Ivy Hatcha Free Childhood 50 Years Ago

A Memory of Ightham.

We - my parents and their five sons - lived at Beaconsmount, a house formerly owned by the Maules and before them, the Staggs. We moved to Ivy Hatch (opposite the 68 bus stop at the Sevenoaks end of the village) in 1956 and left in 1975. All of us loved the village and its people and I made lots of friends.

The bus-stop itself was called Maule's Corner all through our time.

We used to call the road beside our house "Sandy Lane" (because of all the sand from the footpath up to the top of the quarry that was left after heavy rain) but before we left, the Council (encouraged by Brigadier Bowra, a chap a bit like Captain Manwaring in Dad's Army) renamed it something else!

We knew lots of families - I think Jonathan Green had an elder brother and a sister called Gillian and his mother was Mavis. On this same lane, the Engehams and Bremners lived on the left and to the right, the Farmers and Somaslaki Cottage. Old Mr Farmer had a small strawberry farm and used to give us what he called the birdy-pecks. Later there was a tragedy in the Farmer family when a tree fell on their young man. The Greens' house was just beyond the Common Road on the the right but there was also a little bungalow - a "granny annexe" on the right. I think Mavis lived there in her old age. The Engehams always let us use their swimming pool and were very good neighbours.

I was particularly friends with the Sich family who lived at Penfold and first met Rosemary, a really gifted flower artist, waiting at that bus stop. John Sich died in the great "Michael Fish" storm (kind of appropriately as he so loved their garden which like so much else was ruined) but Faith lived a bit longer. It was only after her death that they took down Ivy Hatch's church which had been built as a memorial to a Collyer-Fergusson just after World War I. (Lolly Fergusson and her brother, just a little older than we were, lived nearby and sometimes we'd see her there.) The church was beautiful and the Siches (more than anyone) cared for and tended it. It was a lovely place, especially at the times of harvest, Christmas and Easter when decorated. There was an organ with a handpump which I sometimes pushed and although there was never a choir, we all participated as was needed!

Ivy Hatch was always smaller than Ightham where in those days there were still shops which people depended on. A tiny Tesco only arrived in Sevenoaks about 1958. Before that, Gilbert Smith came twice a week from Ightham (I can remember their rather black bananas which were only a few years "off-ration").

Ightham pubs included "The Old House at Home", "The Harrow" and "The Cob Tree" as well as those actually in the village. Ivy Hatch however had its own pub, the Plough, at one time, quite famous for gypsies but also said to be a place of rendez-vous between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
In Stone Street, the Padwell still, I believe, survives.

Ivy Hatch had a busy shop in the 1960s,and next door to it, a joint doctor's surgery and library operated from the late 1950s. Before that, the library had been in a private house, belonging to Mrs. Creasey - all volunteer like "The Big Society"!

It was certainly already more a commuters' than a true farming village but it was a very strong community.

There are many other people whom I recall with happiness e.g. the Christians, the Francis, the Burnetts, the Moores.

It certainly wasn't all sweetness and light but it was a good place to grow up in at a good time in history.