A childhood belief about monsters

When we were kids living in the realms of an isolation hospital on the Pilgrims Way on the North Downs of Kent (England) we were led to believe that there was a machine in a wood, known as ‘the glade’, that could or would cut your arm off.

We had bigger and friendlier woods nearby so we never ventured there very often anyway. The very mention of the name ‘the glade’ made me nervous, the fact it rhymes with blade probably contributed to my fear too. I would try and visualise this terrible machine and usually I imagined it was something like a giant mincer (the culinary variety) or other times as a mangle with blades rather than rollers. Generally it was a static device that just needed avoiding, but sometimes I thought it had the ability to chase you. The wood was carpeted with Bluebells in late spring and that was the only thing that would induce me to enter it. Even then we would run some way home before we felt safe. I lived in dread of this malicious thing and sometimes had nightmares about it. It never occurred to me that it was possibly some kind of farm implement, and not something with the sole purpose of mutilating people. To make matters worse, there was a permanent sign on the gate of the field below stating ‘Danger Unexploded Bomb.’ Why no one ever thought to dig up and disarm (no pun intended) it never crossed our minds. It too was probably a ruse by the farmer to keep people off his land.

Unfortunately, my parents are now dead and it is too late to ask what this thing actually was or whether it even existed.