Upper Halling, North Downs

In 1944 I was four years old and lived on the pilgrims way, Upper Halling, we moved up from Whitstable so as to make it easier for my father to get to his work place, Chatham Dockyard. We rented the last property on that road in those days, which was a bungalow. I remember my mother cleaning a lettuce at the rear kitchen window and I stood alongside her and pointed to an aircraft on fire and plummeting to earth, it crashed and remember a tall plume of smoke and explosions, police and fire brigade were in attendance but could do nothing, the pilot was killed , and years later my mother told me the aircraft was one of ours and was limping back to West Malling Air Station after an encounter with the enemy, when it could no longer stay in the air it crash landed, this hole is all that remains of that memory all those years ago. Tuesday was a bit of a pilgrimage which I have made many times, but I do not think we will be able to climb the downs next year, we only just made it this time after about fifteen stops and using my inhaler frequently.

Wonder if Ken is familiar with that particular spot and the public footpath with the two stiles?