Croxley Green memories
Here are memories of Croxley Green and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Croxley Green or a Croxley Green photo.
The Watford to Rickmansworth Railway in The Second World War
Croxley Green station is now - in the 21st century - merely a shadow of its former busy life. My Auntie Dorrie (Doris Lacey) worked at this station throughout the Second World War and beyond and told me many stories of working life on the Watford to Rickmansworth line. Auntie recalls being at home in Hatch End in 1940 – she would clean the house on Thursdays. One Thursday she thought she would seek work and went up to the railway station to ask for vacancies – she chose Hatch End as this was a proper mainline railway station – not the underground!
She was posted to Croxley Green which was easy and friendly (in the booking office). She also did relief work at Watford High Street which led to an offer of permanent work there. She said no. Later she went to work at Euston but she hated her first job there – two women and twelve men. She made the tea. She was promoted and refused to... Read more
I Was Born & Lived at Croxley Green Station
I am Roger Gozney and I was born in and lived at Croxley Green Station with my parents Ella and Ralph, and sister Janet. I joined the RAF straight from school, then after 16 years I left and joined the Post Office in Rickmansworth when I was living at 210 New Road, then became a bus driver for London Transport in Uxbridge and moved to Maple Cross. After that I retired early and became a warden with "The Caravan & Camping Club", retiring at 65 and moved to Gosport, Hampshire where I live with my wife. I always played sport - football for Coastal Command then later for Watford supporter on Sundays, and cricket for Durrants School and Rickmansworth British Legion. Now I am a volunteer on Hospital Radio, Driver/Guard on Eastleigh (minature) Lakeside Railway and am a steward at the local theatre.
Whitethorn Morris Dance at The Coach And Horses on Croxley Green
For many years in the 1980s and 1990s morris dancers performed outside the two lovely pubs on Croxley Green - the Coach and Horses and the Artichoke.
Whitethorn Morris frequently chose these pubs as their venues for Boxing Day entertainment. The Whitethorn Band provided lively music and I would lead this on my accordian. The dancers put on an exciting visual display in their red white and blue kit and shiny clogs with bells, the surrounding crowd of onlookers would cheer and clap while stamping their feet in the frosty air and we musicians would blow on our fingers to try and keep them warm! Sometimes other Boxing Day revels took place and we would see a procession of vintage cars and bikes including a "penny farthing bike". It was great fun. I sometimes wonder what my old school music teacher Mr Stoupe at Pinner Grammar School would have made of it as he didn't consider me good enough to study "GCE O Level Music" in school back in... Read more
The Croxley Elm Trees
The 1947 council house development that was built on the north side of Baldwins Lane, west of Manor Way became my home area after moving from Rochester Way in 1948.
I loved the beautiful tall Elm trees that lined Baldwins lane and dotted the edge of the Green.
I think the tree in the photo was at the junction with New Road and the Green almost opposite the Artichoke pub. The tree stood well into the 1950s
CROXLEY STATION 1940-1945
Hi, my name is Brian Nicoll. My mother, father and I lived in 10 Frankland Rd from 25/9/35 when I was born until 1956 when I got married. As a small boy I used to have a friend called Roger Gosney who lived over the Croxley station, his father was the station master. It was a great place for him and I to play in and around, the living area ran right across the top of the station with windows overlooking the road. It had all passages in the roof with lots of places for us to play hide 'n seek. His mother was very nice and made us cakes. He had a sister, I can't remember her name. They were very lucky as one night a German plane dropped bombs on a row of cottages just along the road that runs on the left side of the station, the whole fronts of about 4 cottages were blown away. My uncle took me round the next day and you could... Read more
Memories of Hertfordshire
Walking in The River
From the concrete slab bridge by the watercress beds to the park near Scots Hill we would wade in the river with bare feet, I was only nine years old then.
The river bed was a fine golden grit that was easy to walk on. The water was always clean and clear with minnows and bullheads in abundance. We frequently saw Kingfishers darting into the water for the minnows. The water weed waved in long flowering bunches and the ripples would lap against the reed margin like quiet music. I have visited the Chess many times and have never tired of it.
The Artichoke on The Green
I used to walk or ride my bike past the Artichoke public house almost daily while running errands from the small group of shops opposite the church.
There used to be a small cycle shop, news agent, grocers shop, and a garage, with the Sportsman public house at the north end of the group.
In the warmer months the publican of the Artichoke would put out his cockatoo parrot by the front door. It would call out to everybody passing by on the Green. I would go over to him for a very one sided chat and brave putting my fingers in the cage to pet him.
Saturday Morning Pictures at The Odeon
School days were OK but on Saturday morning the walk/run from Croxley Green down into Ricky was always an adventure. We would go down Scots Hill or down the track opposite the church at the bottom of the Green and come out by the cinema we called the flea pit. Then a short walk into the town. Normally what seemed like hundreds of children would be gathered at the rear of the Odeon waiting to get in. Films of Roy Rodgers, Jean Autry, Charlie Chaplain and many others would entertain us. If any youngster had a birthday that day, his or her name was called out and 'Happy Birthday' was sung buy everybody, all very happy.
A Beer With my Dad at Ye Olde Greene Manne
In the distance you can see Ye Olde Greene Manne pub on Batchworth Heath. My Dad and I sat in the pub garden and drank beer one hot summer's day in 1965 and my mum took a photo of us together which I treasure as a lovely memory. Can you believe we were wearing tweed sports jackets, coloured shirts and ties on a hot day! I suppose that was fashionable then. I just wish the old beer prices were still in fashion; as I recall it was one shilling and ten pence for a pint of bitter. Mind you Watney's Red Barrel and Inde Coope's Double Diamond were all you could get locally in those days. The quality and choice of beer have both gone up dramatically over the last 40 years but so have the prices. Sadly my Dad died in his mid 60's so I had very few opportunities to visit pubs with him but this visit to Batchworth Heath sticks in my memory as a very jolly... Read more
Ah, Summer !
Each summer we would set off, my mam and dad and I and the dog, Raq, in our 1938 Morris 8 to travel from Hartlepool to Rickmansworth to stay with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Sally Charters who had the grocery shop in Norfolk Road (number 55, I think it was). It was a huge adventure every year, setting off at 6 a.m. and travelling down the A1, stopping for tea on the cobbles at Biggleswade, just beneath the house martins' nests on the front of the hotel and shops. We would arrive at about 8 p.m. to a meal of Uncle Charlie's home-cured and boiled ham which was always in great demand from his customers.
I played with Nobby who lived across the road and his friends, usually fishing for tiddlers in the water splash or trying to catch fish in the canal at the end of the road. The water splash was always warm and clear, awash with fish just asking to be scooped up in... Read more
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