Northfleet History Group - March 2012 Meeting.
THE HEARTBEAT YEARS
POLICING IN KENT 1945 - 1970
Roy Ingleton
An almost ‘full house’ of members gathered in St Botolph’s church hall on 6th March to hear Roy Ingleton recall some of his experiences as a policeman in Kent in the early post-war period. Back then, people had much more respect for authority than seems to be the case today and the local policeman was considered to be a fundamental part of the community, indeed most villages were said to be run by the vicar, doctor and policeman. These were the days when the ‘bobby’ walked the beat or at best had a bicycle for transport, carrying just a discreetly concealed truncheon, a whistle and a torch and the only means of communication with his police station was the nearest telephone box.
In the towns he patrolled the streets after dark, trying the door handles of the shops to ensure no one had forgotten to lock up, and would call out the key holder to any unlocked premises. He reminded us of the ‘mods and rockers’ who invaded the seaside towns in the 1960s and of the horrendous Bank Holiday traffic jams on the A2 and A20 before the motorways were built, which the traffic police did their best to sort out. He also recalled the hop pickers who descended on places like Paddock Wood and kept the local policeman busy when they left the pubs at closing time.
Of course, as he said, it was a lot easier to spot the villains in those days as according to the newspaper cartoons of the time, they all wore a striped jersey and carried a sack marked ‘swag’!
The floods of 1953 After an interval for tea David Jewiss entertained us with some of his personal recollections and photographs of the floods which engulfed the New Northfleet Paper Mills and employees’ cottages when the river wall was breached in 1953. David’s informal style of presentation and graphic description of the problems encountered when hastily moving furniture to the upstairs rooms and how elderly ladies and the large number of factory cats were rescued by rowing boat ensured that everyone had a highly enjoyable and often very amusing account of what was, at the time, quite a devastating event.
In the towns he patrolled the streets after dark, trying the door handles of the shops to ensure no one had forgotten to lock up, and would call out the key holder to any unlocked premises. He reminded us of the ‘mods and rockers’ who invaded the seaside towns in the 1960s and of the horrendous Bank Holiday traffic jams on the A2 and A20 before the motorways were built, which the traffic police did their best to sort out. He also recalled the hop pickers who descended on places like Paddock Wood and kept the local policeman busy when they left the pubs at closing time.
Of course, as he said, it was a lot easier to spot the villains in those days as according to the newspaper cartoons of the time, they all wore a striped jersey and carried a sack marked ‘swag’!
The floods of 1953 After an interval for tea David Jewiss entertained us with some of his personal recollections and photographs of the floods which engulfed the New Northfleet Paper Mills and employees’ cottages when the river wall was breached in 1953. David’s informal style of presentation and graphic description of the problems encountered when hastily moving furniture to the upstairs rooms and how elderly ladies and the large number of factory cats were rescued by rowing boat ensured that everyone had a highly enjoyable and often very amusing account of what was, at the time, quite a devastating event.
