Saturday, 19 May 2012

Ye Old Chequers then and now


Dated 10 February 1906 (9:45  pm) with a message saying, "Dear M, If anything like fine I will be down tomorrow morning. Yours B."

Imagine that, being able to send a postcard in the evening announcing your arrival the next morning.  Now you would have to post the card during the afternoon, pay extra, and hope it arrived before you.  And it probably wouldn't.

This is what Ye Old Chequers in the the High Street, Tonbridge looks like now.





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The building to the left seems to have been demolished and the one on the right had been done up to match, but otherwise, it's remarkably similar.

Tonbridge used to be spelled Tunbridge but the Post Office decided it should be changed to Tonbridge to avoid confusion with the nearby (Royal) Tunbridge Wells.  Tonbridge, though, is a great deal older than Tunbridge Wells.

8 comments:

  1. I love the detail in the buildings. So pretty.

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  2. There is a nice Norman castle at the other side of the buildings.

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    Replies
    1. I didn't know that! I've looked it up now, and will visit before too long, I hope.

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  3. I too noticed the left building, like the horse, gone. Huntington, Google proudly tells me, is the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell. Also John Major later represented it in Parliament. I can almost imagine him taking a picture of this inn. (Major, not Cromwell.) Cromwell's grandfather owned the George hotel further on down High Street. But you knew that. It seems well kept up.

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    Replies
    1. I am, as usual, mystified. How did we get to Huntingdon?

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    2. I was led to believe if you can't think of anything germane, that you should make something up and comment anyway. What should I have said? - that Richard Nixon had a dog named Checkers? I think that would have been worse. Besides, when it comes to royalty, I'm kind of a Cromwell sort of guy. No offense. :)

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  4. Everything looks so spiffy with the white paint.

    I got my ticket for India - June 19th, hopefully for six months this time...of course, it's right at the start of monsoon season...but I'll manage. Maybe the rain will drown the mosquitoes. If you get to India...we must meet.

    ReplyDelete

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