A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE – AND FOND MEMORIES OF HORSMONDEN

 

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE – AND FOND MEMORIES OF HORSMONDEN

August 2016

Earlier last week I had a trip to the village, via the Tennis Club (known in earlier days as the Sand-hole or Skid-Kids on to the Horsmonden Cricket Club/Sports Field (or ‘dog-house’ as we knew it). A popular venue for watching and/or playing football and cricket and playing around the sheep-gates used for the annual lamb sale.

 

I wandered around the outer edge where once could be seen rows of apple trees bearing the finest Cox Orange Pippin and Worcester apples in ‘Rallings’ orchards as far as you could see.

            

I walked over to see the man who was mowing the cricket pitch, he stopped the engine and we talked for a long time about Horsmonden and how it had developed since the war and from my perspective over the last 50 or 60 years.

             

The gentleman was John Couchman (known as Pistol) who has lived and worked in the village for some 76 years. We started by reminiscing about the cricket and football teams of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s - some great memories of players of those times.

             

We recalled the many farms in and around the village which earlier had been substantial producers of fruit, hops and livestock, many now no longer there. Also the places of work and companies that had been employers to many of the residents and buildings no longer there. Such places as Chris Lamberts with his steam engines and the wood yard and saw mill, the railway station, Maidstone & District bus garage, W H Boddington plastics factory, Tourle the coal supplier, Woodgate the builders, Heath Engineering Works, Margetsons and Louis Reece, Bob and David Browning’s chicken farm, the two petrol stations, the old forge and the well fished ponds and lakes.

                

We recalled the shops and the three thriving pubs and of course the Working Man’s Club which is now the Horsmonden Social Club, still an important part of the community. The people who were born and brought up and worked in and around the village, many sadly no longer with us. Also names of people and their families from those earlier years still living in the village or have moved to other parts of the country and even further afield.

     

I remembered reading about the 2015 annual “Love where we live award” when John was commended for his commitment to the village as caretaker of the Village Hall and grounds-man at the Cricket Club. He has served the Horsmonden community well for over 60 years.

 

I remembered visits as a young kid to local farms with John’s dad to collect cauliflowers for Margetson’s the fruit & produce Importers/Packers in the centre of village, where they’d be prepared for delivery to their stores at the old Covent Garden market in London.

What a great conversation and great memories.........thanks John.

    

I wanted to have a look at what was the railway embankment, but between the pavilion and the bridge further ‘down the line’ it had been filled in. I had a closer look at where the Maidstone road tunnel was and could still see the tunnel entrance, it was the same at the other end of the tunnel, overgrown but still visible.

                        

Like generations before us, we used to play down the railway embankment alongside the sports field and often found cricket balls there thanks to the more enthusiastic hard hitting batsmen!

 

I wanted to see if there were any other reminders of the old Paddock Wood – Hawkhurst railway line and Horsmonden Railway Station.................................

 

Happy Days!

More to follow......