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As a child, I spent many glorious Summer holidays in the charming seaside village of St. Mary’s Bay in Kent. Memories of it include the famous Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway, the Holiday Camp (or School Journey Centre as it became), the Dymchurch Funfair and the Sands Holiday Motel.
Sands Holiday Motel, St Mary’s Bay, August 1982
Neither the Holiday Camp nor the Motel still stand. I have many memories of the School Journey Centre as my parents, both teachers, took parties of children there for many years during the Sixties and Seventies. I have even more memories of the Motel, where as a child I stayed on many occasions in the Seventies and early Eighties.
Over time, this site will be populated with pictures, documents and other records of this village in a gentler, bygone age.
I will start off with some photos from my own collection (like the one above) … but you can help!
Please send me your memories, photos, scans of postcards or other ephemera, stories and recollections of St Mary’s Bay Village, the Light Railway, the Holiday Camp, the beach, shops – anything in fact, including surrounding villages all the way from Dungeness to Hythe. All of your contributions will be gratefully acknowledged.
Did you stay at the School Journey Centre? At the Motel? Have you taken the RHDR to Hythe and back? Climbed the lighthouse at Dungeness? Built sandcastles on the beautiful beaches?
If so, I would love to hear from you!
Help me make this a suitable tribute to a place that gave me, and I’m sure many others, so much pleasure.
Thank you! – Simon
Best holidays i ever had at st marys bay 1970s. My mum used to rent bungalows for our holidays best memories of my life. Ide love to move there and die there.
Back in about 1952 we started taking our 2 week holidays at St Marys bay . I was 7 at the time and we used to stay at a private chalet behind a small cafe run by the Smithson family .This stood where the road called Gazedown is now.
At the time our family comprised mum dad and 2 younger brothers 3 and 5. We had a tiny Morris car that some how got us and our luggage and the family dog to our holiday . It is still a mystery how we got us and all the stuff in that tiny car of which I am reminded when I see that model at vintage car rallies
Traveling from Chelsfield Kent to St Marys seemed to take endless hours but was probably about 3 as we didnt go more than about 40 mph and because there were no fast roads then you had to go through towns like Sevenoaks and Ashford adding to the journey time.
The holiday for those couple of weeks seemed always to be hot and sunny and hours spent on the beach I vividly remember together with the Raiiway and lighthouse – all wonderful memories.
I still visit this area in the summer for a bike ride and try and remember those much slower and gentle times – oh for a time machine !!!
Nan and Grandad, Flo & Bill Long, used to live in Willowbank Close and together with Mum and Dad, Joy & Roy Jones, we went down every month for a weekend, and of course our two week summer holiday. Loved the winters – when there were no ‘visitors’ , we “weren’t visitors” in our eyes, the Bay was ‘ours’. Sadly those days are long gone, and parents and grandparents no longer enjoy The Bay. But there is a newly installed Bench, just up from the slip-way, where we would love you to ‘join us’ and sit and recall your happy memories. You’ll see the Bench – it’s Joy & Roy’s.
I could believe it when I saw your comments about your grandparents.
We stayed in their bungalow next door for a number of years.
Mr & Mrs Long I knew them as.
I have been saying to my family the last few days.
They let me use an old tricycle & on a Friday we went into their house to see crackerjack, we were told only visitors that did that
Our surname was Price
Every year as a child, me and my sister and mother went to st Mary’s bay, loved it there best beach anywhere easy walk to dymchurch, loved the breakwaters and building sand castles, love to hear from you dave hornett
Hi, I was a Spanish exchange student who spent about one month in St. Mary’s Bay, in the Summer of 1977. I lived with the Harts, a lovely couple with two small kids, Christian (about 1 y/o) and a little girl (about3) whose name escapes me now. I turned 13 there and I have wonderful memories! Let me known if you’d like me to share some of them!
I went on school journey to St Mary’s Bay back in 1973 and had a great time. I have such fond memories of that part of the world and especially going on the Dymchurch railway. Planning on going back with my husband this year to show him where I stayed as I have never forgotten the place and the lovely memories I have of it.
I recall visiting in the early 1960s on school trips organised by Mr Maurice Capper, headmaster of Benwick School in the Fens. Memories are blurred, I can see the dorm clearly in my mind and the dining hall and trips on the railway. I remember the Beatles’ song “She Loves You” was No 1 one year. Anyone else out there?
I went for 2 weeks with my primary school, Manor Lane, Sunbury-on-Thames in 1967. I remember sleeping in the dormitories and having 5s pocket money. The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway was a particular high spot. In th evenings we had hot chocolate and biscuits and Dr Syn stories were read to us, over the intercom I think. I do remember huge trays of scrambled eggs at breakfast, full of large lumps and slightly green for some reason. It was a really magical holiday never to be forgotten.
Hi Anne, I think my father would have been your headmaster that year! You might even be in this video which he took of the 1967 trip: https://youtu.be/RmrHL5IfLSI
I was born the next year and spent many summer holidays at the Sands Holiday Motel across the road! Thanks for visiting the site!
Simon
I recall we had a school holiday trip from Luton probably summer 1958. The camp was a collection of low single story buildings and dormitories like a military barracks. There was a pretty girl from another school who looked like she was always crying. I wonder why and what happened to her? The light railway was amazing. We went to the lighthouse on Dungeness. Think I drew a picture of it. This was before the power station. My first seaside holiday.
I remember going to St Mary’s Bay with my secondary school in the late 60s-early 70s. That holiday has always stayed with me and I remember the good times I had with my school frirends. Our school was in Edgware Road West London an all girls school and I remember the dormitories we stayed in and the discos we had there too. Dymchurch and the beach and the big open green space around the chalets where we enjoyed sports during the day. We had lots of fun – I came across this site whilst looking for anything relating to St. Mary’s Bay. Brilliant holiday that I enjoyed as a young teenager.
Hi my family use to rent a bungalow in jefferston lane for our holidays in the late 60s early 70s went back a few years ago could not believe it was still there the coal yard next door is now house’s and the garden is smaller but the bungalow was how I remember it was a shame to see the big ship on the corner as you enter from the sea road has gone remember going to get our buckets and spade’s before hitting the beach.
Hello
I lived in St. Mary’s Bay from about 1961 until about 1967. I remember that once, there was an all-day “pop festival” held in the grounds of the children’s holiday camp: there were a number of well-known groups that performed and the Swinging Blue Jeans were the headliners. However, every year, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the place was transformed for “processing” turkeys – I won’t go into the details of the process!
Hi Janet,
my dad worked at the camp and helped with the turkeys every year. All the local women ‘plucked’ in those days, and us kids had to pull our weight. Two things I will never forget, the clouds of feathers that used to hang in the air, and the smell! I still have a flag from the ‘Big Bay Beat’.
My Mum organised Big Bay Beat! Swinging Blue Jeans headlined with Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders and a Band if Angels. The event was over a weekend and had twelve local bands playing including The Lonely Ones of which Noel Reading was lead guitarist – he went in to join Jimi Hendrix at a later date. Mum had the Beatles lined up first but they got signed up with EMI and their first record hit No1, and their price went up!! I still have a programme somewhere.
I also worked atChristmas plucking turkeys! They were Romney Marsh Sultans! And one was always supplied to No 10 Downing Street!
Mum was the Manager of the School Journey Centre and I spent many hours there and at he Sands Hotel whuch she managed before moving over the road. So many happy memories
Hi Pat, was your Mum Ann(e) Wild? I remember her when she managed the Sands Motel. She appears in a clip from one of my father’s old 8mm films – I will post a link. Thanks for visiting the site!
Hi..I lived with my family in St,Mary’s Bay from 1941 to 1955, my parents lived there until 1965. During the war years the Army took over pretty much every thing….the Children’s camp, known then as The Duke of York’s Holiday camp, Sands Hotel (which was bombed and several troops were killed one Sunday morning) and several of the larger houses, the beach was fenced off with barbed wire and no access until war ended. Most of the residents had relocated to safer homes and quite a number of children had
evacuated so there were very few of us! My sister and I went to Hythe by bus to school. After the war ended the holiday camps popped up and it became a very busy place….there were parties of children from London every week coming to the Duke of York camp, The Rugby Club was used by Londoner’s, I remember in particular the Bryant & May’s matchworks ladies…..when I was in Australia a few years ago I was introduced to a chap who had grown up in Dunstall Lane….rather younger then me, but who knew many of those I had grown up with…..small world. It was a lovely village, quite busy in the season but what memories we have….I am going back soon for a short holiday, I wonder what I will think…I have been back a couple of times over the years…..always big changes, but somethings never change…..we shall see!
Hi I stayed at St. Mary’s Bay holiday camp for 2 weeks every August from 1970-1975..aged 5-10.
I was with a group of 60 children aged 6-14 .The holiday was arranged by Sister Rosalie from St. George’s cathedral, Lambeth. We were all from a Catholic background with one parent families /families in need. It was undoubtedly the best holiday a child could ever wish for.
Hi, In the mid ‘70’s, I spent a summer in St. Mary’s Bay,, living with a host family, the Harts. I was part of a group of young Spanish school kids, like an exchange program. I have the fondest memories of my time there, where I turned 13 years old. The Harts were great and very nice to me. The beautiful countryside, the quaint houses, double decker buses, red telephone booths, Historic railroad and trips to nearby Hastings and Brighton made for amazing memories that last to this day. it is a beautiful area, it was a wonderful era.
My Grandparents, Phillip and Gladys Evans lived in Windrush, Orchard Road. They had made money from whist drives and an engineering company called Everidge based in South Darenth. They had owned a small detached Bungalow called Karoonda since before WW2. It was named after the place where Grandad Evans brother lived in Australia. He had been killed in a motorbike accident before he could marry an Australia lass who carried a torch for him for the rest of her life. They owned the land adjacent to the Bungalow and had Windrush built there in the 1950’s. The chlidhood of my brother and myself is full of memories of holidays spent there. Our Grandparents also built 3 other properties in the vicinity used as Holiday lets – Centaur, named after the aircraft carrier my uncle spent his national service as a l;ieutenant, Raventoy, which is an anagram of my parents names (Vera & Tony) and Laughing Waters that I named because of the trickling water from the adjacent bridge
My parents were life-long friends of Phil & Gladys Evans. They lived at Greenmantle, Orchard Road, and Uncle Phil & Auntie Glad called in after driving their Humber Super Snipe down after a whist drive, My parents were Gilbert and Mabel Jones, and I think you may have played with my sister, Gillian, and me in our garden.
My parents moved us to Bradford in around 1952, and they visited your parents in Aldbrough St John.
My parents, together with my wife and I spent a weekend at Windrush in the 1970s with Uncle Phil & Auntie Glad. Auntie Glad was very ill, and died shortly afterwards, and Uncle Phil visited my parents in Bradford often (by now in his fern green Jaguar and accompanied by Josie, his Labrador).
I wonder if any one would be interested in various extension / building drawlings for various properties across the trees estate as it is now known
My grandfather who lived at no 3 yew tree road was a draughtsman and was regularly called upon for various projects by a local builder.
They are all tracings and I have yet to go through them and will post once sorte the locations
That would be interesting to see – can you send any scans through to info@stmarysbay.org.uk? Thanks!
I am a keen miniature railway enthusiast and have been researching the railways on which a locomotive I owned operated on. I have a photo of the locomotive running on a railway which looks to have been close to a beach which is just captioned ST. MARY’S BAY.
This is definitely NOT the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. The photo was taken in the mid to late 1940’s and the locomotive was called The Empress. The railway may not have been there very long as the locomotive was running in Barking Park by 1950. Any help with identifying the railway, its location and any memories would be very helpful.
Bob Bullock.
I went to St Mary’s Bay in June 1972 with my junior school,St. Anselm’s from Harrow. All these years later I still have such happy memories of that trip,such as the endless days playing football, cricket and rounders,not forgetting the athletics tournaments. I kept meaning to go back there but never got around to it until 2012. Sad in many ways to see that the camp was gone,replaced by a housing estate. The railway, however,remained the same even if much of the ride to Dungeness seemed to be going via people’s back gardens! The beach is beautiful, even though the old groynes where we used to be grouped have now gone. Oh,and the river that used to run alongside the camp was still there,complete with kingfishers. Such lovely memories.
Hi Danny, I was one of the teachers based at St Mary’s Bay while you were there in 1972
I love this website for the history and story of the Sands Motel and the School Journey Centre. Thank you very much for creating it and helping bring back and confirm a few memories which would otherwise be long gone! I can’t believe I discovered this website about 15 years ago but never left a comment at the time. However, to be fair I don’t have many memories, and to begin with I couldn’t even remember the name of the Motel before I happily landed on this site and filled in a few blanks.
In 1975 I stayed at the Sands Motel on a school holiday. My memories are few and not very exciting but reading other posts here it sounds like some previous guests are in the same boat as me, so although I have little to recall, someone might find this mildly interesting, or maybe someone is even reading this who went the same year?
Before going on the school holiday I recall our teacher telling us about where we’d be staying and saying we were only allowed to stay in the Motel as a privilege because our school had a good behaviour record (or such like) from previous visits. Whether that was true or a way of trying to ensure everyone behaved, I have no idea! For most of us it was no doubt our first holiday without our families and I can remember being waved off outside my school in Hampshire as our coach was ready to depart. I think we stopped off at Bodiam Castle on the way. What follows is, as I said, very sketchy. It had puzzled me for years when I thought back to this holiday, knowing we stayed in a motel yet recalling taking our meals in some kind of dormitory or military style building, possibly across the road, and I wasn’t sure if that was an accurate memory until this website helped to confirm that we must have been taking our meals at the School Journey Centre across the road. All I can recall of the dining experience was that “Whispering Grass” by Don Estelle & Windsor Davies was popular at the time and one of the staff who dished the food onto our plates as we queued up used to sing that song as he did so. Honestly the silly things one remembers yet forgets the important bits! At first I wasn’t sure if I went in 1974 or 1975 but this song being in the charts in 1975 suggests that’s the year I went! I seem to recall we were warned of weever fish on the beach and the thought of stepping on one was scary. Also that our class was asked to see who could be the first to find a sea mouse (I think)? I’d never heard of one, let alone know what I was supposed to be looking for but by chance I found a dead furry looking thing on the beach and was declared the winner (don’t recall if there was a prize)! As always on such trips, I was given a small amount of pocket money to take, and I bought my parents a resin owl thermometer ornament with “St Mary’s Bay” written on the front. I think it cost 40p. I still have that ornament for sentimental reasons, and in later life when I married, the owl got a mate as my husband’s family had an identical one with Butlins written on the front! Finally, I also recall going on the RH&DR railway but nothing specific other than Dungeness stuck out in my mind as being pretty unique.
Some 34 years later, back in 2009, my husband and I were on a weekend break at Camber Sands and took a trip on the RH&DR for nostalgic reasons as he’d also been on the railway as a child. It was lovely trying to relive those memories and we got off the train at St Mary’s Bay as I wanted to see if I could find the Motel (not having researched its location or any information about it first). Sadly it turned out I wasn’t quite looking in the right area and missed the empty site where it had once stood, so later looked it up and found an aerial map of the site upon which I could still make out the shapes of the Motel building, swimming pool and semi-circular paddling pool left in the ground. How wonderful it would have been to have stood there and I wished I’d researched the location before my visit. We did return to the RH&DR a few months later but had guests with us so didn’t have time to take another look. I see that houses and apartments are now being built on the site but am pleased they’ve named the development “The Sands”, taking a nod back to the past, which seems oh so long ago now. Happy days!
(Note to admin: I have no photos of importance. In fact one black & white one I took of the end of the Motel building is almost identical to one you have on this site but of lesser quality. Excellent website – thank you very much.)
I used to go there in the 80’s as a teenager with my mum, stepdad, brother and friends to stay in Maple Drive, a bungalow owned by my auntie Pat and uncle Johnnie, who lived in London.
It was a great place for young teenagers (from 12 upwards) to go even though we spent lots of time in the amusement park, on the beach, or being driven to Rye, Hythe, Folkestone and Hastings.
The motel is long gone and I don’t think we ever went on the Romney and Hythe Railway.
I recall a lot of French exchange students spent the summer there.
As I young teacher in 1969 – 1972 I helped take two dozen Czech children from polluted London to the golden beaches at St Marys Bay. Our Cz Pastor Fr J Lang and I drove them in an old bus with no seat belts, often low on petrol we sang Czech folk songs and ate the food prepared by their parents for the journey.
We bunked in the old Nissan huts of the Camp and played games on the surrounding grass.
Chased the waves in those carefree days of healthy, free activities and returned the youngsters with sun-
kissed skins, bright eyed and memories. Now I write narratives of the lives of those WW2 parents who had to make new lives in a far away country.
Just looking up St Mary’s bay and noticed your comment and name and was wondering if you are related to the famous WW 2 pilot Karel Kuttlelwascher