https://i.imgur.com/yRlen1N.jpeg

Tonbridge again but this time probably around 1945, judging by the headlamp covers on the MG (?)

You could turn 180 degrees here and find yourself more or less seeing the same view shown in my first photo

https://i.imgur.com/WTcaW05.jpeg Old view of The Chequers Inn

The building at extreme right was in the 60s & 70s to become the premises of Hepworths Gentleman's Outfitters, where I bought my first suit

Does 'Home Town' have to be where one was Born and raised?
Or can it be what You consider as your Home town now?

Whatever you consider was your home town or is now your home town

Even the local nick?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnShqMkcAb0

A nice place for a half day visit if you're into that kind of thing, but being brought up there as a youngster was a living death, I have been told by Aunt Priscilla that the town has livened up a bit a lately, bored housewives are smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine like it's going out of fashion.
There'll be very few virgins over thirteen left unmolested these days, in my day they were fifteen year olds, the recreation grounds were always full of tampons and condoms and the Kama Sutra book could be borrowed for 24 hours if the price was right, Rupert who owned the book must have made a small fortune.

Ah the memories are coming back of school days at Wallsend High.......They're probably all dead now......The Music teacher Mr Watchorn was a card carrying communist and proud of it. There was Metho Mack who was an out and out alcoholic, poor Mr Dick....who looked the part and had a lot of trouble disciplining his class, "Snapper" the Maths teacher who kept pushing his bottom dentures out .....a dead ringer for the Fish.

Wasted 6 years of my life, learnt nothing, suffered Puberty......

https://www.kdtroeger.de/bfue0133.jpg


A postcard from my current hometown Uelzen, Lower Saxony, postwar, probably 1950s.


Upper Left: Town Hall, looking towards the north. The historical city centre, for at least half a millenium. By now it's the old town hall (a new one has been built about 400 metres further south) and has been thoroughly renovated. One of it's more memorable uses is the anual advent calendar, as pictured below (November 30th, 2024)

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/pic...ictureid=13629


The road in front of the building originally was the crossing of two major national roads and saw a lot of traffic, but late in the 1990s several road building projects moved the traffic outside of the city center, and today the entire area is a 10 km/h (6 mph) speed limit zone, surrounded by a 30 km/h (18 mph) zone, and twice a week it's made into a pedestrian zone for a farmers market.

Upper right: Railway station. Heavily modivied by now, the buildings to the left and to the right are gone, the main building in the middle has been completely refurbished prior to the 2000 World Expo to a design by renowned artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Lower left: "Outer Mill", next to the river. Originally outside the city limits, it still is on the northern edges of the town. The building itself still exists, but the bridge is gone, replaced by a road bridge a few meters away. The bridge is part of a road built around the eastern side of the city.

Lower right: Bahnhofstraße, the road between the city centre and the railway station, looking twards the east (not entirely sure about that). You'd barely recognize it today without the caption. The road is gone and replaced by a pedestrian zone, some of the buildings in the pictures are gone, the others have been modernized and thoroughly changed. Most of the houses were torn down because of war damage, which would not have been put on postcards but otherwise was still a common sight in the early 1950s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPjyCrsZ-xU

My current/"forever home". This guy knows his stuff and really showcases the joint. "Gentrification" is not a bad thing , it's highly desirable.

Lots of old photos and footage...now it's dogsh#t everywhere, agro drugs/redbull, and don't make eye contact.

All the old guys....Ilsa, Ben, Laurie, Maggie, Carol, Denise, Russell, Madam Hildegard,....they've all gone :wah:

Tonbridge Castle
 

https://i.imgur.com/IuIHmtu.jpeg

I photographed the gatehouse from the motte or mound a few years back - recent photo below shows how much of the Norman castle remains


https://i.imgur.com/X3g4Mkf.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/hGOIzqk.jpeg
Here's a little Victorian pot I found in an antiques shop - in Lincolnshire of all places, where I live now. Back then the gatehouse was covered with ivy

https://i.imgur.com/UCkeCcJ.jpeg

An old postcard showing the other side of the gatehouse. There used to be a British WW1 tank parked here and more recently an old naval cannon

(with a nod to Mr. Lehrer)


https://youtu.be/NdCOZBLAcuQ


I really have a yen
To go back once again
Back to the place where no one wears a frown
To see once more those super-special just plain folks
In my home town

No fellow could ignore
The little girl next door
She sure looked sweet in her first evening gown
Now there's a charge for what she used to give for free
In my home town

I remember Dan, the druggist on the corner, 'e
Was never mean or ornery
He was swell
He killed his mother-in-law and ground her up real well
And sprinkled just a bit
Over each banana split

The guy that taught us math
Who never took a bath
Acquired a certain measure of renown
And after school he sold the most amazing pictures
In my home town

I remember Sam, he was the village idiot
And though it seems a pity, it Was so
He loved to burn down houses just to watch the glow
And nothing could be done
Because he was the mayor's son

The guy that took a knife
And monogrammed his wife
Then dropped her in the pond and watched her drown
Oh, yes indeed, the people there are just plain folks
In my home town


:up: