I'm in Maidstone to meet Peter Harding as Maidstone United play Aldershot Town. Peter who lives near Woking is a loyal Aldershot fan, whilst I am a Maidstone fan so it is an opportunity to meet up. (Skip this bit if you don't like football).
It's cold and I somehow manage to arrive two hours early but Angela Reed is there nevertheless, selling programs. Every club and society have them, wonderful people who give hours of their time unselfishly. Angela and her husband Bryan have played a huge part in the success of this club. Unfortunately Bryan a postman has to work longer hours now and misses most of the matches. Maidstone's new stand is being built in the background and when erected will bring the capacity up to 4000 to comply with Conference rules. Unfortunately the expense of close to £1,000.000.00 means that the players are part time and only train two evenings a week. Most of the teams in this league are full time professional.
Aldershot were the first team to go bust after Accrington Stanley, in 1991-1992 they were demoted 5 divisions but kept their ground and recovered quickly (now they are pushing for a third spell in the football league). Maidstone went the same way about a month later, but they were demoted 10 divisions and did not even have a ground, so it has been a long slow recovery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXOkzy69zu0
'There is always someone worse awf than yourself!'
The above YouTube clip from an East Enders episode sums up the gloom Maidstone fans experienced. Dot is visiting her old stamping grounds in Kent reliving her hop picking days and Jim goes with her but soon gets bored and disappears into a pub.
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Peter Harding
Anyway I will not mention the score but I did get to meet Peter and had an easy chat with him. He described how he and his friends would place a penny on the line at Pattenden Siding and wait for a train to run over it, afterwards it would always be many times its original size. He let me email him the following questions which he has kindly answered. Peter also mentioned that he does the artwork for the covers of most of his books. I had meant to take a photograph but I got distracted (fortunately I had a picture in advance).
1/ Peter I believe you grew up in Goudhurst near the station, do you have any personal memories of the old Hawkhurst Line?
1. My family moved to Goudhurst in 1946 when I was two years old, my father had a shop in the village at the top of Clay Hill (the first shop in the village coming up from the station). The branch line to Hawkhurst was always part of our lives and in those days nobody ever thought that one day it would not be there, in fact Mr.Burgess of Burgess Stores in the village who at that time would have been in his mid to late sixties remembered the line being opened at Hope Mill and was actually there. As children we would walk the branch line on a Sunday afternoon (no trains on Sunday's except in Hop picking time) from Pattenden Sidings to Goudhurst Station and then up the mile or so to the village. I remember when the Queen Mother (who at that time was the Queen) visited the area to go to Beneden Hospital and review the hops, the whole school marched down to the station and waved union jacks as the train slowly passed through the station, the Queen gave us one of her royal waves!!!.
2/ Can you give us some reminiscences about the hop pickers who used to come to your area every year?
2. When the hop pickers came they took over all the local villages and Goudhurst became like a mini Brighton with toffee apples and candy floss etc for sale. They (the hop pickers) used to get up to no good at times (not all of them of course) and an extra copper was sent to the village, in fact the same chap stayed with us each year. They were lovely days and I could go on for ages with some of the stories involving the hop pickers.
3/ You have written a number of books about lost railways including some (to me) quite obscure lines such as'The Hellingly Hospital Railway' and 'The Bisley Camp Branch Line' how long have you been writing these books and what prompted you to start?
3. I have been writing and publishing my booklets since 1982 when I published the first edition of the Hawkhurst Branch Line, at that time I didn't expect to do any more but, everyone started saying 'what are you doing next?' which made me carry on, I have published at least one booklet a year and have done second editions for most of them and even a third edition of the Hawkhurst booklet. I like to do the obscure lines like the Hellingly Hospital Railway which is one of my best selling publications although the Rye & Camber Tramway is without doubt my best selling one. A shop at Rye sold 400 copies in just over a month when I first published it.
4/ What are you working on now?
4. I have just finished a second edition (now at the printers) of the Bulford Branch Line (in Wiltshire) which includes the Larkhill Military Railway (which went off the Bulford branch near Amesbury).
5/ How have sales been of 'The Hawkhurst Branch'?
5. The sales of the Hawkhurst Branch Line are going okay although things have slowed down a bit lately, I still think that £4.00 is not a bad price (good job my life doesn't depend on it as its only a hobby).
6/ I think you played a lot of football as a school boy around Kent and later you played for Aldershot is that correct?
6. Football has always played a big part of my life, as a younger person I was a goalkeeper and played for my school at Ashford, Kent (Ashford South School where the former Kent cricket captain Alan Ealham was in my same class), the district boys team Ashford & Weald (I once played against Maidstone boys in the English Schools Shield on the old Maidstone London Road ground, in the Maidstone team was David Sadler who went on to play for Manchester United and England), I was meant to play for Kent Boys against Essex Boys but was ill and missed the game. I was signed on as an amateur for Arsenal after trials at Highbury but then broke my leg throwing a discus back at school!!!!!. After my leg mended, I was loaned out from Arsenal to Bexleyheath & Welling and played in the South East Counties Youth League against all the top Youth teams in London, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs etc.
At 19 I joined Aldershot and while playing for their 'A' team I was injured and lost one of my kidneys and my spleen. This meant my football career finished at 19 years old. I still watch Aldershot and I'm a season ticket holder.
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http://www.bluebell-shop.co.uk/mall/departmentpage.cfm/BlueBellRailwayShop/_132214/1/Peter%2520A%252E%2520Harding
Peter's books can be purchased from the Bluebell Railway bookshop, their webpage can be accessed by copying and pasting the above into your browser or by simply searching for 'Bluebell Railway bookshop'.
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