TONBRIDGE
What a great way to spend our New Year’s Day exploring my dad’s and Rob’s past.
First stop a train ride to Tonbridge an hour out of London to a pretty town where my dad lived as a boy.
ST STEVEN’S CHURCH
We were first taken aback by the stone church which stands in the centre of town – St. Steven’s Church.
JUDD SCHOOL
We follow the road up the hill to The Judd School for boys where my dad attended 68 years ago. A very quaint stone building shows that this school is steeped in history built in 1895. As I looked over the playground it is hard to imagine this is where my dad played during recess. He was pretty much an all rounder at school. Loved his sport, history and maths.
HECTORAGE ROAD
We headed for a walk down Hectorage Road where my dad lived. It would have been nice to have dad walk with us and tell us tales of his childhood.
It seemed a lot colder here. Steam flowed from each breath we took. The sky was overcast and grey like real British weather. Apple trees grow on the foot paths to show how cold it gets here.
On our walk through Tonbridge we found a shop that sold fireworks. I remember the days when mum used to buy us a bag of fire works and poor dad was in charge of lighting them on cracker night on the front lawn.
We then continued walking towards the river. This is the new area of Tonbridge where warehouse apartments look out over the river. A very pretty spot.
Beautiful white swans float down stream under a very old bridge and water lock from the center of town.
TONBRIDGE CASTLE
A very tranquil and picturesque walk takes us to Tonbridge Castle. This castle is over 800 years old. What a great place to have spent your childhood.
OLD POST OFFICE
We finish our visit to Tonbridge at the Old Post Office now the local pub and beer garden. We had a great lunch here. The pub was quite large inside and was obviously a favourite spot for the locals as it was packed. We had a great cheap meal here for $20-00 including two pints of beer that came with the meal.
After lunch we headed back on the train just 10 minutes down the road to Sevenoaks, so Rob could show me where he used to live in his bachelor years. Check out our adventure in Sevenoaks in our next blog.
