Memories of the thatched cottages in Church Street kindly given to me by Mrs. Kath Smith, née Harrison.

The back of the old Church Street Poor House cottages seen from the street.

“Between the doors were three windows, the centre window being the wash-house shared between two families, those on either side were the kitchen windows of each cottage.  There was a door in the kitchen leading into the wash-house where there was a copper boiler for both families to use but no water laid on, there was a tap outside for all the row to use.  Also in the kitchen was the staircase leading upstairs to the two bedrooms. For years the toilets were in a block at the north end of the block where three red brick houses now stand.
Later, Mr. Frank Austen, a local builder, and Troward Smith built lodges [sheds] with a toilet inside, partitioned off so that part of the lodge was for storage.  These were about half way down each garden.  Water was never connected to the cottages. 
The other side of the cottages [the opposite side to Church Street, see pictures 2-4 below. Picture 1 shows the Church Street side of the house, which was actually the back] had upstairs windows so the thatch didn’t come so low.  These windows were one between two bedrooms, half in each room.”

Later her family moved further down the road into Church Street Row but still had no water, again a communal tap served the row, or flush toilets until 1951 when Blackman’s of Dover built large lodges, one between two cottages, and these had a flush toilet for each family and a part of the shed for storage.  A cold water tap was connected to each house plus a kitchen sink.

Mrs. Smith passed away in the summer of 2015 and will be missed by all who knew her.