Author Topic: Walderslade Village  (Read 12706 times)

Offline castle261

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #63 on: May 10, 2021, 10:47:41 AM »
We, as 8 to 11 year olds - only used our sheath knives to cut silver birch trees - to make
our catapults - The quarter inch rubber, was bought from a hardware shop in Magpie Hall Road,
where incidentily, a box on the wall, we could inset a penny, an a cigarette would appear,
with Two swan vesta matches
I used it a couple of times later - before evacuated to Wales at 12 year old.

Offline MartinR

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #62 on: April 30, 2021, 08:18:08 PM »
Would you believe back in 60's at Rye, we used to take sheath knives to school and played this really dangerous game where two boys stood about 4-5ft apart on the playing field. One would take the knife by the blade and throw it accurately so it landed and stuck in the soft earth just to the outside of the other boy's foot. He then had to move his foot to that position and return the throw to first boy. He likewise moved his foot to the position marked by the blade stuck in the earth. The game continued until one boy surrendered as he could not move his legs any further apart. It was called "Splits" and you could keep challenging different boys to a game to see who was the champion. It was probably more dangerous than conkers, now banned at school, but in all the days we did it, we never had an accident so we must have been pretty good throwers. It was a long time, like several months, before the teachers stopped us doing it!
I'd forgotten all about splits.  One thing though, if the knife failed to stick in the ground you it was a foul and you could bring your feet together.  It meant that it was a bad idea to throw the knife too far, although the craze petered out when one or two boys developed the knack of making the knife stick several feet away.

Archi93

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #61 on: April 30, 2021, 05:50:51 PM »
Strange we all carried sheath knives then - to cut - wood.
Would you believe back in 60's at Rye, we used to take sheath knives to school and played this really dangerous game where two boys stood about 4-5ft apart on the playing field. One would take the knife by the blade and throw it accurately so it landed and stuck in the soft earth just to the outside of the other boy's foot. He then had to move his foot to that position and return the throw to first boy. He likewise moved his foot to the position marked by the blade stuck in the earth. The game continued until one boy surrendered as he could not move his legs any further apart. It was called "Splits" and you could keep challenging different boys to a game to see who was the champion. It was probably more dangerous than conkers, now banned at school, but in all the days we did it, we never had an accident so we must have been pretty good throwers. It was a long time, like several months, before the teachers stopped us doing it!

Offline castle261

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #60 on: December 09, 2020, 06:59:16 PM »
To Dave Smith - That rough road from Luton - was partly made up with a few kerb stones.
Attempts to make it into a proper road - was non exsistant - only a few slabs laid down,
here & there - that was near - that hill

Offline castle261

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #59 on: December 05, 2020, 10:48:04 AM »
I looked it up - on a map - I believe it was - I have just found out it`s on Princes Avenue - looking
in one of those red Medway maps. Of course there were no recognised reference points - in them
days -1935 - onward. I dont remember much about Walderslade Village, I dont think - we
walked that far, Chestnut Avenue was our limit - I was 8/9 years old then - that was two mile or
more from where I live, all across fields. Strange we all carried sheath knives then - to cut - wood.

Offline Lutonman

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #58 on: December 04, 2020, 09:01:57 PM »
Was it Princes Charles Avenue?

Offline Dave Smith

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #57 on: December 04, 2020, 04:38:07 PM »
castle261. Was the first hill that you refer to, to become Princes Avenue? All the way down to Luton & not metalled all the way until the 70's.

Offline castle261

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #56 on: December 03, 2020, 10:08:34 AM »
That old Walderslade was part of our `playground, us `8 / 11` year olds
The first hill - nearest Luton had the bungalows on it - we visited the 2nd
one on the left at the bottom - a concrete base - then corigated iron walls
up wards. There were no houses on the right hand side - that we could see
(all woods ) - Chestnut Ave was a must in the autumn - Wayfield had not
been built on - Kitchener Ave - was our playground too (nearer home )
The half built houses were too tempting - happy days at Glencoe - too.

Archi93

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #55 on: October 17, 2020, 04:29:33 PM »
There must be a database somewhere that details the sites of all uxb's as they were (and still are) discovered. I don't know if this freely accessible or not - perhaps someone will know? My guess at the moment is that this one was found in the garden of a property in Snodhurst Avenue.
I wonder if the Royal Engineers Museum at Brompton has a database of UXB's as they were often involved in defusing them? One of their static exhibits shows the process involved in defusing such, with a steam pump that was used to inactivate them.

Archi93

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #54 on: October 17, 2020, 04:18:56 PM »
Well or cess pit on Walderslade bypass.
Some years ago they put in Walderslade bypass running from part way down Robin Hood Lane towards Walderslade Road, by passing the village itself.
When they were digging to put bypass road in, there was discovered a large red brick structure, beneath the old land surface, shaped a bit like a bell with its wider base down and narrower at top. They had cleaned away the earth to just leave the red bricks in situ. It would easily have fitted a man in to dig and line it.
It was circular and about 4 ft high. It was there for quite a while before they cleared it away to make way for the road.
You can still see where it was, as on the road surface opposite Robin Hood Surgery is a circular area of different type of tarmac, as if the road subsided and was patched up again. I thought it was a village well, but my friend now thinks it was a brick lined cess pit, where the liquid waste would drain away out of the bottom, and the solid waste would be removed either for the garden, or by Chatham Corporation. Does anyone have any photos of information about it please?

Offline Hodge

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #53 on: June 10, 2020, 05:46:07 PM »
All these fascinating pictures prompted me to look on Google Earth and use the 'timeline' tool to scroll back in time to see how quickly the Walderslade area developed. It goes from being heavily wooded and rural to concreted and populated in one fell swoop (or click)!

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #52 on: June 08, 2020, 01:46:01 PM »
No, unfortunately I have no idea who took most of these pictures, some were probably taken to tempt people into buying a plot in what was then an idyllic piece of the countryside. Others may have just been by amateurs who liked taking rural pictures.

Judging by the vehicle in the Robin Hood lane pic, I'd guess this was the 1920's and we're seeing the terminus of whatever service was available at the time - I doubt if this ran to more than a couple of buses a day.

Offline Hodge

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #51 on: June 08, 2020, 12:57:25 PM »
Wow! That's simply unrecognisable as the Robin Hood Lane of today! Thank you Smiffy!
We have to thank those who had the foresight to take photos of what were essentially just unremarkable rural areas, but end up as being valuable historic records! Do you know who the photographer was?

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #50 on: June 07, 2020, 06:51:34 PM »
Yes, it's still there, one of the older pre-war properties.

Here's Robin Hood Lane in days of yore:


Offline Hodge

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Re: Walderslade Village
« Reply #49 on: June 07, 2020, 05:44:05 PM »
Hi Smiffy,


It's great to see those pictures of Walderslade, thank you! And I do remember seeing them on the 'old' Forum now!



In your picture entitled 'Nab Hill', the house in the very centre of the photo looks like the house on Princess Avenue at the junction with Dargets Road (and is still standing), as it has a very distinctive roof line. It's also in your picture of '"The Valley" Walderslade', in the centre near the top, where Princess Avenue forms a left-hand bend. In your picture of Dargets Road, it's the house in the foreground with just the roof visible. (It's actually two semi-detached houses, but in this context I've referred to it as one.)


I used to live in Dargets Road as a child in the 1970s, and although the area was built up by then, that particular house always seemed to stand out from all the others. When viewing pictures of rural Walderslade, I'll always look for that house and use it as a landmark, as the landscape has changed so dramatically!