To ask you to help me recall a memory

[user1471451355]

Hi all! Posting here for traffic. Sorry my username isn't a bit more scintillating.
I'm from the States, but back in 2004 my parents and I spent some time in and around London. We stayed at the most lovely bed and breakfast, and I would dearly love to find it online and show pictures to my DH, but neither of my parents seem to be able to remember so much as the name of the area we were in. I was only about ten years old, but I have some of the happiest memories of that trip.

Here is what I do remember! It was a very large, very old house. At least it seemed very old to me as a child, though I do seem to remember hearing the owner talk about its history. I remember being very impressed by its size and grandeur! It was owned by a woman. I believe she had a husband and children as well but I never saw them. Her elderly mother lived there also. It seemed like it was quite a long drive from where we got off the ferry after crossing the Channel. It wasn't terribly far from London, but far enough that we only stayed there a few nights to recover from jet lag before proceeding to a hotel from which we went back and forth to London. I think it was probably quite a standard village; I remember stone houses, horseback riders, children in school uniforms, etc all of which were of course quite novel to me!

I realize this is barely any information whatsoever, it certainly hasn't been enough for me to turn anything up via Google. Even though it's a long shot I am so hoping it rings a bell for someone! We had disposable cameras along but only a few blurry pictures were taken, though I can see it all clearly in my mind, and I'd love to revisit those memories with a bit more information.

[user1471451355]

www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g635679-d2490523-r322581593-Cedar_House_B_B_Rochester-Rochester_Kent_England.html

This looks somewhat similar, but I'm 98% sure it isn't it. Ours was much more...unrenovated, so to speak. They had only started using it for a B&B that year, I think, and they said business wasn't going too well yet. Maybe it closed up and I'll never find it!

[user1471734618]

Don't disappear though, OP, this is an excellent challenge!

When you post the photos from your parents we will all be poring over them with magnifying glasses...

[user1471451355]

I have emailed my mom and hopefully she'll get back to me in the morning!
The two of them still go on lovely trips and come home with five blurry photos. And that's with two iPhones and a nice camera between them!

[wonderingagain21]

If it was daylight when you saw the cliffs and evening by the time you arrived I think we need to look way beyond Kent.

[shouldwestayorshouldwego]

At times you say village and other times town. I realise that the scale is probably different for you but roughly how big was it? Was the village/ town centre all cobbled or just the pavement? Could cars drive through the centre or just people? Cobbled streets are actually quite rare in UK now. What sort of shops were in the centre? Useful ones (mini supermarkets, haberdashery, bakers) or tourist ones (gift shops, art galleries) or bigger shops - any which you recognised Mc Donalds/ Starbucks? In a Kent town then often just a section is cobbled/ quaint so given over to tourist stuff whereas in a village it might all be quaint. Could you see fields from where you stayed? Were you near to sea/ river? Was the journey mainly motorway or lots of country lanes? Did your parents plan to visit there, had they booked, or just driven until tired?

What time of year was it? Were there lots of the school children indicating maybe a secondary school nearby. I think that it is likely that you are looking for a secondary school uniform as primary are plainer and fewer walk alone to school. I am assuming that the dc were unaccompanied (no parents). Possibly a grammar school.

Try looking at images of Canterbury, Rye, Tunbridge Wells, Tenterton, Cranbrook, Whitstable, Faversham.

[wonderingagain21]

Old towns often use very local building materials so knowing the type of buildings would help. Can you remember what the old houses in the centre of the town were like -were they red brick or maybe stone. If stone, was it grey or a creamy yellow. We're there old beamed houses painted pretty colours? Do you remember seeing any houses with a thatched roof?

[user1471451355]

Sorry, are village and town different there? Here they're interchangeable.

Only a small (footpath, maybe?) portion was cobbled, I think.
Cars could drive through it, we didn't walk at all as I was exhausted.

Didn't go in any shops but none were recognizable to me; so I expect no chain stores? I don't recall seeing any fast food restaurants like McDonald's. We stopped at a very small place for fish.

I grew up in a town with 300 people, and this town didn't seem exceptionally large to me. Larger than I was accustomed to, certainly, but not huge.

Parents had made reservations. I think they chose it because it was a historical house and it was somewhat central between the ferry and London.

We could well have driven through other towns on the way and I'm mixing my memories up a bit. Dad is a history buff so we would've detoured to look at anything remotely interesting.

It was early December. I don't think I saw large groups of children; maybe two groups of 10-20.

The actual house was away from the town a bit, down a lot of little narrow winding lanes, and it seems like there were fields around it and it was set back off the road.

[shouldwestayorshouldwego]

wonderingagain21 it does of course also depend on the 'efficiency' of the Dover border checks - although by then I think the border was Calais, even so if the cliffs were seen on the approach to port - say 20 mins out then it could be up to an hour to dock, unload, go through security, find the right exit road etc. It also depends on the route taken. It can take over an hour and a half to get out of Kent. Say in late August you could approach Dover at 7 in daylight and not reach Sevenoaks until 9.30.

Did you eat an evening meal on the ferry/ on the way/ when you reached the B&B/ hotel. Where did you eat out other days. Was there a lot of choice of restaurants? Takeaways?

[user1471451355]

My overwhelming memory feeling is of general "grayness" which I am sure also had to do with it being December! It was rainy and not very pleasant weather. No red brick, I would've noticed that as I love red brick buildings! I think they would've been stone and maybe white brick.

[NoahVale]

Was it Rye?
was it near the sea
or somehwere in Surrey?

[wonderingagain21]

if it was December then it would have been dark by 4.30 so ignore my previous comment about looking beyond Kent

[shouldwestayorshouldwego]

Sounds more like a village - up to a few thousand people or small town. Can possibly rule out Canterbury, Medway towns, Sevenoaks, Ashford, Tunbridge Wells and Thanet. Were there hills? Was the village/ small town on top of a hill? Not a big hill - we just do little ones down here. Were there any Oast houses? They are quite distinctive, your father might remember them.

[NoahVale]

it was only 10 years ago!
cant think why anyone cant remember

i am confused as it whether it is a historical house or a Holiday Inn

[shouldwestayorshouldwego]

Tudor or mock tudor? Georgian houses? Try googling the different styles as that can identify the age of the village.

[shouldwestayorshouldwego]

Think the Holiday Inn was the second hotel in London. Although a historical Holiday Inn would narrow the search considerably!

Dh meanders around France, couldn't tell you half the names of villages we've camped in.

[user1471451355]

Well, I was a small child, and my parents have traveled a lot before and since, atop being the "charmingly scatterbrained" types!

Haha a historic Holiday Inn would probably be much easier to locate!

[JasperDamerel]

How many children in uniform were there? Did they look as though they were on their way home from school (carrying school bags), or just going out for fish and chips while still in uniform? Were there just one or two ( who might have been walking back from the bus stop) or enough to suggest that the school was very nearby? Were any of them wearing a blazer, like a heavyweight, fairly square-cut suit jacket? If so, what colour was it? Were there any boys in uniform? Were the skirts knee-length or longer or shorter? If it was early December, and dark, and you saw girls in school uniform, then you probably arrived in the village

[JasperDamerel]

...at between 4 and 5 pm.

[LostSight]

Just googled for tartan school uniforms in Kent ( pretty rare, I should have thought) and came up with Milsted. Maybe worth a look.

[LostSight]

Sorry, Milstead...

[JudyCoolibar]

Have you tried showing you parents a map of Kent to see if the names of villages and towns jog any memories?

[Caipora]

This is fun. I don't have much to add except if it was December it would get dark early so Kent is still a possibility.
Also tartan uniforms usually mean catholic school, at least they do in London, perhaps Kent is different, but that might help narrow the search.

[Palomb]

This is Tonga all over again.

[shouldwestayorshouldwego]

More Kent tartan skirts here and and here.

[Caipora]

Just googled. There's a girls school in Folkstone with a uniform exactly like you describe and the town centre has narrow cobbled streets. Perhaps you didn't go far at all. Have a look at b&b's around Folkstone