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John White recalls childhood memories living in Kent.
We didn't see much of my father's family until I was about 6 or 7. They lived in a house called Abbot's Fireside in the village of Elham. This was a large house at one time an Inn, and then converted into two cottages. It has since been turned into a restaurant. It was built in 1480 and has some beautiful carving over the fireplace.
Quote from The King's England by Arthur Mee 1935 'The Tudor House in the square now in cottages has an oak mantelpiece 1`0 ft long, some of it carved about 1500 and some in 1614. A marvellous piece of craftsmanship, it has four lines of work across it, there some most excellent faces and scenes of angels with dragons, Jonah and the Whale. The Raven bringing food to Elijah, Adam and Eve, and Noah's Dove'.
It was under this mantelpiece in the fireplace, or rather in the chimney, that we used to sit and roast chestnuts to perfection. From the time I was 8, especially at Christmas time there would be seven or eight, sometimes ten grandchildren, all sitting round the fire in the chimney roasting chestnuts while Mums and Dads played cards or drank Grandma White's home brew.
Don't forget boys on the left and girls on the right with an aunt on the bench where the sexes met!
Granddad White was only 5 ft 4' and not a very heavily built man. He used to be the wagoner at North Elham in his working life and they say his team of horses would do just about anything he wanted them to do, and he didn't have to raise his voice even, though sometimes he would have six or eight horses in his team.
Grandma White was a big woman almost 6 ft tall and weighing 16 or 17 stone. Unfortunately no one ever mentioned her family, but they did say that when times were really bad and food was in short supply when she was a little girl, they would catch hedgehogs, roll them in clay and cook them in an open fire.
Then they would rake them out, break the clay and the skin and guts would come off like crackling off pork
There was quite a family of Whites, twelve of them. There were nineteen grandchildren so at Christmas time when they all came together as in 1938 there was quite a gathering.
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