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Yes, Yikes Car Wash now covers Walderslade and Lordswood, the valley suburbs south of Chatham that make up almost all of ME5. We clean cars where they are parked: on the drives of the post war estates around Princes Avenue, Weeds Wood and Walderslade Woods, in the closes of Lordswood, and outside the shops in the village. Book online, pick a two hour window, and a vetted local washer from the Yikes Network arrives with water, power and kit. The car never leaves the drive.
Book your washKey facts
Parking reality
Walderslade was a farm in a dry chalk valley until the land was sold off as smallholdings in the late 1800s, and the estates that followed, mostly after the Second World War, were built with the car in mind. Drives, garages and closes run up both sides of the valley from the village centre, and the same is true of Lordswood three miles south of Chatham and of Davis Estate by Rochester Airport. The newest homes, like the 16 houses at Woodfield in Lordswood, come with carports and driveways. That makes this the simplest wash we do: your car is on your own drive, your washer pulls up alongside, and nothing has to move.
The village centre is different only in being busy. St William's church, the health centre, the Co-op, The Oak and a run of takeaways and shops share a car park, and there is more parking in front of and behind the shops, all free. Where streets have got tight the councils have stepped in: Tonbridge and Malling, which covers the southern end of Walderslade Woods, consulted in 2024 on new no waiting at any time lines on Woodbury Road to keep access points clear. If your car is on the street rather than a drive, your washer sorts their own parking and the only vehicle that has to be legally parked is yours.
Most of Walderslade is in Medway, but the southern parts of Weeds Wood and the eastern bulk of Walderslade Woods are in Tonbridge and Malling, and parts of Lordswood are in Maidstone. It makes no difference to a wash, but it does mean the parking rules on one street can come from a different council to the next.
What the valley does to a car
Walderslade means wood in a valley, and the woods are still here: Lord Wood, Dargets Wood and the slopes of Capstone, with the Alexandra Hospital and the Bridgewood Hotel on the edges. Trees are lovely to live beside and hard on paint. Sap and honeydew in summer, leaf fall in autumn, and bird droppings all year settle on anything parked under them. The valley sides are chalk, so dry weather brings a fine white dust, and the M2, which closes the circle round the suburb to the south, adds brake dust and traffic film to any car that commutes on it.
The answer is a regular wash rather than a heroic one. Sap and droppings come off easily inside a week or two and etch the clear coat if they are left all summer. Your washer rinses before anything touches the paint, and if you want to stop the woodland getting a grip at all, a ceramic coating gives a newer car two years of protection.
How it works
Local life
A valley of estates with a village at the bottom and country parks on three sides. These are the places that shape a week here.
The centre has St William's church, the health centre, the Co-op, The Oak, a library and a long run of shops and takeaways, with free parking in front and behind. Princes Park recreation ground is a couple of minutes' walk away.
Source: Wikipedia: Walderslade
The valley to the east, between Walderslade and Hempstead, is 114 hectares of country park opened in 1984 and run by Medway Council, on land that was once Shawstead Farm. It separates Walderslade from Gillingham.
The 16th century Walderslade manor farmhouse still stands as a Grade II listed house on what is now Princes Avenue, the last of the four farms that once worked the valley.
Source: Wikipedia: Walderslade
Two gold bracelets found in Walderslade in 1965 during house building are now in the British Museum.
Source: Wikipedia: Walderslade
Three miles south of Chatham, Lordswood has its own high street, health centre, library and leisure centre beside the Martyn Grove woodland, where Lordswood FC play.
Source: Wikipedia: Lordswood, Kent
A green belt of the airport, Horsted Farm and the Coney Banks separates the valley from the rest of the Medway towns, with the only link through Luton to Wayfield and Princes Avenue.
Source: Wikipedia: Walderslade
The 2021 Census counts 9,800 people in Walderslade ward, 9,000 in Lordswood and Capstone and 10,200 in Princes Park. Around 85 to 87 percent of households have a car and nearly half have two or more; seven in ten homes are owner occupied and fewer than one in ten is a flat. Medway as a whole runs at 81 percent of households with a car and 40 percent with two or more.
More on this: why bird droppings and sap damage paint and what a ceramic coating actually does.
See it in action
Yikes Car Wash live on GB News: washing cars through the hosepipe ban. The video loads from YouTube only when you press play.
See the latest washes. Before and afters, new areas and the team on the road, on our Instagram.
@yikescarwash on InstagramPopular in Walderslade
The fuller clean, inside and out, for the family car.
Two years of protection against sap, droppings and chalk dust.
Shampoo, steam and protect the inside, for selling or a fresh start.
What's on locally
Updated 25 October 2026
Walderslade questions
Next door
We check local details against council, TfL and other official sources before we publish them. Parking rules change, so always check the sign at your bay.
Pop in your ME5 postcode, pick a window, and leave the rest to us.
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