins and his brother eventually married Elizabeth’s sister but we know little of those two.
James was one of the lifeboat men who was on the lifeboat that went to the rescue of the Benvenue, a large ship that was ran aground just off Sandgate in 1891, and he was subsequently awarded the Benvenue medal by Queen Victoria. Several of my great uncles served in the Royal Navy and two went on to loose their lives in the first world war, and are mentioned each year at the Remembrance Service on the roll of honour at St Paul’s Church. There are also two bronze plates one in each of their names which were presented by our family to the Sandgate Society and are at present on show in the Sandgate Library. Apparently a plaque was given during the first world war to the families of all service personnel who were lost in the conflict. After James died and many of the children had grown up and left home my great grandmother moved into 18 Sandgate High Street along with my grandma Jeanetta (Nettie). I have since learnt that one of their near neighbours were the Moore family and Fred Moore was delivered into the world by Elizabeth my great grandmother! Now anyone who lives or has lived in Sandgate over the last 60 plus years knows of Fred Moore, who has contributed so much to the Village firstly as being our shoe mender and secondly of course for his long and very rewarding association with the Scout troupe in Sandgate.
When I was growing up in Sandgate the Village was quite different from what it is now, both in terms of the buildings there were and many of the ones we have now, and the fact that we were quite independent from nearby Folkestone and Hythe with regards to shopping and the services we required. We had three churches, St Pauls that is the only remaining one today, then there was the Methodist Church in Gough Road, which was pulled down many years ago, and flats were built on the site; and then further down the High street was the Congregational Church, known up until recently as The Little Theatre and occupied for many years by FHODS. This has recently been sold and is being turned into residential properties although thankfully still retaining some of its former glory on the outside.
There were nine pubs that I can remember although of course as a child growing up in Sandgate they held little interest for me, however I remember those that we used to have as The Oak, just past St Pauls on Sandgate Hill. The Fleur de Lis and The Military Tavern (known locally as ‘The hole in the Wall’ both up near the Memorial. The Kent Tavern in the High Street burnt down as I believe and long gone and The Rose opposite the Coastguard Cottages, all the buildings still there but now put to other use.
I should like to take you for a walk around Sandgate as it was when I was a child, in the High Street starting just past our four houses( The Village Green) we had a builders shop D.I.Y. you would call it now, then Sillibourne’s that was a ladies drapery shop run by would you believe a lovely and very smart lady called Millie Sillibourne! I was always sent along there to buy Mum’s ‘nylons’ and was filled with amazement at the elegant lady behind the counter with her immaculate nails and hair dressed in the height of fashion and in Sandgate High Street! On past there we arrive at Mr Bleach the butcher’s then the Co-op next door, several strides down the road a Radio shop where I can remember taking the acid battery back to exchange for a new one for our wireless. There was a smart ladies hairdressers where the garage now stands and then the Chichester Hall. We had some lovely times there, I can remember being on the stage when I was quite small and singing ‘any umbrellas’ whilst twirling a big black one above my head!, then there were the jumble sales which Mum nearly always helped with and I went along to as well. Across from North Lane was and still is Fred Moore’s shoe shop and next to that Showlers Fruit and Veg. Then we had the post office, the bank and then N.O.Bakers the builders known to all and sundry as Nobby Bakers!
The next shop was the bike shop and then the big International Stores, we had a dairy on that row another fruit shop and also the ‘bottom paper shop’ (the ‘top one’ being opposite the memorial) both owned by the Burden family, and a wet fish shop, that takes us to the Congregational Church. A long way past there opposite the coastguard cottages was another shoe menders where now we have a grassed area and that was called Cramps, and just up on the corner of Wilberforce Road was a Dairy, which alter became Googe’s Taxis and of course the Sandgate Laundry in Wilberforce Road.
As we cross over the road and start back down the High Street we had a little café and sweet shop called Friths now residential, and further up the Bevan Convalescent home stood Georgiou’s a wonderful delicatessen shop and also in that row were a tearooms and a chemist. The Kent Hotel or Kent Tap as it was known was along there and as I remember an off licence. Across the little road has always been the Ship Inn, where as an adult my husband and I often took my Uncle Bill for a pint with the hopes that he would tell us some tales of his life in the Royal Flying Corp! There was a bookshop and Greenwall’s antiques and then a radio repair shop followed by the wet fish shop owned by Mr Phillips. The Sandgate Library was next where I spent a great deal of my time as a child deciding which book to borrow next being even then an avid reader, and of course the old Fire Station. Next door to the Providence Inn and on the corner was the Seabreeze Café run by Mrs Stone, this was long ago closed and incorporated into the Providence. Nordens Antique Shop was the only and original shop of its kind in Sandgate for many years and is still owned by Elizabeth the daughter of the owners who had it when I was a child. Right next door was a small butchers I forget the name of it as we used the other one! And then Chaplains the Chemist with the men’s barbers next to that.
Across Granville Road we had a greengrocers on the corner and next to that the dry cleaners; and then we came to the Bakers – Ludlows, how we loved the smell of fresh bread and cakes when sent shopping and the lovely lady who served us who was called Valerie, and nothing was too much trouble for her. Next door where the little clock shop now stands was our ‘little sweet shop’ almost exactly opposite my house, and being a bit of a chocoholic even in those far off days was temptation incarnate when given any pocket money! Then we had the Fleur de Lis pub and opposite the ‘big sweet shop’ with even more variety of temptations but not quite so handy, run at that time by Mr Pope.
Now we’re up to the ‘top paper shop’ where when I was old enough I did a paper round for Mr Burden for several years before leaving school. Miss Browns toy shop was next and what an exciting place that was it was stuffed to the rafters with every toy imaginable, I remember going in there and longing to be able to buy something but would never have been able to decide just what. She also stocked wool and craft items and when older I used to often have wool put by whilst I plodded on with a jumper or cardi hoping to get it finished before my layby time ran out! Then we had the ‘Swiss Miss’ a coffee bar come café where people used to meet run by Mr and Mrs Sammie I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to sit on one of the stools at the counter and have a coffee in there. As I remember next door was a grocery shop but I’m unsure of its name; so you see Sandgate when I was a child had everything you could wish for we really didn’t need to go elsewhere except for a treat.
It was a wonderful place for a child to grow up in we were never short of things to do and places to play; of course there was the beach and at that time there were still large chunks of the Castle wall laying on the beach directly in front of the castle. These made wonderful ‘ships’ to play on, we all bagged one each and would each be in charge of our ship until the tide came in to claim it back. We would go rocking at low tides, usually to the rocks down and Rex Cinema all long gone and now blocks of flats. At the corner of Devonshire Terrace in front of the esplanade and spend hours looking for crabs and different sea weeds. My cousin and I also used to collect shells which we stored in massive empty soap powder boxes that we had begged from one of the shops and which we filled with so many shells that we couldn’t lift them up to go through our ‘treasures’. We would often climb the wall into the castle which was not occupied in those days and wander down the underground passages, I remember once my brother and I came across a very old huge bible in there and I often wonder what became of that.
Up the back of the village was the Undercliff where most children had a ‘camp’ my brother and his friends certainly did and another place for good fun was in the hay fields when they had all the hay made into large square bricks, which we would stack up to make a den. Where the Golden Valley now is was a huge area know as the Cow Fields which was wonderful in the winter when we had had heavy snowfalls, we would all go up there with tin trays or the luckier ones with their sleighs and zoom down from top to bottom not caring about how cold or wet we got, and once at the bottom couldn’t wait to get up to the top again! Of course I must mention the ‘Rec’ as it was affectingly known as locally with swings and slides and lovely grassy hills to role down, where as we got older some of us would use the tennis courts of watch the grown ups on the bowling green, such lovely days.
Thankfully Sandgate primary school still stands a lovely old building, although sadly no longer used as a school, I did not go to that school as when I was about four and a half my mother decided that I needed to go to school and the local school was at that time full up so I ended up going to St John Moore School at Shorncliffe. I loved it there and got a very good start in education however it did rather distance me from the children of my age in the village, my friends at that time came mostly from army families or from Cheriton. I did make one really good friend Angela whom I am still in contact with today 57 years down the line! We had many activities going on in the Village, cubs, scouts and sea cadets for the boys and brownies, guides and girls life brigade for the girls. Various dancing and music lessons were available to which my Mother managed to send me to which I am always so grateful that she did, as money was not very plentiful in the years following the war.
In concluding my memories of a childhood in Sandgate I should like to say that when I got married and moved away to live for many years in London, Essex and Lincolnshire my heart was always in Sandgate. We have visited many times every year as my Mother, sister and brother and the rest of my family were all still here, my husband made me a promise that when we retired we would return, which happily we did just over five years ago. I have even got back in touch with many childhood friends including my dear friend Pam Sheppard (Hodgeson that was) Although we don’t live in Sandgate we are not far away and I have the privilege of being a member of the Committee of the Sandgate Society, and feel that I have gone full circle and returned home!
Jill Partridge (nee Champion) 2008
