Classic pictures of Christmas in Kent through the decades, from 1930s to 2000s

phayes@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 05:00, 24 December 2022

In December 2001, Eastenders star Adam Woodyatt flung signed pictures of himself into the huge crowd awaiting the Christmas lights switch-on in Folkestone.

Seventy years earlier, a butchers shop in Ashford proudly displayed a selection of meat prepared for the town's festive market in 1931.

Adam Woodyatt, who plays Ian Beale in Eastenders, at the Christmas lights switch-on in Folkestone in 2001

A rare shot of the butchers shop in Upper Denmark Road, Ashford, run by Frank and Win Brown. Hygiene laws were more lax with the meat always hanging outside the shop, including this selection prepared for the Christmas Market show of 1931. Picture: Images of Ashford by Mike Bennett

These snapshots are among dozens of classic pictures of Christmas celebrations in Kent taken throughout the decades which we have dug out of our archives...

1930s to 1950s

This picture from 1939 shows the impressively orderly scene at a Christmas party for poor children in Maidstone. The Kent Messenger organised the parties every year from 1891 until this final one. They were halted because of the threat of bombing after the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Kent Messenger's Christmas party for poor children in 1939

Three days before Christmas 1942, bombers destroyed these homes in Grosvenor Road, Kennington. Picture: Images of Ashford by Mike Bennett

This picture was taken at one Christmas during the Second World War at The Valiant Sailor in Capel, near Folkestone, which was always open in defiance of Nazi shells

The Luftwaffe's raids over Kent were relentless - even bombing houses in Kennington, in Ashford, three days before Christmas 1942.

Photographs from the 1950s suggest the festive period was a more formal affair in those days.

A photograph taken at Bilsington WI's Christmas party in 1950

Midnight Mass at St Michael's Roman Catholic Church in Chatham, Christmas 1956

A picture from 1956 shows St Michael's Roman Catholic Church in Chatham packed for Midnight Mass.

The tradition of going to church on Christmas Day has fallen away in more modern times, with just 9% of people saying they intended to in a recent survey.

1960s

There would have been cause for celebration, no doubt, among some young men as Christmas approached in 1960.

On December 31 of that year, the last man was called up for National Service, as conscription ended.

Children's Day was a major pre-Christmas tradition in Ashford High Street when families turned out in their thousands to greet the arrival of Father Christmas. Here staff from Crouch's Garage pose with their 1962 float entry. Picture: Images of Ashford by Mike Bennett

It was a bleak Christmas for Castle Inn licensees, William & Ethel Lack, in 1962, as they were faced with the imminent demolition of their pub to make way for the new Canterbury ring-road

With Christmas barely gone, the snow made a seasonal postcard of Canterbury's skyline in 1962

Father Christmas (umpire Sid Burton) watches J Worrell on his way to take six wickets for Sturry, as Canterbury Choughs batsman Malcolm Longley looks on in 1965. The Boxing Day cricket match at Sturry was in aid of the League of Friends of Canterbury Hospitals

The Christmas decorations in Dover's Market Square in December 1968

Christmas lights in Sittingbourne in November 1968

As the decade ended in 1969, the Christmas number one went to Rolf Harris with his song Two Little Boys.

1970s

Prime Minister Ted Heath was in Kent for Christmas 1970, conducting a carol service in Broadstairs, where he grew up.

And he was back to do it all over again two years later.

Ted Heath, now Prime Minister, conducting Broadstairs carol service in December 1970

Prime Minister Ted Heath was back in Broadstairs to conduct another carol service in December 1972

Queue for petrol in December 1973 ahead of the 'three-day week' being introduced

Folkestone harbour with the partly-constructed Hotel Burstin in the background in December 1974

The Queen spent five hours at Canterbury Cathedral inspecting the restoration work being carried out in December 1976

In December 1979, Prince Charles made radio contact with ships in the Channel from Langdon Battery. the new coastguard station at Dover which he officially opened

With echoes of the disputes we are seeing this Christmas, the decade was disrupted by a series of strikes.

In 1973 rail workers, civil servants, firefighters and ambulance drivers all took industrial action at various points as inflation was rising.

In December of that year, Ted Heath announced a number of measures, including the Three-Day Work Order, which limited commercial consumption of electricity to three consecutive days each week.

1980s

The decade brought us Christmas classics such as Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas and Wham's Last Christmas - as well as Shakin' Stevens.

The Christmas Lights were up in Chatham in November 1980

The Christmas Lights at Sheerness in November 1985

Rachel Malic came face to face with the Princess of Wales at the William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, in December 1985. The Princess, as patron of the national Rubella Council, met women who had been vaccinated against German measles

Christmas shoppers out in Gillingham High Street in 1989

In 1986, the Eastenders Christmas special attracted the highest audience of all time for a TV drama - a record which stands to this day.

Incredibly, 30.15 million people - more than half the population - tuned in to see Dirty Den serve divorce papers on his wife Angie.

In November 1989 a flu epidemic struck, with more than one million people in the UK infected by Christmas Eve. Between 19,000 to 25,000 deaths in the UK were attributed to the disease. The outbreak led to an increase in the use of flu vaccinations.

1990s

By Christmas Day 1990, construction workers had drilled through the final wall of rock to join the two halves of the Channel Tunnel and link Britain to France.