John Smith's Reminisces

Post date: Nov 11, 2016 2:4:35 PM

John Smith is a former Wateringbury resident (in Latter's Buildings), living in Australia since 1970.

Yes Terry you can always record my stories, however I must point out that as I was very young at the time my recollections of the dates may not be exactly right. I like to talk about my early memories of the village where I grew up, to anyone who has an interest in the village through the 1940's. I doubt there are many of us oldies still about that can recall those troublesome days, and how we as school children coped with the situation.

For us it had its good side like collecting schapnel and bits from crashed planes that were much treasured items. The bad side was the air raids and not knowing if today would your turn to get the bomb, anxious nights spent under the kitchen table, or in a neighbours air raid shelter, with gunfire and explosions going on.

The Battle of Britain days were probably the most scary when the German bombers were trying to destroy Malling Aerodome, and parts of Wateringbury was hit with stray bombs.

So it all needs to be recorded before its lost for ever. If anyone has any question about Wateringbury through the 1940's I will do my best to answer them. Luckily my long term memory is still quite good.

The doodle bug era was from early June 1944 to early 1945, and I think there were four that fell in the village. Quite early in the era one landed on Manor Farm badly injuring Mr Spitles who later died.

One fell on Hermitage farm on Dans Lane. My mother and I witnessed its fall and explosion, it was about 11am on a Friday morning as we were waiting for Mr Martin the fish monger from West Malling, he used to travel the area on Fridays in his little Austin van selling fresh fish, one of his stops was at The Duke Without a Head pub car park where he would arrive around 11am, and that is were we were when the doddle bug came over from the east, it was quite low in the sky, and only about two or three hundred yards in front of us, as we watched, its engine stoped, we layed down on the grass verge and watched as it got lower and lower, then there was a great explosion, the ground shook as the blast wave passed over us. Within seconds a large cloud fo black smoke rose into the air and flames could be seen as a farm building caught fire.

I am not sure when the one fell that damaged the church, but we later found out that many soldiers billeted in the W / P grounds were killed, so one may conclude that they may have been waiting to be sent to France. So it was probably sometime in June or July 1944. this is just a guess.

The repairs were probably done soon after the explosion and may have only taken a few days work, replacing the shingles and maybe using a few used ones, I only saw the man working up on the spire a couple of times but it made a lasting impression. He just worked on ropes, there was no scaffolding involved in his work, which made it all the more remarkable. There may not be any record of this work if the steeple Jack had donated his work to the church.

The fourth one came down in the pear orchard about one hundred yards in front of Latters Buildings, the explosion caused much damage to the row of brick houses, where we lived, most of the roof tiles and window glass ended up on the ground, and most of the front doors were blown from their hinges, its true to say that L/B was in a mess, but thankfully no one was injured. I remember Mr Benfield's men working there for several weeks doing repairs. Mr Crayford was one of those workmen, I remember him because he was the father of my friend at school, I remember that one day when he was fixing the windows he gave me a lump of putty to play with, which was another of my treasures, its odd how little things stick in your mind.

My father had a keen interest in motor cars, and tought me at a very early age how to tell the different makes, and I still remember the makes of the cars and vans that belonged to the people in the village, Tom Smith the Bakers van was a green Morris 10cwt, Boormans Butchers van was a baby Austin 7hp. The lady Doctor Marshall from Hadlow came to Wateringbury a few days a week, she drove a black Morris 8 series E car. Mr Saunders the school dentist drove a large black Hillman car. Owen English had Vauxhall cars.

The following are further memories of John Smith referring to the Cold War Bunker on Manor Farm.

The bunker was built after we had left Wateringbury, but I am very familiar with all the land around Birchetts woods, it was all apart of my childhood playground, where we roamed and built camps in the woods all year round, building small fires and cooking a few of Dear old Owen English's apples, collecting chestnuts and getting up too all manor of mischief. and the best part is I can still remember it all as if were yesterday. The weather was all apart of the landscape, sledging in the snow, building a dam across the stream down the Alders to paddle in the summer. I must have had one of the best childhoods any kid could wish for.

The following are further memories of John Smith.

I did come back [to Wateringbury] in 2007 but it was not the neat well kept village of the 1950's that I remembered, the weather was cold and wet, the village was cluttered up with motor cars everywhere, many of the pubs and shops that were the hub of village life have gone, all those wonderful orchards of fruit trees, the hop gardens all gone. the woodlands all overgrown and neglected. They call it progress. If I was in good health and 50 years younger I would come back and plant apple trees, I think you are going to need them.

I wish you had seen Wateringbury in the old days when it was all kept neat and tidy by Mr Henry Curd, the roadman. He worked the village for years keeping the hedges and verges all neatly trimmed and the paths swept clean. I knew him well, and spent many hours with him when I was a young child. He really was one of the old treasures of the village, and deserves a place in the history of Wateringbury. Ask Margaret Bodkind about him she also knew him well.