Ashford Electricity Works Lindum House and Victoria Park
Ronald Peter worked at the Electricity Plant and the new family home, Lindum House, was rented to him by the Electricity Generating Board.
Lindum House was situated on land within the boundaries of the Ashford Electricity Works. It was a strange place to grow up in, idyllic in some ways but set within a large industrial site. The house was basic by today's standards but rather nice. It was semi detached with a large garden and tall privet hedge boundary. The garden to the south side had two lawns, roses were planted in central beds and borders. On the North side the garden was less formal, vegetables were grown here, poultry were kept for their eggs and, briefly, rabbits for meat. To the North East corner of the garden were some larger trees (see map below) that attracted rooks and all along the lane there were flowering cherry trees.
If you look at the image below the two houses are just to the right of centre. To the north was the main London to Dover railway line and just beyond that was Ashford livestock market and its railway sidings. There were two very large power generation plants; the older one was built (I think) in 1926 and is to the right with its cooling water ponds to the south, the newer mid 1950's power station was yet to be built to the left of scene. Immediately adjacent to the house were the enormous heavy oil fuel tanks used by the old power station and to the foreground were the 'dig for victory' allotment gardens. In its early years the 'old' power station, which was operated for the local Urban District council, used several of the largest heavy fuel oil generators in the country (for information refer to the Paxman company history web site). At the end of the lane on the left was the local gasworks. The locale made for an interesting mix of fumes, noises and exciting but, I suppose, risky places in which to play as a child.
To the south of the house were open views across the allotments (which Ronald Peter abandoned attempts to cultivate), a water meadow with cattle and then the River Stour and Victoria Park with its splendid Hubert fountain.
As Ronald Peter's son my childhood memories are of the surrounds to the house. When no-one was looking I'd play on the gantries of the enormous deisel generators, it was always warm, noisy and everything smelt of the fuel. The picture at the top of this page gives a small sense of the scale of the engines with Dad at the base of one, the start of a gantry ladder is behind him. There was a blacksmith employed by the works and I'd 'help' in his forge operating the bellows. The blacksmith seemed a nice man, always busy with his work but always welcoming, he made me the swing that stood in our garden. The ponds were a great place to play, teeming with great crested newts and good for launching large pieces of wood as if they were boats (I fell in more than once). The passing steam railway locomotives were an atraction, I'd look out for the Golden Arrow on its way to France or just stand on the open footbridge as the steam was pumped up from the passing trains. Occasionally Victoria Park to the south hosted an old travelling fair wth attractions in tents such as boxing and 'naked' mermaid displays, I can remember being chased away from the perimeter of one of those events.
I hope to have more to add regarding the Electricity Works and will update as soon as I can.
Ronald Peter (Dad) lived and worked here through to retirement. Subsequently the power generation site was closed and, faced with the prospect of having his home demolished, he and Bridget took the late in life and very brave decision to buy their very first home.
When I visited in 2012 the entire site has been cleared, all that remained were the concrete bases of buildings, the ponds were empty and overgrown, some of the taller trees were still there. Part of the land is used by the Channel Tunnel railway, the bulk was scheduled for redevelopment with supermarkets, housing and car parks.