RADFALL HILL, A BRIEF HISTORY
This short history of Radfall and Radfall Hill was complied by Mike Battson and Geoff Bailey through researches at Canterbury Cathedral Archives, local newspapers, local libraries and microfilmed documents.
The area we know as Radfall Hill now lies at the southern end of Chestfield Parish, which was formed in April, 1988. Formerly it was part of Swalecliffe Parish, and also Whitstable Parish. The boundary between the two parishes being to the East of the Chestfield Road passing South through Dukeswood and crossing the road immediately South of “Rothesay”, thence through Clowes Wood close West of “Mount Elgon”. Administered by Whitstable Urban District Council until local government reorganisation in 1973, responsibility then passed to Canterbury City Council. In December 1977, the Local Government Boundary Commission undertook reviews, and local interest sparked off a ten year battle for establishing a new Chestfield Parish, the definition of the boundary being most of the problem. It was finally established in April 1988, with a new boundary to the West, defined mainly by Swalecliffe Brook until the southern end of Convicts Wood. We are now all in Chestfield Parish.
George Reeves, the ‘father’ of Chestfield, never really envisaged any building development this far South of Chestfield, and none of his sales plans shows any more than the Golf Course, although in the early 1920’s he had hoped to drive a new road through from Broomfield Gate to Molehill Road. The only evidence of this today is Shrub Hill Road, off Molehill Road, and the wording on some plans in property deeds held by Broomfield Gate residents as ‘proposed new road' or on others as ‘Shrub Hill Road’.
The exact boundaries of the Chestfield Manor Estate owned by George Reeves are not known. It is thought that he probably owned all the ground comprising Swalecliffe Parish to the South of the railway line as far as Broomfield Gate, plus other ground in Whitstable Parish to the West, as far as the Swalecliffe Brook, and to the South almost to Radfall Corner.
For various reasons, including debts, George Reeves sold off land he considered not to be in his vision of a Chestfield Village, and he therefore disposed of all his unwanted land. Included in these sales was the land to the South of the golf course, which was mostly woodland. The sale of Shrub Hill Golf Club to Jack Billmeir in 1939 apparently sealed the fate of his ‘proposed new road’.
It would seem that we here in Radfall were not in George Reeves plan, and were therefore never a part of Chestfield as he saw it. Even today, a reminder of this is the roadside sign, in the Chestfield Road, declaring ‘Chestfield’ as we enter the village.
We are an unnamed community owing our existence to other builders, but mainly to one - Percy Radcliffe Wood. His story is partly shrouded in mystery, but it can, never-the-less, be told in so far as our research will let us. Before then, our origins as “Radfall” require a little more explanation.
THE ORIGINS OF RADFALL
Certainly by mediaeval times (c.1250) woodbanks and ditches were constructed - mainly by the Church - to act as boundaries to the woodland they owned. Management of these woodlands was under the control of a ‘woodreeve’, an overseer appointed to superintend the estate, tenants and workmen. The felled timber was therefore a perquisite, or casual benefit in addition to his wages. Towards the end of the 18th. century the Church suspected that the activities of the woodreeves and workers, was not perhaps as honest or as well managed and profitable as it could be to them, and they commissioned a report to the Archbishop concerning these activities.
The name ‘Radfall’ is derived from an older term ‘rodfall’, which is described in a report prepared for the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1805 - termed a ‘statement of customs (of the woodland workers)’. Thus: “One rod of underwood at the outside of, or next the hedge or fence, is marked out when any new hedge is to be made, and the wood standing thereon after such hedge is made is taken to his (the woodreeves) use under the name Rodfall.” One rod, in old Imperial measurement of length, is 16½ feet, and this was the width of ground to be cleared between the old hedge/fence/ditch and the new. These had to be well maintained to keep out animals and thus prevent damage to saplings, and the timber for such construction and repair came from the rod fall. Any not required was therefore the woodreeve’s ‘perk’. The hedges were very often atop the woodbanks, or alongside drainage ditches, and were formed by slashing young branches of growing saplings and bending and intertwining them. Many such were oak, and very long lasting. The tool used was a ‘billhook’. Rather like a butcher’s hand axe, it had a curved hooked end to the blade, and the back of the blade had a short, straight length of additional blade for use as a hatchet. A very versatile tool when working amongst the underwood. This type of hedging continued until fairly recent times, and was strong enough to withstand the assaults of cattle. Animals are not keen on chewing oak, its high tannin content renders it unpalatable and indigestible. It is an astringent vegetable substance better known for its use in the leather making industry in converting hides into leather. A good reason, possibly, for animals not liking it! Long untended, many such ditchside oaks can still be seen at field edges, appearing stunted and misshapen
The largest radfall known in our area is that between West Blean Woods and Thornden Woods, and has been the subject of much research. Our own radfall can still be seen, and is in fact the roadway from Broomfield Gate to Thornden Wood Road. The large bank and deep ditch adjacent to the eastern side is the old woodbank and ditch, with the odd slash and weave oak still visible. The rodfalls have probably always been used as tracks or droveways from one area to another, some - like ours - being more important.
“Radfall Gate” was more than likely to have been the entrance to one of these rodfalls, the woodland to the West having been cleared for farming since the mid 1700’s and before any proper maps were drawn. The earliest known map of our parish was produced in 1837 by G. Grist, Surveyor, of Canterbury, titled “A Survey of the Parish of Swailcliffe Kent”, and clearly shows the Rod Fall from Gypsy Corner to Broomfield Gate.
Other boundaries were marked by (then) significant features such as ‘oak pollards’, stones, ‘thorns’, ‘elms’ and streams or ditches. Many of these still survive in our woodland, and can be seen today amongst the tangle of vegetation. Now sadly slowly disintegrating, they are no longer cared for by the woodreeves, who became redundant over 150 years ago - probably as a result of the 1805 report to the Archbishop!
Little is known about the woodland activities in subsequent years, but coppicing of ash and chestnut, growing of hazel for the famous Kent Cobs, and felling of oak for shipbuilding and housing probably continued until the early 20th century. Charcoal burning of birch and ash was certainly carried on in the area, as a photograph of this taken in the 1930’s shows. Although it is not known exactly where the photograph was taken - Gypsy Corner perhaps - the remains of the circular metal tanks are in the woodland behind “Iwade”. Surviving deeds of properties in the area describe the woodland at Broomfield Gate as ‘Gravel Pit Woods’, and the ponds now around are marked on the 1872 large scale Ordnance Survey map as pits, and do not become ponds until the 1907 O.S. map. They were never intended to be reservoirs, as some people believe, and slowly filled with rainwater over the years following cessation of gravel pit work. It is also listed in the 1838 schedule to the Parish Tithes Map as ‘Great Pit Wood’, seemingly where “Green Pastures” field now is, although no pit exists there.
The origin of Broomfield Gate is not documented. That it was a junction of several tracks to the rodfall is certain, and ‘Gates’ would have been necessary to access these tracks across the ditches and earth banks. Tracks from the gate lead through the woodland to Thorn Den Farm, now demolished, but some remains are still amongst the blackthorn, including the well and the pond. We know this farm was flourishing in 1752 because a coloured hand drawn map of the farm was made by one J. Parr, and shows the various areas under cultivation, pasture and woodland. The eastern and western boundaries are clearly marked as ‘rodfalls’. The western boundary is then marked as the road from Canterbury to Whitstable, and the eastern boundary as ‘Bounded on this side by Blane Wood belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury’. A track is shown leading from the farm through the woods to, probably, Broomfield Gate, although it is not named as such. Why then ‘Broomfield’? One possible answer is that an ancient shrubby growth called ‘Butchers Broom’ (Ruscus aculeatus) grows in some profusion in these shady woods, but not apparently in a field. It was seemingly popular with butchers for sweeping their wooden chopping blocks before the days of scouring pads, and might have been a local industry. The gate led into Thorn Den Woods, so it seems that the name more probably originated from some activity to the West of this gate. Most fields had names, but there is no record of any Broomfield, and the gravel pits were probably not started until the 1800’s otherwise it could well have been Gravel Pit Gate. A nursery is shown on early maps, where “Chelmslea”, “Tanga”, “Tall Trees”, “The Willows” and “Crossways” now stand. Could Broomfield have been here? The present road name seems to have been given by the Canterbury City Council about 1974, but nobody remembers exactly when.
Radfall Ride originates from the track from Radfall Gate, which was probably more recently a bridleway, into Lypeatt Wood. In 1752 the area was simply ‘Lands (of) Mr. Lippyet and Mr. Strickland’, and the spelling of ‘Lippyet’ varies in the years thereafter.
Dukeswood Estate was not built in a wood of that name, but seems to be an imaginative name thought up by the builders - Wates. Built on ground once owned by Charlie Lee, it was a post W.W.2 car breakers yard, transformed from a poultry farm (Radfall Poultry Farm) that came into existence in the 1930’s in a field known as Arnold’s Down. Wates probably thought that neither of these names was suitable for a good class estate!
Mount Kenya Estate.
The top part of Radfall Hill has been known as East Africa Corner, Kenya Colony or more properly as Mount Kenya Estate. Most of the houses are named from East African names - not all of them from Kenya, and this dates from the start of building by the landowner, Percy Radcliffe Wood. He apparently returned from Kenya after the First World War, but it is not known what his connection with Kenya was. Legend has it that his family may have been Kenyan Tea Planters. It is only known that he bought various plots of land from George Reeves in the 1920’s, and slowly built houses around his own home “Mount Kenya” (now “Oaklands”), giving them East African or Swahili names, and rented these properties out. Rumour has it that those renting were possibly tea planters on leave from East Africa and known to Percy Wood, but no real evidence of this exists. Houses bought outright, and not rented, were named by the owners, and most did not have East African names – ‘Iwade’, for instance, was bought by the retired Vicar of Iwade, Kent, and not therefore pronounced ‘Iwaddy’, as some like to think! He first used the name ‘Mount Kenya Estate’ in 1932, in an advert in the Whitstable Guide, for the sale of houses mainly in Broomfield Gate, (which at that time had no name other than a ‘proposed roadway’ - the legacy of George Reeves, the previous land owner).
This short history of Radfall and Radfall Hill was complied by Mike Battson and Geoff Bailey through researches at Canterbury Cathedral Archives, local newspapers, local libraries and microfilmed documents.
The area we know as Radfall Hill now lies at the southern end of Chestfield Parish, which was formed in April, 1988. Formerly it was part of Swalecliffe Parish, and also Whitstable Parish. The boundary between the two parishes being to the East of the Chestfield Road passing South through Dukeswood and crossing the road immediately South of “Rothesay”, thence through Clowes Wood close West of “Mount Elgon”. Administered by Whitstable Urban District Council until local government reorganisation in 1973, responsibility then passed to Canterbury City Council. In December 1977, the Local Government Boundary Commission undertook reviews, and local interest sparked off a ten year battle for establishing a new Chestfield Parish, the definition of the boundary being most of the problem. It was finally established in April 1988, with a new boundary to the West, defined mainly by Swalecliffe Brook until the southern end of Convicts Wood. We are now all in Chestfield Parish.
George Reeves, the ‘father’ of Chestfield, never really envisaged any building development this far South of Chestfield, and none of his sales plans shows any more than the Golf Course, although in the early 1920’s he had hoped to drive a new road through from Broomfield Gate to Molehill Road. The only evidence of this today is Shrub Hill Road, off Molehill Road, and the wording on some plans in property deeds held by Broomfield Gate residents as ‘proposed new road' or on others as ‘Shrub Hill Road’.
The exact boundaries of the Chestfield Manor Estate owned by George Reeves are not known. It is thought that he probably owned all the ground comprising Swalecliffe Parish to the South of the railway line as far as Broomfield Gate, plus other ground in Whitstable Parish to the West, as far as the Swalecliffe Brook, and to the South almost to Radfall Corner.
For various reasons, including debts, George Reeves sold off land he considered not to be in his vision of a Chestfield Village, and he therefore disposed of all his unwanted land. Included in these sales was the land to the South of the golf course, which was mostly woodland. The sale of Shrub Hill Golf Club to Jack Billmeir in 1939 apparently sealed the fate of his ‘proposed new road’.
It would seem that we here in Radfall were not in George Reeves plan, and were therefore never a part of Chestfield as he saw it. Even today, a reminder of this is the roadside sign, in the Chestfield Road, declaring ‘Chestfield’ as we enter the village.
We are an unnamed community owing our existence to other builders, but mainly to one - Percy Radcliffe Wood. His story is partly shrouded in mystery, but it can, never-the-less, be told in so far as our research will let us. Before then, our origins as “Radfall” require a little more explanation.
THE ORIGINS OF RADFALL
Certainly by mediaeval times (c.1250) woodbanks and ditches were constructed - mainly by the Church - to act as boundaries to the woodland they owned. Management of these woodlands was under the control of a ‘woodreeve’, an overseer appointed to superintend the estate, tenants and workmen. The felled timber was therefore a perquisite, or casual benefit in addition to his wages. Towards the end of the 18th. century the Church suspected that the activities of the woodreeves and workers, was not perhaps as honest or as well managed and profitable as it could be to them, and they commissioned a report to the Archbishop concerning these activities.
The name ‘Radfall’ is derived from an older term ‘rodfall’, which is described in a report prepared for the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1805 - termed a ‘statement of customs (of the woodland workers)’. Thus: “One rod of underwood at the outside of, or next the hedge or fence, is marked out when any new hedge is to be made, and the wood standing thereon after such hedge is made is taken to his (the woodreeves) use under the name Rodfall.” One rod, in old Imperial measurement of length, is 16½ feet, and this was the width of ground to be cleared between the old hedge/fence/ditch and the new. These had to be well maintained to keep out animals and thus prevent damage to saplings, and the timber for such construction and repair came from the rod fall. Any not required was therefore the woodreeve’s ‘perk’. The hedges were very often atop the woodbanks, or alongside drainage ditches, and were formed by slashing young branches of growing saplings and bending and intertwining them. Many such were oak, and very long lasting. The tool used was a ‘billhook’. Rather like a butcher’s hand axe, it had a curved hooked end to the blade, and the back of the blade had a short, straight length of additional blade for use as a hatchet. A very versatile tool when working amongst the underwood. This type of hedging continued until fairly recent times, and was strong enough to withstand the assaults of cattle. Animals are not keen on chewing oak, its high tannin content renders it unpalatable and indigestible. It is an astringent vegetable substance better known for its use in the leather making industry in converting hides into leather. A good reason, possibly, for animals not liking it! Long untended, many such ditchside oaks can still be seen at field edges, appearing stunted and misshapen
The largest radfall known in our area is that between West Blean Woods and Thornden Woods, and has been the subject of much research. Our own radfall can still be seen, and is in fact the roadway from Broomfield Gate to Thornden Wood Road. The large bank and deep ditch adjacent to the eastern side is the old woodbank and ditch, with the odd slash and weave oak still visible. The rodfalls have probably always been used as tracks or droveways from one area to another, some - like ours - being more important.
“Radfall Gate” was more than likely to have been the entrance to one of these rodfalls, the woodland to the West having been cleared for farming since the mid 1700’s and before any proper maps were drawn. The earliest known map of our parish was produced in 1837 by G. Grist, Surveyor, of Canterbury, titled “A Survey of the Parish of Swailcliffe Kent”, and clearly shows the Rod Fall from Gypsy Corner to Broomfield Gate.
Other boundaries were marked by (then) significant features such as ‘oak pollards’, stones, ‘thorns’, ‘elms’ and streams or ditches. Many of these still survive in our woodland, and can be seen today amongst the tangle of vegetation. Now sadly slowly disintegrating, they are no longer cared for by the woodreeves, who became redundant over 150 years ago - probably as a result of the 1805 report to the Archbishop!
Little is known about the woodland activities in subsequent years, but coppicing of ash and chestnut, growing of hazel for the famous Kent Cobs, and felling of oak for shipbuilding and housing probably continued until the early 20th century. Charcoal burning of birch and ash was certainly carried on in the area, as a photograph of this taken in the 1930’s shows. Although it is not known exactly where the photograph was taken - Gypsy Corner perhaps - the remains of the circular metal tanks are in the woodland behind “Iwade”. Surviving deeds of properties in the area describe the woodland at Broomfield Gate as ‘Gravel Pit Woods’, and the ponds now around are marked on the 1872 large scale Ordnance Survey map as pits, and do not become ponds until the 1907 O.S. map. They were never intended to be reservoirs, as some people believe, and slowly filled with rainwater over the years following cessation of gravel pit work. It is also listed in the 1838 schedule to the Parish Tithes Map as ‘Great Pit Wood’, seemingly where “Green Pastures” field now is, although no pit exists there.
The origin of Broomfield Gate is not documented. That it was a junction of several tracks to the rodfall is certain, and ‘Gates’ would have been necessary to access these tracks across the ditches and earth banks. Tracks from the gate lead through the woodland to Thorn Den Farm, now demolished, but some remains are still amongst the blackthorn, including the well and the pond. We know this farm was flourishing in 1752 because a coloured hand drawn map of the farm was made by one J. Parr, and shows the various areas under cultivation, pasture and woodland. The eastern and western boundaries are clearly marked as ‘rodfalls’. The western boundary is then marked as the road from Canterbury to Whitstable, and the eastern boundary as ‘Bounded on this side by Blane Wood belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury’. A track is shown leading from the farm through the woods to, probably, Broomfield Gate, although it is not named as such. Why then ‘Broomfield’? One possible answer is that an ancient shrubby growth called ‘Butchers Broom’ (Ruscus aculeatus) grows in some profusion in these shady woods, but not apparently in a field. It was seemingly popular with butchers for sweeping their wooden chopping blocks before the days of scouring pads, and might have been a local industry. The gate led into Thorn Den Woods, so it seems that the name more probably originated from some activity to the West of this gate. Most fields had names, but there is no record of any Broomfield, and the gravel pits were probably not started until the 1800’s otherwise it could well have been Gravel Pit Gate. A nursery is shown on early maps, where “Chelmslea”, “Tanga”, “Tall Trees”, “The Willows” and “Crossways” now stand. Could Broomfield have been here? The present road name seems to have been given by the Canterbury City Council about 1974, but nobody remembers exactly when.
Radfall Ride originates from the track from Radfall Gate, which was probably more recently a bridleway, into Lypeatt Wood. In 1752 the area was simply ‘Lands (of) Mr. Lippyet and Mr. Strickland’, and the spelling of ‘Lippyet’ varies in the years thereafter.
Dukeswood Estate was not built in a wood of that name, but seems to be an imaginative name thought up by the builders - Wates. Built on ground once owned by Charlie Lee, it was a post W.W.2 car breakers yard, transformed from a poultry farm (Radfall Poultry Farm) that came into existence in the 1930’s in a field known as Arnold’s Down. Wates probably thought that neither of these names was suitable for a good class estate!
Mount Kenya Estate.
The top part of Radfall Hill has been known as East Africa Corner, Kenya Colony or more properly as Mount Kenya Estate. Most of the houses are named from East African names - not all of them from Kenya, and this dates from the start of building by the landowner, Percy Radcliffe Wood. He apparently returned from Kenya after the First World War, but it is not known what his connection with Kenya was. Legend has it that his family may have been Kenyan Tea Planters. It is only known that he bought various plots of land from George Reeves in the 1920’s, and slowly built houses around his own home “Mount Kenya” (now “Oaklands”), giving them East African or Swahili names, and rented these properties out. Rumour has it that those renting were possibly tea planters on leave from East Africa and known to Percy Wood, but no real evidence of this exists. Houses bought outright, and not rented, were named by the owners, and most did not have East African names – ‘Iwade’, for instance, was bought by the retired Vicar of Iwade, Kent, and not therefore pronounced ‘Iwaddy’, as some like to think! He first used the name ‘Mount Kenya Estate’ in 1932, in an advert in the Whitstable Guide, for the sale of houses mainly in Broomfield Gate, (which at that time had no name other than a ‘proposed roadway’ - the legacy of George Reeves, the previous land owner).