Tuesday 17 April 2012

Cage Green School Playground

I have come across an interesting black and white photograph taken at Cage Green School in 1962, featuring a group of girls playing marbles in the playground. It seems they are rolling the marbles down into a drain cover.  Apparantly, it was not about how many marbles could be won in a game, but about collecting the really good ones, the large ones and those with intricate patterns.  These were also the days when break-times were filled with skipping, chase, stamp and football card swopping, jacks, hopscotch and foursquare.

Cage Green School playground 1962

White Cottage can be seen in the distance and beyond the playground. This is before the residential estate was built and the area was surrounded by cornfields.  White Cottage was the home of Mr. Howard, the Headmaster of Hugh Christie School, for a number of years. A greenhouse is visible to the rear of the property which was later used by pupils who had lessons in gardening and farming on the site. Small animals and chickens were kept in this area.

White Cottage in White Cottage Road  2012


The above photograph shows the same view of White Cottage today - 50 years later.  It is the property to the left, but it has undergone some changes making it almost unrecognisable. The house to the right is on the site of greenhouse.

If there are any memories or additional photographs please either use the comment box below or send to tonbridgedaily@gmail.com

3 comments:

  1. This was still going on in the early 1970s, and not just the girls! Of course, it was in colour by then..!

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  2. Ah, yes, the school farm.
    I remember dodging vicious, hissing Geese whilst trying to get to the pigs in the morning before lessons started.
    It took two to carry out this 'dangerous' task!
    After negotiating the Goose battlefield, one would stand half way between the sty and the pigs tethering spot with a bucket of food, the other would open the sty door, first making sure the bucket carrier was ready, as by this time the pigs knew breakfast was coming and were charging the door.
    The bucket carrier then ran like **** to the tethering chains, praying they reached them before the pigs caught up to the bucket of food.
    The sty door opener also ran like **** after the pigs, to help attach them to the chains while they were occupied fighting over the food!

    Unfortunately all didn't always go well, the bucket was heavy and sometimes dragged on the ground and the food spilled out, or we fell over with the bucket or the pigs were just too fast for us, but if they ate before being tethered they were usually free for the rest of the day, running amok on the sports field, and we were then in the dog house!

    Sunny Summer lunchtimes were best, I would sit on the grass with a chicken on my lap stroking its soft warm feathers.

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  3. I remember the green house I did rural studies and would spend many an hour digging ground and growing plants especially potatoes and watering plants in the green house in the summer holidays Ah they were the days

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