THE VINTEN FAMILY AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS WITH BRIDGE AND SURROUNDING AREAS
Charles Henry Vinten, his wife. Caroline Jane, and their family moved to Bridge in 1901 where they rented a small terraced cottage at 6 Brewhouse Lane (now 11 Brewery Lane).
Charles (born in Poplar, East London but brought up by his uncle in Sittingbourne when the arrival of a new baby threatened his parents with eviction from their rooms above a shipping office) had been working at Chilham as Head Groomsman.
When his employer decided to abandon horse-drawn carriages in favour of motorised vehicles, he was given the chance of Learning about motor cars and staying on as driver. He turned this down because he "loved working with the horses and didn't want anything to do with those new-fangled things”.
His wife, Caroline, caste from Temple Ewell, and her brother, Richard Friend, lived at Brookside Lodge in School Lane (now Patrixbourne Road) in. Bridge. He had a coal depot at the back of the Methodist Church and supplied the local gasworks as well as domestic customers, delivering the coal by horse-drawn cart. Charles Vinten took on the job of delivery man.
At the time of their arrival in Bridge, Charles and Caroline had three children - Edie, Eva and Charles. In 1902. Alf was born Followed by Jessie in 1905 (the baby in the family photo) and Florrie two years later. All the children attended the old Bridge School, until they reached the then school leaving age of 14.
At that time, as far as I can gather, the school consisted of two rooms separated by a partition. There were as many as four classes, known as "Standards” at that, time in one room so it was possible to "eavesdrop” on other lessons. Generally, most pupils had learnt ail they could by the time they were twelve so the more able ones were asked to help with the lower forms for the remainder of their time at school.
Jessie (my mother) always resented the decision of the headmaster not to enter her for the equivalent at that time of the Il-Plus because he said "her parents could not afford to send her to a Grammar School". Jessie conceded in later life that he was probably right because her parents were not well off but the. fact that she was denied even the satisfaction of sitting the exam and finding out whether she would have been good enough to go to a Grammar School remained a sore point for the rest of her life.
As recreation, the children played around the village, in the fields and river, often coming home soaked and covered in duck weed! They also used to be sent off with a picnic for the day to Whitehill Woods, something which no parent would dare consider these days. Hop-picking and haymaking were annual events with the