Notes and queries

I have been researching a german aircraft shot down in my village in East Sussex on the same day and came across this about "your" Heinkel.

The bomber was from the Gruppe (Unit) - II/KG53 (i.e. #2 wing of Kampfverbaende (Bomber Unit) 53) based at Lille.

Aircraft was a Heinkel He111H-2 (serial no.5718) Fuselage serial A1+LN

It was shot down during a weather recce sortie and force landed at Trafford Farm at 2.30pm. Aircraft was a write-off. I suspect as it was on a weather recce it would have been operating singly prior to the next heavy raid. This was a day of heavy attacks targeting London. and the highest German Losses since Aug 18th.

Sources...

• The Battle of Britain Then and Now - Ramsay
• The Battle of Britain - Bickers
• The Narrow Margin - Wood and Dempster

My mother wrote of the day in an East Kent Within Living Memory book of memories by Members of the East Kent Federation of Women's Institutes in 1993 published by Countryside Books, Newbury. She was a WI member and as she always loved writing was thrilled to be included. We also knew some of the details as children about the event.

My parents Walter and Doris Daw lived at Trafford Farm [east of Dingleden Lane] during the war.

On the day of the crash they were resting as my father had been on duty with the Home Guard during the night and my mother was pregnant with their first child.

They heard the sounds of the air fight going on which was not unusual at the time. When they heard the sound of the Heinkel plane crashing nearby my father went to the scene along with the lodger next door Tom Masters and another man from Bromley down for the weekend with his family and staying with relatives next door . At the crash site one German airman tried to shoot at them but his rifle jammed. This was just as well as although my father had picked up his rifle he had forgotten to load it.

There were four airmen in the plane, one dead and two died on the way to the hospital at Benenden School. Apparently one of the women next door had used strips of her petticoat to bandage one airman. My mother saw an English plane do a victory roll in the sky.

The ambulance soon came and a policeman, other villagers and the military arrived and the wreck put under guard.

The wreck in the field was there for months before being taken away. The photo is of the Heinkel wreck (from our family album - the original is only 2 1/4 ins x 3 1/4 ins.) I also have a grey 37cms zip that we were told came from the wreck.

My father's oldest brother lost his wife and daughter when another German aircraft crashed onto their farm barn at Ruckinge on the same day.

I can't add much to the Heinkel story, but it is mentioned in the Home Guard journal of Collingwood Ingram, local Commader of the Home Guard at the time.

He writes 'On Friday last I received a letter from Folkestone written by a stranger who happened to be staying at Trafford Farm when the Heinkel bomber crashed there on Sept. 15th. In this letter he says "I feel it is incumbent upon me to bring it to your notice, as the Officer in Command of the Home Guard at Benenden, the calm & masterly way John Masters handled the situation. There is not much wrong with the Old Country so long as she can produce this type of man!" I congratulate Masters on having created such a favourable impression & am very glad that he was able to uphold the reputation of our Company. I understand Masters was ably supported by W. Doar.'

You will see he mentions different people, perhaps because they were members of the Home Guard while your husband's ancestor and others at the scene. may not have been?

The crash is recorded in a book called "Aircraft Casualties in Kent", Meresborough press 1990, as follows

Benenden, Trafford Farm, Shot down by the RAF. Fw Mayer and Gfr Hoffmann killed, Lt Baench, Uffz Bauer and Buttler POWs. Based Lille-Vendeville (?)

Again the details differ slightly from yours, saying that there were three survivors, but that is not unusual.

You will find some information on the Queen's Well in "Benenden Trail" number 2 on the High Weald website; specifically at http://www.highweald.org/about/visitor/walks_details.asp?routeID=91

Two wells in Benenden are mentioned in "Benenden, A Pictorial History" compiled by Michael Davies and the following information is quoted in it.

There are wells in Benenden and Iden Green and were built to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, 1887 and Diamond Anniversary in 1897. The Iden Green well stands at the crossroads in Iden Green, Benenden.

The Benenden well is located at the village crossroads on the site where the old Toll Gates used to stand, ie at the junction of New Pond Road and The Street. The old Toll Gates were pulled down in 1876 and the well was built eleven years late

The Castleton Oak is certainly near Benenden, but not in the village itself. It is at the crossraods of Cranbrook, Tenterden and Benenden.

In his book Benenden: Pictorial History, Michael Davies (a local historian) briefly writes about hop-picking locally.

This would be Beston Farm on Halden Lane, farmed by the Bridgeland family for many years although I think always part of the Hole Park estate. Castleton Oak not far away.

Just to add my pennyworth to this, the farmers name was Bridgland (no "e") and they farmed at beston from approximately 1865 until 1976, always as tenants of the Hole Park Estate. Following the death of John Bridgland in 1975 (?) his 2 sisters surrendered the farm tenancy and remained at Beston until old age forced the last survivor to move to a home in about 1997. the house was then renovated and still remains part of the estate. Mrs Neve, of Coggers, prepared a brief history of the family which I think was published on the net which your hop picker may find interesting to locate.

I remember Bridglands farm.I used to buy apples from them as a boy, bright red from the tree outside the farmhouse.
Some years ago I met one of the Miss Bridglands who said that Mr Bridgland had died and that how much he had enjoyed growing hops and particularly the hop picking.
Early in 2011 I was in Kent and took a nostalgic detour past Mount Pleasant farm and Bridglands. All the hopfields had gone and it appeared that the house had been sold and the land sold off.

To find "Bridglands farm.. Take the road up the side of the Oak , After about half a mile there is a turning to the left. Take this turning and continue past whaty used to be Avery's Farm on the right. Down a fairly steep hill until you come to a triangle in the road where there is a fairly sharp turnto the left. take this turn into what is a country lane. You will pass a pair of semi detached houses on the left . Keep going and you will pass another house on the left then the road bends and you will see a farmhouse on the right hand side opposite a duckpond on the left. That was Bridglands farm. I knew a number of the hoppickers on Bridglands farm and would be happy to pass on any memories of those very happy days

Presuming that the New Pond referred to, is the dammed lake at the bottom of the hill north of Benenden cross-roads, as far as I know it's still part of the Manor House land.   I knew Caroline Richardson, the previous owner of the Manor House, whose family owned it going back about 50 years, since our childhood; she sold it c2005 so and I have no idea who the present owner is - heard it had been sold on a second time, but that may be rumour.   In Caroline's time there was definitely an active angling club on the lake, which presumably leased the use of it from her, and I think kept it stocked.

The previous owner (Caroline Richardson) of the Manor House permitted Northiam Angling Club (NAC) to fish the lake one Sunday per month.