Windmill Road, Brentford 1945

A Memory of Brentford.

My parents, Nora & Harold (Jock) Palmer, lived at 112 Windmill Road, Brentford where I was brought up, along with my twin brother David and older brother Michael. Later we were joined by sister Janis and brother Jeremy but moved to Feltham shortly after in 1956. I have found a photo of 112 from 1914 when it was Edwards' Dairy, but would love to have a later photo from 1940-50s when the shop window was used for engine parts and the huge back yard was a breaker's yard, full of trucks, train carriages and cars with a garage and mechanic who'd warn us not to fall in his pit. The Landlord was a Mr Ellis (I think?) and we lived in the top part of the house and part of the ground floor. Our playground was that breaker's yard with an orchard next door where we used to 'scrump' pears and plums. We were very close to The Globe which is still there, but our house has been replaced by a block of flats now. We would return empty beer and lemonade bottles to The Globe's off-licence for a few extra pennies. I went to Sunday School always and Brownies at St Faith's church from approx 1952 for a couple of years. We would walk up to the Grt West Road for the bus to our school, Lionel Road School, where we went from about 2yrs old as they also had a pre-school and infants. My brothers had friends in Boston Park Road and we would walk up there to get to Boston Manor park most Saturday's. We also went to Saturday Morning Pictures, taking a bus up Windmill Road to Ealing? We would always walk home having bought some chips, loaded with salt and plenty of vinegar, enough to drink it from a torn corner in the bottom of the little bag the chips were put in - delicious! We were allowed to cross Windmill Road, to go to the shop opposite where raisins, currants, sugar etc were in big hessian bags on the floor, butter would be measured out with wooden 'paddles' and wrapped in greaseproof paper and cheese was cut by a wire attached to a wooden handle. We would cross the Grt West Road to go to Brentford Swimming Baths, buying our sweets from a little shop on the bridge with our weekly threepence pocket money. It would go a long way then on 'half penny' chews, maybe a few chunks of honeycomb, or a bag of sherbet with a piece of liquorice to moisten and dab into. Or maybe use a finger which would be discoloured by the raspberry or lemon colour! I can't really remember any names of children we played with (from the house opposite) or from school. But we had a wonderful, free childhood. Dad had a motorbike used for work (Firestones) and would add a sidecar on summer weekends so we could go to Runnymede and play in the Thames shallows, or out to the country to pick blackberries, and off to Cornwall for camping holidays. Happy memories of Brentford!

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