Letter from America

Continuing my focus on some of the people who have recently been in touch to talk about their connections to the Hoo Peninsula, I am today looking ‘across the pond’ to the sunshine state of California.

I was contacted last week by Susan Cox (Sue), who lived in Hoo as a child in the late 1950s. Sue lived in one of the group of semi-detached houses next to Dr. Tilley’s surgery on Main Road. Sue says Hoo was lovely back in those days, surrounded as it was (and still is of course) by some beautiful countryside.

Main Road, junction with Tilley Close.

Sue’s father built a small boat for weekend jaunts on the River Medway and the river forts are imprinted in her memory from those trips. (Seeing these river forts up close is something I must try to do myself soon.) There was a meadow on the walk to the river, which Sue recalls was home to an enormous Suffolk Punch draft horse.

Her family had a housekeeper, who she thinks had many generations of family from Hoo. The housekeeper often used to take Sue and her sister to the Church graveyard to care for a family grave.

Sue also has fond memories of the old Post Office on Main Road, what is today Hoo Spice. Here is another photo from local resident Arthur Vidgeon’s website, as the building looked in 1915 - along with a photo taken a few days ago.

Thank you Sue for getting in touch and sharing your memories of living in Hoo.

Would you like to share your stories, memories or old photos of the area? Just get in touch via the contact page.