Childhood

I lived in Hamilton Road from 1940 until approx 1958. (my name then was Mortlock) I went to Ealing Road School and then Brentford Secondary Modern. I remember the air raid shelter at the top of Hamilton Road and hearing the sirens and seeing bomb sites etc.

The High Street was full of old fashioned shops, a bakers and a shop where we exchanged accumulators for the radio. Goddards the furniture shop and many others. I remember the gas works and the Fire Station at the top of Ferry Lane.

As children we all played in the street with seasonal toys, whip and tops, marbles, skipping etc. My friend was Wendy Biggs and others were David Martin, Georgina Keeping, Sandra Payne, Jean Jarvis and some I forget the names of.

In the summer holidays we went to Boston Manor Park with a bottle of water and some jam sandwiches, staying all day until our stomachs told us it was time for tea.

When I left school I worked at Varley FMC in Ferry Lane, and I was friendly with Judy Clements, of Clements Knowling who owned the tug boats. Her father used to let us ride on the tugs on the Thames.

There was a cinema at the Half Acre I remember, and we had swimming lessons in the Baths in Clifden Road. I spent a lot of happy hours in the library.

As a family, we would go to Kew Gardens or Richmond on a Sunday. And to the Chiswick Empire and one at Kew.

It was a happy childhood, but Brentford is not the same now, like many small towns, it seems to have lost its soul.