1900s-1945
Among the publications produced by the village's local history society, few capture a moment in the village's past as vividly as Leigh in the War 1939-45. Issued as Occasional Paper No. 2, the booklet grew out of a determination to record what life in Leigh was really like during the Second World War, drawing on material that had survived close at hand.
The backbone of the research was the village Air Raid Precautions log, a record kept up throughout the war years and retained after hostilities ended by the parish council. Its then chairman, Harry Lucas, kindly lent the log so that its entries could be studied. Alongside this local record, the author turned to newspaper archives, among them the Tonbridge Free Press, and to official papers held at the Public Record Office in Kew.
The booklet's author, Morgen Witzel, is a researcher from Canada who lived in the village for several years, giving the account a personal familiarity with the place it describes. Another important voice belongs to Sir Eric Macfadyen, who lived at Meopham Bank and owned land within the parish. His diaries were drawn upon for the study, with quotations made possible by the generous permission of the Macfadyen family.
Memories were gathered as well as documents. People willing to share their wartime recollections were traced through the local media and by word of mouth, and several villagers helped to find interviewees: John Knock, Mary Dyson, Janet Donald and Belinda Forster all lent their assistance in this task.
Readers of the booklet will find the wartime geography of the parish laid out clearly. Sarah Harris drew a map marking the spots where bombs fell and where aircraft came down, and a Second World War map of Leigh was also attached to the volume, while a plan of the parish was reproduced inside the back cover. Among the incidents recorded is the crash of a Messerschmidt at Old Kennards, an event preserved visually thanks to Maurice Martin, who lent photographs of the wreck.
A project of this kind depends on many hands. Monty Cairns, who served as chairman of the society, and Heather Maugham both cooperated in producing the front cover. The manuscript was carefully proofread by James Cook and Lawrence Biddle before it went out to readers.
The foreword is dated September 1993, and the booklet stands today as a reminder of how much wartime history can be recovered from a single parish: a log book in the parish council's keeping, private diaries, old newspapers, official files and, above all, the recollections of those who lived through those years in Leigh. Together they preserve a chapter of village life that might otherwise have faded from memory.