At the beginning of the war, I was 4 years old and unaware of the gravity of the situation. One of the highlights of that period started with Father building an Anderson Air Raid Shelter in the garden of 17, Hambro Avenue. This was a corrugated structure dug into the ground for four feet and covered with earth. Being below the surface it always seemed damp, but we felt safe. As soon as the air raid siren sounded, whether day or night, o昀琀en being woken up, we would all dive into the shelter, which was father when not on police duty, mother and three boys. This went on throughout the war. In 1944 when the Doodlebugs (flying bombs – V1’s) started, the family cat somehow knew as soon as the Doodlebugs passed over Dover as he was in the shelter way before the rest of us. We demolished the shelter after the war burying most of it in the ground as we found it impossible to completely dismantle it. Before a rocket ‘V2’ destroyed Grandfield Nurseries in West Common Road (now the Rosary Catholic Church) on 9 February 1945 and Hayes Stores opposite, I remember that outside the shop, there was a tin full of broken biscuits. You took a handful, put it in a bag, and paid a nominal sum.

The other lasting memory of that period was life at Hayes Primary School and the dash to the shelters when the air raid siren sounded. The siren was situated on the junction of Hayes Street and George Lane adjacent to the lovely garden of the ‘Walnut Tree’ so could be heard over the whole of Hayes. On the same site was a police box to enable the policeman to keep in contact with the Bromley Headquarters. We continued our lessons in the shelter and, if necessary, had our lunch there. A dark and spooky time.

By the winter of 1945, the school in George Lane became overcrowded, so Miss Barnes and Miss Keilly took the top two classes to Gadsden (now the Administration Office at Hayes School) which had been purchased by Bromley Council. The removal of books, pupils and equipment to Gadsden was undertaken during a par琀椀cularly snowy winter, and to make the transportation of innumerable books easier, the pupils were requested to bring their toboggans to school. These, duly loaded, processed across the playing field and Baston Road to Gadsden. There was a great shortage of vehicles and manpower at this time and this procession was the most efficient way of removal.

In 1946 my twin brother and I moved to Brewood Preparatory School, a private school in a private house on Courtlands Avenue run by Mrs Wood assisted by Miss Skinner. Later we had to move to Miss Skinner’s house at 7 Sackville Avenue as Mrs Wood’s son came back from the war and needed his home back. Mrs Wood was a tough disciplinarian and any misdemeanour was treated with a slipper on the backside. Miscreants were taken into the kitchen to lean over a chair and then whacked. We in the classroom could hear the chair scrape across the floor as the slipper found its mark!

Soon after the war, we were invited by Mr Milne of Kechill Gardens to join him and make camp on farmland (now the estate of Bourne Vale and Mounthurst Road) to set up his ham radio on higher ground, where we made contacts throughout the world. Many of you will remember his son Geoffrey. These were interesting times.

During this period, we boys played cricket at the top of Station Hill and regularly got told off by local people for using a hard ball. We had to stop as the common rangers were onto us. Another problem we had was Sgt. Egan who lived in Bourne Vale. He was determined to stop us riding our bikes on the pavement (which was certainly not allowed in those far-off days), in the end having a word with our dad to stop this naughty behaviour.

During the war, a bomb landed on the two houses opposite us on Hambro Avenue. They were unsafe and had to be pulled down. The gardens soon got out of hand with much undergrowth. So, before they were rebuilt, even though it was wired off, we went in there to catch bullies and generally play about as boys will.

After peace was declared Mum bought us a fox terrier which my twin and I regularly took on the common, and on Sunday mornings, we regularly walked up to Keston ponds, with no fear of our parents for our safety or being accosted, as would be a concern today.

In 1947 we had a very heavy snowfall, the second highest in my lifetime, 1963 being the heaviest. During this period, we had our sledges out and one of our favourite runs was Holland Way, but the nearer option was Husseywell Park when as well as sledges we found some metal milk crates which took us faster down the hill and across the frozen lake at the bottom (so much for health and safety).

Another popular pastime was that on the way home from school we went to Hayes Farm cowsheds to watch the herd of Guernsey cows being milked, still in the traditional old-fashioned way.

During the late forties, we supported Bromley Football Club at their home games, with the highlight being in April 1949 travelling to Wembley with my father and twin brother for the FA Amateur Cup Final (the first time it was held at that venue). We were accompanied by my father’s colleague Mr Greener and his son Christopher (later to become the tallest man in Britain as well as being an international basketball player).

Bromley won by a single goal, repea琀椀ng their success for this trophy in 1910/11 and 1937/38 seasons. That 48/49 season they won the Athenian League title and the Kent Amateur Cup, great excitement for all the supporters.

These were incredibly happy days despite the war and rationing of sweets (not finishing until 1953). We were limited to 113g a week (less than a bag of jelly babies) and I remember my first banana when I was ten years old. I also think it made my generation appreciate what we have, and we are less fussy about food as we had to eat what we were given or go to bed with empty tummies. Allotments and fully utilised back gardens went a long way to help with food shortages.

Hayes Pig Club, run by a group of local ‘gents’ was one way some residents were able to help with the meagre supplies. This was sited on the land now occupied by the flats opposite the New Inn, but this was truly rural in those days.

The parents who guided us through these times were to be respected and admired for their integrity and stoic acceptance of the hardships of general life. It certainly gives thought to the ease and easier availability of essentials of present-day life, with travel, medical treatment and creature comforts being so easily available now.

Peter G. Harrold, HKVA Vice-President