Cottage Opposite Hart Road Caravan Site

The White Hart And Shops c1965
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

I remember a beautiful old, I think thatched, cottage situated opposite the entrance to the caravan site in Hart Road, Thundersley, opposite the phone box. It had brightly painted plaster figurines wearing very old costume (pargetry?), under the eaves and an inscription that read:
'Built before the battle of (either Trafalgar or Waterloo)', I can't be sure now exactly which, and a date. It filled the whole of the corner plot next to Triton Way and Hart Road. A very old and very lovely white-haired old man lived there alone after his wife had died. (I never saw or met her and I presumed she'd died a long time before). He was really tall and slightly stooped and had to bend over even further to enter the cottage, which had low ceilings, thick black wooden beams and a massive black-beamed fireplace. He used-to sell fruit from his orchard, tomatoes and other vegetables from a lean-to at the side of his cottage. I remember he very kindly gave me some windfall cooking apples for my mother. He never said much but had a really kindly way about him and I knew he was fond of children.
There was a tree at the entrance gate with a poem pinned to it which read:
'God's Garden
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's Heart in a garden,
Than anywhere else on earth.'
My mother loved this poem.

Next-to the tree and entrance gate, a winding side path led around to the back of the cottage, to the lean-to door, which always seemed to be open. Beyond the lean-to was a rambling garden, choc-a-block with plants, trees and at least two small ponds beyond and amongst the vegetation. It was teeming with wildlife and olde-world beauty - very green. It was a magical place to visit and I wish I had a photograph to remember it by, besides inside my head. I wonder if anyone has one? Incredibly, it was pulled down to make way for two detached houses. I wonder if anyone else remembers it, or knows more about it's history and who the old man was? It forms a lasting and enchanting part of my childhood.
Madeleine Davies