Ca:  PICTURE

          POSTCARD

              DISPLAYS

C1) Rosherville

  Pleasure

      Gardens

       Kent.

        In 1815, steamboats started plying between London and Gravesend bringing great prosperity to the area. With these regular boat services, amenities started to spring up to entertain the passengers and one of these was Rosherville Gardens.

      These pleasure gardens were laid out in 1837 by George Jones in one of the disused chalk pits, covering an area of 17 acres. Their full title was the “Kent Zoological and Botanical Gardens Institution”. A pier on the River Thames was built and a railway station “Rosherville Halt” opened on the Gravesend West branch railway from Longfield junction on the London to Chatham line via Bromley South.

    They were a place of surpassing beauty and a favourite resort of Londoners. Adorned with small Greek Temples and statues set in the cliffs, there were terraces, and an archery lawn, Bijou theatre and the Baronial Hall for refreshments, and also at one time a lake.

    At night the gardens were illuminated with thousands of coloured lights, dancing and there were also firework displays.

    Famous bands such as the American Sousa were engaged during the season and Blondin, the famous trapeze artist also performed. In 1857 as many as 20,000 visitors passed through the turnstiles in one week.

    By 1880 the gardens had reached the peak of their popularity. In 1901 they were closed but had a brief revival between 1903 and 1911 where they were used in the making of early films.

C2) Rolvenden &

     Rolvenden

             Layne,

        Kent. 

    The small village of Rolvenden is situated on the main road from the town of Ashford to the coast town of Hastings in East Sussex, and is about three miles south of Tenterden.

    The village of Rolvenden dates from at least Saxon times and is mentioned in the Domesday book as Rovindene.

    In the reign of King Edward III this was changed to Riolvinden, and then changed again to Rounden in the late 17th century.

    Rolvenden village originally consisted of the Streyte located along what is now the A28 Ashford to Hastings road, which was almost entirely burned down in 1665, during the Great Plague (except for the church, pub and some farms).

    This caused the villagers to abandon the Streyte and move a mile down the hill to the common land of the Layne.

    At the Layne there was the Tudor house, where John Wesley later preached in the 18th century.

    The villagers later returned to rebuild the Streyte, resulting in the two small hamlets, the Streyte and the younger, smaller and quieter Layne that you see today.

 C3) Frittenden

 & Fawkham

          Kent.

    The village of Frittenden is a parish in the Tunbridge Wells District of Kent and is built on the flood plain of one of the tributaries of the River Medway. It is fifteen miles (24 km) east of Tunbridge Wells and three miles (4.8 km) south of Headcorn.

    Roman remains have been found near the old track that ran through the area, where pigs were driven into the forest of Andreadsweald. Frittenden is listed in a charter of 804, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles of 839 King Ethelwulf of Wessex gave the village land to St Augustines in Canterbury.

    Rumours of the Frittenden Treacle Mines were started by locals in the 1930s at the expense of gullible Londoners who would tour the area in their newly acquired motor cars, eager to visit the source of much of the world's treacle.

    The village of Fawkham Green is in the rural parish of Fawkham within the Sevenoaks District of Kent.

    The village is near the M25, M20 and the A20, Longfield and Eynsford are the nearest train stations, but unfortunately it is not served by a bus route.

    The village has a green with a pub, a village hall, farms, several schools, livery yards, a golf course, a private hospital and a large hotel with a spa.

   The village's main road winds

down a picturesque valley and walkers can benefit from access to several beautiful bluebell woods managed by the Woodland Trust.

    The parish church of St. Mary’s dates back to the 12th century and the annual village fete with dog show are held in its grounds.

    The international motor racing circuit of Brands Hatch is very near to the Village of Fawkham Green with it's main entrance on the A20 trunk road.

 C4) Lundy Island

    Bristol

     Channel.

    Lundy is an island in the Bristol Channel, which is eleven miles from Hartland Point in North Devon. The earliest date recorded for the opening of the British Post Office is the 3rd. March 1887, though it is unlikely that it did in fact operate until 1892, when the Post Office laid a cable from Croyde in Devon and built a stone hut where the cable terminated. 

     The first mails to and from Lundy were carried by the cutter “Gannet” based at Instow, Devon; and the service continued virtually uninterrupted until 1912.

    In thick fog on the 30th May 1906, the first class Royal Navy Battleship "H.M.S. Montagu" was making its way up the Bristol Channel, when a lighthouse was spotted.

    It was presumed that it was the South Lighthouse on Lundy, but it was the old (middle) lighthouse and  the ship was wrecked near Great Shutter Rock, in the South West of the Island.

    Due to severe storms during the next two weeks, it was unable to refloat the ship and it was dismantled during the 1906 summer.

    This display start with the earliest know used picture postcard of the Island and shows all of the Islands features, building and wildlife.

C5) The Great

Little Trains

      of Wales.

    The Great Little Trains of Wales is a group of ten Welsh narrow gauge steam railways, with some having a history of over one hundred years.

    All of them have the charm of the old time steam trains with plenty of polished paintwork and gleaming brass.

    Built in a time of less hast than our own, most originally served to carry Welsh slate from the quarries to the seaports.

    However, no two are the same and they all offer a unique experience of a bygone era and also some of the best scenery in the British Isles.

    The special attraction of narrow gauge railways lies in their modest size compared with main line locomotives, and their leisurely speed gives time to take in the splendid scenery. 

    The five narrow gauge steam railways detailed above have all issued "Railway Letter Stamps".