Chapter 2

At this time the L.C.D. Railway was being made. I remember going with my father for a walk one Sunday afternoon to see how they were getting on with it. We went to a point near Sheep Coats Farm between Cray and Swanley. I can see that spot now just as I did that day, the navvies' trucks, wheelbarrows, picks. shovels, crowbars etc. laying about all over the place, (it being Sunday no-one was at work). I can also remember it was a beautiful sunny afternoon sometime in the summer of 1860 (about September).

In October of 1860 we removed to Rounds Green, Chelsfield, then a snug little farm yard and buildings full of cows and fowls and horses owned by Mr. William Hills who then also owned and lived at "Cross House", the present Post Office, and was at that time the P.O. and dairy where the dairy produce of Rounds Green Farm was sold. In those days there were no postal deliveries. An old man, Mr. Cudd. with a grey horse and cart used to bring the letters from Chislehurst to the P.O. about 9 a.m. and the inhabitants had to fetch them, which was very awkward especially for the outlying ones, at that time as far away as Northstead on the south; Tripes Farm, north; Skeet Hill and Park Gate, east; and Green Street Green, west. Letters used to lie at the P.O. two or three days sometimes.

In the centre of the triangle in front of Rounds Green gate there used to be a small green with a finger post in the middle. The green gradually got wiped out by agricultural engines and machines.

My Uncle Tom Titchener was the Waggoner at Rounds Green Farm, and it was he who moved us from St Mary Cray. I remember that day very distinctly a beautiful summy one in October. I sat on the waggon among the chattels. with the cat tied in a sack by the side of me talking to me now and then.

There were one or two quaint old chaps working at the farm then. One, Bob Hayes. was the cowman, a typical old Kent farm man. a man who knew his work and did it. He used to wear the typical smock frock and top hat, and for milking and cleaning the cows etc. he would hang his top hat on a peg and wear a red worsted cap similar to those the brewers wore. The other, Harry Poplet. very much the same type but taller. like Bob Hayes he ',Tare the smock frock and top hat. He was a fine typical farm hand; one who could plough, sow, reap and mow, and could thatch a barn or stack, kill a pig or sheep and dress them and cut them up into joints, thresh corn with a flail, make a hedge, in fact I think there was not much he could not do on a farm. How many men like that would you find working on farms in Kent today? There were several others as well, one of which was the public Land Measurer, and in after years, the Parish Clerk.