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Chelwood Gate
Chelwood Gate photos
Displaying the first of 36 old photos of Chelwood Gate. View all Chelwood Gate photos
Chelwood Gate maps
Historic maps of Chelwood Gate and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Chelwood Gate maps
Chelwood Gate area books
Displaying 1 of 24 books about Chelwood Gate and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Chelwood Gate
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Chelwood Gate.
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Lt Spencer Baker - Died at Passchendaele 1917
Spencer Baker was my grandfather's cousin. He grew up at Forest Farm, Chelwood Gate, son of Spencer snr and Susan Baker (née Lindfield). Spencer was a building contractor and at the age of 29, in 1909, he left Chelwood Gate to work in Saskatoon, Saskatchawan, Canada. Although this 1927 photograph of the Red Lion was taken 10 years after his death on 26th October 1917 in the mud of Passchendaele, he would have recognised it.
Spencer enjoyed cricket and in Canada he joined the Saskatoon Cricket Club. In 1914 he enlisted in the Canadian army as a reservist in the Saskatoon 29th Light Horse and in 1917 he applied to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the CEF, to the western front. He was then 37, but to appear younger he falsified his age as 34 on his attestation papers. He went to France as a Lieutenant in the Canadian Infantry, 46th Battalion. Along with his company commander, Capt Kennedy, Spencer led... Read more
Happy Holidays
I attended Southfield School in Gravesend, Kent and we had a week's summer camp at the Isle of Thorns, what an adventure, we were away from home for the first time, it was a holiday never to be forgotten even after all these years. I remember walking through the woods to the local shop to spend our money on Cydrax and sweets, kids today do not realise what delight can be got from simple pleasures.
The School Journey
I was a pupil at Michael Faraday at Westmorland Road, London SE17, at about 1953 when we went on the 'school journey'. I will add to this my first holiday away from home. One evening at just before bedtime after a few nights there in the dormitary one of the boys was very irritable and kicked another, which resulted in him crying followed by most of the rest of us because boy, were we suddenly homesick. The teachers must have been used to it I suppose... more to come.
West Sussex memories
Danehill Lodge
My Mother had come from London to visit her brother (Jack Hames) who was working at Danehill Lodge, the name 'Pepper' were the people living there at the time. A lovely wooden gate was the entrance to the garden and house. I remember a large kitchen with a billard room somewhere near. They had a friend who had the nickname of 'Blackie', tall blond man, very happy memories of these visits. Does anyone know of the 'Peppers' Not sure if 'Blackie' lived in Danehill or Fletching. If he worked on the land or was home on leave from the war. Is Danehill still standing? email: Hewitt245@aol.com
Straining The Memory!
I attended primary school at Horstead Keynes briefly until it changed location a few miles away. (I went there as well but can't for the life of me recall the name of the place.) The head mistress was the tall and formidable Mrs. Czerniak, (probably spelt wrongly!), a lady who gave me a good grounding in elementary arithmetic and reading, the latter standing me in good stead ever since. Her husband I think was a Russian emigre, a kind gentleman and a classical violinist of some quality. Their chidren also attended lessons.
Pupils I recall included Lizzie Downward, who sometimes was delivered/collected by her dad in a magnificent open topped Bentley with running boards and hand brake fitted outside the driver's door, and one Edward Greengrass (yes really), who ''didn't know his five times table'', as I once informed my mum. She took this phrase up as some kind of mantra and was fond of repeating it endlessly as a joke and to remind me there was someone else... Read more
Camping at Broadstone Warren With The 3rd Sevenoaks
I was a Cub and Scout Leader with the 3rd Sevenoaks Scout Group in the 1970's and remember a hot summer camp in 1975 at Broadstone Warren. It was at the end of July and we took the younger Scouts off to Summer Camp at this National Scout Activity Centre in the Ashdown Forest while the older ones went on a more adventurous (and expensive!) trip to Switzerland!
We had a great time but even after nearly 40 years I can still remember the trouble we had with so many ants' nests that very hot summer. I wonder if any of the boys who might be reading this will remember?
Life on The Forest, 1940s on
We moved to Yew Tree Cottage, out on the Forest, in December 1940, when I was 20 months old, and my father finally sold up in the early 1980s. I loved the Forest, and was allowed to roam free from an early age. I have many memories of the wide open spaces [yes, they were then, when the smallholders cut and gathered the vegetation for their animals' food and betting, and cut birch for firewood]. Once, when I'd wandered off [aged about 4] to meet the postman, who came from the Forest Row direction, when he didn't come apparently I just kept on walking. I remember feeling sleepy and lying down by a bridge to sleep, and being woken by the search party, probably Dad [Tom Townsend], Mr Card and Mr Everest. I wasn't at all bothered, just loved the attention. Everybody knew everyone in those days, and houses weren't generally locked up. If you went to see anyone and they weren't in, you just went in... Read more
