St.Matthias Youth Club 1950s

A Memory of Colindale.

I was born in December 1939 in Redhill Hospital which then changed to Edgware General. My parents Bill and Gladys Wyness lived in Marlow Court, Colindeep Lane and my maternal grandparents lived in Chalfont Court also in Colindeep Lane.
Marlow Court was bombed and we moved to Colin Close. My sister Lyndsay was born at home in 1944 .I slept downstairs in the indoor shelter in case of air raids - this resembled an animal cage or alternatively the cupboard under the stairs - still not keen on the dark!!
I remember shopping in Sainsbury's, mum handing over ration books, and at Jackson's the grocer. My grandfather was the lollipop man seeing children across Colindeep Lane to get to school. I started at the school in 1944 and have a photo of the victory party taken at the school in 1945.
During the war, if the sirens sounded we had to go to underground bunkers at the end of the school field until the all clear sounded. There were air raid shelters at the end of many streets.
In the school holidays we spent most of the time playing in the woods alongside the railway line. The Silk Stream ran through the woods and through the park and time was spent either swinging across the stream on ropes tied to trees, getting wet socks and shoes or fishing for minnows and sticklebacks, taking them home in a jar - Mum not amused - they probably got flushed down the toilet.
In summer most of the time was spent at West Hendon outdoor swimming pool - we had 6d, 4d to get in and if it was cold 1d for hot Oxo or if hot, 2d was the cost of a Lyons Maid ice cream - any left over money was pooled for a packet of Smith's crisps or sweets.
l went to tap ballet and acrobatic dancing lessons at the Bradley Sister's dance school in Colindeep Lane. I also had piano lessons with a Mrs Delaney who lived up the road(her son Eric was a very famous drummer at the time). I also joined the Girl Guides at St.Matthias Church. My dad was a church warden and the vicar was Peter Thorburn,and they started up a club for teenagers. On returning from holiday the vicar gave a lift to a German hitchhiker named Wolfgang Geyer whose father was also a pastor in Munich, Bavaria and they also had a youth club. Upon hearing this my dad suggested an exchange visit with our members staying with the families of the German club members. In order to raise funds for the trip we held beetle drives, fetes, raffles and dad wrote his version of the Crazy Gang Show with parts taken by club members and which proved to be extremely popular with the audiences. We finally went to Munich in 1952 for two weeks and I think back and can't believe how they managed to take us to so many places of interest by coach when there was so much deprivation (Ludwig's palaces Lindhof, Neuschwanstein, Nymphenburg, Ettal)- we also went by cable car to the top of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain, visited Oberammergau and were taken behind the scenes to see the costumes and props used in the play, the Deutsche Museum which had a complete coal mine inside. A picnic at Starnberger See, where we demonstrated some country dancing, Berchtesgaden, Hitler's retreat, where we were shown around by American officers who were in charge. We met the Mayor of Munich and we all received a book on the history of the city. Two years later in 1954 the German club came over and stayed with our families and were taken on tours of London including a visit to Houses of Parliament courtesy of Ian Orr-Ewing MP for Hendon, London Zoo, Buckingham Palace - also a day out in Brighton - fortunately it was hot enough to go swimming.I have many photos taken at the time - most were developed in the bathroom, which didn't go down too well with Mum. I doubt whether one could purchase the chemicals needed these days due to 'elf and safety!!'.
Some of the club members were as follows: Pearl Storey and her sister Anne, Jean Woods, Pamela Cashen, Jean Gough, Dave Hector, Johnny Manktelow, Robin De Smet, David Cosh, Michael Tunstall, Derek Stevens, Billy Wells and his friend Ray. The German youth club presented the church with a tapestry showing Munich in the 18th century - I expect this is long gone.
On reflection we must have been the first exchange group to holiday in Germany as it was only 7 years after the war ended and 4 years after the Berlin air lifts in 1948. We moved to Colin Crescent, just through the back fence of Colin Close. I passed the 11 plus and went to Copthall Grammar School for Girls but that's another story!!

---

---