Brentford Days In The 40's And 50's...
A Memory of Brentford.
During the 40's and 50's my life revolved around Bedford Road and surrounding area..roads like; Harnage Rd, George Rd, Pottery Rd, North Rd, Distillery Rd ,Netley Rd and Greet Rd. All these are sadly gone along with the Gas Works where on Saturday mornings I used to take a pram to get sacks of coke before going to the Morning Pictures at the ABC Forum at Ealing. Another place on a Saturday was Chiswick Empire...who can forget "Nudes in the Lions cage"! Sometimes we would have enough money for a meal in Pinks Pie and Mash shop in Brentford High Street or fish and chips from the shop opposite the Pottery Arms pub..I think the people there might have been called Trodd..or it may have been Todd. The Pottery Arms was run by two sisters..Wyn and Sis Coates and someone called Harry Mathison..I think he also at one time had the greengrocers shop on the corner of Harnage Rd. These were the days when hardly anyone locked their doors..well after the war most families were in the same boat and had very little to steal..most of the clothes I wore came from 'jumble sales' and never thought anything about it...Thats the way things were and it was just accepted. Money was hard to come by and we mostly walked to wherever we wanted to be..but we were happy.We played out a lot..in the streets or in one of the many parks that were nearby..Carville Hall,Gunnersbury or Boston Manor.
Many times we would play football matches in Carville Hall with the park keeper (Bill Gould) waiting for us to finish so that he could lock the gates...he was always anxious to get over to the Pottery Arms! And if we wanted to watch The Bees play at Griffin Park, we would wait till just after half time when the gates were opened and we could get in for free. Yes,really happy days and now are just distant memories.
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yes I remember Carville Hall park, used to take my new born brother John there in the pram, no worries about anything back in those days, then later remember being a teenager there and getting my first job along near Kew at Autobars, where I met my husband Martin who I have been married to for 50 years this year. But always my fonest memories are of my childhood, things were so easy then and simple, none of us had much, but life was good, we used to play out in the street with no worries, unlike today, and we didn't need computers or things like that, I used to ride my scooter up and down, play with skipping ropes, and can remember the men who used to come along and pull the bars down to put the gas lights on in Distillery Road and then off again in the morning. I could go on and on with memories, we, I am sure never appreciated back then just how good life was, shame we cant all go over it again isn't it, such simple pleasures back then as I say could go on and on.
I would like to ask though as I have been trying to trace a particular friend for many years now, her name was Carol McKenna, maybe changed to Day with foster father, she lived at 21 Pottery Rd, she was 3 years old than I so was born on 23rd May 44, she moved with her family when she was around 15 to Colchester, I last heard she lived at 11 Barnardiston Road Colchester, she was a special friend when I needed one, and wondered if anyone knew of her or if she was still alive, I would love to hear, and also from anyone who knew me from back in the happy helcion days of youth in Brentford. I thing as we all get older our roots matter more to us, I don't know why, but for me anyway, its about who I really am.
Love.