Anchor & Hope, Circa 1930

The poor old Anchor and Hope is closed once again, and has been for quite a few months. It is very sad to lose the local pubs.

Pre 1918 postcard of Stansted Church

Front and back of a tinted photo of Stansted Church. The printed 1/2d postage block suggests that this card is dated pre June 1918, as after then postage for a postcard increased to 1d. So this card is an antique!

Old photo of Stansted school and Malthouse Lane houses in Stansted

Here is a postcard showing Malthouse Road, Stansted, with the school on right, and the houses along the other side of the road. Barely a tree in sight, I am guessing the houses were not that old at the time of the photo being taken. The village hall is also missing, so predates that. An interesting find and an image I have not seen before.

A mystery to solve - New Tea Rooms, Stansted

Here is a mystery. I've seen this postcard before, and always assumed it was not our Stansted, but the Stansted where the Airport now is, because I can't place the house, or the road. However, the message on the back of this postcard says it is 11 1/2 miles from Maidstone, so that would be about right for us.

Can anyone solve the mystery of where this was in our area?

Still mulling over this... does anyone think that it could possibly be where the house called Jane's Farm (end of Hatham Green Lane) now stands? See below for comparison image. Looks about right to me, and would perhaps make sense for a tearoom to be there.

Editor update: I was close in my guess, but please see comments sent in, I now know this Tearoom was at the junction of Ash Lane and London Road (A20), so the road in the postcard is the A20, it certainly looks a bit different now.

I've also found a better quality image of the front of the card.

Old Postcard of Brattle Place, AKA The Hilltop, Stansted

All my recent findings seem to be old postcards found on Ebay, and here is another! Quite interesting, as I've never seen it before.

I had to look up Brattle Place, and it is what The Hilltop used to be called.

Have also never seen a picture of the Post Office with the white criss cross fence in front of it.

Doesn't have a date, but the postcard took a 1/2d stamp, and postage went up to 1d for postcards in 1918, so it pre-dates that.

Stansted from Plaxdale Green Road - old Postcard

An old postcard. Good view of the Black Horse pub, Church Cottage (with church spire peeking out behind) and the house down in the valley. Just look at how it contrasts with what you can see now! The white house has been much extended and you can only just see the chimney pot of the pub. Everything else has disappeared behind trees. I'm not sure what era this dates from, but that car looks like a Model T Ford, and there are telegraph poles. Very much a guess at sometime between 30s-50s?

1940s local pictures at Historic England - The Malt House, Stansted

See original here

Love this photo!Look at that pretty wild flower meadow in the garden...

1940s local pictures at Historic England - Old Manor Cottage, Stansted

See original here

Old Manor Cottage, on Plaxdale Green Road, with a recent photo from 2014

1940s local pictures at Historic England - The Manor, Fairseat

View original with date here

1940s local pictures at Historic England - St Marys, Stansted

I also research another area I'm very fond of, where my Grandfather lived near Banbury. Whilst doing that, I found these lovely photos from the 40s of Fairseat and Stansted. I'm going to post them individually, here are the ones of the church. 

See original pictures here 

Hodsall Street - Green Man, old postcard

I will hopefully get a better copy of this sometime, without the over mark. the pub looks very different now, with its white rendering on the walls.

The Moat, Wrotham Heath

A bit further afield, but a great local photo from 'ye olden times'. I give you.... The Moat. It would be nice to still have a very local swimming pool! And dancing on a Saturday Night!