1940s: “My memories of my early life are still so vivid it’s as if we never left…”

Posted on May 23 by Kerry Hood

My memories of my early life are still so vivid it’s as if we never left, there is so much to tell. You mention the mounds of rubbish and rubble, so I’ll start with that. Much of it was the damage from the bombing during the war. In one place was a large mound where the lorries from the gasworks sometimes used to come and tip the clinker and byproducts from the gas works. Often the local lads used to go and collect bits of coal and coke. It earned quite a few of us a fair bit of pocket money.

One particular occasion was when a large general store in the market square was bombed. It was I believe called Edward Isard, much of the rubble was also tipped over there.

Some of the local Mums soon spent some time over there recovering molten bars of soap and other items. However, back to the brickie. My older brother Bob spent some time in hospital with a badly burnt foot, caused when the mound collapsed. the heat generated by spontaneous combustion was terrific. But to younger kids it was the most wonderful playground.

Many of the kids camps were either in the huge patches of Burdock that used to grow there or the older ones made quite large more permanent structures out of the abundance of water tanks.

“God Help You” if you ever went near or touched a camp belonging to another street. Among the rubble there was a constant supply of asbestos sheets that when thrown on any of the numerous bonfires resulted in loud explosions. Be assured I am in no way fantasising or exaggerating, To young kids it was the most fantastic playground you could ever imagine with new material being tipped there on a daily basis. Quite often there would be tipped a tanker of a creosote like product from the local gas works. It lay in the ground like tar. Many a kid had a good hiding after going home with it on your boots, after a couple of days the soles of your boots just fell off.

Every November the competition to build the largest bonfire caused many a fight as it was almost a nightly job to nick stuff from anywhere you could find. There was always a large one near the Walwyn road entrance.

Reading your oral history brought up just a few of the local names. My grandmother lived at No. 13 Havelock Road, next door was the Crist family of boys from the top was Jackie, Johnny, Dougie and Leslie. A little further up in the last house before the bombsite lived George Aveling and his sister Flossie the other side of the bombsite was the Matholie family and the last house lived Sheila Jarrett Then there was Mr Clapsons Shop (General Store). Directly opposite on the corner of Marlborough lived the Shaddocks family next door to the Danahers Billy, Monty and twin boys, pretty sure there was a sister Margaret also. Coming back down Havelock there was the Luck Family and the Wiles sisters Sylvie and Betty. A few doors further was the Phillips family (quite large in number) I remember the oldest George I believe joined the Guards. Then came Ray Brigden, cousin to Teddy Brigden who lived opposite me in the cottages in Homesdale Road Ted sadly died last year. Next door lived Neville Stubbs who had a printing business and shop in Homesdale Rd. Also his sister Lorna.

The Model Railway Factory you mention was located at the top of Homesdale but on the Main Road and was called Graham Farish. They are still in production and are at the top end both in quality and price. There is a stockist near me in East Grinstead called Martells

I know I’m flitting about somewhat but you mentioned free coke ? If there was any it never came my way !! It was regular pocket money for a lot of us. My dad made me a purpose built barrow that took 28lbs of broken coke (that is what you had to ask for when queuing at the window in the gas works). From memory you could get a small coke, broken which was larger lumps and then boiler nuts (they were a form of compressed coal dust and something else) they were the most expensive and burned very hot.

The Gas Works was I believe run by a Mr Skudder who lived in a house just inside the Main Gate and the ticket windows were further along on the left. You bought your ticket and one of the prisoners of war would take you with your barrow under the hopper and dispensed your measured amount. They, the POWs, would be all over the place driving low trucks called Lister trucks.

I had a regular delivery to the lady next door at No 109 Homesdale called Mrs Stokes, her husband was the manager of a large Ironmongers in the High Street called Weeks, Manager or not, he still had to come in the house through the back door AFTER HE HAD CHANGED INTO HIS SLIPPERS AND CLEANED HIS SHOES FOR THE FOLLOWING MORNING. But she was very kind to me. I still remember her giving me a lovely shiny Half a Crown for my birthday in 1943 I dropped it between the floor boards when we were hiding in the cupboard under the stairs.

My parents continued to live there until my mother died and i moved my father to live near me in Crawley He sold the house to a Mr Hennesey in 1986, I often wondered if he found my half Crown.

I think it’s time i stopped rabbiting on but if you are still interested I can clearly recall the Mornington and Walwyn Crowd And many of those from around Bourne and Jaffray Rd

Quite apart from the Homesdale road lads. Has any body mentioned the large Horses and their tip Up two wheeled carts that used to tip in to the brickfield? They were stabled in Old Homesdale Road at Mackintosh’s Yard The Night Watchman during the war was a Mr Jerry Hodder From Waldo Road He would sometimes roast a potato for us in his fire.

Peter

1948: “My Recollections of Raglan Road school 1948 to 1955

Posted on May 23 by Kerry Hood

My recollections of Raglan Road school 1948 to 1955.

I was born at Farnborough hospital in October 1942 and as my mother died giving birth to me and my father was serving in the army my maternal grandmother decided to bring me up. Unfortunately it did not work out as we never got on well even though she did her best. I still live in the same Chatterton Road house opposite what used to be Joe Russell’s sweet shop “The Popular”. I still recall seeing crowds of school children anxiously hovering over the newly installed YZ chewing gum vending machine waiting for someone to use it so that they could claim the two pack bonus for the fourth penny inserted. What a mad scramble that was !

My time at Raglan Road school commenced in January 1948 and I left to attend Cray Valley Tech. in June 1955 after I passed my 13 + exam. The infants school headmistress was a dietetically challenged lady named Miss Crossley. We youngsters used to throw six inch square bean bags to each other and I made a raffia table mat that my gran used to stand the tea pot on. Each 24th. May on Empire Day we would all march round the playground behind Miss Crossley as she carried a huge Union Jack flag then we would go home as was the case when, on Wednesday 6th. February 1952, the headmaster of the junior school named Mr. Pepper came into our classroom and informed us King George the Sixth had died. The classrooms were heated by three large black water pipes that ran along the back of each room.

When Miss Crossley retired we bought her a mirror and she told us each time she looked into it she would be reminded of the lovely children. My favourite teacher was Mrs. Taylor who took a shine to me. Other teachers that come to mind are “Dusty” Miller, Mr. Lewis, Miss Nora Fox, Miss Cosgrove, Miss Kerrigan, Messrs. Jones, Ingward and Hunt, David “Loopy” Lake, “Hoppy” Harwood, “Ripper” Gantley, “Potty” Parsons, and “Percy” Sessions. The caretaker was Mr. House.

One day we learned that Mr. Pepper’s house in Southborough Lane was on fire so we all rushed round there to gloat. A thin lady named Mrs. Payne would go from classroom to classroom selling 6 pence and 2 shillings and 6 pence National Savings stamps. We also used to pay small amounts into a boot club in order to save up for new footwear which we bought from the Co-Op shoe shop on the corner of Addison Road and Chatterton Road. The money was entered into a small yellow booklet. Miss Fox was very strict and took no nonsense from anyone. She had no classroom and ran her class just in front of the stage. Mr. Lewis had his classroom in the corner next to the stage so any children who arrived late for his class had to disturb Miss Fox’s class and got a ticking off from both of them. The music teacher was a strange “Percy” Sessions. Several times we went on strike. On each occasion we waited for him to complete his long piano introduction then as he turned to us to start we remained silent. After another attempt he gave up. Peter Woodward took over from him. David “Loopy” Lake was our PT [physical training] teacher and at the end of term we would play Pirates in the gym. This consisted of pulling out all of the ropes and each team had to get from one end of the gym to the other using the ropes or wall bars without touching the ground and avoiding being caught by the other team members. He called me Happy Harry Appley and was a lovely friendly man. Years later when I worked at the Town Hall and used to sit on the Ivy Bridge near Bromley South station waiting to see the steam trains during my lunch hour he suddenly appeared pedalling his old bike up the hill and had a lovely chat with me. His favourite saying was “You frivolous fannies – anyone would think it was friday” and it was ! “Potty” Parsons took us for chemistry and as the science lab. had gas taps on the large benches one of the village idiots would regularly light one of the taps and burn the bench. One experiment was to make glass “divers” that looked similar to cycle light bulbs with holes in the end. When placed into a screw top lemonade bottle filled with water the “diver” would sink to the bottom as the top was screwed down then pop up when unscrewed. He was another lovely master and would give me chemicals to take home and experiment with in my back garden. In those adventurous days there was no such thing as the Health and Safety curse. If you blew yourself up it was hard luck ! His favourite saying was “Oh my godfathers”. “Ripper” Gantley was a nasty man who put me off literature for life. We had to read certain recommended classics then write preces on them. I used to cheat and crib other pupils preces but eventually the supply ran out so, in desperation, I wrote about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. He went mad.

The headmaster of the senior school was Mr. Bullock and I well remember standing outside his office on many occasions waiting to be given the slipper or cane for my endless examples of bad behaviour. I am not much better now.

We read comics like Beezer, Film Fun, Eagle, Hotspur and, of course, the wonderful Dandy and Beano.

The games we played were marbles, conkers, cigarette cards, five stones [later to be called jacks], yoyo, hopscotch and we made models out of plasticine and glitter wax. We would sing silly ditties like “Tell tale tit, your mother can’t knit, your father can’t walk without a walking stick” and songs like “Glad that I live am I, that the sky is blue, glad for the country lanes and the fall of dew, after the sun the rain, after the rain the sun, this be the way of life ’till the work be done.”

Our sports day events were held in Whitehall Recreation Ground and in those days we had winners and losers rather than the present day situation where everyone has to be a winner. Sometimes we would walk to the Blue Circle outdoor pool in Crown Lane for swimming lessons. I believe we also went to the lido in Baths Road. A group of us would regularly scale the railings at night and climb over the bike sheds fence and onto the balcony of the lido to swim naked in the large pool. On several occasions the police were called because of all the noise we made but we just hid until they went away.

A lad named Robert Hayward kept bullying me so one day when he was standing at the top of the playground stairs I pushed him off and he rolled all the way down to the bottom of them. We got on well after that.

In the winter we used to make ice slides the whole length of the playground. One day when I was sliding someone must have tripped me up and I fell onto the back of my head and was rushed to hospital with concussion.

My gran’s cooking was so awful I thrived on school dinners. The lovely cooks included Mrs. Bartle, Mrs. Paige, and my dear aunts Maud “Sammy” Salmon and Peggy Lewis with Miss Bloomfield as chief cook. To the well known Max Bygraves song “Out Of Town” we would sing “Say what you will school dinners make you ill and Davy Crockett died of shepherds pie, all school dindins come from pig bins out of town.”

The building now the Studio was originally the workshops where Mr. Ingward taught metalwork and Mr. Hunt taught woodwork. Where the garden area now is stood a wooden building where Mr. Jones held his pottery lessons.

Our favourite sweet shop was Townsend’s opposite the Co-Op where we would buy liquorice pipes, gob stoppers, lemonade powder and sherbet dabs. In Wallace Pring’s the chemist we bought penny liquorice wood to chew. We took empty jam jars to Mr. Stansfield who lived in a gypsy caravan in Chantry Lane and he gave us a penny for each one. He always wore wellington boots and was the wayward son of Lord and Lady Stansfield. We walked to the local stream to catch sticklebacks or minnows and climb the ash heaps that were eventually levelled and landscaped to make Normans Park or go to Whitehall Recreation Ground which we called the “rec.” and play on the large swing by Union Road or sail our model boats in the shallow pond where the children’s playground area now is. When, for example, we cycled in the park the park keeper, Mr. Doggett, would chase after us, much to our amusement and derision. One of the keepers we nick-named Walrus because of his bushy moustache. The head keeper was Mr. Sid Mortimer who lived in the house at the corner of Walpole Road and Cowper Road. How many of you remember the lovely Victorian water fountain near the house that mysteriously disappeared in the 1950s ? Another pastime of ours was roller skating along the length of Chatterton Road or pushing each other in our home made soap box carts.

On Saturday mornings many of us attended the Gaumont cinema at Bromley South where, for sixpence, we would sing popular songs before watching features like Zorro, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and Dick Barton – Special Agent. At one time we had yoyo championships on stage and my pal Pete Gilbert, another Raglan Road pupil, won a dart board and I won a cricket bat which I still have.

In the early days it was a very rough school with many poor and ragged children attending but over the years it has been turned into the high standard and desirable school it now is.

Despite all my domestic problems I do have very happy memories of my time at Raglan Road school and am very grateful to the teachers who fought hard to teach me my basic knowledge to face the outside world with confidence. Bless them all – even “Ripper” Gantley.

Adrian Appley.

1940s: “Rubbish from derelict bomb sites … always steaming hot…”

Posted on April 23 by Kerry Hood

“I have lived in this road since I was five years old, and I am now 81 years.

This park has beneath it rubbish from derelict bomb sites during the war. It was always steaming hot. Some parts of the Rec sink (because of this) so it was deemed unfit to build on – I don’t know if the powers that be still know about this – heaven help us if they built on this ground and it started to sink! I thought I should tell you the history of this land as there are not many of us left in the road to tell this story.

Before this [that it was a dump] my Grandad used to work in the Brick pit, building bricks, and this is why it was originally called Havelock Brickfields. It was a large hole until it was used as landfill of the wartime bombing rubbish.”

from a supporter’s email (2018).

Ward Councillors hand in Deed of Dedication Application!

Posted on March 28 by Kerry Hood

Friends of Havelock Rec are proud to say that our Ward Councillors, (Nicky Dykes, Will Harmer and Michael Rutherford from Bromley Town ward Conservatives) have handed in, to the council Environment portfolio holder, an application for the park to have a Deed of Dedication.

Though the park is already designated Metropolitan Open Land, the friends feel that in the current housing crisis, this is insufficient protection. For instance, the CPRE list 10 sites (link to pdf here) with the same designation that are threatened. It should also be noted that it is perfectly permissible to build schools or other public buildings on Metropolitan Open Land – which is why the site was identified for a school when the Friends ran their campaign to save it.

It is considered best practice to protect council owned green space with Deeds of Dedication, and Fields In Trust provided the Friends with help to fill in our application form – Fields in Trust work to safeguard recreational spaces and campaign for better statutory protection for all kinds of outdoor sites (through Deeds of Dedication). Hammersmith & Fulham Council are protecting all the parks ‘for future generations’ in their borough with Deeds of Dedication (see announcement here).

Here is a photo of the proud moment:

Handing over our deed of dedication over : Will Harmer (ward councillor), Bob Neill (MP), Michael Rutherford (ward councillor), Kerry (Friends), Nicky Dykes (ward councillor)

It’s Snow Days in our Park!

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

This is the weather where people will walk a long way for the nice safe slope in our park! Here’s some of our pics of this year’s snow days in our park!

And some more scenic pics:

Some nice pics of our park – can you send us some too?

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Here’s some nice pics around of our park, and we were wondering if you had some too? We (or our parent friends groups/forums) would then be able to use them for future posts on social media, if that’s ok. We think our park is ace and want to show off how great it is!

collage of photos of Havelock Rec

Help us! Do you what this is – found in our Park?

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Help us – what is this mystery object?

The other weekend we were planting hedging whips to fill in gaps in our hedgerow, and we found this glass lense:

4inch glass lense dug up on Havelock Rec (aka the Brickfield) showing conchoidal fracture

Originally our park was a brickfield, and then a landfill site until the 1950s, so it’s possible to uncover all sorts of things that were discarded in yesteryear when you’re digging!

Do you know what it might have come from? So far we have the suggestions of a road lamp or a theatre light? We are hoping one of our members might also belong to the bromley local history society and can ask them?

Let us know what you think? If you are talking to one of our older residents, perhaps they might know?

S.O.S – Save our Swifts

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Bromley Swift Survey from the Bromley RSPB

How many swifts are nesting near you?

Swifts have been nesting in our buildings for centuries and have been a common sight performing their aerial acrobatics over our borough’s towns in the summer. They spend the rest of their year in Africa.

Unfortunately, their numbers are in severe decline. Between 1995 and 2015 the UK lost more than half its swifts. Numbers appear to have fallen even more in Bromley over the same period.

The RSPB believes that loss of nest sites is at least partly responsible. Due to our tendency to seal up buildings during renovation or knock them down, swifts are returning to discover their nest site has gone or access is blocked.

Action is urgently needed to prevent swifts becoming extinct in Bromley.

We are running a Bromley Swift Survey between May and July this year to discover where they are still nesting. We need to find this out quickly so that action to provide nesting spaces can be targeted in the right areas.

No knowledge of swifts or previous experience of doing surveys is needed. It will be really simple and easy, and help will be available if needed, for example on how to identify a swift.

We will ask participants to go for a short walk along the streets near to where they live or another location of their choice. A balmy summer’s evening would be best as the swifts will be most active then. The walk should be repeated at least once a month between May and July – so a total of three short walks. The participant would make a note of any swifts they see flying at rooftop level as this means that the birds will be nesting nearby.

It would be great if you could take part. The more people who join in the better as we will build a more detailed picture of Bromley’s swift population.

To take part in the survey or find out more information you can either:

email our Group’s Recorder Peter Smart on bromleyrspbrecords@gmail.com
call the Group on 07392 790 719.

RSPB Bromley Local Group

2018 Events

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Put these dates in your diaries!

14th April, 2-4pm – Easter Mini Olympics

9th June, 12-4pm – The *Big* Big Lunch!

14th July, 2-4pm – Bats, Birds, Butterflies and Beyond

5th August, 12-3pm – Summer Family Picnic

2018 Happy New Year from your Local Park!

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Just a brief note to wish all our supporters a great time this yuletide season, and that you might enjoy a good new year, and a thank you, everyone, for your unstinted support this year! Please keep an eye on the events page on the website so you don’t miss anything (though we will put posters on the noticeboards too)

I think we can say that the park has had a good year with all round improvements.

You might have noticed that, at the end of last year, we put up some rustic oak benches with the help of a volunteer group; Emma organised this – very well done – and Mark contributed the wood, so thanks to both of them!

In the spring, we had a record display of daffodils around the trees on the Havelock side of the park, thanks to the grass-cutting team who left them until the end of spring before mowing the area around the little trees.

Idverde, who are contracted to maintain the park, fulfilled the council’s obligation to replace some of our trees this summer, and put a ‘hippo’ bag for each new tree.

These dark green bags have a gap at the top (and a gap in the mesh protection too) that allow them to be watered – thanks to those people who watered the trees, that were within staggering distance of their houses! It was very beneficial to getting them through the dry spell in good nick. This year we have a new parks officer at idverde, Caroll Long, that you might meet in our park, she’s got lots of knowledge and enthusiasm, so it’s going to be great to work with her!

This year’s Big Lunch was very enjoyable, and lots of thanks go to Rebecca and Michelle for organising it – the cakes were as delicious as always! Unfortunately there was too much wind for the hot air balloon to take off, but I noticed that most of the men were standing around it chatting for ages, whilst being regaled by stories of ballooning derring-do!

In the school summer holidays we held our BirdBox and Bug hunting day, and a new family picnic days, both of which the weather behaved and we all had a good time.

From the bug hunting: a wool carder bee, a gatekeeper butterfly, and some people on the bug hunt!

We held another Hoedown in September, but on review, we are not sure that September is a good time to hold an event? Anyway, we will be re-thinking our events, and perhaps concentrating more on the Big Lunch and summer events, as this has not proved very practical for making the necessary arrangements during the summer. However, if you want to help and have your say on our decisions, all our committee meetings are open and we would be thrilled to see any of you!

Finally, just the other week, we have some more new trees – a little min-coppice of pine trees in the ESE corner near the green lane (to Waldo Road Waste Transfer station!). These will look really fabulous in coming years, and it’s great that they’ve been planted at such a good time of year, so they can put some roots down before the park dries out in the summer! Apparently these were planned in November 2016, so it’s great to see them!

Wishing you all the best in the new year,

Emma, Kerry, and your committee.