Stolen views of home-front production line
Reader Dave King of Burns Road, Barming, has sent in some interesting photos that belonged to his aunt. Doreen Hickmott was born in Maidstone in 1923 and went to the Central School on the Tonbridge Road, which later became West Borough School.
She was the youngest of four sisters and a brother.
When she left school she worked at Tovil Papermill. But later during the Second World War, in 1942, she joined the Tilling Stevens electrical works in Romney Place, Maidstone, as a coil-winder making motors for searchlights.
Tilling Stevens was a longestablished motor company founded in Maidstone by William Stevens in 1897.
Before the war it had specialised in the production of petrol/electric hybrid buses.
Like much of British industry, it was turned over to the war effort, producing Vulcan lorries, armoured cars, and searchlights.
Miss Hickmott’s hobby was photography – she never went anywhere without a camera – and she took these photos while working at Tilling Stevens. It’s a wonder she didn’t get into trouble, because taking photos of war work was illegal.
She left the company in 1948, and went to work at Alabaster Passmore in Tovil as a proofreader.
She married Albert Coppin in 1950, after the couple met at a dance at the Star Hotel in Maidstone. He was an engine fitter in the RAF.
They had a daughter, Linda, who was tragically killed in 1964 at the Archbishop’s Palace (then known as the Old Palace) during construction work on Bishop’s Way. The jib of a crane caught a telephone cable that was attached to a chimney on the palace. The chimney crashed down through the roof, crushing Linda, who was only 10, and who had just finished a ballet lesson.
A second child was also injured.
‘It’s a wonder she didn’t get into trouble, because taking photos of war work was illegal’