This postcard shows Hoath Way in Wigmore in approx 1930. It's a postcard that was postmarked 1939 so the picture must be prior to that. It's titled on the back "Martin's Kiosk Wigmore Kent" and if you look very closely at the photo you can see a building in the centre with a sign on the roof indeed saying "Martin's Kiosk". The houses in the photo still exist but the road is a bit busier. Just to the right of where the man is standing is now the tunnel under the A278 that leads to Hempstead Hill.
The same location photographed in 2003. The house on the left is still the same although painted white and the large house still exists . The land with the kiosk appears to now be another house that has appeared between them
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Obviously the history of Rainham goes back more than 20 years but this website celebrates the 20th anniversary of going live at the end of December 2000 as a project I worked on over the Christmas break starting with some old family photos of Rainham and Wigmore such as the one below of Marshall Road from 1928.
Looking back it's fascinating quite how much has changed in that time both around the local area and in the way the website itself is setup and used. One of the first captures of the Rainham history website from Wayback machine is a 2005 version of the site shown below:
Back in 2000 broadband didn't yet exist and all access was via dial up modem so original photos on the site were very small to keep loading speeds down. Looking back at some of the early articles now it's amazing quite how small some of the photos are; one project for 2021 will be to replace some of them with much larger versions that can actually be properly seen.
Another change is that back in 2000 digital photography barely existed and all the photos I was taking for the site were on film. I got my first digital camera in 2002 which really helped for capturing changes in the local area. Pictures like the one below that I took in 2001 were some of the last ones I took with my film camera before mainly switching to digital - it wasn't completely digital as the Nikon Coolpix digital camera didnt have the same quality as my SLR with different lenses.
The photo below was taken in 2001 before the NHS building was constructed on the A2 High Street opposite Rainham Church on the site of the former Co-op department store. Next door was empty at the time and subsequently became No109 and Eight restaurant before becoming a Turkish restaurant in 2020.
Some of the first digital photos I took in 2003 were of the changes in Orchard Street when new housing was built and to document the M2 widening works and Channel Tunnel rail link over the Medway. Photo below of the M2 at A229 Bluebell Hill looking towards the River Medway at Cuxton.
The site has been through many iterations, initially hand coded in HTML it is now run via a Content Management system (CMS) to handle the number of articles and photos that are on the site.
In numbers the site now has almost 600 articles and thousands of photos of the local area. Most Action Forum magazines since 2001 have been scanned and are available on the site.
I have been very lucky with the help and assistance I have had over the years and would like to thank everyone who has contributed articles and sent in photos for the site. We are still quite light on photos of Rainham from the 1950s and 1960s so if you do have any of those from anywhere around the local area or of any local events please get in touch via
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Back in the 1970s and 1980s it was envisaged that the centre of Rainham would be bypassed so that traffic didn't need to queue through the section between Orchard Street, Station Road and Mierscourt Road. This was known as the Rainham Southern Relief Road and there was was another scheme - the Gillingham Northern Relief Road A289 & Medway Tunnel- that did go ahead with the Medway tunnel construction. You can see some of the old maps covering the Rainham area and the plans for the M2 here. The M2 was built in 1962/63 and this reduced a lot of traffic through Rainham but there was still a bottle neck around St Margaret's Church and Station Road where the road couldn't be widened.
The aerial view below shows the approximate route that the bypass would have taken.
Photo below of old bungalow and former Lukehurst warehouse opposite Thames Avenue junction in 2001. These buildings have been demolished and this area has now been redeveloped as a block of flats
To enable a bypass to be created a corridor of land was acquired or kept undeveloped south of Rainham between Maidstone Road and Mierscourt Road that would allow a road to be constructed at some future point. For whatever reason this road never took shape and eventually the land was sold off which allowed the building of the Gatekeeper Chase, Rainham Millennium centre and various housing developments along the route where the land was undeveloped or retained. This also enabled the redevelopment of the old Rainham Church hall on Orchard Street/Hurst Place into flats as a result of the Millennium centre construction.
This was Orchard Street in 2003 when the buildings in the photo above had been cleared.
The start of the bypass would have been almost opposite Holding Street where there is now a new housing development in Ashurst Place. You can see the overgrown land to the right of the terraced houses in this photo.
View from the church tower looking towards Gillingham showing the route the bypass would have taken with the new housing development in centre shot.
The Millennium Centre to the left and new houses in Gatekeeper Chase in centre and Ashurst Place off A2 to the right are very clearly visible in the photo below and mark where the route of the Rainham bypass would have gone.
By 1997 the scheme had officially been abandoned and the land was being released for planning permission and construction of new housing.
The proposed development included brownfield land between Orchard Street and Church path as well as orchard woodland between Church Path and Mierscourt. With the help of the newly elected Paul Clark MP the local residents managed to protect the woodland areas shown in the map below as A, B and C. However development in areas D, E, F and G did proceed which resulted in the Millennium centre in area E, Gatekeeper Chase in area D being accessed via Hurst Place and new flats on Orchard Street in area G and Gatekeeper Chase in area F.
New block of flats in area F visible from Orchard Street in 2003 before redevelopment of the plot labelled G. Millennium centre is visible in the distance behind the flats and St Margaret's church to the left behind the tree.
View up Orchard Street from A2 showing the development plot G with the new houses in Gatekeeper Chase to the left in distance.
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Memories of National Service by Vic Wickenden
I refer to the article in the recent Action Forum edition by the Secretary of the local National Service Association and I would like to convey my experiences.
I was ‘called up’ to commence my national service on the 1st March 1951 (age 18 years & 2 months). I did my initial training - 6 weeks - at the army barracks at Aldershot, then transferred to R.A.S.C. Barracks at Yeovil, Somerset to complete the full training. One good thing come out of this experience was I obtained a driving licence. The army engaged local driving instructors to assist. On completing the 13 week course, I was posted to the R.A.S.C. Barracks near Swindon, Wiltshire.
As I held a junior clerk position in civil street, I was given a position in the Company’s office, where I remained until discharged on 28th February 1953. In March 1952 the entire company were posted to Germany - Where we were based near Munster. I would add that I thoroughly enjoyed the remaining years of my service times, obtaining the rank of Corporal. However, despite pressure from my senior officers, 1 had no wish to continue as a regular soldier.
To summarise I believe National Service was a good scheme to assist in training young men to become good citizens.
Vic Wickenden
01634 26113
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I was born in Gillingham, but my connection with Rainham began early. One of my friends at Byron Road Primary School was Brian Jobber, who lived in Pump Lane, and when I cycled to his house we often Went to the centre of Rainham. As a teenager I joined the church youth club, held in the church school at the top of Station Road, and run by Captain Ambrose of the Church Army.
He was a very friendly and approachable man, who got on well with teenagers, and when he married, the youth club members made a collection for a wedding present for him and his bride. Friends I met at the club included Dave Turner, Bob Wicks, Johnnie Wood and Tom Stonehouse. In the early 1950s Reverend Jordan was the vicar at St Margaret’s Church. He was later promoted to the post of Canon at Rochester Cathedral and replaced at Rainham by Reverend Clifford.
My family had a connection with Rainham from the 19th century. One of my great-grandfathers, Thomas Wakefield (1846-1928), was the publican at the Three Mariners in Lower Rainham and his daughter, Eva, my grandmother (1876-1970), was a pupil at the church school in the 1880s. My days at the youth club were interrupted by National Service in the Royal Navy, but soon after my return and back at the club in 1957 I met the girl who became my wife, Pat Swallow, who lived in Solomon Road. We were married at the church in 1960 and the reception was held at the Green Lion. So this year we have celebrated our diamond anniversary.
The Green Lion pub in 2001
Some of my outstanding memories of the 1950s are the cinema, The Royal, in the High Street often known as the ‘bug hutch’, which had the innovation of double seats, which appealed to young cinema goers. The cinema was demolished in 1966 and is now the site of Lukehurst’s Furnishings.
The Coop was a dominant feature of Rainham life, with the grocery shop near the top of Station Road and a larger store in the High Street, with furniture, kitchen equipment, clothes and a branch of the bank. Much of this area is now the site of the Health Centre. Across the road stood grocers Vye and Sons, now a car showroom, next to the Green Lion. Two other venues, now demolished, attracted teenagers for dances, parties and other functions, the hall above the Coop shop in the High Street and the Church Hall in Orchard Street, on the site of what is now the entrance to Hurst Place.
Photo below of the site following demolition of the old Church Hall in Orchard Street in 2001.
Same site once construction had started
Buses were a frequent sight in the 1950s, run by Maidstone and District Motor Company and Chatham and District Traction Company. The latter company had five routes in the Medway Towns and number 2 terminated in the Webster Road cul-de-sac.
The A2 became quite busy during the 1950s and early 1960s before the M2 opened in l967. Trains were less frequent before 1959. Before then electrification went only as far as Gillingham and the old Victorian station at Rainham relied on steam trains to Victoria, or a change at Gillingham for the Charing Cross line.
Photo of Rainham station in the 1980s
Photo of M2 Farthing Corner services in 1960s known as Top Rank Services
To conclude with a later memory. In the summer of 1967 a 30 mile night walk to raise money for St. Margaret’s Church began at the church at l0p.m. and the route led to Key Street, then the A249 towards Maidstone, turning right through the villages of Burham and Wouldham, on to Strood and along the A2 back to Macklands in Station Road, the home of the Mackay-Miller family. Mr and Mrs Mackay-Miller, looked after the walkers very well by driving round the route and serving hot soup. I welcome any comments, including possible corrections in the next issue.
Arthur Kimber
22 Asquith Road Wigmore
(note: original reference to Tudor Grove changed to Hurst Place for Church hall location thanks to Maria Jarvis for spotting)
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Subcategories
Historical tales Article Count: 3
Historical tales
Rainham Life Article Count: 10
Rainham Life
Local Events Article Count: 48
Local Events
Photos Article Count: 143
Photos
Action Forum Article Count: 234
Action Forum is a free monthly magazine that is distributed to the Rainham area covering Wigmore, Parkwood and Hempstead as well. This archive covers old copies of the magazine dating back to its initial publication in 1969 and give a fascinating glimpse into life in Rainham over the last 50 years.
Link to Article Index - Action Forum Index - Photos and Articles from 1969 onwards