The Village

A Memory of Borehamwood.

I moved to Borehamwood from Acton, North West London, when I was three years old. I spent my childhood there, scrumping in neighbours gardens, getting the greenline bus into London for trips to Selfridges at Christmas, to London Zoo and the Natural History Museum. Summer holidays - which seemed to last for months and were always sunny - were spent building camps at Scratch Woods and playing rounders in Melrose Avenue. We would only have to move once or twice a day for passing cars. Its probably impossible to play any kind of street games nowadays at risk of getting run over by a four by four. When we moved to Borehamwood from London my mum thought the shops were miles away - I remember her saying she turned back on her first trip down Furzehill Road as she couldn't believe there weren't shops within a few paces. The shops were called 'The Village'. There was an old fashioned Sainsburys with a tiled floor and marble counter. I remember Kilbeys the butcher and deliveries from Bob Freestone the Baker. They were happy and innocent days. I went o Furzehill Infants School where Mr Holland was headmaster, then on to the Grammar School. Neither exist any more. I remember when the fair came to town - on a site next to the then Grammar School. The Octopus was the ride to go on. Having been to Florida since with my own duahgter it seems very tame but we liked it. I remember the Links and dances at hillside School when I was growing up. When I went to College we drank at the Mops and Brooms then branched out to pubs in Shenley and Radlett before making the break, first to ~Baileys, Middlesex & Herts Country Club, Pinks Hotel then to West Hampstead, Covent Garden and the West End. I went to work in the City and Borehamwood then seemed very small and provincial. I have seen Borehamwood listed on the 'Chav Town' website which makes me laugh and cry at the same time. When I lived there it was a happy 'village' on the outskirts of North London. I left Borehamwood when I was 20 - back in 1977. I live in Cornwall now (having lived in several places in between) but will always have happy memories of growing up in 'The Village'.