Heather Wolfe nee Davis

Born in 1938 in Fairlight

We lived in a bungalow in Hill Road at the top there until I was a year and then we moved here (Gorsethorn Way) cos my father was in the taxi business; that was at the bottom of Waites Lane there on the left a taxi business – that was in 1938 – and that was the garage and he worked there for taxis for people – nobody had cars then. (His name was John Davis). We moved to this house and they were newly built these bungalows and the grounds were all overgrown and my mum said she had to clear a bit of the garden lawn of brambles so I had the space to crawl – you know it was all fields and woods at one time; and she worked in the farm just round the corner and up the hill there (Mr Crisford’s farm).  I was born in 1938 and moved here in 1939.

The war was going on and we had doodle bugs coming over and at night my mum used to shake in fear in case it stopped. If it stopped it would come down and I didn’t know about that of course but I was thinking my mum was cold when she was shaking.

A German plane crashed up the road here. We went up there (I was in bed) and I heard like a train going along outside the window so my mum was still up doing something so I said ‘What?’ I told her about that and she said ‘A plane’s just come down up Fyrsway so put your dressing gown on and we’ll go up and have a look’ and we did and it had gone into the garage there. Yes these things do stand out in my mind.

I went to Fairlight School from the age of 5 to 11 then I went to Rye; and Mrs.Coates, she was a lovely lady. I’ve forgotten the name of the other lady. I went to Rye when I was 11 and left when I was 15 then I did secretarial work after that in Hastings. I travelled there by bus – they were going every half hour in the summer then because people didn’t have cars – the East Kent (red) number 128 I think and it was every half hour so it was wonderful in the summer and every hour in the winter; and they were on time and we got to know the drivers cos they used the same drivers and we got quite friendly with them, you know chatting.

I worked in Hastings for a long time then I went to Tunbridge Wells. I wanted to move away from Hastings and my friends were moving away from Hastings and working elsewhere – Eastbourne and different places and I wanted to do the same so I got lodgings with a friend up there, a lady friend, in Crowborough and worked at the Dr Barnado’s Homes. In Hastings I worked for an estate agents and then a solicitor and then the building society. The building society for 13 years before I left and they were all very nice working at those three places; everybody was so friendly. It was the Hastings and Thanet Building Society on the roundabout there at the bottom of Havelock Road.

I was in Tunbridge Wells for about 5 years then I got to meet John, my husband, who lived in Sevenoaks then after a couple of years, we got married and meanwhile, my father had died of cancer and my mother was living here on her own and she was in her early 70s so we thought she’s going to get older so what we did we had this room built on and she had these two rooms and we had the rest of the bungalow. She could come in and out the rest of the bungalow when she liked and we had our evening meal together – yes it was all very friendly.

In 1938 when we moved in, these bungalows had just been built along here and they were all different inside. They’re different inside – the ones I’ve been to. People I’ve got friends with – I’ve been inside and they’re quite different all of them – nice in a way.

And there were white gates near the estate agents there – came across – this was when I was very young – I can hardly remember – and this was a private estate all round here and it was only people who were related or friendly who could come through those gates and they had a tank up there for water up on the Firehills. There was a Mr Morton I think he did it for a while (minded the gates).

And then coming home from school at Fairlight cos we walked home along and over the Firehills, there were some German prisoners working along the flat bit there and they were ever so nice and had a chat with us and a laugh every time we went home from school. They were picking up potatoes – one was called Alfred – anyway I liked him and I was only about 7. I liked him so much chatting to him and I had a black and white rabbit around that time and I called it Alfred. (So they worked on the farms after the war?) Yes. They were very nice and one day when I was coming home from school, my mum used to be working in the fields just up here and when she heard me coming home, she’d come back to the house and the teacher at the school said if you see a red light in the sky, when the war was going on, she said lie flat on the ground and I was coming along and I saw this red light in the sky and it wasn’t moving; it wasn’t a plane and I thought ooh do I lay down and I lay there for a little while and it was still there and I got really frightened, and I got up and ran home screaming. I was only little; went home screaming cos my mum she was in the field and she went running home too and got there before I did. Oh dear I don’t know what that was. So the teachers frightened us saying things like that. Lay flat on the ground she said. The RAF (station) were all up there and the dogs in there.

My father was a taxi driver and continued throughout the war and my mum working on the farm. She did the ploughing herself. She worked in the gardens around here for people and she came from a farming family. Her father used to own cows and had a cow shed in the field where he kept his cows; now going up from Ore, up Fairlight Road, there’s the Broadway isn’t there; well just above there there’s a turning isn’t there, there’s a corner there; well the farm was on that corner – Tile Kiln Farm that’s it. Well he looked after the cows but the farming my mother did – that was wheat, potatoes, strawberries – that sort of thing, and of course in my school holidays I used to go up and help; like picking up strawberries – ooh my back did ache and my mum said to me ‘Keep doing it and the back ache will go off’; and haymaking – the wheat when it was all cut and had the stack up near the Fairlight Road there and going up on the tractor and trailer – all that I loved it.

There was the Circle Shop – now you go past the post box, turn left and there’s a house right there – not the one on the Circle – it’s the next one with the big gates and that was a little café and to start with when I was little, the lady Mrs. Williams and they got Windsor the dog – Mr. and Mrs. Williams and they had the cat and the dog (I remember those) and to start with they sold teas and my mum used to be there helping because they were great friends, the three of them, and she would be helping with the teas and she also had a library there. The other shop Rimmington’s near the post box – go down on that path – The Woolpack – before the Woolpack it was Rimmington’s and that was when I was at school and my mum used to get all her groceries from there and it cost around £2 a week; she got everything from there, and the man used to come round with it all as well on a bike – we didn’t have cars in those days or vans. Opposite nearly – you know where the Old People’s (Shepherd’s Court) is – that was the Vicarage, just one building, with grass all round and an orchard at the back with apples and that was at the bottom of some of the fields that my mum worked in, all up there, and behind the Vicarage where all the bungalows are now – that was just a field and we used to go mushrooming round there, and blackberrying – we did that a lot when I was a child. I had a cousin from my mum’s sister who lived in London and they used to come and stay with us which was nice so I had this cousin to play with cos there weren’t many children around cos they’d just been newly built. Most of them (Fairlight School children) lived up near the church so it was a bit lonely life. 

I didn’t go (the Corner Shop in LWL) but I know where you mean and then there was a tea shop in Waites Lane, as you turn into Waites Lane, on the left there and as you go up Waites Lane, in Farley Way, there was a tea shop at the bottom there – Pixie Wood with the big garden, the lawn at the front.

I belonged to the Youth Club when I was younger. (Did you know Sid Emary who ran the Youth Club and Maureen?) and Rosemary – she’s gone now – I was very friendly with her.

He (Frank Message) was a young man when he got killed, we heard (whether this is right or not) that he was he was running away from the enemy up a hill; he was running fast up a hill and had a heart attack and died but whether or not that’s true I don’t know; that’s what we heard. My gran and grandad heard you know – his parents.

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