Life in..... Herne, Kent

Written in 2001
by Ivy Nicholls
(1910-2006)
 

Herne Church & Church Cottages,
photographed by Harry Nicholls in 1997
 

My maiden name was Whitehead and my late husband was Harry Nicholls, who originated from Canterbury.  My cousin, Charles Whitehead, who worked for Mounts, made the weather vane on the church tower.  I have an idea that his son Roy went to Australia. Valerie, the daughter married a local lad and was living locally when I last saw her, which was a long time ago now.

My mum used to deal at the butchers shop for meat, and I knew Hilda when I was serving my apprenticeship at Madam Vincents in the town. Emma Dilnot kept the newsagents in the village, and I used to collect the local ‘Gusher,’ as Dad called it, for him on Friday.  As a girl she would ask me to run an errand for her and reward me with a few pineapple flavoured sweets in a screw of paper.  I hated them!

Herne School

Ivy is pictured fifth from right, front row

My memories of the school go back a long way..... The headmaster lived in the School house, and was expected to play the organ and be the choirmaster as well of St Martins Church.

Mr Worth was the first head master that I knew anything about.  He played the organ with great gusto. Mrs Worth taught the infants, which is where I first started school, where you went up the steps and path from School Lane to get there.

There were pegs in the porch where you could hang your clothes.  The heating I remember was often fires with fireguards around them and a big bogey which burned coke in it. Weather in those days was a bit grim. I remember the boys having slides in the playground.

My days at Herne School ended when I was 7 years of age. Dad did not approve of Ginger Mayes hitting me across my hand with a split cane for something that I did not commit. He took me away from Herne, and I walked daily to Kings Road school in Herne Bay, which was a much larger one.

Later schoolmasters at the school were Mr Aireton and Mr Letts.  Mr Aireton was an excellent choir master. I still remember singing with the Church choir under his baton and an Oratorio around Easter time.

This is all pre-war, since then the population has grown and Herne School is classified as a primary, with extra buildings in Greenfield.

At the age of 11 years you now have to attend the school at Greenhill, Herne Bay, or travel to Canterbury.  Much depended on the exams they take, and pass.

Shops in the Village....

My first memory of a Post Office was seeing a parcel on copper scales, in the front room of what is now 19 Herne Street.  I suspect it was to my brother, in the Army of Occupation First World War.

Allen's Bakers, with bakery at rear of building, deliveries to surrounding area by pony cart.   Also sold general grocery plus animal feed. Mr Allen was a local preacher. Mrs Allen an invalid who sat in a chair upstairs all of the time.  As children a party of us would go to sing carols to her.  The son and daughter both worked in the business. Nowadays the building houses a general store and Post Office.

The Post Office Stores is a modernised version of the store selling corn, dog biscuits etc, on one side of the shop. I suppose bread and groceries on the other. There was a bakehouse at the rear of the premises, where bread was made for the delivery round by Gordon Allen. Doris Allen took care of the shop. The pony cart alongside the shop for delivering the goods going out as far as Marshside. They were Chapel-goers by religion.

Later the Post Office was moved to the premises, and the letters for delivery were stored and delivered. Jessie, the niece of Mr Woodcock managed the shop etc. She also grew figs and gave me some when they were ripe.

The Gleeson family lived in Ivy House, Mr G ran a high class tailors business, and a young Edna started her life in the Post Office, which had moved to the premises.  As a school girl I opened my account with £1.  Mum told me to write ..... for my signature, as my writing was bound to change.  I also remember buying a ball of rainbow wool to make reins through a cotton reel.

 Mr Harry Newton kept a double fronted shop, now part of Smuggler’s Cottages – a man with a strong Birmingham accent, with a good sense of humour.  One side of the shop was given over to confectionery with a display in one window.  The other side sold cigarettes, tinned food, cheese and greengrocery, with a display of tinned food in the other window.

Herne Mill

In the late 1930s we moved house from a house to cottage where there was not enough wall space to hang the large picture of the mill.

I offered it to Mr Gough, and he accepted it for the Museum, so I have no idea what might have happened to it by now.

My aunt, the girl featured in the picture, married into the Wooton family and went to live in Kettering.

It was a working mill at that time, and Clive used to deliver 3lb bags of flour for home baking.  Edwin ran the ....  feed etc, in a shop in East Street, Herne Bay, where Mrs Austin was in charge.  It is still a working mill in use today, looked after by the Friends, and used by the Parish Council.

I Remember.....

...... seeing the ware of a clothing club in the now empty Belsey Stores. Boots hanging from the ceiling and calico, etc round the shop.

...... Mr Dilnot had a Butcher shop on the corner of School Lane. Also in School Lane, Aunt Kate, where you could get a cup of tea sitting round the lovely fire, or buy sweets over the counter - gob stoppers or sherbet dabs .......

......At Mr Harrison's, the repairer ...... the old men used to gather in his shop and smoke his rank old papers, the smell of which seeped through our walls. Also he used to tip the water he used down our outside drain.....

.... Emma Dilnot ran the newsagents, and also sold cheese and sweets dispensed in the window. Many a time she has asked me to run an errard for her, giving me some horrible flavoured sweets in a screw of paper for my trouble.....

...... The Forge was at the bottom of Albion Lane.  Horses from the district came to be shod, and you would hear the blacksmith hammering out the new horseshoes on the anvil, after the metal being made hot in the furnace.  A lovely sight to see.......

..... On the other side of Albion Lane were two cottages (Rose). As they were on the slope at the bottom of the hill No.2 went up brick steps to get to Woodcocks Store, which sold groceries and around Christmas time sold sticky dates, which were broken off a large block......

....Mr Woodcock, himself a carpenter by trade, had a workshop in Albion Lane. I remember seeing the curly wood shavings all over the floor.....

......Uncle Ern, Dad’s brother, had an old black Wolesley that he used as a taxi, taking some of the business men to the station to catch the train to London. He also had a coal business ......