Chelsfield Village.

Chelsfield is my nearest village and gives it's name to the railway station I live next to. Again a throwback from years gone by when my area was just fields and a stop was created to serve nearby villages and farmers.

On the left is The Five Bells, named when the village church only had 5 bells. It now has eight. On the right is Cross Hall, a large weather-boarded set of cottages.

Between them, behind the trees, is Chelsfield Village Primary School. It was during her time here as a little girl the author Dora Jessie Saint MBE set the seeds for many of her books. Writing under the name of Miss Read, villages and their schools featured heavily.

In her autobiography, A Time Remembered*, she describes the school and how she played in the lanes and fields near my home. She even describes walking from the station, along a bridle-path and seeing the Crystal Palace shine in the sun. I walk my dog along this path and from local fields you can still see the TV mask where the Crystal Palace once stood.

*You may recognise the cover of her book as part of this blip.