JUNE 2026
June 1926 began with news in the Westerham Herald of the inquest into a fatal car accident on the Croydon Road close to Tatsfield Court Farm. A car was being driven up from Westerham and was apparently on the wrong side of the road in the right-hand bend towards the Rectory Lane junction. When the driver swerved to avoid a vehicle coming from Tatsfield, he lost control of his car, which overturned twice and left him fatally injured in the road.
100 years ago, Tatsfield’s school was a contributor to the Surrey Mirror. Its monthly weather reports were a regular feature in the local news section. Next to it was a detailed account of the wedding of the youngest daughter of the Robinson family, who lived at the White House and owned Park Farm – now Tatsfield’s golf course.
The month also brought good news for Augustus Hitchcock, who had built the Village Hall in 1909. He had now won the tender to build twelve council houses in Lusted Hall Lane at a total cost of £6,480.
But there was also some not-so-good news - a fire at one of the lane’s existing council houses. The Westerham Herald ‘s report said an explosion and fire had resulted from a lighted candle coming into contact with fuel from a nearly-new motorcycle standing in the hallway of the house. Much of the hallway and its contents had been badly damaged.
There was also news of the Choral Society, which had been re-formed in 1910. At the beginning of the month they performed what was described as a musical tour of the world with singers dressed in national costumes of various countries, including the United States, Japan, China, Turkey, Italy, Spain and France, concluding with a return to the ‘Motherland’ at the end of the evening.
Tatsfield found its way into the London Evening News with a ‘Two nests in One’ report in the middle of the month. Mrs Miller at the Manor House in Ricketts Hill Road had discovered a chaffinch nest in the fork of a tree. It had apparently been disturbed at some stage, but instead of abandoning it, the bird had simply built a new nest on top of the first.
MAY 2026
May 1926 was marked by the national nine-day general strike. Called over a dispute in the coal industry, it led to more than a million and a half workers taking part. In Tatsfield, the parish council set up a special committee to co-ordinate local food supplies. Meanwhile, the Westerham Herald reported one incident when, despite heavy rainfall, at least one Tatsfielder decided to walk to his destination instead of taking a bus. He did this because the bus was being driven by one of the many volunteers encouraged by the government to break the strike.
Apparently in tune with the times, a ‘school for worker-conductors’ - run by the composer Roland Boughton of the Castle in Goatsfield Road - hosted 20 men and women wishing to perfect their skills. The London Daily News said this was the first of its kind in Britain. Students were ‘conductors of Labour or Co-operative choirs’. The composer, Vaughan Williams, was to give a lecture at the school.
Tradition then returned to Tatsfield with the crowning of the May Queen and dancing round the maypoles by village children. Their family names are familiar to so many of us today such as Beagley, Higgs, Jupp, Shrubb, Skinner, Streets, Tapsell or Watson.
And then came Empire Day. A local newspaper cutting preserved at the school reported that pupils were encouraged to think about the privilege of being part of the empire as well as the responsibility brought about by that privilege.
From time to time I’ve mentioned Edyth Goodall, the West End actress who lived at Junes Close in Goatsfield Road. In May 1926 it was her husband, Leonard Schuster, who was in the news – an early motoring offender. He was fined ten shillings for having a faulty rear light on his 1920s car.
At the end of the month, the Surrey Mirror returned to an issue which caused problems for landowners in Parkwood Road and Rag Hill for decades. It was over the route of a footpath. It involved interpreting what was intended when the original estate was sold off as small plots in the 1880s. The parish council referred the whole issue to a national body – the Commons and Footpaths Conservation Society.
As the 1920s progressed, hopes that a railway could finally come to Tatsfield were kept alive. In January and February 1926, the issue had been where the station should be. In March, the Parish Council was lobbying the District Council for financial assistance for the proposed Southern Heights Light Railway. However, there was no unanimity. As the Westerham Herald reported, one parish councillor was concerned that the arrival of a railway service would bring “riff-raffs” to Tatsfield, content to “live in hovels”.
Another issue that came up again in April was whether there was a public right-of-way for vehicles across Westmore Green from Redhouse Road to Lusted Hall Lane. It was planned to block the route by stopping access where today there are indeed posts at the end of Redhouse Road. At the April meeting one member insisted that the route had been used for 40 years for wheeled traffic. “Moreover,” he said, “a dead body had been carried across the green, which further strengthened the claim”.
At the annual church meeting in the middle of the month, it was reported that the number of communicants at Easter had been the largest recorded - 118. That was one in eight of the population. More than £24 – the equivalent of nearly £1,300 in today’s money - had been raised for the church maintenance fund.
At the end of April, Tatsfield also found its way into a national ‘society’ magazine which published a picture captioned: “a 21 h.p Lanchester rising out of Tatsfield to Cudham, Kent”. The connection with Tatsfield was not explained. .
MARCH 2026
It was in March 1926 that the scene was set for the general strike which was to become etched in the memory of those who grew up between the two world wars. That month the government was recommended to rationalise the mining industry with redundancies, a 13.5% pay cut, the merging of pits and increased profit-sharing between owners and workers. The Westerham Herald carried regular reports, reflecting the fact that there was a major coalfield at the other end of Kent. One local Women’s Institute meeting had spent some time discussing the issue.
.Last month I mentioned a weekend school for conductors of choirs organised by Roland Broughton of Tangland Castle in Goatsfield Road. In March 1926 came a sequel in which national politics made a further impact on Tatsfield. This was a follow-up musical programme held at Potter’s Assembly Room – later to become the Bakery - on behalf of the Labour Party, which one speaker said was at the time facing an uphill task in the south of England.
Meanwhile, the prospect of a railway service for Tatsfield was still in the air. At the March Parish Council meeting there was a call to lobby the District Council over its apparent antagonism to the idea. Tatsfield decided unanimously that the railway could “mean a considerable increase in the rateable value and would itself contribute a large share to the rates”.
Another recurring issue was insanitary housing in the built-up part of the village. The District Council had banned the use of one house between 1st October and Easter each year and it was then demolished. But there was good news too. The plans had been drawn up for the proposed council housing in Lusted Hall Lane.
Towards the end of the month came news of an accident on the Approach Road. Mrs. P.J. Parker of Parkers Stores on Westmore Green had been riding her motor cycle when it ran into the bank in the bend at Furze Corner. The machine overturned and she was trapped underneath. Dr Hoffman of Lusted Hall was called and it was some hours before she regained consciousness and was able to be taken home.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
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 1926 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 centering 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.