Woolage Village

Woolage Village is one of the 3 that makes up the parish of Womenswold. It consists of some 59 dwellings with a large playing field which is the centre for Parish activities.

The childrens’ playground for the parish is situated on the playing field. New play equipment has been installed which was funded by various grants and fund raising through the Womenswold Community Project.

The heart shaped ex-coalminers village of Woolage Village is in the middle of Womenswold Parish, Womenswold lies to the North and Woolage Green to the south. The North Downs Way runs along side the village.

Nearby Snowdown colliery was owned by Pearson and Dorman Long Ltd the main employer of the village and the reason it was built. Sinking of the colliery started in 1910 and the first tub of coal reached the surface in 1912 when the first houses were built. With increasing volume in pre-war, coaling ceased for further development for 5 years until 1926 when the 2nd stage of the village was built.

Before nationalization the conditions were so bad that there was a mass exit back up north by miners who had moved into the area originally to work at the mine. This made Woolage Village like a ghost village with only 24 houses occupied. It was only after the war that it was fully occupied again with families coming from London and Dover after being bombed out of their homes.

There are 59 houses in the village. In 1912, 14 houses were built, six in Forstal Road and two blocks of four in Firs Road. In 1926, 44 more houses were built. There are two types of houses and five different designs. There are steel framed semi-detached houses in The Place, Nethersole Road and The Green. Then there are red brick and pebbledash semi-detached in Forstal Road and Firs Road

There is only one detached house which was built in 1932 and was the village shop and post office until it closed in the 1980s. Next to the shop a wooden Village Hall was built called Dyson Hall in 1928, after Rev Dyson, who donated it to the village. This was demolished as it had deteriorated and was declared unsafe. This was replaced by a school bus shelter which was built by the villagers.

There has not been much change in 100 years, the houses are now being privately owned . Five houses have had main extensions built to them. One set of houses (style not in the keeping of the village) was rebuilt in Forstal Road after a fire in the 1980s,

Our nearest Health Centre, post office and local shops are Aylesham and Shepherdswell. The nearest train station is Snowdown which runs from Dover through to London Victoria. The nearest bus stop is at Snowdown or the A2, both about 1mile away.