Local History
A Short History of Walderslade Village
Having spent many hours searching through the archives of both Walderslade & Chatham libraries I finally discovered an article on the history of Walderslade Village from a 1992 copy of The Walderslade Advertiser. It was hidden away in an old cardboard box but unfortunately only covered the period from 1918 to present day. Despite some extensive searching I could not find Part 1 of the article.
Some 6 months later I was put in contact with a local historian, Miss Kissick, who I'm pleased to say provided me with the missing years. So then what follows (thanks to Miss Kissick) is a short, but complete, history of Walderslade Village.
Since then I've received a number of e-mail's from all over the world. The first from a Mr Doug Reeve whose family lived in Walderslade for many years. I've added his memoirs and some wonderful photographs taken in the 1920's.
More recently I've been contacted by Diane Osbourne (now Nusbaum) who now lives in the USA. She has very kindly provided some more recent memoirs from the 1950's.
Ian Cox who now lives in Australia has submitted a personal view of moing into the village characters.
Hazel Lonseth (nee Olliffe) who again now lives in the USA has kindly taken time to recall life in the 40's, 50's and 60's illustrated with some photos.
So if you have any memories or old photos you would like to share then please contact Walderslade On-Line. In particular we would like to hear about the old prison camp on Hook Meadow playing fields.
Index
Early Man
Not many relics of early men have been found in Walderslade but enough for us to be certain that they visited the valley. At the beginning of the 20th Century flint implements were found which were unimaginably old. They dated from a time when the climate was tropical and elephants roamed the valley.
At least two Ice Ages, each lasting 20,000 years or more, have come and gone since early man chipped the flint into shapes which he could use. Flint axes from the period 5,000-2,000 BC have been found in the surrounding woods. Between 1,800-500 BC Bronze Age men managed to leave a metal axe in Robin Hood Lane and a couple of gold bracelets in Lordswood. After that there is a gap. Romans were present in Luton, where there was probably a villa, and may well have visited the valley, but they left no remains in Walderslade other than the ubiquitous sweet chestnut tree, which they brought to England form the Mediterranean area.
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The Saxons
After the Romans came the Saxons. They left no solid objects but we know they were present because they left us local names. The name "Walderslade" itself is Anglo Saxon meaning "wooded valley" (wald = wood; slade = a valley or dell). Darget's Wood is the "wood by the deer gate". Swingate is "swine gate" probably named after pigs which were an important animal is the Saxon rural economy. Beechan Bank retains an Anglo Saxon grammatical ending in it's name. Unlike their bretheren further north, the Saxons of Kent were never defeated by the Vikings but over a period of time Saxons and Vikings merged by inter marriage. Eventually, in the Autumn of 1066 William of Normandy defeated Harold of England and it was William that left us the Domesday book.
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Domesday Book
Walderslade is not mentioned in the Domesday Book as it was part of the manor of Chatham, which was given by William to his half brother Odo, the Bishop of Bayeaux, together with more than 200 other manors in Kent. After several years William and Odo fell out with each other. William confiscated all the manors which he had given to Odo, and from that time onwards Walderslade begins to have a history as a manor of it's own. It became separated from that of Chatham as did the manor of Settington, further down the valley where Maundene School now stands.
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Walderslade Manor
Walderslade Manor was centered on The Homestead, the house which stands a short distance down Princes Avenue. Until the late 1800's it was a working farm also referred to as Walderslade Farm.
During the 13th Century the manor was held by the Leybourne family whose castle can still be seen near Snodland, but by 1370 the family had died and the manor reverted to the crown. In 1388 Richard II gave it to the Priory of Chiltern Langley in Hertfordshire, who retained it for nearly 200 years until Henry VIII dissolved all the monasteries. After that it changed hands fairly frequently as it seems to have been a suitable size for a wedding dowry or as security for a loan. It was probably quite profitable.
The land in the floor of the valley was fertile and fairly sheltered. At one time it was said to be entirely "under corn" and it is worth noting that during the 19th Century the outbuildings of The Homestead included a granary. The bank opposite the farmhouse, Beechen bank and the upper part of the bank behind St Williams Church were all part of the farm and doubtless afforded good grazing for sheep. At one time the manor must have supported a sizeable community as it had it's own Court baron. This was a local court which dealt with such matters as surrender of land following the death of a tenant, use of common land, and the rights and duties of tenants and the Lord of the Manor.
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The Auction
In 1836 the farm was auctioned together with nearly 340 acres of woodland lying between the top of Walderslade Hill and the Hook and Hatchet (now the Poacher's Pocket). This auction completely changed the course of history for the manor and was fundamental to the development of Walderslade Village.
Both the manor farm and the woods were bought by Mr. W.H. Brake, an auctioneer and estate valuer from Hampshire. Mr. Brake was not interested in farming, he was a land speculator, and promptly set about selling the land in separate plots, any size, for any purpose. His advertisements offered plots suitable for large houses, small houses, poultry farms, dairy farms, pig farms, small holdings and commercial woodland. You name it and Mr. Brake would supply you with a suitable plot !!
In fact development prior to 1900 had been slow. There was not much work, the area was essentially rural and the farm, which had been a source of employment, had been dismembered by Mr. Brakes own activities. Wood cutting provided some work but was not capable of expanding to provide for a larger population. Access was restricted. the only roads in existence were Walderslade Road, Boxley Road, Robin Hood Lane and Lordswood Lane. Princes Avenue did not extend beyond the Homestead.
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1900-1914
In 1902, two events occurred which prompted development. A firm with the rather cumbersome name of Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham & District Electric Railway Co. began running trams to Luton and also as far up Maidstone Rd as the cemetery. This afforded easier access to the town and dockyard as sources of work. The company later became the Chatham & District Traction Co which used to run the green and brown buses to Magpie Hall Rd. At the same time Mr. Brake's firm acquired another large tract of land and laid out extra roads to improve access to it. The new land extended westwards up Robin Hood Lane to the Chatham - Maidstone Road at Bluebell Hill, and southwards along Boxley Road, where it included all the land between Boxley Road and Beechen bank Road on which the new housing developments now stand.
Mr. Brake's new estate roads included Darget's Road, Chestnut Avenue, York Avenue, Alexandra Road (now Kit Hill Avenue), Victoria Road, Tunbury Avenue and Cossington Road. Princes Avenue still only extended as far as Price Charles Avenue (originally King Edward Road), which marked the eastern boundary of the manor farm. Mr. Brake did not own the land beyond it. No more roads would be provided until after 1945. Development from this time onwards, although slow, was steady, and did not cease except for a couple of hiccups during the two wars.
The steady increase in population resulted in Walderslade beginning to acquire the characteristic features of a village. Darget's Road school opened in 1905, to the relief of those children who previously had walked to school in Burham every day. In 1906 Mr. Blake obtained permission from Chatham Corporation to erect 29 timber and iron bungalows at Walderslade and 14 at Lordswood Lane. Although made of wood these were solid, well built houses, some of which are still in use. The four little terraces of houses in the village date from the period 1903-1907. These are Aurora Cottages, Robin Hood Cottages, and a little lower down the hill, the Pollyfield Cottages. The latter were renovated in the 1990's but unfortunately the name and date plaque was not retained. Further afield the Hook Cottages (now Elizabeth Cottages) date from the same period.
A Methodist Chapel opened in 1907. It no longer exists but was a little brick chapel fronting onto Princes Avenue just past the junction with Darget's Road. There was also St James Mission Church which stood where the Co-Op now stands, and at a later date the rate-payers hall stood behind it, also functioning as a village hall. Both buildings were of the same type as the original school building which burned down in the late 1980's. They consisted of tongue and groove planks, treated with varnish which had a smell like no other varnish, and covered with a protective sheath of corrugated iron, well treated with red led paint. There were few, if any shops. Women walked to Luton or Chatham for essential shopping. Gardens were large and many families were self supporting in respect of vegetables, fruit, eggs, rabbits, goats milk and firewood Paraffin oil was delivered from Mr. Friday in Bredhurst.
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1918-1939
Development was halted by the 1914-18 war but started again after 1918. By the 1930's the population had grown sufficiently to support a small Co-Op store, another general store run by Mr. Olliffe, a butcher run by Jimmy Rawlins and a Post Office, originally in a house between the Aurora Cottages and the filed at the corner of Princes Avenue.
The field was the accepted venue for the annual village fete, whether by permission of the owner or in perpetuation of an earlier tradition. The nearest pub was the Hook and Hatchet (now the Poachers Pocket) and newspapers were delivered by Mr. Alexander (known as Jim Alex) from his shop adjacent to the pub.
A Maidstone & District bus service (No.32) ran every half hour, terminating at the bottom of Robin Hood Hill. Bread was delivered to the door by at least two bakers i.e. The Co-Op bakery and Bournes and there were 3 dairies - Co-Op, Bourne and Hillier's, and Denton's Dairy, located part way down Princes Avenue. Walderslade by this time was a genuine village, nestling below the banks and the woods, well away from the main roads.
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War Time
The 1939-1945 war, like the earlier one, halted development for a time. There was no point in building houses which might be bombed the day after they were completed. In fact Walderslade did not suffer much material damage form the bombing as houses were still widely spaced so that bombs were more likely to land on open banks or in the woods. The area which did suffer was the Davis estate. Located exactly opposite Rochester airport which at that time was extended, it was immediately under the line of approach of any plane intent on bombing or machine gunning the airport. It is of interest that by 1945, the residents of Davis Estate would boast that not a single house in the estate was undamaged.
During the Battle of Britain a Messerschmidt 109 crashed in Walderslade, another in Tunbury Bottom and a third near Harp Farm. In 1944 a Doodle Bug V1 came down and exploded in Coal Bottom (behind where the houses of Marlow Copse now stand).
After 1943, when the tide of war began to turn in the favour of Britain and her Allies, Walderslade was host to a large number of prisoners of war. They were housed in temporary accommodation along Walderslade Road, near the Hook and Hatchet. They had all been "screened" and were considered to be "non-political", consequently, as the end of the war drew near, they were allowed out of the camp. They joined the congregation of St James' for evening service and were also allowed out in pairs, usually to work in people's gardens. They were usually made welcome and despite the stringent food rationing of the time, invited into the house for tea and economy recipe food.
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Post War
For a few years after 1945, during the post-war uncertainty, the village remained substantially unchanged. Bricks were in short supply as most of them were being used to rebuild the blitzed towns and cities. However during the 1950's development began again and has not stopped since !!
Within the village area, i.e. the land which originally formed part of the old Walderslade Manor Farm, Sherwood Estate was the the first complete housing estate to be built. This was followed by Sundridge Drive although other areas outside the village were developed earlier.
The centre of the village has changed out of all recognition during the last 30 years. The little blue wooden cafe where the bus drivers drank tea and chatted until it was time for the return journey to Chatham was replaced by Peach's big square building. Mr. Olliffe, prior to 1939, had built a larger flat-roofed store further down the road from his little lock-up shop. Eventually it was taken into new management and later still the business moved across the road and became Permark. The Post office had moved into the flat roofed building and moved across the road with Permark.
The flat-roofed store together with the church, The rate payers hall and some adjacent houses were replaced by the Co-Op and it's car park . The church moved further up the bank and changed it name to St William's. The lovely quiet garden of The Birches , opposite where the car park now lies was replaced with a row of shops, amid dark mutterings about planning procedures.
Of the two original lock-up shops (Mr. Olliffe and Rawlings the butcher), one was knocked down and the other functioned as a doctors surgery until the new surgery was built up Robin Hood Hill. Another row of shops was built fronting the access road to the car park and church.
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1980's On
During the 1980's the library was built and in 1986 the by-pass road constructed, destroying a large house (Varney House) on Robin Hood Hill, and the enormous apple tree in it's garden which kept a generation of village children busy scrumping apples during the summer holidays. Later another large development at the south east corner of the car park provided more shops and offices. Houses continue to be built and the village continues to grow.
So ends this short history of Walderslade Village. It is the merest outline which excludes far more than it includes. It excludes any account of The Homestead which is easily the oldest house in the village. It excludes the many personalities and any history of the school. Other than passing references it excludes the surrounding area - Lordswood, Princes Park, Weedswood, Walderslade Woods, because each of these has it's own history which in time I also hope to document on this site.
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Memoirs 1920-30's
The penultimate paragraph of your History makes reference to the construction of a by-pass which destroyed ".. a large house (Varney House) on Robin Hood Hill". My grandfather, George Reeve, was in fact the original owner of this house. He bought it at the turn of the last century and lived there with his wife Eliza and various members of their family until WW2. The property included a fairly generous amount of land and the outbuildings included a workshop and a stable (where George kept his horse and cart). Eliza died in 1933 and George in 1939. The house suffered a certain amount of bomb damage to its roof during the war but it remained habitable and was sold in 1945.
I enclose a photo of Varney house shortly after it was constructed, circa 1900. In the 1920s two of George Reeve's sons, Cyril (my father) and Sidney Reeve along with their brother-in-law, George Hunt, operated a bus service in Walderslade running from Robin Hood Lane to Chatham. Initially they had just 1 bus but they later acquired a 2nd bus. They called the business the "Brown or Grey Bus Service". The business was eventually taken over by Maidstone & District and presumable became M&D;'s No 32 service to which you refer. I do not know where the Chatham & District Traction Co fits into this picture: it is possible that my father and his brother acquired their two buses from this company. My father suffered from rheumatism in his right shoulder in later life, which he always attributed to his spell as a bus driver and the fact that his bus had an open-sided driver's cab exposing him to all the elements! I enclose a photo of one of the buses, which was taken circa 1928 at Robin Hood Lane.
Your History also makes reference to the Hook and Hatchet Public House. Members of the Reeve family at Varney House certainly used this pub. I enclose a photo of the Hook and Hatchet taken circa 1923. The 3 men standing outside are (left to right) the above-mentioned George Hunt and Cyril Reeve, and another of Cyril's brothers, Jim Reeve. The latter, incidentally, was employed in the RFC/RAF and was initially involved with the development of airships - he allegedly once took Winston Churchill up in an airship. Sadly Jim was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1928 prematurely ending a promising career.I understand that Varney House was named after George Reeve's grandfather (mother's side), Mr William Varney who, I believe, owned Burham Cement Works and also a farm at Burham known as Great Culand Farm. Neither of these properties exist as such today but an interesting feature of Great Culand Farm is that it included a very old and rare treadmill dating from 1579 which was used to pump water from a well 180 ft deep. Prior to moving to Varney House, George and Eliza Reeve lived at Great Culand farm and Eliza's death certificate states George's occupation as a "Retired Millwright". I suspect therefore that George showed more than a passing interest in this treadmill and may possibly have been involved in its repair and maintenance. Following the demise of Great Culand Farm, I understand this treadmill is now located at Maidstone Museum.
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Photos 1920 - 30's
Here is a selection of Photos from the 1920 - 30's Visit the Photo Gallery for more.
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Memoirs 1950's
My parents Ken and Dora Osborne moved from London to Walderslade in 1950. They had a house built on King George Road and we moved in at Christmas of 1950. I was 6 and my sister Gill was 2. One of my first memories of Walderslade were the Quonset huts on Hook Meadow. This was across the road from the Hook and Hatchet pub. These huts were still occupied by a few left over German prisoners who had spent the war there and apparently were in no particular hurry to go home. Probably some had married local girls and had decided to stay. They gradually got moved out as housing became available.
There were 2 local shops in the vicinity of the Hook and Hatchet. One on the same side as the pub but a little more towards Chatham. It was not known for its high standard of cleanliness. My mother favoured the other one run by a gentleman called Mr Crook. That one was on the other side of the road and more towards Walderslade village. After a couple of years an enterprising lady by the name of Mrs Cuckoo started a mobile shop. She had a bright orange and green van and patrolled up and down the various roads stopping at different sites and calling out in a loud voice Cuckoo, Cuckoo. Housewives then congregated around her buying a variety of groceries and also enjoying a good gossip. Mrs Cuckoo was very gregarious and also had a keen interest in everyone's private business. We therefore were kept informed of any gossip and scandal going on among other neighbours on other streets. When Weeds Wood estate was built she expanded her business into some of the major streets there and consequently increased her knowledge of whose husband was having an affair and whose grandmother was in the hospital with some kind of deadly disease. She certainly was one of the old characters of Walderslade in the fifties. Does anyone else remember her?
I would love to hear back from some of the resident of that era with their own memories. I have been living in the USA for over 30 years. At this time living in Beaverton Oregon a suburb of Portland. I have recently made contact with the family now living in my old home and we have developed a lovely friendship sharing my memories of things about the house from my childhood and their update and photos of the house now and Walderslade in the 21st century. I hope that this stirs some stories from other resident past and present.
I lived there as a child from 1956 to about 1965 when we moved to Sussex.
I was born at All Saints Hospital and taken home to Speedwell Avenue, but I have no recollection of that. Then we moved to 202 Walderslade Road and lived next door the the Patching family with whom we swapped houses when my brother came along in 1960.
On the other side were the Galvins.
I attended Oaklands school.
I remember the bad winter of '63 there, when the snow was well above welly boot level and we built igloos on the green in front of the houses.
I recall a doctors surgery somewhere opposite the houses and a church of some sort. My father had a Coventry Eagle motorcycle with side car which often wouldn't start in winter. His favourite trick was to bring the spark plugs in and heat them up in the oven. This he did for his cars as well - an Austin Ruby, an Austin 7 a Lanchester and some sort of Daimler. They were all old heaps. In 1960 he got a job as a rep and had brand new company cars after that, the first being a grey Ford Popular with a 998cc sidevalve engine which used to wheeze asthmatically when the choke was on!
I remember Mr Crook from the shop, mentioned by obe of your other correspondents, as I used to cycle down to the shop with a list for my mother when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I used to get picked on a bit by the boys from the secondary school opposite.
There was a farm lane somewhere opposite the shop, would it be Green Lane or Green Farm? We went down there one day to a field at the end, doing no harm, but ran off terrified when the farmer let off his gun. We couldn't see him and I guess he wasn't shooting at us but we never went there again!
Much was delivered to the house then - the butcher and baker both delivered and I think some groceries came too. A rag and bone man on a horse and cart often came by and I could never make out his cry. A knife sharpener would come round about once a year I think.
A ToniBell ice cream van was a regular visitor, may favourite being a Saucy Tanner, costing, naturally, a tanner or sixpence in old money, about 2.5p today.
I remeber getting ticked off by the Walls Ice Cream man who had a small van with the words "Stop Me and Buy One" on the side and "Free Badge". I stopped him, aged about 6, and asked for my free badge. He was none too pleased that I had no plans to buy an ice cream and we had quite an argument. It was my first introduction to conditions of sale. I didn't get the badge and was pretty annoyed about it - after all it didn't say on the van that I had to!
My parents are now living in Gillingham aged 78 and 80 - they may have some photos of Walderslade, I'll find out.
My mother and father were married in 1935 and my dad purchased a plot of land in York Avenue and built his own house. He named it Smallheath after the BSA motorcycle factory and it later became just no. 42. (York Avenue was then an unmade road - just a track) They moved in directly after their wedding. I have two older sisters and both them and myself attended Walderslade school in Dargets Road. I like one of your contributors Hazel Ollive, was born in 1945, and I went to school with Hazel and her brother John.
In the early 1950's Walderslade was a lovely place to grow up in, with loads of fields, open spaces and woods for kids to have fun. The 32nd Medway West scouts originally had their HQ along the Walderslade Road, but around 1956 were given a plot of land on the banks overlooking the village, by an old gent from Walderslade by the name of Mr Mantle. An old chicken shed was purchased from somewhere near Herne Bay and a working party of scouts and their dads erected the hut just down from the path that starts near the junction of Victoria Road and Tunbury Avenue. I believe this hut was set alight by vandals some time in the 1970's and sadly burned down, to be replaced sometime later with the brick building now standing on the top of the bank.
Some one else has mentioned Harry Rogers the butchers and I worked for him around 1961 / 64, delivering meat with a bike (like 'Granvilles') on Saturday mornings, to houses in Walderslade Road, Robin Hood Lane, Prince's Avenue etc.
I married in 1972 and moved just over the border to Gillingham and still live close by in Wigmore. My father continued to live in the same house until he had to move to a residential home in 1985. He sadly died in 1993.
I would love to hear from old school friends / neighbours etc. and would be happy to share further reminiscence's with anyone interested.
T Gutteridge.
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Photos 1950's
Here is a selection of Photos from the 1920 - 30's Visit the Photo Gallery for more.
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Where's Walderslade ??
My wife and I married in March 1958 and we lived with my mother in Wandsworth, London. A year later, in March 1959, we started to hunt for a house of our own, and in an estate agent's shop window in Streatham, we noticed a 'buy off the plane' advertisement for four pairs of semi-detached houses in "Walderslade", Kent, one of which had been completed. Where in the world was "Walderslade" we asked?
Anyway, it was a Saturday and we hopped on a train to Chatham. Next we were told to get a bus 'to the end of its run'-the man said! from the village we walked up that steep hill, and there on the right just before the top on the right-hand side and cut into the chalk, was the construction site. We liked what we saw and immediately contacted the builder, Mr. R.A. Birchley and gave him a 10% deposit of £250 and signed a contract! The house (No.94-the 7th of 8), was completed by September 1959, and we moved in.
We stayed in that lovely house until late 1967 when we sold it for £4,500, and with our two children (who had been christened in St. James's Church), migrated to Australia. We have never returned to Walderslade, and often wonder how things must have changed over the years.
If anyone would like to communicate from Walderslade, please feel free. My name is Ian Dixon and my e-mail address is: redcap70@optusnet.com.au
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Olliffe Grocery Store
My grandparents, Walter and Ethel Olliffe, moved to Walderslade around 1914. They lived in the house called the Courtlands at the top of the steep part of Robin Hood Lane(photo). My dad, Cecil Olliffe, started delivering groceries on his bike as a teenager, before he had the little lockup shop on Walderslade Road. My uncle and aunt Les and May Whittell lived in Four Winds(photo), which was just across Tunbury Avenue, past Courtlands. Relatives tell me that the Gables, our home on Walderslade Road, was built in the early 1900's and dad moved there in his twenties. He and my mom, Edna Martin, were married in 1935 and they lived there until my dad's death in 1965. The store (photo) was built onto the side of the house between the two wars, but I don't know the exact date. Would be great to find out.
I was born in 1945 and remember that at that time, Mr. Rogers ran the butcher shop up the road from us. He used to supply my dog, Spot, with his daily bone. Across the road from our store was the Birches, belonging to Mr. and Mrs Barton and their daughter Claire. They had a beautiful garden which now houses the strip mall and the grocery store. Claire helped my mom with housekeeping and looking after my brother and me while mom helped dad in the shop. As far back as I can remember, the post office was in the shop, and my mom ran it. I don't know the year it moved to our place, but it was likely in the early 1950's or so. Dad continued to deliver groceries to the village and surrounding countryside, and so it was a daily job to fill boxes with the orders ready to be delivered the following day. Mrs.Ling and Mrs.Francis worked for dad for years. I wonder if either of them are still in Walderslade.
In those days, the village was surrounded by bluebell woods, a beautiful sight in the spring. I am sorry to hear the last of those beautiful woods are on the auction block ?
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Prisoners of war
Paul again. I vaguely remember the prisoners of war; I was 5 when we came to the area from Davis Estate in 1950 and earlier, Ilford. We had officers from the camp...... they built the kitchen cabinets at "Fairfield".......... one made me a huge stuffed bear....... bigger than me, that was unfortunately burnt as a guy one year......... no-one told me till too late. they also moved one of the huts to our home....... "House of Happiness" after a book......... David and I played in this for many years....... was eventually re- moved from the end of the field where we lived to quite close to the house. Presumptively it was destroyed in 1968 or soon after when we had to sell the house for the two schools. I have often over the years wondered what happened to these men. I have the dimmest memories of their kindness to me as a very small child.