Mike Bates' memories of Hothfield
The huts camp on Cades Road
looking north towards main Maidstone Road
Mr Sainsbury's shop in the 1950s
Courtesy Photocraft, Ashford
Butchers Shop on corner of West Street
Later became hairdresser's and now a private house
Children's party in the village hall, 1954. Courtesy Kentish Express
Can you name them?
The huts, the village, its people and places
By Mike Bates
My name is Mike Bates and this is just a few of the memories of the time I spent in the village.
The Huts
I was about two (approx 1948) when we moved in Nissin Hut 105 Hothfield common. Mum, dad and I moved up from Peasmarsh in Sussex. Our Hut was more or less in line with the phone box and bus stop on Maidstone road. As far as I can remember it had a kitchen dining room with an aga. My cot is in the corner by the door leading to my parent’s room there was a further room were as I got older my brother and I (he came to live with us when I was six or seven) used to sleep. I remember it was very cold but it did have a wood burning stove in there. The Hut had a corrugated roof with asbestos sheeting as walls and a brick surround.
There was a shed on the side where we kept the coal and wood for the fire and next door was an outside toilet which was cold and damp. In those days everyone used a guzunda I think the rent was about ten shillings a week. We did live in Hut 112 at first but I was too young to remember that. When the village was built the council came and knocked all the Nissen huts down.
Neighbours at the Huts
I have some photos of me on a trike I was about three at the time, and a couple more of some of my friends. Gerald Pearce who lived a bit further up in the woods, Terry Popham (he had a sister called Cynthia) another was David Sharman and Tom Burtonwood (he was ten years older than me and went into the Navy). There was a posh house behind our Hut that had a long drive but I can’t remember who lived there. There was a Colonel Sizer who lived on the road to Hothfield railway station towards Westwell. Benton’s farm was where we went for fresh milk and butter which was made on the farm. The ice cream van used to visit the camp once a week (Toni’s I think) and the A1 fish and chip van parked in the bus stop lay-by once a week as well. We has Sunday school in one of the Huts along Cade Road and I remember going to primary school and hearing the explosives as they blew up the tree stumps. All the school children were given a coronation mug and a coach and horses to celebrate the Queen’s coronation 1953.
Village life - My house 70 Beech drive
I remember riding on an open back lorry taking all our belongings to our new house. It was a first time I’d seen an inside toilet that flushed and a proper bath. It had no central heating just a Rayburn in the kitchen and an open fire in the front room and of course we didn’t have stairs in the Huts. There were three bedrooms so I had one to myself. No washing machine all the washing was done in the sink, no fridge the milk was put into a bucket of water to keep it fresh. Mum had to do the shopping in the village every day, she used to put money for bills in separate tins i.e. rent, milkman, coal man, insurance man. The garden was just mud and rocks with a telegraph pole just outside our backdoor, the fences was just concrete posts with a couple of pieces of wire strung across. The road wasn’t very long it only had about eight houses at first, at the bottom of the road it was covered in bramble bushes. They eventually built bungalows and garages there. After a few years they renamed the road as Plantation Close and our house became number 1.
I can remember mum putting a house brick in the oven and would cover it in brown paper then put it in the bed to warm it up for us (no electric blankets or hot water bottles).
In the winter we had a fire in the front room from wood we brought in from the woods and logs when we could afford them.
In the early days the village children were taken for a coach trip to the seaside paid for by a trust fund founded by Lord Rootes, the mums and children would meet outside the village hall about seven-thirty in the morning and off we would go for the day. We went to Margate (Dreamland) twice, once to Ramsgate and once to Southend. As most kids we went to Saturday morning pictures at the Odeon Ashford it cost 3d I think. It was always packed with queues right down the high street. Mrs Tufton used to have fetes in her garden one year it was in the field opposite her house and they had coconut shies, another year it was held in the park near Lord Rootes’s place. During the summer when I was quite young mum and quite a few from the village used to go apple, strawberry, potato, and hop picking. Some years on November 5th the village lads would build a bonfire and the parents would bring potatoes and fireworks, some years we would go up to the Boy Lands place (the football pitch is there now). August/September mum and I used to walk to Westwell and back collecting blackberries and she would make blackberry and apple pie. Other meals I remember were bubble and squeak (cabbage and potato fried) Rabbit stew, homemade bread and cheese and condensed milk sandwiches. The Corona drinks lorry would come around once a fortnight, a rag and bone man with a horse and cart came round quite regular. The number 10 bus was on the main Ashford Rd then, but if you were lucky the number 49 used to go through the village. I would try and catch the 49 when I stayed behind at school because I had to walk from the main road to the village in the dark because there was no street lights.
At Christmas a lot of the village lads met by the church, and the local farmers used to pick us up in a cattle truck and drop us off near to various woods we had to walk through the woods making as much noise as we could to scare the pheasants out in front of the men with guns, we stayed out for hours and were paid ten shillings and got a bottle of pop each as well. We used to go ferreting in the woods at Benton’s farm or on the common. We couldn’t afford proper cycles so we used to go Great chart dump and get the frames etc and make our own, we also made carts the same way pram wheels were the best. We used to ride our bikes down to watery lane towards Westwell and wait under the railway bridge until a train came past as it made a lot noise. I’m sure one year the station itself caught fire and one year one of Cole’s farm barns caught fire and half the village came to watch. As kids we used to go past the Ridley house on the main road to Ashford just past the bus stop and go scrumping. In our teens a few of us would go camping in the woods or on the common, it was always cold and damp.
Village Landmarks
The Bogs
My auntie Alice used to live in one of the houses down there it was later demolished and she moved to Thanet Terrace. We used to leave our bikes down there and walk to the river and go fishing. There was a dump on part of it just off Cade Road. Prince Charles came to look at the conservation area that was created. Also the army used to use it for training exercises we quite often found a lot of empty bullet cases. There was also the sewage works where a young lad drowned, he must have been around eight or nine.
The Dell
This is where we rode our bikes it was a big dip between Station road and Cade Road.
The Lakes
The hospital lake had a boat house lots of fish and we had to get written permission to fish there. The Waterfall lake used to get frozen over and the local lads used to go there with their catapults and try and try and shoot the ducks as they tried to land but they never got any. The small river from the waterfall had sticklebacks and crayfish. And one winter the snow was so deep the road leading down to it was like a tunnel with snow over the top of the trees.
Kempton Manor
They used to hold ballroom dances on a Saturday night. Quite a few of used to go, it was really boring (we couldn’t dance) and in the week the dance floor was taken up and the swimming pool underneath was open to the public, I think it cost one shilling.
WW2 Pill boxes
One was on the corner of Cade Road and School Road. I used to sit on the top and take car numbers I remember it really stank, the other one was up the hill past Coles’s farm on the left.
Village Primary School
Mrs Shersby was the junior teacher and I remember her playing the piano.
Mr Upton taught middle school and looked after the football and cricket teams, he also painted fairy tale murals on the walls in green paint.
Mrs Bottle was the head teacher done all subjects especially maths and English etc.
Mr Purkiss took over when Mrs Bottle retired.
Mrs Cox helped in the kitchen and with the children at play time.
We shared the primary school with children from Little Chart they were brought to school in an old green van owned by Mr Acott.
Some of the children from Little Chart
John Periss, Silvia Periss, Angela Gore, Victor Butcher, Vivian Butcher, Wendy Homewood, Richard Ayers, Robert Croft, Arthur Hulse, Wanda ?
The Hothfield Men’s football team used to play on the green outside the school for a couple of years before moving to a field opposite Mrs Tuffton’s house and then finally moving to the field opposite the Boylans place. Arthur Baker was the football team manager when it was outside the school.
Village Policeman
Tom Dors was the first village bobby when we first moved in and he used to ride around the village on an old bicycle. Constable Spooner was the next one and he rode around the village on a silver velocette motorcycle.
Hothfield Cricket Team
The cricket team started playing in the park by the church I think it was owned by Lord Rootes they then moved onto a pitch off Maidstone road for quite a few years, that’s when I started playing for them I was about 14. They had to move off that ground because Mrs Seabrooke (a probation officer) kept having her roof tiles and windows broken by the cricket balls. The team then played on Pluckley village cricket ground for quite a few years.
Some of the people from the village I played cricket with:
Everard Tester (capt), Dereck Allen (bowler), Bob Allen (wkt keeper), Brian Green (wkt keeper), Jamie Willis, Doug Willis, Chris Dodd, Jim Bartholemew, Joe Bartholemew, Tom Bridger (bowler), Eric Cheeseman (opening batsman), Dave Prebble (bowler), Bobby Godden, Owen Marshall, Charlie Field, Allan Field, Sid Luckhurst, Brian Fox, Trevor Fox, Robert Fox, Brian Boylan, Billy Boylan, Peter Baker, John Bull, Geoff Prior, David Prior, Baden Rolfe, Frank Dilworth, Ray Knight
The Village people as I remember them
Top of Coach Drive (Cade Road end)
Ken Addy
Mrs Sellen – her daughter Diane was carnival queen for quite a few years her son Jeffrey was unfortunately run over and killed by the garage at Tutt Hill one night walking back from the youth club. Living with them was a Tony Mckenna
Field Charlie Peggy, Pauline and Alan
Tamsett – Michael married Pauline Field and he also had a sister?
Common Way
David Neaves
Robin Murrell, Jill Murrell she married Billy Beaney
Pile Family – Billy got run over and killed same place as Jeffery Sellen near garage Tutt Hill.
Roders – John and Karen moved to Canada
Victor Bullen
Sid Luckhurst
Billy Mcgillan (Gilfillan)
Steven, William (Pud) and Susan Butler
Plantation Close (formally Beech Drive)
Mum, Dad, John and I
Bryant Family – Brian, Allan, Barry, Carol, Gillian and Dudley
Watson Family (Scottish)
Wright (Marion my sister and Eddy) Peter, Tony, David, Maryann, Lesley, Robert
Blake Reggie
Wilson Pat and Hugh (Photos somewhere)
Collins Rosemary, Valerie who married Eddy Beaney
Mr and Mrs Bean – John and Margaret Ward
Mrs Bull – Bobby, Lesley, David, Maurice, John, Gordon, Allan and June
Two houses opposite
Everard Tester, he worked at Cole’s farm
Continuation of Coach Drive
Kathy Milies, she worked for Cole’s farm looking after the pheasant pensand her son Robin. She passed away one day while working with the pheasants.
Jim Cunningham moved in after Mrs Miles passed away.
Mr and Mrs Penfold and David
Freddy and Grace Golding and peter Leonard, Michael and June
Michael Smith
David Woodcock and sister Dawn Grant
Sackville Cresent
Castle – David and Shelia
Allen, Derek and Tom
Jim Bartholomew
Fuller - Jimmy and Nelson
Mathews – Steven and Sammy
Waller – Romany Gypsy
Esposito (Italian) Ercoli (Acky) Luciano (lucci)
Billy North
Continuation of Coach Drive
Camilla Brown she had polio and callipers on her legs
Ackers [Akers] – Peter and David
Hoad Tony
Newman (Brother) John and Violet + Collin, Frank and Lisa
Pantry Raymond
Beech Drive
Mason - Richard (perry)
Teasdale – Michael he moved to Cardiff
Kraus – Peter (Austrian)
Beaney (Romany Gypsies) Eddy, Billy, Michael, Jimmy and Ginny
Continuation of Coach Drive
Frank Dillworth
Judd – Michael, Raymond, Margaret she married John Collins
Roland Butler
Frances Simms
Farm Cottages on corner
Howard Family – Ben, Linda, and Brenda
Coles Farm
Den (father) John and Janet
Park Drive
Alan Rayson
Margaret Upton
Joe Bartholomew
Linda Spicer
Graham (Dolly) Dawson
John and Frank Collins
Veronica Strover
Cyril and Les Horne
Thanet Terrace
Mr and Mrs Godden (Joe and Alice) my aunt and uncle – John, Reg, Barry, Barbara, Tony, David, Bobby and Mary
Manktelow – Margaret and Michael
Allman – Annette and Chris
David Noble
Thanet Arms public house
Dick Mason ran the pub with his wife? They had a son Peter who went into the Navy. We used to have to go round the back and knock on a small window in you were under age (crisps, lemonade and shandy)
From Thanet Arms to West St
George Sainsbury and his dad owned the village shop for years, and then Dave Forman opened his shop further up the road on the left which was a bit like Woolworths it sold a bit of everything with everything. We used to get most of our Christmas presents there. His daughter married and moved to Australia. The old Village Hall was on the left that’s where the boys brigade and youth club was held (they had a barn up the road to the church to start with) and the youth club moved up to Tutt Hill on the road down to the hospital on the right. Maurice Millbury Steve and Pauline Jarman used to run it. Mrs Walters was the caretaker of the village hall and Pat and David Higgs lived in a house next to the hall and Vera Marsh lived opposite.
West St
Mrs Walters
Jamie Willis
Doug Gillard
Michael Clayton
A butcher shop was on the corner, Mr Giles I think. I can still smell the sawdust etc. He had a large tree trunk in the shop which he chopped the meat on.
School Road – up to Cade Road
Knowles, Colin & Clifford
Roe, Monica (Veronica)
Smith,
Wilson, Jackie (Cunningham)
Alford, Peter
Other People from the Village
Rita Wilfred and Sandra Cox. Sandra was run over and killed whilst walking home through Station Road woods.
Robert Fox lived by the police house on Maidstone Road
Grant Wheeler – Tutt Hill
Susan & David Parrot – Tutt Hill
Mr & Mrs Ridley lived on the main road to Ashford past the bus stop. Children were Brian, Peter, Ronnie, Joyce, Betty and Joan.
Pam Swain
David Marsh
Yola and a sister Kawinska
Nancy Roberts
Brian (Skinny) Else
Christopher and Roger Reed
Basil and Tom Riley
Philip Edwards
Richard Hollingsby
William Morrison
Margaret & Teresa Buss.
I hope that this has been of some use to you. I have really enjoyed putting it all together.
Yours sincerely
Mike Bates