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Headley's Past in Pictures
Fuller's Vale
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Fullers Vale pond, before the First World War |
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Fullers Vale pond, before the First World War
The pond is fed by natural springs. Note the horse and cart waiting in Pond Road.
Even as late as in the 1891 census, Fullers Vale was still referred to as Fullers Bottom-but late-Victorian sensibilities ensured that most of our local bottoms were transformed into vales! |
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Fullers Vale pond, 1931
Taken from the opposite direction compared with the picture on the previous page, we see the junction of Fullers Vale and Beech Hill with the corner shop which for many years was run by Mrs Pearce. Reflected in the water is Fernvale. |
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Fullers Vale pond, 1931 |
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This card was actually posted during the Second World War, in August 1942.
The pond was drained in 1972 after a series of floodings had affected Arford, lower down the valley. Metal railings were put along the roadside, and the pond bed left untouched to fill up gradually with vegetation and inevitable litter.
Finally in 2003 a restoration project began to clear the site of the debris of thirty years' neglect and bring the pond back to its previous glory. |
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An interesting event at Fullers Vale pond, about 1923 |
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An interesting event at Fullers Vale pond
This picture is undated, but looks to be taken in the 1920s. Presumably the driver had misjudged the bend, as has happened to many others since.
Elsie Johnson (neé Pearce) remembers the occasion well. The car in the pond was on its way home from a New Year's party at Hilland. |
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| She lived in the shop across the road, and says that her father was called out in the middle of the night to help get some girls out. The year was sometime between 1922 and 1924 she thinks. She is not in the picture herself.
During the Second World War, a tank coming down Fullers Vale hit the letter box at the bottom of the Kenton House drive, by the brick pillar-the box was subsequently moved to the other side of Pond Road, where it is now. |
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Bottom of Beech Hill, about 1904 |
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Bottom of Beech Hill, probably circa 1904
Taken, we assume, from Kenton House. In the foreground is The Haven. Across the road are Fernvale and Oakdene with ornamental gardens, not long after they were built by J.H. Viney Jnr in the 1890s. Beyond them is Ferndale Terrace, and to their left near the corner of Fullers Vale is Pearce's shop.
On the other side of Fullers Vale, what was then largely clear farmland on the hill top has today become the upper end of the Hilland housing estate. |
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Introduction
Fuller's Vale
