Thatched Cottage

There are not many thatched cottages here abouts - in part because most housing dates to 1860/1880 with the coming of the railway. Older properties were modernised as thatching for roofs is not readily available here in the south-east.

Attached to the build is a rather delipidated "blue plaque" declaring that "W E Johns author of "Biggles" lived  here 1927-1937"

These days, its mainly "boys" of a certain age who read "Biggles" books and for who "Captain W E Johns" was a popular author (he also wrote a series of books celebrating the antics of a Commando know as "Gimlet")

Snag is, he wasn't a Captain. At the most he was a Flying Officer. When challenged in later life, he just shrugged his shoulders and declared it as his pen-name!