Keepers Corner

A Memory of Smallfield.

I lived in No. 8 Council Cottages (now Firbank), several children in the cottages, Potters No 4, Arnolds No 1, Apps No 2, Burtenshaw No 3, this was before the war. I was born 1929. Mr Harris of Redeham Hall Farm let us have the run of all his fields to play in, we would go away for hours and our mothers would never worry where we were. About 1937 they were training pilots in Tiger Moths and Miles Magisters, they practiced landing and taking off coming from Gatwick and using Mr Harris's 49 acre field, we watched them. We also had the bank with all the fir trees around the houses, this was made in 1931 by then owner of Rede Hall, Mr Fisher, so that he would not be able to see the council houses from Rede Hall. The soil came from the lake dug in the gardens of Rede Hall, this bank was lovely to play in. The army took over Rede Hall in 1940 from the then owner Sir Hugh Dawson who had been chirman of Vickers Armstrong. We also rode our bikes for miles away, no one worried where we were.
Dennis Stenning.

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