Bekesbourne and the Second World War 1. Outbreak of War Britain declared war on Germany on Sunday 3rd September 1939. A final ultimatum had been issued at 9.00 a.m. that morning to the effect that unless the Germans gave, by 1 L00 am, a satisfactory reply undertaking to with- draw from Poland ~- Germany had invaded Poland on September lst * a state of war would exist between the two countries. No response had been re- ceived by the deadline and the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, ad- dressed the nation on the wireless, announcing the start of hostilities.‘ In Bekesbourne that Sunday morning an event without precedent took place: Mattiris at St Peter's Church was postponed from I 1.00 a.m. to l 1.15 a.m.. The Vicar began a series of brief notes in the church's Register of Services which he continued more or less throughout the war years. On this occasion he wrote, "1 1 am Mattins Postponed to 1 L15", and in the remarks column: "War with Germany announced"? 2. Introduction to Bekesbourne in 1939 Bekesbourne is a parish some two miles long by halfa mile wide aligned roughly north—west to south—east. It is not a compact village but has a number ofseparate communities: The Hill, with the pub and the railway station; The Street, which is the NE. side of Patrixbourne village street, the boundary between the two parishes being down the middle of the road; School Lane and the area around the church; and The Aerodrome. As is clear from the map, a principal feature of the parish is the railway line from Canterbury to Dover, which goes through it, first from the north west in a cutting; then past the station, over a short viaduct and along a high embankment across the valley of the Little Stour; and then again into a cutting past the aerodrome. To ‘Woolton Farm Howl etts Farm 3 '5 1 Bekesboume Village (1.) From the Street to the Railway Station lf a present-day resident or visitor were transported back in time to 1939, he or she would still find the place recognisable despite changes which have inevitably taken place in more than fifty years. The tall Wellingtonia tree — on its triangle of land — was still a landmark and traffic hazard at the junction of Bifrons Hill, The Street and Station Road. Bifrons Road was not there; it was built as council housing by the Bridge—Blean Rural District Council in the early 1950s. At the junction of Station Road. and School Lane the present village hall has replaced an earlier, smaller and meaner timber building known as the Village Hut. Station Approach, by the Village Hut, led, not as now to an unmanned station and "postmodernist" builder's offices and works, but to station buildings with booking office, waiting room (with a fire in winter) and stationmaster's house, and a goods yard, where there was a coalyard run by Mr James Newton who lived on Bekesbourne Hill, and from which baskets of fruit destined for Covent Garden and hop pockets for the brewery trade were des- patched in season. The station complement consisted of the stationmaster (5 E 49%; - L1 boume ., J5 - Qowhou S -_ ingfield wm1t0n 5 ' . Farm hm ‘ I‘ “ I‘ '« % _ _ / Howletfi Garringtun Farm 3 Eifihopsbolune T" Adisham 2 Bekesbourne and surrounding area himself with a booking clerk and two porters/signalmen. The livery and signs were in the green paint of the old Southern Railway. The trains were, of course, all pulled by steam locomotives. Steam trains in those days were not romantic as they seem today; indeed at times they could be positively danger» ous, as when an engine labouring to get going up the steep incl__ine out of Bekesboume station gave offa cloud of sparks which blew through the open sash windows of the upper floor of the Prince of Wales and set fire to the bedclothes; or when Mr Wilson's horse field up at the aerodrome caught fire one summer. The Prince of Wales was a public house, now converted to a private house painted a deep shade of pink. it stands on the far side of the station an_d is approached from Bekesbourne Hill. The landlord since l924 was Mr William Measday who lived there with his wife and two of his three daughters, the eldest having left home. Mr l\/leasday was a veteran of the 19l4—l 8 war in which he had been severely wounded and lost a leg. They had a large garden and orchard where the car park. for The Unicorn is now situated. It was a good place for a quick drink while waiting for a train. (ii) Bekesbourne Hill to the Parish Boundary Beyond. the Prince of Wales, on Bekesbourne Hill itself stood, and still stands, the Unicorn public house. Whereas the Prince of Wales had a full licence for beers, wines and spirits, and possessed a cellar for the beers, the Unicorn had a restricted licence as a beer house only and had no cellar. Here the landlord was Mr Albert Rennels. He and his family were newcomers hay» ing only taken up residence in June l_939. Mr Rennels soon gained the reputation of being willing to sell almost anything at any time, having a regular stock of sweets and groceries. Both public houses were at that time owned by Shepherd Neame, the Faversham brewers, who had bought them, together with four adjacent cottages, in September 1924. On the opposite side of the Hill was the fruit farm of Mr W.l\/l.Wallis who lived. in Yew Tree Cottage. The land remains fruit orchards today. Further u.p on the same side is Oakleigh Lane, at the end of which is the house named Oakleigh, in 1939 the Bekesbourne poultry farm owned by Mr Frederick .l Helbling, one of three poultry farms in the village. The Helblings moved to Kingston in 1942 when Mr Wallis bought Oakleigh as his own residence. Behind Oakleigh is the land of Woolton farm, in Bekesboume parish, although the farmhouse and buildings are in the parish of Littlebourne 4 Going back to the road from Oakleigh you must imagine that the houses and bungalows opposite are not there —-~ they are post-war buildings. Taking the road towards Canterbury, you will pass Four Acres on the left and St Quentin on the right. The latter, in 1939 was the second of the three poultry farms, owned by Mr Richard Gray. Further on, on the right, lay the entrance to Springfield Nursery and on the left the house called Springfield. This was a large building of red brick, consisting of a two—storey central block with a tall single-storey wing on either side. It looked like a late—\/ictorian or Edwardian institution of some kind, as indeed. .it had been. It was built as the Bridge Rural District sanatorium or isolation hospital, a.n essential requirement in times when diseases such as scarlet fever, diphtheria and even smallpox were still common. By 1939 it had been sold. as a private house. it is unrecognis- able today, having in recent years been completely remodelled to become the modern and up—to—date Highfields Clinic. Beyond Springfield, just before you descend the hill to fialrrristead Bottom and the parish boundary, there is a lane on the left which crosses the railway cutting on a bridge and leads to the pair of farm cottages, belonging in those days to Hods-»F arm, and known as Cowhouses. It was here that Mr Griggs, who worked for Mr Spencer Mount of Hode Farm and Mrs Griggs had. brought up their family of three boys and four girls. They were all grown up by I939, the youngest having been born in l9l(). The sons all worked for Mr Mount, having started in turn, as they left school at the age of fourteen, as backdoor boys doing the chores of the farmhouse, before graduating as fully- tledged farm workers. The daughters, on the other hand, would go into domestic service, again perhaps at Hode Farm, before getting married and giving up paid employment. (iii) Littlebourne Road Let us retrace our steps to the Village Hut and stand with our backs to the station approach. road, a private road as the Parish Council was informed at a meeting in 19413. On our left is the road to Littlebourne past Howletts F arm, and the entrance to Howletts mansion. This is new John Aspinall's wild animal park. In 1939 it was occupied by the Ramsay family. From Tudor times in the 16th century and probably earlier the owners of Howletts had been the principal landowners of Bekesbourne, but by l939 much ofthe land was owned, as it still is, by the Church Commissioners. (iv) School Lane Opposite the Village Hut is School Lane. On the left, in the triangular piece of land now occupied by several post-war bungalows, were the village allotments, managed by Messrs Truscott & Sons of St George's Street, Canterbury. They had a hedge adjoining the road which tended to get over- grown, to the extent that the Parish Council wrote formally in November 1940 to ask Truscotts to get their tenants to cut it back “as same was over— growing the highway". One of the amusements of the children on their way back from school was to watch one of the allotment holders, who had a reputation as a boozer, sleeping off his liquid lunch. Further down School Lane the house Winlen was there in 1939. So was the Old Post Office; but not "old". It was a sub~post—~off"1ce, a room in Mr and Mrs Crouch's bungalow with the posting box and telephone kiosk outside as they are today. It was the sort of sub-post—office where you had to knock on the door to get service, usually from Mrs Crouch. But it did more than sell stamps and despatch mail; it was, for example, where Mr Measday collected his first world war disability pension. But telegrams had to be sent from the railway station and were delivered from Bridgef‘ Mr Crouch was a member of the Parish Council. Next to the post office Glencot was there. The house had been built in the twenties by the then headmistress of the school, Miss Trees, for her own. retirement, but in 1939 it was occupied by a young married couple, who had married in l937, and their small daughter. Both came from the village. Opposite is Parsonage Farm, occupied then by Mr and M_rs Ernest Baker who farmed much of the land in Bekesboume. Then on the left of the road was the Church of England elementary school, now also a private house having been closed in the early 1970s when a new school for the whole district was built in Bridge. The Headteacher was Miss Allen who lived on the premises. There were three classes: an infants class taught in its own classroom and the junior and senior classes in the large classroom divided in two by a curtain. The other teachers at the time were Miss Cooper and Miss Capon. Next to the old school now is the Old Vicarage. In those days it too was still in use for its original purpose, as the home of the vicar, The Rev Albert Amos Fletcher Larnplugh MA and his wife. Mr Lamplugh had been appointed to Bekesbourne in l928. He had been a student at St John's College, Cambridge where he read History, then going on to Ripon Theologi- cal College. He was ordained at Ripon Cathedral and held a number of curacies in Yorkshire before coming south. His last appoi.ntment had been curate in charge of St Peter's Church, Whitstable, where he was for two years before coming to Bekesbourne. In 1939 he was 56 years old or thereabouts. Mrs Lamplugh was the teacher of the Sunday school, which she held in the Victorian schoolroom at the side of the vicarage. At least one child remem- bered her best for the toffecs she used to ha.nd out from the red toffee tin. (v) The Old Palace, Church and Cobham Court Opposite the Vicarage and School, down a lane alongside the river, called either the Nailbourne or the Little Stour, is the Old Palace, which must. have looked much the same in 1939 as it does today, except possibly for a thick covering of ivy. This substantial house is all that is left, in fact the gatehouse, porter's lodge and some domestic offices, of a hu.ge palace constructed by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the l540s, in the reign of King Henry VIII. It lasted barely a hundred years and was sold off for demolition in the late l640s by the C ornmonwealth Cornmissionerss All that was left, the gatehouse range, was converted into a house, improved in the 18th century“ and further enlarged and castellated in the 19th century. In 1939 the house was occupied by Malor-—General and Mrs Delano-Osborne. They took their share of village responsibilities; he was particularly active as one of the school managers. On the hill above stands St Peter's Church, in those da.ys looking much as it is today. The main difference is that the ordinary way to approach it was not, as it is today, across the footbridge or the ford by the Old Palace and up through the orchard belonging to Cobham Court; that was known as the hearseway, presumably because it was the only vehicular approach. The ordinary approach on foot was to go through the iron gate — which is still there — just beyond the bridge by the Vicarage, beside the river and then left along the boundary wall of Cobham Court gardens. This was a maintained footpath, and was from time to time the concern of the Parish Council as to how it should be mended. Below the church is Cobham Court itself, another substantial house of ancient origins, at that time the residence of Miss Hordern, dairy farmer and Justice of the Peace. (vi) Up the hill to the Aerodrome Then up the hill to the Aerodrome, past Chaikpit Farm belonging to Mr Baker. Aerodrome Road. would be barely recognisable today. Many of the original buildings put up by the air force in the first world war, though they are still the core of present-day bungalows, have been much. altered and there have been many new houses and bungalows built, in—filling between the original buildings. Many of the buildings and indeed the aerodrome hangar and field were not actually in the parish of Bekesbourne during the war, although their postal address was Bekesbourne a.nd the residents felt them- selves to be part of the Bekesbourne community. The buildings had been sold off by the Ministry of Defence in the early l920s after the aerodrome was shut down as an active RAF station. The tirst people to buy a property were the Wilson family, moving back to Kent from Essex. They had been negotiating for a never-completed briclobuilt barrack block which happened to li.e within Bekesbourne parish on land owned by Miss l-lordern. Stalemate was reached because the Ministry was willing to sell the building but Miss Hordern would not sell the land. There was a solution at hand: the Wilsons did a swap with someone who was negotiating for another property on land not owned by Miss Hordem and who only wanted it for the salvageable building materials. So the Wilsons moved into their bungalow which had been the wireless operations hut of the aerodrome and which was in the parish of Ickham. Or so they thought -~— until one Sunday they were somewhat put out to find a group of people crossing the garden. They turned out to be the Vicar and congregation of St Peter's beating the parish bounds. The bungalow was named Boundary Cottage. (vii) Beyond The Aerodrome Opposite the aerodrome, on the other side of the Adisham Road are the four pairs of houses called Downside, which were built as council houses by the Bridge Rural District Council in 1934. Further over, on Bramling Road can be seen the cottage which was once the miller's house when the old windmill still worked and beyond, at the junction of that road and Shepherd's Close road is Chota, the third of the poultry farms, owned by Mr Tyler. We can then return, by Shepherds Close road and Keeper's Hill to the village of Patrixbourne and the Street and on up beyond the Wellingtonia along Hode Lane to Hode Farm. These roads all form the boundary between Patrixbourne and Bekesbourne. I n the Street we shall pass Court Cottages, Mulberry Cottage, the cast houses, three cottages later destroyed, Elephant and Lion, Godden House, part of which is a small general stores and off licence, and Wanstalls named after the family which lived there in the XVIII and early XIX century. Opposite is Soncles House which was severely damaged by fire in the summer of 1944-. Wanstalls was burnt down in the l970s but has been rebuilt and renamed Patrixbourne House. All the houses named are in the parish of Bekesbourne. It was only in the local government reorganisation of the 19803 that the civil parishes of Bekesbourne and Patrixbourne were united. The age-old dividing line along The Street remains now only for the ecclesiastical parishes. 2. Preparations for War a. Civil Defence From 1935 onwards there was a growing expectation in the country of a second war with Germany. The Munich agreement of the summer of 1938 and Neville Chamberlain's "Peace with Honour" speech which followed, gave a brief year's respite during which preparations for war and re—arma— ment could go forward. In July 1935 the Government had issued a circular” encouraging local authorities to expand their civil defence activities with particular reference to air raids. The Kent County Council set up an Air Raids Precautions committee and in July 1936 this body agreed with the District Councils and the l-lome Office the delegation of authority over various matters to District level, including the organisation and training of local personnel as air raid wardens, the provision of first aid posts, the control of shelters, arrangements for evacuation of personnel or the reception of evacu- ees, liaison with fire, ambulance and emergency rescue services and the like. in this way Bridge Blean Rural District Council (RDC), which only a year or two before had been formed from an amalgamation of the two districts of Bridge and Blean and had taken new offices in Old Dover Road in the City of Canterbury, became the responsible body for civil defence for the parish of Bekesbourne. The RDC appointed its own chairman as Chief Warden and an Air Raids Precautions Off1cer(ARPO), Captain 3 A Pittock, who, in the spring of l 937, wrote to "Parish Councils regarding air raid precautions in the parishesg. Bekesbourne Parish Council received the letter at a meeting on 15th March, but deferred it as new elections were to take place and it seemed better for the new Council to deal with a matter of such importance. The new 9 Bekesbourne and the Second World War David Millyard Acknowledgements I am most grateful to those residents and former residents of Bekesbourne who have very kindly shared their memories with me: Mrs Hogben, Mr & Mrs Hopkins, Mrs Jarvis, Mr & Mrs Friend, Mr & Mrs White. The illustrations are by the author except: No 3. The aerodrome in the 1930s, which is from a postcard published by Saunders, 40 St Peter's Street, Canterbury No 6. Map of bombing in Bridge Blean, which is reproduced from the Kentish Gazette No 8. Bekesbourne Home Guard, which is from a photograph lent by Mrs Hopkins. GDM Bekesbourne November 1996 Reprinted with minor amendments, November 2006. Copyright © G D Millyard 1996, 2006 Council. met on 26th April 1937 and appointed its own chairman, Mr E W Baker, to be Head Ward.en, and Messrs Scales, Birchett (a former member of the Parish Council) and Wallis as Air Raid Wardens. They also agreed to invi.te Capt Pittock to come and. address a public meeting in Bekesbourne, which duly took place on 14th June. At this point we should say a word about Mr Baker who was, undoubtedly, the key individual in Bekesbourne at the time. Though not the landowner, he was the principal farmer in the village, farming Parsonage and Chalkpit Farms and living at Parsonage. He represented Bekesbourne on the RDC; he was Chairman of the Parish Council; he was a member of the School Man- agement Committee of which the Vicar was ex ofiicio Chairman; he was Chairman of the Littlebourne and District British Legion. Known as "Buff" Baker he is remembered for his two fox terriers, Bu.bble and Squeak. And he liked a quick beer at the Prince of Wales — but, so the story goes, would escape through the kitchen, calling his old dog from the step outside, if he spied someone coming up the footpath outside in search of him. Now he had taken on yet another job in the village. It is clear that the RDC took its responsibilities seriously, stepping them up as the threat of war advanced. At least from the start of 1939 there was a regular training programme organised throughout the district, including anti-gas and first aid courses in the village halls, including the Bekesbourne Village Hut. One or two special exercises were held in the district, which included the simulation of an air raid at night on Chartham and Canterburyg. However there were, inevitably, snags. On July lst 1939 Mr Baker complained at a meeting of the R.DC that the ARPO had asked Bekesbourne to establish first aid posts and the village had set up a voluntary committee to oversee the programme; but no money had been provided on the grounds that the village was not in a danger area. As the Kentish Gazette reported him saying: "They cannot expect to go on like this. The village is actually under an aerodrome". b. The Aerodrome l.t has already been noted that the RAF left the aerodrome at the end of the first world. war. The Ministry of Defence sold off the ancillary buildings, having first removed the fittings such as the electric power system and made the mains drainage inaccessible to the new owners. The airfield itself would have reverted to farmland had not Mr Ramsay, the owner of Howletts at the time, taken up flying, which he did at the age of over 70”’. l0 4 The nga in 995. It was demolished fo housing in 1998 It was he who set up the Kent Flying Club which became a. thriving concern during T116 late '20s and '30s, with its own Servicing 0rga'nisa;ti0n., Air Sales 11 and Service Ltd. Its secretary was Mr James Pratt, who lived at Wanstalls in the Street. The aerod.rome was sometimes called Garrington Aerodrome and appears in the pre-war Ward Lock red guide to East Kent towns as "Canterbury aerodrome at Bekesbourne"', but BEKESBOURNE was the name painted in huge capitals on the roof of the hangar to guide incoming aircraft. In 1938 with the threat of war the Kent Flying Club took a share in training pilots under the govemment—sponsored scheme called the Civil Air Guard. Early in 1939 officials visited the aerodrome and decided that it was unsuitable for conversion to use with the new fast RAF fighter planes being built for the expected war. Later in the summer as the threat became greater civil flying had to stop and the aerodrome was taken out of commission once more. c. The Parish Council A new Parish Council had been elected in the spring of 1.937. The members were Councillors Crouch of the Post Office in School Lane; W H Scales, who lived in Oakleigh Lane; W M Wallis, fruit farmer of Yew Tree Cottage, The Hill; 3 Newport, coal merchant and carrier of The Hill; and F Goldfinch, of Riverside Cottages. Their first action was to co-opt Mr Baker as Chair-» man. This council stayed in office right through the war as local government elections were held in abeyance for the duration. In the years leading up to the war their main concerns had been to put pressure on the RDC in such matters as the maintenance of roads, ditches and drainage. In particular, over a number of years, they persistently tried to get a 30 MPH speed limit in the village, at first for the whole village and latterly for School Lane only. Only when eventually the application was turned. down by the Ministry of Trans- port in the spring of 1939 did the Council agree to drop it. The start of the war was not noted by the Council; indeed there is very little in the Minutes throughout to indicate that there was a war on, although their business must have been conducted against the background of changes brought about by the war. One or two hints are given: for example, in the autumn of 1939 there had been a fire in Oakleigh Lane when the water pressure at the hydrants on Bekesbourne Hill had proved inadequate. The Council took it up with the RDC, received an unsatisfactory reply in the spring of 1940 and then asked the RDC ARI’ officer for a 200 gallon static water tank. d. The School 12 In the summer of 1939 the managers of the Bekesbourne school, a Church of England elementary school under the control of the Education Committee of the Kent County Council (KEC), took a concerned view of the expected outbreak of war. The managers consi.sted of The Vicar, who was ex offcio chairman, Mr Baker, Mrs Ramsay of Howletts, Maj—General Delano Osborne of the Old Palace, Miss Hordern of Cobham Court, and Mr F W Bovill of Sondes House, who represented the Parish Council having been previously its chairman. They anticipated possible air raids and considered what precau- tions should be taken. Their preferred solution, in addition to some sand- bagging of parts of the school building, was to use the railway tunnel as a shelter. This, which was sometimes also known as "the long arch", is a farm accommodation way beneath the railway embankment behind the Vicarage and quite near the school. It consists of a brick-lined tunnel, built high enough to take a fully- loaded hay wagon, and the Nailbourne river is taken in a culvert underneath. The managers met again in September soon after the outbreak of the war. They con- firmed their decision and Maj-Gen Delano Osborne was commis- sioned to direct the sand—bagging of the tunnel. Various mem- bers promised help and materials and they de— cided to set up a volun- tary subscription fund to provide for this and other air raid and war emergency expenses in the Village. Mr 5 The rrunnel or 1iLOng Archlr agreed to be treasurer. 13 The decision to use the tunnel raised a. storm of protest in the village. A meeting of parents was convened at the Village Hut. Strong objections were raised to the tunnel scheme "on grounds of (a) cold (b) damp and ((3 technical grounds connected with ballistics". An alternative scheme was put forward of wiring the school windows and sand—bagging the buildings, if money was found to buy the necessary wood. Mr Tyler, owner of the Chota poultry farm on Bramling Road, would provide the wire; Mrs Tyler would lead a group of mothers to put the work in hand. The Major—General reported all this back to another meeting of the managers later in September. The meeting was also attended by a Captain Montefiore of the Royal Horse Artillery who had looked a.t the tunnel and now con- firmed the ballistic objections to its use. So, although the railway company had agreed to the use of the tunnel, the alternative scheme was adopted, the voluntary help "thankfully accepted" and the work authorised to go ahead under the direction of the Major—General. Someone -~ who it was is not recorded —— pointed out that in extreme emergency the tunnel could still be used. e. Evacuees In I938 it was clearly expected by the government of the day that, if war broke out, London and other large centres of population would immediately become targets for aerial bombardment. Plans were drawn up for evacuating some 2,000,000 people from London., including over 145,000 to rural areas of Kent, and a further 50,000 from the Medway towns to Kent "reception areas"“. In view of the ‘Munich declaration’ the emergency plans were not needed in the autumn of 1938 but more careful and detailed arrangements were drawn up over the following six to nine months, so far as Kent was concerned under the direction of the Kent County Council (KCC) in co- operation with the District Councils. Towards the end of August 1939 war seemed inevitable. On 31st August the KCC received notification from the Ministry of Health on behalf of the Government that the plans should be put into effect. The evacuation was started on 1st September, the day Germany invaded Poland, and was complete by 5th September. The plans included the evacuation of 9000 people from the Medway towns to Canterbury City, Bridge Blean Rural District and Elham Rural District, the evacuees going by train to Canterbury East station and from there by bus to their final destina- tions. In the event a good deal fewer arrived than had been planned for. 14 A reporter of the Kentish Gazette watched the arrival of the evacuees at the East Station in Canterbury on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd September and their onward despatch by bus. Bekesbourne is recorded as having received sixteen on the first day and fifteen on the second.. Preparations i_n the village had been made earlier, Mrs Baker, wife of Mr Baker, Chairman of the Parish Council etc etc, being billeting officer. She was rather lame and walked. with a stick. She and her husband. both rode to hounds, she riding side-saddle in the traditional. lady's way. She had the reputation of being a no—nonsense sort of person. As billeting officer she would be unlikely to take no for an answer. That was certainly the experience of one young married woman whose hus- band had joined up in the Royal Artillery. Mrs Baker asked her to take three evacuee children. "But I've only got two beds", she replied. That was no problem; Mrs Baker lent her a third. 3. The Early Months: October 1939 — April 1940 The autumn, winter and spring of 193 9—l940 became known as the period of the "phoney war". The British Expeditionary Force had gone off to fight in France but there was little fighting actually done. The allied armies of France and Britain were protected in the concrete fortifications of the Maginot Line on the French side of the frontier with German forces similarly occupying the Siegfried Line on their side. The German army was more concerned with the completion of the conquest of Pola.nd and l.ater with the invasion of Norway and Denmark. At home i.n Britain shortages were beginning to bite as a result of enemy naval and air attacks on shipping. All the civilian population were required. to register and Identity Cards were introduced. Food rationing was organised and ration books were issued. People were given instructions to register with specific retailers, first for bacon and butter which were to be rationed from a date to be announced, and also for sugar. Evidently some retailers in the district jumped the gun, refusing supplies to unregistered customers before the due date. On 16th October 1939 the Kentish Gazette published. a tetch_y note from the authorities denying that rationing had yet started. The expected air raids on London and other urban centres did not take place, either because the German air force was fully occupied in eastern Europe and in attacking shipping or, perhaps, because the range of German fighters was insufficient to give cover to their bombers over south-east England from bases in Germany. As a result some evacuees began to drift home. 15 Throughout the country County War Agricultural Executive Committees ("War.Ag.") were set up to oversee and to increase agricultural production to offset shortages arising from import restrictions. Kent was no exception. A Committee was set up under the chairmanship of Lord Cornwallis which in turn set up sub—comrnittees in the districts including Bridge Blean RDC”. Their initial task was to increase the acreage given over to arable crops so as to reduce the dependence on grain imports in the following years. No doubt the farmers in Bekesbourne were affected both by the objectives of the Kent War.Ag. and the bureaucracy which attended them. In addition a county- based Womens Land Army was organised. There was one excitement for the village and indeed for the whole of Canter- bury. The Kentish Gazette, in its edition on November 18th 1939, carried the front page headline, "Bekesbourne man's thrilling story". The article told how Harold George Goodwin of Bekesbourne Hill, then a naval wireless operator, had escaped from a destroyer which had hit a mine. So this was a period of waiting, of preparation and consolidation on the home front; but against a background of appalling weather. The autumn was exceptionally wet. As the vicar recorded: 15th October "V. wet indeed"; 29 October "wet after terrible spell of rainy weather"; 26 November "Parade. Rain and Flood". Then the winter became exceptionally cold: 19 December "Cold“; 25 December "Hard frost and fog"; 31 December "Hard frost con- tinues"; 7 January "Thaw"; 14 January "Hard frost"; 21 January "Europe frozen up. Snow"; 28 January "Snow". Then in February the church was abandoned and services held in the Village Hut; perhaps it was inaccessible because of snow or there was no fuel for heating. By March they were back in the church, but on Easter, Sunday, 24th March 1940, so the Vicar recorded, there was an "epidemic raging". It cannot have been a happy time when there were already many husbands and sons away from home for the first time; some awaiting what might occur at the front in France, others already in- volved in naval warfare. And at home wartime restrictions and privations were starting to be felt. 16 4. From May 1940: pressure increases In May 1940 everything changed. On the 10th of the month the German offensive to the West began. In only three weeks the Netherlands and Bel- gium were overrun, France invaded and the British expeditionary force driven back to a tiny area around the French port of Dunkirk. There followed the evacuation from Dunkirk, completed in the most difficult circumstances by 4th June. On 19th May the vicar recorded that Bekesbourne had been declared a 'd.anger area’. This declaration had considerable consequences for the village. a. The Aerodrome tr. is ~’e-.--- w '7' ‘Hi * ’ A E On 21 st May the aerodrome was re-occupied by the RAF for the first time since 1918. As British forces were forced back in France, the forward support airfields were overrun by the enemy and the squadrons of Lysander aircraft undertaking support duties had to be found premises in England near enough to the front to provide the support needed but not taking airfields required for the fighter squadrons. Bekesboume was one such. At first it was occupied by a squadron of Lysanders and 2 Hurricanes withdrawn from France. To the residents of Aerodrome Road the men appeared demoralised and indeed the squadron was quickly replaced by another squadron of Lysanders from elsewhere in southern England. The aircrew were billeted on the residents: for example a warrant officer and two sergeants at Boundary Cottage and a young officer at Sidi Bishr, who was later killed. Then it was decided to evacuate the civilian population from Aerodrome Road and Downside altogether. Almost no notice was given. A public meeting was held in the school with Sir John Prestige in the chair. He was the owner of Bourne Park at Bishopsbourne and represented Bishopsbourne on the Bridge Blean RDC. At this time he was the RDC's chief billeting officer. He announced the intended evacuation which duly took place by 2nd June, the residents being placed in vacant accommodation in the district requisi— tioned for the purpose. For example the Wilson family from Boundary Cottage went to Lee Priory near Littlebourne. Ernest and Gladys Griggs from Downside were found rooms in Bekesbourne Vicarage. Yet the use of the aerodrome by the RAF only lasted until 8th June. When the evacuation from Dunkirk was complete there was no further need for the 17 V \ , ' ' ' -' "\\"f A Lysander support force near the south coast. The aerodrome itself was closed and the field sown. with stakes and wire to prevent an airborne landing by enemy invaders. The buildings were used for other purposes and the families were not able to return to their own homes until the end of the war. b. The School The school managers met at noon on 3rd May 1940 to hear how the air raid precautions, which they had approved, were progressing. Evidently they were going well, for those who had helped were du.ly thanked. A number of suggestions for improvement were received. A little over three weeks later, on 28th May, they met again. This time the situation was very different. Sir John Prestige and a specially—commissioned inspector from the Kent Education Committee (KEC) had visited and recom- mended closure for the duration, as the school "had been declared in a danger area owing to the presence of the RAF at the aerodrome and a recent bomb- ing". The KEC acting on expert advice had already decided to close it; the managers now had no option but to concur. A number of supplementary decisions were taken. The managers sanctioned the use of the school by the Kent "Public Assistance department as "an emergency shelter for war refugees".” There is no evidence that it was ever used as such. And a note was added to the minutes: "The scholars have been divided between. Bridge and Littlebourne schools, Miss Allen and Miss Cooper going to Bridge and Miss Capon to Littlebourne. The KEC providing and paying for transport. In the course of correspondence the KEC has assured the chairman that the school will be reopened when circumstances permit." Presumably Miss Allen continued to live in her accommodation on the premises. c. Evacuees As a result of the development in the war situation children evacuated to the Bridge Blean area, including Bekesbourne, who still remained, were re- evacuated to Wales. Children. from the Kent coastal districts were also evacuated but the new evacuation did not extend to the rural areas. Bekes- bourne children stayed put and went to school in the neighbouring villages. 18 5. Bombs and the Battle of Britain” The great air raid on Bekesbourne took place in the evening of 12th August l940. There had been warnings before and the Vicar had noted a number of events as worth recording in the church service register: 7th July "air battle over Folkestone"; 9th July "air battle over channel"; 28th July "Air Raid"; 11th August "Air Raids". But none could compare with the events of the evening of 12th August. During the early weeks after the evacuation from Dunkirk the German air force (Luftwaffe) were mainly engaged in su.pporting the conquest of France, then in re-grouping and consolidation in airfields in northern France in preparation for the projected attack on Britain. July and early August saw the main thrust of the Luftwaffe in attacks on shipping in the Channel and on the Channel pO]‘tS, such as Dover and Folkestone. Thereafter the plan of the German high command was to destroy the British air force, preparatory to a seaborne invasion across the Channel in mid-September. The start of the first part of this plan, Adlertag (Eagle day), was set for 10th August but postponed I on account of weather conditions to Tuesday 13th August. The air attacks which did take place on the mainland of Britain in the days leading up to Adlertag were preliminary strikes by relatively few aircraft. Nevertheless, Monday 12th August saw some important raids from the German point of view. In the morning there were concerted attacks on British. radar stations along the coast between the Thames estuary and Portland, including Dover an_d also Dunkirk some miles inland north west of Canter- bury. In the afternoon there were severe attacks on the forward RAF fighter airfields at Manston, Hawkinge and Lymne. Whether Bekesbourne was a deliberately chosen target for the evening raid or whether, as local opinion had it, it was an opportunistic target by raiders turned back by the FQAF from their original. choice, cannot be decided now. Certainly it might not have been known to the Germans that the aerodrome had been abandoned, and the railway line could be regarded as a strategic target, being a supply route to the coastal districts and the forward airfields. The map, published by the Kentish Gazette in December 1944, which shows the distribution of enemy bombs over the whole of the Bridge Blean district during the cou.rse of the war, suggests that the railway line through Bekes— bourne was targeted. At all events the facts of the raid. are soon spelt out in the words recorded by the Vicar as follows: 19 . 3' -. 2amta.. =t~,t.r : , , "On Monday August 12th at circa 5.30 pm the village was raided by ‘ y,;$u \- ‘ 27 Dorniers. Mr Baker's horseman Mr Austen was killed and four /V navvies working at Hoad. Mrs Stacey's and Miss Prett‘s houses were blown up and that of Mr Adams was damaged. A number of win- dows were broken. Mr Baker lost a horse, a cow and 29 sheep. Mr Price lost a number of fowls. 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