West Malling, 1965 to 1989 by Graham Warner

I remember fondly life in West Malling, during the period 1965 to 1989.  My grandad Jim Warner ran the greengrocer shop on the A20 next to what was then the telephone exchange.  We lived in a large house opposite the shop called Villa Suecia (after a place my grandad stayed in Spain).  The land all 10 acres known as brickfields was where my grandad grew all the produce to sell in the shop, from apples to pears, plums, strawberries to potatoes he grew the lot.  He used to tell me stories of him cycling up to R.A.F West Malling on his bike with an ice cream churn on the front during the hot summer months of World War II to sell ice creams to all the pilots and crew stationed there.

Later after his sad death in 1967, my Mum & Dad (Val & Mary) took over the running of the shop & soon the old shop was pulled down & a new one built on the same premises, turning half into a greengrocer & the other half into tea rooms.  When this failed to see much profit they eventually turned into selling camping gear, ie. tents caravans trailers etc. then tragedy struck the family again in 1978 when my Mum died of cancer and I  went to work at the shop.  We carried on selling camping gear until 1981, when we eventually leased the whole lot to Gordon Songhurst who to this day runs Songhurst caravans from the same place.

I then went to work for I.C.M. (plastic moulding factory) in Swan Street where I spent five years working for George Heart who then ran the factory, before getting married in West Malling Church in 1986 and moving to Maidstone.  I now live in Torquay in Devon but I will never forget my days in the garden of England.