Oral histories

By Zoe Ganderton

Isobel, talking to Mrs Wheeler 75 Battle memorial Hall

Interviewer : How old are you?

Mrs Wheeler : 75 and a bit.

Interviewer : How long have you lived in Battle?

Mrs Wheeler : I moved in just before Christmas 1966.

Interviewer : I heard you go to the Battle Memorial Hall?

Mrs Wheeler : Yes

Interviewer : Have you ever seen any ghosts?

Mrs Wheeler : No, I don’t go looking.

Interviewer : What do you do at the memorial hall?

Mrs Wheeler : Every Friday I am on the committee of Battle country market, which separated from Battle WI some years ago. The WI became a charity and the country market was run more on business lines. I am there from about 8 to 12, selling crafts, vegetables, jams, cakes and whatever stalls needs a hand, we get a queue of people queuing up before we open at 10 o’clock. If there are any important meetings I will attend them such as Battle assembly meeting which is Battle town councils AGM. I will attend the odd coffee morning, the hall is quite well used.  

Interviewer : Do you remember any shops that were in Battle but have now closed down?

Mrs Wheeler : Yes, there have been a lot in 40 years. The main one was a big iron mongers which sold old things like paraffin stoves and candles. At the time there were parts of Battle that didn’t have electric lights. They used to sell buckets and bowls and old fashion things, they are more likely to be seen in an antique shop now days.

Interviewer : Did you have a favourite shop?

Mrs Wheeler : The butchers and an Internationals shop almost opposite Tim’s yard and being a young housewife then I was keen on getting good value for money. The butcher was a real old fashioned butcher. You could get most things you wanted in Battle but there was too many antique shops.

Jenny 64

Interviewer : How long have you been visiting the church?

Jenny: Last 27 years, I was a Sunday school teacher there.

Interviewer : Has that always been the Cubs meeting place?

Jenny: Not always, before they had the old scout hall built it was in people’s houses, somebody’s shed, in the garden, anywhere they could find. Then they originally built a scout hut which was made of brick, wood and corrugated iron.

In 1975 the scout hut was set on fire and the insurance could not afford to pay for a new building. All they had enough money for was the equipment and the stuff that had been burnt. The church decided they would like a church hall so they decided with scouts they would build a hall between them. There is the main hall at the bottom which is a scout hall, there is a big room at the top which they use for activities and on the side of the hall they have what used to be called the mums and toddlers room, they now call it the church and family room.

Mrs Wheeler talking about Fair on recreation ground.

Interviewer : How many people came to the first of the markets that came to Battle, was it quite small?

Mrs Wheeler : Just the farming community, it didn’t matter to anyone else.

Interviewer : Were there also fairs?

Mrs Wheeler : There used to be circuses on the recreation ground. As the laws of looking after animals took over they got less.

Interviewer : What acts did they have? Were there like elephants?

Mrs Wheeler : I think they did, I remember seeing caged lions and thinking how sad it was.

Mrs Wheeler talking about Battle Market.

Interviewer : Do you remember anything about the market in Battle?

Mrs Wheeler : Yes, when I first moved here they had a cattle market, round about where the anside is now. They used to have the stalls there, I think it was on a Monday, they closed it soon after in 1968 ish. The flats and the shops along the edge of the market were built and then budgeons shop was built over the years and the car park as more and more people had cars more car parks were needed as well as mount street car park.

The Market itself used to be not made up road surface so it was pretty mucky in the winter and the old cattle lorries used to be horrendous, they used to rumble in with the cattle. The cattle were not as well looked after as they are now days.

Patricia Roberts talking about Battle Club.

Interviewer : Do you know anything about the Battle club?

Patricia Roberts: Yes, it was founded before the 2nd world war by my father in law called Percy Woodhams who owned Battle market which is now extinct, where Budgeons is. That was the cattle market until 1965, then the council bought the land and it wasn’t used for 25 years until it was taken over by the supermarket.

Patricia Roberts.

Battle Abbey which was burnt down in 1676, it is built from the original stone bought over from Normandy the khan stone, it was a great meeting place for smugglers. In the 17th century when the smugglers were rife, every area had its own gang and the ones that used my pub were the Hawkhurst gang and then you had the Gowdhurst gang and the Cranbrook gang and they all fought each other, the legend is they had a fight under the coaching archway and one of the smugglers was murdered, sometimes when I come back at night, I scurry through the archway thinking is my ghost about or not.