Danehill memories
Here are memories of Danehill and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Danehill or a Danehill photo.
Danehill Lodge
My Mother had come from London to visit her brother (Jack Hames) who was working at Danehill Lodge, the name 'Pepper' were the people living there at the time. A lovely wooden gate was the entrance to the garden and house. I remember a large kitchen with a billard room somewhere near. They had a friend who had the nickname of 'Blackie', tall blond man, very happy memories of these visits. Does anyone know of the 'Peppers' Not sure if 'Blackie' lived in Danehill or Fletching. If he worked on the land or was home on leave from the war. Is Danehill still standing? email: Hewitt245@aol.com
Memories of West Sussex
Straining The Memory!
I attended primary school at Horstead Keynes briefly until it changed location a few miles away. (I went there as well but can't for the life of me recall the name of the place.) The head mistress was the tall and formidable Mrs. Czerniak, (probably spelt wrongly!), a lady who gave me a good grounding in elementary arithmetic and reading, the latter standing me in good stead ever since. Her husband I think was a Russian emigre, a kind gentleman and a classical violinist of some quality. Their chidren also attended lessons.
Pupils I recall included Lizzie Downward, who sometimes was delivered/collected by her dad in a magnificent open topped Bentley with running boards and hand brake fitted outside the driver's door, and one Edward Greengrass (yes really), who ''didn't know his five times table'', as I once informed my mum. She took this phrase up as some kind of mantra and was fond of repeating it endlessly as a joke and to remind me there was someone else... Read more
The School Journey
I was a pupil at Michael Faraday at Westmorland Road, London SE17, at about 1953 when we went on the 'school journey'. I will add to this my first holiday away from home. One evening at just before bedtime after a few nights there in the dormitary one of the boys was very irritable and kicked another, which resulted in him crying followed by most of the rest of us because boy, were we suddenly homesick. The teachers must have been used to it I suppose... more to come.
Happy Holidays
I attended Southfield School in Gravesend, Kent and we had a week's summer camp at the Isle of Thorns, what an adventure, we were away from home for the first time, it was a holiday never to be forgotten even after all these years. I remember walking through the woods to the local shop to spend our money on Cydrax and sweets, kids today do not realise what delight can be got from simple pleasures.
Lt Spencer Baker - Died at Passchendaele 1917
Spencer Baker was my grandfather's cousin. He grew up at Forest Farm, Chelwood Gate, son of Spencer snr and Susan Baker (née Lindfield). Spencer was a building contractor and at the age of 29, in 1909, he left Chelwood Gate to work in Saskatoon, Saskatchawan, Canada. Although this 1927 photograph of the Red Lion was taken 10 years after his death on 26th October 1917 in the mud of Passchendaele, he would have recognised it.
Spencer enjoyed cricket and in Canada he joined the Saskatoon Cricket Club. In 1914 he enlisted in the Canadian army as a reservist in the Saskatoon 29th Light Horse and in 1917 he applied to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the CEF, to the western front. He was then 37, but to appear younger he falsified his age as 34 on his attestation papers. He went to France as a Lieutenant in the Canadian Infantry, 46th Battalion. Along with his company commander, Capt Kennedy, Spencer led... Read more
During Www2 - Were You Called ''Blackie''
We had many summer holidays in this lovely village. My aunt and Uncle had moved here from Danehill, and lived firstly in the Reading Room. Jimmy Edwards lived in the village and he often opened the gymkanas in the summer. My brothers used to stay with the Auntie and Uncle, while I stayed one year with the Griffiths. Who owned the Farm machinery place at the fork in the road just on the edge of the village. A lovely young couple. I remember they had a little girl younger than me. Also alovely lady who came in and helped with the house, who was very kind. I peeked into the office one day and watched the secretary typing, I was fasinated and when I grew up also became a secretary! For three children who lived in London Fletching to us was Heaven! Now in our 60's we all three have very vivid happy memories of that time. A very tall blond chap who had the nickname 'Blackie' was a friend... Read more
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Places this week
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- Wimbledon, Greater London
- Padstow, Cornwall
- Bowness-On-Windermere, Cumbria
- Gawber, South Yorkshire
- St Asaph, Clwyd
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- Tyseley, West Midlands
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- Glossop, Derbyshire
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- Newhaven, East Sussex
- Mitcham, Surrey
- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
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