Author Topic: Walderslade Village  (Read 12721 times)

Offline Invicta Alec

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #18 on: May 07, 2020, 04:38:07 PM »
Smiffy,


In the first photo of your reply no.14 there is a building just past the pub. I've no idea what its original purpose was but in 1956 and for the only time in my life I attended a Sunday school there.


The reason for the upsurge in interest by us ragamuffins from the Wayfield Estate was that being it was Easter everyone who attended would be given a small Easter egg. The place was packed to the rafters!  :)  I got my egg but never went there again.


Have "Sunday schools" passed into history now I wonder?


Alec.


pete.mason

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #17 on: May 06, 2020, 06:19:59 PM »
I worked at Whitbreads at the time it changed to Poachers Pocket., nothing sinister just a renaming and rebranding to attract new clientele. As to why it changed to H&H  and changed back again it may well have been legal or licencing committee trying to keep pubs with different names to avoid confusion with Hucking  by that time it would have been a freehouse or owned by a pub group not Whitbread Inns

Offline Hodge

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #16 on: May 06, 2020, 05:50:35 PM »
It's great to see those photos, Smiffy. Thank you for posting them! The house on the far right in the photo 'Walderslade Road, Walderslade (3)', my mother remembers as being painted dark green, I don't know if this minor detail jogs anyone's memory of the area!


As for the pub, you mention that the name was changed from the Hook and Hatchet to The Poacher's Pocket, possibly for legal reasons, in 1973. Sometime in the 1990's (I think!) the pub closed for renovation and reopened as the Hook and Hatchet, but it was very quickly changed back to the Poacher's Pocket - within, I seem to remember, a matter of a few months. The speed with which it reverted back to the Poacher's Pocket does indeed suggest that there are some legal issues concerning the name. It would be interesting to know exactly what they are!

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #15 on: May 06, 2020, 05:18:14 PM »

The Hook & Hatchet pub, looking south. There is a reference to the pub from 1739, although this one dates from after 1903, being rebuilt due to a fire. To the right you can see the dew pond, which looks like it may be frozen over. There is a picture of the older pub which may have dated from 1777 and looks quite different from this later one. The settled area around the Hook & Hatchet may predate the village of Walderslade itself, the road here being known as Hook and Hatchet Road previous to the 1930's. The pub name was changed to the "Poachers Pocket" in 1973 - I seem to remember something about this being the result of some legal issue, but I can't find the source for this.



Another of the Hook & Hatchet, this one dating from the 1920's

Offline castle261

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2020, 04:17:13 PM »
From `Huntsman Corner` to down to nearly`Kitchener Avenue `I watched them being built.


Across the `Magpie Hall Road `the soil/chalk was dug out by hand, then I think a concrete base
was used. I remember light coloured bricks were used, to build up to the roof, made of concrete
These three were long, parallel with Magpie, I would say over each, 60/70 foot long, then covered.
They must have been for all the Magpie residents, above Kitchener Ave, as the houses, back on to
the `new` cemetery. If not for air raid shelter`s, for what other purpose.?

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #13 on: May 06, 2020, 01:49:49 PM »
Castle261, I've not heard about these air raid shelters before, can you remember their precise location?

Offline castle261

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2020, 09:58:36 AM »
Do as I did CAT, put `Coney Banks ` in with your cursor, & see what come`s up.

Two photo`s ( 3/4 ) going down, are the same, photo 3, taken a bit further away.

Offline CAT

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2020, 09:03:34 AM »
Interesting use Castle261 of the word 'Coney' being spoken as 'Connie'. Was this a later reference to a person called 'Connie' living locally and the place name altering accordingly? As you may know, a 'Coney' is an old English word for a rabbit (without getting into the Tolkien debate), with Cony Bank suggestive of a rabbit warren. Seen throughout the rural landscape these are usually nature (rabbits) taking control of a suitable portion of a landscape, or created by man as part of the food resource to a large house or estate. 

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2020, 10:39:46 PM »
The trouble with trying to identify locations like this is that even if the original building is still there, it may have undergone so many alterations over the years that it eventually becomes hard to recognise. I have a picture of one of the original buildings that's still present which I'll post in due course.

Offline castle261

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2020, 07:21:06 AM »
This is how I remember the `Hill `Smiffy. Let me explain to those who may not know the area.
1st photo, we are looking towards `Huntsman Corner `the two houses, at the end of the Hill.

Magpie Hall Road (top) is the row of houses ( where 3 huge air raid shelters were built,
on what is called the `Coney Banks ` (pronounced  Connie ) --------- in WW2

Photo 2 - Mr. Auger`s farm entrance led off from the right kerb 

The Waterworks is behind the Iron Railings.

Photo`s 3.4.5. -- I can not idendify - in Walderslade Road-- yet.

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2020, 09:15:33 PM »

A couple of views of Waterworks hill


Offline Smiffy

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #7 on: May 03, 2020, 01:58:27 PM »

Three pictures of Walderslade Road. I believe most of the photo's I'll be posting date from the 1920's to the 1940's, before all of the development started. I come from the area myself, when the Wayfield and Weedswood estates had already been established. But there were still lots of wooded areas left to explore, and once you ventured beyond the junction with Chestnut Avenue towards Walderslade village, you were pretty much in the countryside again and it all felt very rural.









Offline castle261

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #6 on: May 03, 2020, 10:55:44 AM »
That`s Chestnut Avenue, as I remember it. Smiffy, we walked there for our chestnuts, gathering bits of wood, to knock them down. All I would need to do now, in the autumn, go to Letchworth Ave in
Chatham, near some schools, to knock them down.

Offline Hodge

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2020, 10:54:39 PM »
Yes, that's one of the scenes! Thank you, Smiffy!


I would love to see them, if you don't mind uploading them? My mother remembers Walderslade as being completely rural and often described the area to me as being 'right out in the countryside' but as I was born in 1970, I have only known the area as being fairly built up, although obviously not quite to the extent that we see today!


Was it you who posted them previously? If so, thank you! It was fascinating to see how it all used to look!

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2020, 10:17:11 PM »
Chestnut Avenue. No date, probably pre-war. I have quite a few others of the area, I will upload them if anyone wants to see them.