Topic: Gordon Barracks, Gillingham

[Bilgerat]

My dad worked at Gordon Barracks in the period up to closure for the Property Services Agency. When I was in primary school, we went on a school trip to the Barracks to watch the Band of the Royal Anglian Regiment play. That would have been in the late 70's, probably 1978.

After closure, most of the barracks was demolished almost straight away, except for the pavilion on the sports field, where the cricket club my dad used to play for played. That was still there as late as 1983.

[kyn]

Thank you for the additional information bassingbourn

[bassingbourn]

I came across this forum whilst searching for information about Gordon Barracks.  I was stationed there from 1968 until 1970 with 4th Bn The Royal Anglian Regiment.  In 1970 the Battalion was disbanded and I moved to 3 R Anglian.  I first lived in the corrugated metal huts in Kirkee Terrace and then moved to a house in Roorkee Road.  The tin huts as we called them had a living room, one bedroom and a small kitchen.  My wife loved the place.  I remember the main guardroom and the smaller guardroom and gate (leading into Roorkee Road) in Darland Avenue.  When the Battalion went to Bahrein the smaller guardroom was locked for the night - something which would not be possible now.  The Officers Quarters were at the back of the camp near the bridging area.  So sad to hear that the camp no longer exists.  I just found out that another camp where I was stationed, Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambs, is also closing.  Fond memories of both camps where several of my children were born.

[JON PHILLIPS]

I used to live at Gordon Barracks between about 1966 to 1970 at the age of four onwards  (block 15 it was a singel tin hut ) My dad was a Colour Sargent it used to be on the edge of a big field with football and a rugby pitch, where they used to do pt in the morning  with telgraph poles. One side there was a chain link fence with horses in a field on the other side that was on the right as you looked out of the front on to the field. The far side was the perimeter and one of the two entrances with guardhouse .On the left was the road in lined with trees. houses where on the other side of the road and a kids park as the road comes towards block 15  the road to the naffi goes of at 90 degrees away from the field. then an air raid   shelter and a large covered water tank  the road the turns to block 15 .just to the right of block 15 there were some conker trees to the chain link fence. On the other side of the road opposite  block 15 I think was the officers mess. When I was there was a big fire one night and some of the barracks where burnt down .as a kid we used to play up the MP's and where always getting chased but alwas felt safe as there where no civies aloud in .The other entrance was closed at some time when I lived there.

Grammar and punctuation added by Admin!

[kyn]

A mention of an incident at Fort Darland (prison).

15 April 1947

I now come to the most important of all the clauses, Clause 9 (Army Act). As I think most of your Lordships know, a great deal was done during the war behind the scenes to study and improve the system of punishment in detention barracks. Quite apart from high-lights in the Press like the Fort Darland incident, this matter was under continual study and observation for some years. There was the Dempsey Committee which reported in 1941, as a result of which there were established special training units which had nothing to do with military corrective establishments. To these units were sent only young soldiers who had done one term of detention and who, in the Commanding Officer's view, were likely to do more unless sent there. Then there was another type of training unit for more serious offenders.

[peterchall]

Hello Michael,
Those photos bring back memories, although I can't remember if the roads were actually named when I knew them. Do you know if No7 is looking towards Darland Avenue? If so, it is outside of the Detention Barracks and one of those huts was a NAAFI in 1944. No8 looks like the Singles Block or the Sick Quarters of the Detention Barracks, and No3 looks like what I remember as the Dining Hall at the east end of the Detention Barracks Parade ground. Problem is, I'm not sure if we're talking about the same parade ground, all the buildings were to the same style, and I'm sure the same colour as when I knew them.

And welcome to the forum

[kyn]

Thank you for sharing your memories with us 

[Michael]

I lived in Gordon Barracks, age 3-7, 1963-1968. My dad was a staff sergent in the engineers.We lived at 12 and13 kirky ? (spelling) terrace, they were tin huts/houses,  9 kids in the family !
I have fond memories of living in the barracks and what i think was a training area that went as far as bowaters roundabout. The entrance gate/barrier was on Darland Avenue. Darland Banks was a favorite area for us also.
One of my less favorite memories was sliding down a sheet of corrugated iron that covered the entry to one of the bomb shelters, it caved in and i ended up at the bottom of the steps, i had banged my head quite badly and was terrified, im not sure if i knew it was a bomb shelter at the time when the earth opening up and swallowing me, it was a bit of a surprise, a bigger kid carried me home and all was well in the end.
The roads didn't seem to have any moving traffic in the baracks, there wernt many cars about then, some cars that were about were bull nosed type cars where the doors open the opposite way, me and a girl from over the road would eat peas from the pod, uncooked i think ? while sitting in one of these old fashioned cars. A time of innocence and happiness
I found theses pictures
 
http://www.southeast-defencephotos.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=103

[peterchall]

Taking Valentine Drive and Saracen Close as the North Boundary of the Detention Barracks and its other 3 sides as Bailey Drive, to the north was the Singles Block and Sick Quarters, to the east was the Cookhouse/Dining Hall and possibly some accommodation huts, to the south was accommodation huts and to the west was, I think, admin huts. The entrance was where Centurion Close is. So the dip is where the parade ground was in 1944-1945, perhaps with its east end under the cookhouse, and was definitely flat ground with ‘Soldiers under Sentence’ getting worked almost to death by doubling with backpacks full of bricks. (In fact that did happen to a Rifleman Clayton in the middle of the war, and caused a major uproar regarding conditions in the barracks).

Even going in there as a civilian, it was an unpleasant place to be.

[davidt]

Fascinating stuff about an area that I knew absolutely nothing about. I work on the business park and I had no idea of what used to be there before. I thought it was all just woodland, apart from the old fort. I'd never heard of Gordon Barracks until this evening.

I was directed here by Spekes Bottom as I put a question on general chat about the big green dipped area in the middle of the business park down the footpath between Bailey Drive and Ambley Road. I was wondering what it was.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Bailey+Drive,+Gillingham&hl=en&ll=51.364674,0.575677&spn=0.002331,0.004823&sll=51.34421,0.525851&sspn=0.001173,0.002411&oq=bailey+drive&hnear=Bailey+Dr,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=18

Having read all the posts on here it looks like it must have been something to do with the barracks. I watched the pathe film from Sapper571's post and I initially thought it might be the area over which the bridges were built. Peterchall's map, however, would put it where the detention barracks was. Why would there be a big dipped area there? Anyone got any ideas.

The information about Ripon Avenue was interesting as I was past that cul de sac most days. I got the impression something used to be there but I had no idea what. It's still undeveloped with no sign of anything being done on the site.

[bromptonboy]

Cracking photograph! I can only just recall it like that as a youngster. I think the aircraft is over Twydall estate with Twydall Lane in the bottom left-hand corner. The white area in the foreground is the old Plant Training area that is now over at Wainscott. Up in the top left quadrant is I think the dry-gap bridging area. At the top-right of centre are the former Officers officers houses some of which are still there. In the area bounded by the A2 and the Anchorians Club there is a little group of buildings that look remarkably like original barracks buildings. I must go fo a closer look!

[Galgo23]

Aerial view over Gordon Barracks in the 1960s.





Photo obtained from NA3T Transport Photos. http://www.transportphotos.com/road/photo/GM00171-08

[seafordpete]

You can get a list of available aerial photos from English Heritage NMR at Swindon. You can order on line -give a grid reference and they will send a list of photos and dates taken with direction of the fly over. You can then buy a copy for about ?20 or ask for a confirmation photocopy which (if they bother to charge) is about 20p. The photo copies I have had have been excellent quality

[peterchall]

The Ordnance Depot moved to Ashford during the winter of 1945/46. The question arose as to whether my father would move there or leave RAOC employment. He chose to leave, otherwise I might have been sending my posts from the Ashford area!

[MedwayDweller]

Thanks for the info people, it's driving me nuts that I'm not in the area just now. Typical, I'd lived in Gillingham for forty years, move to South Bucks for a couple of years and find this site and it's soooooo frustrating not to be able to nip over to the places mentioned on here, places I'd taken for granted all this time. Saying that, i've always had a nostalgic affection for the towns.