Wednesday 23 September 2009

On the Way to Edenbridge

On the map, Edenbridge doesn't look a million miles away from Sevenoaks.  But as soon as you turn off the A25 on the B2042 there's a sense of entering deepest darkest Kent.   Twisting turney lanes bring meaning to the term a country mile which is re-enforced by sequential signs first detailing 'Edenbridge 2 3/4 miles' followed by 'Edenbridge 3 miles' a bend later.

When I first called Audrey who runs community groups on the Spittal Cross Estate and Jane who is the Hon. Curator at the Eden Valley Museum,  I was immediately excited by news of a reunion between people who once lived on the factory estates - built to house families enticed down from London by companies promising a better way of life in terms of new housing after the war.  So in my mind I was visioning estates with sensibilities of Ebenezer Howard's ideology.

Google Spittals Cross Estate, Edenbridge and see what comes up.  I grew up in a council house and am a little tired of peoples, in some cases, mis-conceptions of social housing and the type of people that live there.


Ebenezer Howard

Edenbridge definitely shows signs of accommodating a town of workers and their families.  Community centres, the Edenbridge centre, primary schools encased in the centre of a picturesque village high street, doctors surgerys, health and leisure centres and the best chips I've had in ages.


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