Black and white photographs make up most of the collection but there is also a scattering of colour images from the 80s.

Margate & Ramsgate

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A once impressive Victorian pier, Margate Jetty was lost to the sea in the late 70s.

It was closed to the public on safety grounds in 1976 and was severely damaged when it was overwhelmed by storms two years later.

The wreckage left behind after Margate's pier was sadly destroyed in 1978

Waves crashed through the structure - leaving the lifeboat station isolated in the water - as the wooden remnants of the pier washed up on Margate beach.

More than a dozen attempts were made to blow up its remains before it was completely erased from the seafront in 1998.

In Ramsgate, the town's allure as a summer holiday destination faded during the 70s due to the onset of cheap package getaways.

At its peak, the Marina Pool - down on the seafront below East Cliff - could attract as many as 5,000 people each weekend.

It survived five decades, but in the early 1980s succumbed to the same threats as many lidos at the time and closed forever.

A bird's-eye view of Ramsgate in 1979. The large lido is in the foreground, with the Royal Harbour beyond

In order to handle the demands of modern shipping, the existing port was constructed in the 80s.

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Now derelict, West Cliff Hall became a motor museum in the 1980s, while the Royal Victoria Pavilion - now the country's largest Wetherspoon - was turned into a nightclub and then a casino.

The Port of Ramsgate and the town's harbour as they are today. The lido has been wiped from the map and the port is a new addition since the 1979 picture above

Dreamland

Associated Leisure Entertainments Ltd was running the park in the 70s, with the giant Astroglide slide and water chute making their first appearances.

In 1980, the big ferris wheel arrived and a year later the site was taken on by Dutch operators and renamed the Bembom Brothers Theme Park.

The giant ferris wheel at Dreamland in Margate in September 1988

An admission charge was introduced for the first time and in 1989 the park played a starring role in the Only Fools and Horses special, The Jolly Boys' Outing.

The Bembom Brothers name was ditched at the turn of the decade in the 90s, as it returned to the traditional Dreamland title.

The view from Britain's tallest big wheel looking down across Dreamland, then named the Bembom Brothers Theme Park, in 1983

Medway

Cliffe Contractors Ltd is the grandfather of the Medway City Estate, having built the first office on the business park in 1985, after managing director David Fry bought some land on the peninsula in 1979.

The estate has expanded massively since, as have the notorious rush-hour queues to get off it.

The Medway City Estate taking shape in June 1986, just before construction work on most of the developments properly started. Picture: Sealand Aerial Photography
A fair bit of difference! The built-up Medway City Estate as it is now

The City of Rochester, the Borough of Chatham, and Strood Rural District Council joined forces to create Medway District Council in 1974. Gillingham chose to remain separate.

Eight years later, the borough was renamed as Rochester-upon-Medway - transferring the city status to the entire borough.

The mid-80s spelled the end of Chatham Dockyard as well as the neighbouring naval barracks.

Chatham Dockyard in September 1970
Looking towards Chatham's railway station from Anchorage House in May 1983

The closure - brought about due to a decline in naval power and in shipbuilding - sparked a massive surge in unemployment figures in north Kent. Before the final workers left in 1984, the dockyard was heavily involved in manufacturing and repairing ships for the Falklands War.

The unprecedented surge in unemployment left 16% of people in the area jobless as Medway tried to painfully adjust to a post-industrial economy.

Following its closure, it has been split up into what we know today, including the Historic Dockyard Chatham attraction, the universities at Medway, Chatham Maritime and the St Mary's Island development.

Rochester Bridge pictured in July 1986
The city pictured in 1970. Rochester's historic Sweeps festival dates back more than 300 years to when children were used as chimney sweeps and would be given an annual holiday on May 1. It ceased in the early 1900s but was revived in 1981 by Gordon Newton. The much-anticipated annual festival still draws in thousands

In January 1987, Kent and Medway was covered in half a metre of snow as the worst wintry conditions for two decades hit the county.

It was a staggering 52cm deep in East Malling - the worst-hit part of the south east.

Gillingham covered in snow in 1987

The Isle of Grain was cut off for 12 days, meaning doctors and midwives could not get to expectant mums.

Snow fell heavily for four days - leaving people stranded in their homes and cars buried under white blankets. Schools were shut for days, with Herne Bay Juniors shutting for three weeks because the toilets were frozen.

Later that month, Faversham became one of three places in Britain to have 15 consecutive days without seeing any sunshine, from January 13 to 28, which was a new record.

A white-covered Hoo pictured in 1987
An aerial view of the Arethusa Centre at Upnor, in 1986
A bustling Chatham Dockyard in 1975
The Kent Line terminal at Chatham Docks in the mid-80s. Picture: Alan Fuller

In 1962, Elliott Flight Automation was established with its large headquarters next to Rochester Airport - employing hundreds of people.

Italian firm Marconi - acquired by English Electric - bought Elliott Brothers in 1967. This was then acquired by GEC in 1968, which used the Marconi brand to market its defence businesses.

The GEC Avionics factory at Rochester Airport, now BAE Systems, pictured in December 1986

The name Marconi Avionics came into being in 1978 and changed to GEC Avionics in 1984.

In 1999, Marconi Electronic Systems - the defence arm of GEC - formed BAE Systems in a £7.7 billion merger with British Aerospace. Today, it employs about 1,400 people at the site in Rochester Airport.

BAE Systems, as it is today next to Rochester Airport
An overhead photo directly above Rochester Airport in 1980
Strood from above in 1982
Gillingham Business Park looking a little empty compared to how it is today

William Harvey Hospital, Ashford

In 1970, the South East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board covering east Kent put the long-standing medical facilities in the area under intense scrutiny with a view to replacing them.

A 30-acre site at Lacton Green beside the A20 road was chosen, where sections of the network were being adapted for the new M20.

The William Harvey site at Lacton Green, Willesborough, taking shape in 1973. Picture: Steve Salter

With a budget of £7-8 million, work started in 1973 and it opened in stages in 1979.

The first outpatients used the hospital from April 1979 with midwifery open for business by May 1 that year.

Although there wasn’t an ‘official opening’, the wards opened gradually every week until September 1979 when 95% of the hospital was open.

The 80s marked a visit from Princess Diana as patron of the National Rubella Council.

The William Harvey Hospital in September 1980. On opening it was proud to boast there should be ample free car parking space for staff, out-patients and visitors... but charges soon became a reality
Pictured at the same angle, the William Harvey as it looks now. To the right you can see the large staff car park and private One Ashford Hospital in the top right. On the left the M20 and Junction 10 can be seen beyond

Aylesford &West Malling

Smoke billowing from Aylesford Mill in 1970
A 1985 shot of the recently opened Tesco store in Larkfield
The gliding school at West Malling airfield, 1980
West Malling from above in 1972. Picture: Aerofilms, 4 Albermarle St London
West Malling airfield in 1981. It played host to the Great Warbirds Air Displays, an annual spectacle of mammoth proportions which always drew in immense crowds. The Kings Hill development started to take shape in 1989. Picture: Skyfotos
A view from August 1978 looking over Snodland. Old people's homes can be seen on the left in Rectory Close, with Saltings Road in the foreground, part of the Ham Hill estate, the cricket ground in the centre, Holborough cement works at the top and railway line and station to the right.

Dover

Skimming across the water from Dover to France in just 30 minutes, noisy hovercrafts were once a popular method of transport for those leaving Kent.

The original Seaspeed Dover hoverport was opened in 1968 and a larger £14m base at the town's Western Docks launched in the 1978.

Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd merged three years later to form Hoverspeed and services ran until 2000. The two hover vessels, the Princess Anne and the Princess Margaret, could carry 52 cars.

SeaCats ran until 2005 when the comfort of ferries, the success of the Channel Tunnel, rising fuel costs and the loss of duty free spelled the end of the road for Hoverspeed.

The hovercraft base in Dover's Western Docks, pictured in November 1978
Hovercrafts in Dover in 1973

Up on the hill overlooking the town, Dover Castle was used during the Cold War.

The Cuban Missile Crisis saw the country's leaders select the castle and its network of underground tunnels as one of 12 Regional Seats of Government to be occupied in the event of nuclear war.

The 'Dumpy' level, constructed during the Second World War, became the heart of the operation. Had it been required, it would have housed 300 government and military chiefs.

The complex was sealed against contamination and given air filtration and communications equipment including a TV broadcasting studio. It was eventually decommissioned in 1984 and handed over to English Heritage.

Kent's most impressive castle, Dover, pictured 40 years ago
The Dumpy (Deep Underground Military Position Yellow) level below Dover Castle was used in the Cold War

Scotney Castle

Winds reaching 110mph caused devastation across Kent in the early hours of Friday, October 16, 1987.

Four people lost their lives in the county to the Great Storm, with 15 million trees being toppled across southern England and northern France.

Every corner of Kent felt the full force of the biblical weather as hundreds of homes were damaged.

Trees were uprooted at Scotney Castle during the Great Storm of 1987. Picture: Mike Howarth/National Trust

Scotney Castle, pictured above, lost 400- to 500-year-old sweet chestnuts, some of which narrowly missed the house in its grounds.

Six out of the seven trees at The Vine, Sevenoaks, said by many to have given the town its name, were brought down by the storm.

Sittingbourne

Looking down on the town in 1973
A 1989 shot of the Eurolink Industrial Estate
Housing being built at Milton, Sittingbourne, in 1989

North Kent

An ever-busy Dartford Tunnel photographed in 1989

With the first Dartford Tunnel under the Thames opening in the 60s, the second was completed in May 1980.

Its opening allowed each tunnel to handle one direction of traffic, significantly boosting the amount of vehicles which could use the crossing each day.

Construction of the QEII Bridge began in 1988 before it opened three years later.

Construction of the QEII began in 1988
The Northfleet cement works in July 1970. Picture: Gravesham Libraries
Fire crews extinguishing a blaze at the AEI factory in Northfleet in July, 1986. Picture: Dominic Maniere

Bewl Water

Work constructing Kent's biggest reservoir began in 1973 - almost 40 years after the idea to increase the county's water supply was first conceived.

The £11m project was completed in 1975.

Bewl Water pictured 10 years after its completion in the mid-70s. Picture: Sealand Aerial Photography

With a surface area of 760 acres and a depth of 30 metres, the huge body of water, near Tunbridge Wells, can store more than 31 million litres.

That equates to the equivalent of almost one gallon of water for every person in the world.

Maidstone & Weald

Maidstone prison from above in 1989
Maidstone's prison as it is now. The changes from the 80s can be seen
Sissinghurst from above in 1978

In 1975, an IRA bomb ripped through The Hare and Hounds pub and injured two police officers.

Maidstone General Hospital opened on the outskirts of the town in 1983, replacing the 150-year-old West Kent General Hospital, while the Stoneborough Centre - subsequently named Chequers and then The Mall shopping centre - opened in the town seven years prior.

The centre of Maidstone in 1987

To accommodate increasing traffic, a second bridge opened over the River Medway at St Peter's in November 1978.

Leeds Castle hasn't changed much since 1988
Sutton Valence School dominates this aerial view of the village. The Church of St Mary, rebuilt in 1882, can be seen in the left foreground
Construction work at Blue Bell Hill in 1972
Another aerial photo from 1978, this time of Wateringbury
A 1978 shot of East Farleigh bridge, lock and weir on the Medway, with the railway station on the right
Yalding in 1978
Whitbread Hop Farm pictured in 1988. The historic site first hosted the War and Peace Show in 1982. It has since grown to become the largest military vehicle celebration in the world
Headcorn in 1972

Whitstable

During the 70s and 80s, the town was yet to stray towards its more bohemian-like style which has seen it become a trendy holiday destination.

In the early 1970s, the present Gorrell Tank was built underground, with the Gorrell car park - the town's largest - being in service above ground since.

Whitstable Harbour pictured in 1982, looking towards the direction of Tankerton

A vessel reflecting Whitstable's rich maritime history, the Thames sailing barge contributed significantly to the town's economy.

While their peak came at the turn of the 20th century, they still served as the workhorses ferrying goods to and from Whitstable until about 1970.

The Greta sailing barge - which was one of the ships to head to Dunkirk in the Second World War as part of Operation Dynamo - now offers commercial trips from Whitstable out to the Thames Estuary

Motorways

Having opened in 1963 as the Farthing Corner services (named after the nearby village), the M2 Medway Services - now operated by Moto - was given a big refurbishment in 1979.

The Top Rank Motor Lodge hotel was built in 1987 - it later became Granada Lodge, and is now a Travelodge.

The Medway Services in 1988. Operators of the site, Rank, coloured the buildings blue and yellow in a bid to offer a warm welcome to the county's visitors

With the first stages of the M20 opening in the 1960s, the stretch between Junctions 3 to 5 opened in 1971, followed by Junctions 1 to 2 in 1977.

In 1981, Junction 11, where the M20 crosses the A20 at Sellindge, to Junction 13 for Folkestone were built.

The M26 under construction in 1978. The M20 can be seen in the background, joined by the Wrotham bypass
And two years later... the M26 being built near to Wrotham in 1980. Construction of the 10-mile stretch of motorway began in 1977

Brands Hatch

One of the world's best-known race circuits, Brands Hatch hosted 14 Grands Prix - 12 British and two European - between 1964 and 1986.

In a championship battle made famous again by Ron Howard's Hollywood film ‘Rush’, the 2.4-mile track played a key part in the 1976 title race between Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

Lauda inherited that year's British GP after Hunt, who took the flag first, was disqualified for failing to return to the pits as per race procedure following a first-lap crash.

In 1980, South African Desiré Wilson became the only woman to win an F1 race of any kind by triumphing in a British Aurora F1 series round at the circuit.

Six years later, the West Kingsdown track hosted its final Grand Prix when Nigel Mansell took a famous win in his Williams-Honda.

Just a single car can be seen on the M20 in this photo of the much-loved Brands Hatch race circuit in August 1978. Part of the demanding Grand Prix loop can be picked out amongst the trees in the top left of the shot

New Romney & Lydd

The old Southlands school in New Romney, pictured in 1980. It is now the Marsh Academy
The centre of Lydd pictured in 1980. During that decade the airport was bought by Hards Travel. The firm used the site as a base for its holiday flights to Spain, Italy and Austria

Ashford

Eastwell Manor and its grounds pictured from above in 1976

Towering over Ashford for decades, The Panorama – previously known as Charter House – opened as an office block in 1975 following the start of construction two years prior.

Converted into flats in the mid-2010s, it was the headquarters for Charter Consolidated, a large British corporation with global mining interests.

Over the decades it housed various commercial occupiers including Stena Line and Santander, before being converted to residential accommodation in 2013 rebranded as The Panorama.

The huge Charter House nearing completion in 1975. Picture: Steve Salter
Ashford's ring-road sweeps towards Somerset Road in this 1974 view which shows the former Chambers Garage on the right

Almost everyone in Ashford has a connection to the expansive former Chart Leacon rail works in the southern part of town.

Neighbouring the former Cartier's Superfoods frozen food store - which then became a Tesco and is now a Matalan - the site opened in 1961 as a rail depot.

Refurbishing and maintaining rolling stock for decades, the once bustling workplace sadly closed in 2014 when owned by Bombardier.

The Beaver Lane site is now in a sorry state, with the old workshops recently being reduced to a pile of rubble.

A 1976 shot of South Ashford. The former Cartier’s store - now Matalan - is pictured on the right, with the Chart Leacon railway works on the left
Chart Leacon as it is now. The former railway works was flattened late last year
An aerial view looking towards Ashford's train station, with Charter House in the bottom right of the frame. You can compare it with the image below to see the contrasts between 1989 and 2021
Wellesley Road leading into Station Road as it is now on Ashford's ring-road. The Stour Centre can be seen on the left, with the station in the background. Ashford School is down in the bottom left, while the red dots are postal vans parked up at the sorting office in Tannery Lane

Throughout the 1970s, Ashford underwent a substantial alteration to its road system. The ring-road scheme was completed in several stages - starting in '71 and ending in '78.

Its construction involved land and properties being compulsorily purchased as the new road effectively encircled its way around the town’s heart.

The system was substantially altered in 2008, which involved making some sections two-way, reversing the traffic flow, creating the controversial shared space zone and introducing many more traffic lights.

As for the actual town centre, it was massively redeveloped in the 70s with the opening of the Tufton Centre.

By 1989, the shopping complex was deemed too old-fashioned and became the fully covered County Square.

Rolvenden, July 1978
Tenterden high street pictured from above 41 years ago, in 1980
Charing, 1989
Sellindge from above in 1989. Scores of homes are proposed or currently being constructed around the village

Folkestone & Hythe

Cross-Channel passenger ferries operated from Folkestone to Boulogne, Calais and Ostend during the 70s and 80s.

The introduction of a roll-on/roll-off ramp for two new ships in 1972 saw more than 1.2 million passengers depart from the town annually.

Folkestone harbour, 1971

But the emergence of larger vessels began to expose the limitations of shallower water depth at Folkestone. The harbour was sold in the 1980s, along with the ferry company Sealink, as part of the government’s privatisation programme.

Different firms took over the running of the ferries until SeaCats were introduced but later withdrawn at the turn of the millennium.

The remnants of the concrete ‘dolphins’ which carried the linkable ramp can be seen today by visitors to the renovated harbour arm.

Cheriton, pictured in February 1989
Taken from above the coast looking across to Folkestone. Many landmarks of the town can be seen here, including The Leas Cliff Hall and the zig-zag path
The impressive Hythe Imperial Hotel pictured from above in 1981
The centre of Hythe in 1980. The high street can be seen running through the middle of the frame

Canterbury

Just as Canterbury Cathedral does today, here it is dominating an aerial view of the city centre in 1971

The mid-70s heralded a huge change for Canterbury as the city centre became pedestrianised, with cars bypassing the old route through the city.

The 1980s saw visits from Pope John Paul II and the Queen Elizabeth, as well as the beginning of the annual Canterbury Festival.

Christ Church College originally opened its doors with just 70 students and nine teachers in 1962.

Christ Church College, now the CCU's North Holmes Road campus, pictured in July 1971
A 1976 view from the Cathedral's Bell Harry tower looking towards Mercery Lane and the high street

It was set up as a teacher training college in response to a national shortage of teachers and a first degree programme - Bachelor of Education - was introduced in 1970.

The first non-teacher training degrees were launched six years later. It has since grown and grown and went on to gain full university status in 2005.

The historic village of Chilham from above in 1976
An aerial view of Bridge
Looking down to King's School from the top of the Cathedral
Wincheap Roundabout pictured in October 1980. You can compare the scene to how it looks today with the photo below. Picture: Paul Crampton
Now more built-up, here is the roundabout and Rheims Way as it is today. The castle can be seen in both photos, while Canterbury East station is at the foot of the frame. Aldi supermarket, in the former Habitat building, is in the top centre

Deal & Sandwich

Deal changed forever in September 1989 when 11 bandsman were killed in an explosion set off by the IRA.

The Royal Marines School of Music blast, which also resulted in another 21 people being injured, could be heard from miles away, shaking windows in the centre of Deal and creating a large pall of smoke over the town.

The 6.8kg device went off in a sofa in the Coffee Boat recreation room, destroying all three floors of the building and damaging dozens of neighbouring houses.

Deal from above in 1971

Many victims were trapped in the rubble for hours and heavy lifting equipment was needed to clear it.

The IRA claimed responsibility afterwards, having rented a property in Campbell Road to plot the cold-blooded attack, which instantly attracted world media interest.

The heart of Sandwich pictured from the air in 1971
Sandwich, seven years later
An aerial view looking north of the main viaduct structure on the £3.6 million Sandwich bypass, which is being built here in 1979

Sheppey

Ridham Dock in 1989
Minster from above at the close of the 1980s
HMP Swaleside under construction in the 80s
A busy Sheerness Docks in August 1989
Sheerness Docks, October, 1978

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