Norman Head, from 1936
NORMAN HEAD, born 1936
I was born in September 1936 at 214 High Street Halling , then known as Poynder Terrace . My first memories are mainly of the 2nd World War; my father (who was a Special Policeman) returning from rifle practice ; and watching the German bombers caught in the searchlight beams.
I started school at Halling in 1941. My first teacher was Mrs Day. The Headmistress was Miss Scott who hated boys and loved dishing out the cane. There was a boy in our class, John Fenner, who was left-handed and Miss Scott wanted him to write with his right hand, so she sat him next to me as I was right handed to try and make him change his hands. The consequences were that we kept jogging each other causing blotting on our books which resulted in the cane for both of us. When my brother was 70 he invited old friends to his birthday party and John Fenner travelled from his home in Australia to attend. I asked him “John, are you still left-handed?”, he replied “of course”.
Just before I left Halling School to go to secondary school Miss Scott asked some of the older boys if they would tidy her garden with a promise of sweets. When we had eaten them we found out that they were Rennies indigestion tablets.
I can remember the Army practicing in the quarry at the rear of the School with live ammunition and the army ambulances parked outside the School to take the injured soldiers to hospital. Three local boys went into the quarry one evening and started to play with some live ammunition. One boy was killed, another lost an eye and the third lost an arm. When the air raid siren sounded we had to go to the air raid shelters for lessons. We would walk to the School in the mornings, walk home for lunch and back to School, then walk home after School.
I can remember sitting under the stairs at home during the air raids and we later had a Morrison shelter indoors. My mother, brother and myself were sitting under the stairs when a bomb dropped near to where the school is now. The blast burst open the doors, tore the cover off my brother’s Rupert book which he was reading and the ceiling fell down on the bed where I had been sleeping.
I also remember the American and Canadian soldiers camped at Holborough Cherry Orchards ready for D day. They used to drink at the local pubs. We would ask them if they had “any gum chum” and they would reward us with bars of chocolate.
When the first Doodle Bugs came over, I saw one come down at the rear of Linghams Farm in Upper Halling from my grandmother’s garden.
At our end of the High Street there were about twelve local boys who played together. We would play football and cricket on the main road and only have to stop for the bus every half hour because there was very little traffic. We would play down by the river and have “rough house” sessions which were make- believe fights. Another game we would play was “Knock-Down Ginger”. We would knock on people’s front doors and run and hide.
The Royal Engineers erected a bridge over the river to Wouldham and we would see tanks coming over the bridge and up Halling High Street.
There were many shops and businesses in Halling which I now list below, starting from Howlesmere Close through the High Street:
High Street
1 The Walnut Tree - Off Licence.
2 155 High Street, Mrs Featherstone’s General Store
3 Plough Inn
4 Mr Walker’s Builders Yard
5 Mrs Bradley’s Sweet Shop and Transport Café.
6 Mr Harris - Grocer - opposite Church
7 Mr Grant- Barber- opposite Church
8 Halling Working Men’s Club
9 Ashby’s Butchers
10 Mr Albert Cook - Coal Merchant
11 Rose and Crown Inn
12 Fish & Chip Shop
13 Mrs Roots -Sweets and Papers
14 Mr Rhodes - Shoe Repair
15 Mrs Holmes - Sweet Shop
16 Homeward Bound Inn
17 Mr Allen – Dentist
18 Mr Heighs – Dentist
19 Mr Chapman – Butcher
20 Mr Hooker – Greengrocer
21 Mr Horner – Newsagent and Tobacconist
22 Petrol Station and Garage
23 Mrs Beadles – Hardware Store and Bike Repairs
Essex Road
24 Mrs Spears – Butcher
25 Mr Whibley – Greengrocer
26 Mr Hearn – General Store
Kent Road
27 Mr Tidy – General Store
28 Mr Mutimore – General Store
29 Newtown Social Club
Upper Halling
30 Robin Hood Inn
31 Mr Wraight- Grocer
32 The Black Boy Inn
33 Mr Osenten’s Farm and Dairy
Some of us boys attended Halling Church, and we would wait in the porch until the Reverend Bartley Trimble would arrive accompanied by his assistant Ron Smith who would unlock the Church and let us in.
We also went to the Wardona Cinema at Snodland on a Saturday to watch Cowboys & Indians and re-enact them when we got home.
I left school in December 1951 and started work at Holborough Cement Works as an apprentice electrician.
It was every boy’s ambition to play football for one of the best teams in the local area, Halling Minors FC ,for which I had a trial and was selected. I then played for Halling Men’s team for a few years until retiring from the game in the late sixties.
Norman Head