Our older local residents also have vivid memories and stories of other local events in the area, of which there are a selection below.
More can be found out of the local history for the Chatterton Road community (must be because it’s now a ‘village’!) at thehistoryofchattertonvillage site, including details of the villa that was sold, whose land most of Chatterton and surrounding roads are built on. The Bromley Borough Local History Society, has a very comprehensive site and has been publishing fascinating newsletters for many years, some of which are available on line.
Please see these posts about some interesting local history from areas neighbouring Havelock Rec:
On November 9th, 1940, a German Heinkel bomber was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, and when crashed it on Johnson Road, demolishing two houses. A neighbour described it as "It sounded like a tornado; he shut the door and threw himself down." and the local paper reported "Mrs Button was at the kitchen door and her husband pulled her to safety as their house collapsed. They both crawled out unhurt. Both are over 70. Mr Button, and old soldier, went back and turned off the gas at the mains".
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Just half a mile north, this side of the Crooked Billet, in what is now Jubilee Country Park, was the Thornet Wood Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Site, one of a defensive ring of gun sites encircling London during the Second World War.
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Bromley's own Class Wall - built iIn 1926, across Valeswood Road/Alexandra Crescent (a private road) , to keep the inhabitants of The London Corporation’s estate in Downham out of Bromley.
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Another notable event in WW2 was the destruction of the Crooked Billet pub on Southborough Lane, half a mile to the north east, by a V2 rocket on 19th November 1944. Locals say that they were initially told it was a gas explosion, so they wouldn’t panic at the inexplicable damage from the unknown new weapon. The British counter-intelligence had fed the Germans the mis-information that their V1 bombs were landing ten miles too far north, and the consequent adjustments meant that those that were not shot down in “bomb-alley” landed in this part of Kent
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In September 1940 and aerial mine dropped on number 29, when a man and his 14-year-old daughter were killed. This created a large crater, as well as demolishing the chicken sheds at the back of No. 21. There is a block of flats on the site now. Aerial mines detonated above the ground, in order […]
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