TATSFIELD A CENTURY AGO
It’s not only in our own archives that material about Tatsfield’s past is to be found. The huge British Library newspaper collection is constantly being added to, and so it was that I came across further evidence of political activity in Tatsfield a hundred years ago. Once again it happened at Tangland Castle in Goatsfield Road.
This time – in the 19th February 2026 edition of Workers Weekly – it was a weekend school for conductors of choirs associated with the Labour Party organised by Roland Boughton, the composer of the Immortal Hour, once the longest-running West End opera, who had lived at Tanglands in earlier years.
The local papers at the beginning of the year give an account of a busy Tatsfield, with much of the news centring on Westmore Green.
There had long been plans for the Southern Heights Light Railway, with a station near the Village Hall. In January 1926 the Surrey Mirror was suggesting that the railway would run on an embankment or even a viaduct across Westmore Green! And by February the Westerham Herald was talking about a station near the White House.
Another issue was a track across Westmore Green connecting Lusted Hall Lane with Redhouse Road. Eight residents had protested against plans to stop vehicles being driven on the track, saying it had been open from time immemorial. Nevertheless it was decided to stop vehicular traffic using the track – hence the concrete posts at the end of Redhouse Road that exist to this day.
Also at the beginning of the year, the Working Men’s Club called for the filling in of the village pond because of the flooding of its and the other cellars of premises on the Parade. At the next parish council meeting it was recommended that the pond’s bank should be raised with a brick edge to prevent water spilling across the road in front of the Parade and that the pond itself should be cleaned out. At the same meeting action was also called to stop horses being grazed on Westmore Green in defiance of the by-laws.
Meanwhile, Godstone Rural District Council had been reviewing the state of some of the narrow roads in its area and decided that Chalkpit Road, Oxted and White Lane, Tatsfield should be closed entirely for vehicular traffic.
In the second week of the New Year, there was a serious fire at Mr P.J. Parker’s grocery and provisions store at the Parade. According to the Westerham Herald it had been caused by ‘the fastening of a hanging lamp giving way, the oil from the lamp setting alight various things’ and then spreading to the floor and onto the grocery counter. The Westerham Fire Brigade brought a hand pump and ‘a retired member of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Mr Watson with Mr Longley and Mr L Watson were early on the scene and it is undoubtably due to their efforts that the fire was confined to one side of the shop and that the destruction of the whole premises was averted’.
On a more positive note, the Surrey Mirror reported that the County Council was introducing a rural library scheme and that the first place to receive books was Tatsfield – ‘which was perhaps the most remote part of Surrey and that they had shown their appreciation by complaining that the consignment of books was not big enough (laughter)’.
And in February, the Surrey Mirror published a weather report. In January, Tatsfield’s temperature had been down to 21° F (6° C). It had been as high as 47° F (8° C) on three days at the end of the month.