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Elstree
Elstree maps
Historic maps of Elstree and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Elstree maps
Elstree area books
Displaying 1 of 8 books about Elstree and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Elstree
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Elstree.
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Suburban Elstree
I lived in Lodge Avenue from 1957 to 1976. It runs off Allum Lane which was a major road that connected Watling Street to the Railway Station that opened in 1868. Lord Aldenham, Governor of the Bank of England, lived in Aldenham House, (now Haberdashers School) whose South Carriage Drive (double-lined with horse chestnut trees), connected it to Allum Lane and then to the Railway Station. Lord Aldenham’s colleague, the Chief Clerk, lived in a mansion called ‘The Grange’ which occupied the land upon which a developer called Davies Estates built a hundred or so houses in the fifties. These are the streets now known as Grange Road, Bishops Avenue, Knowl Way, Links Drive, Park Crescent and Lodge Avenue. Elstree is built on a big lump of clay that blocks the north westerly route out of London. Nothing grows in clay. My first memory is of my Father tearing his hair out when everything that was planted died. To this day,... Read more
Celebrating The Royal Wedding Day at The Pubs!
The day of Prince Charles' wedding to Lady Diana Spencer was declared an extra Bank Holiday so the dancers and musicians of Whitethorn Morris marked the occasion by dancing at pubs!
We went to Elstree and had a lovely time at The Hollybush and The Plough, with the women looking splended in their scarlet and blue kit and shiny black clogs. I took my piano accordian to provide dance music and we even got the pub goers to join in!
Whitethorn Morris at Letchmore Heath
The Three Horseshoes is an attractive pub facing the village green and the war memorial at Letchmore Heath, a beautiful place between Elstree and Aldenham just outside Watford. This pub regularly attracts morris dancers and one of the local morris sides is Whitethorn Morris who often perform both there and in the village hall.
The dancers, plus the Whitethorn Band, form up in the narrow road between the pub and the green and as soon as the music strikes up a crowd of villagers and pub goers forms around us to watch the display. The landlord is delighted to have a crowd, the residents are delighted with entertainment and the musicians and dancers enjoy a glorious outing to an attractive village.
Sometimes we choose this venue for our traditional Boxing Day dancing and we have been known to borrow the landlord's broom to clear enough snow to make a space safe for dancing! More usually we dance there on a warm summer's evening and enjoy... Read more
Hertfordshire memories
Borehamwood Shops
This picture is of the shops in Leeming Road and not the main shopping centre in Borehamwood, fondly known as the village. Leeming Road shops are in fact about a mile away from the main town. I would love to see any photos of the "village" if anyone has any.
Borehamwood, The Village
I was born at 4 Glenhaven Avenue in November of 1945 to Matthew Murray and Elizabeth (Beth) Murray, My sister Jill having been born in Radlet in 1944. I remember that the walls were brown in the house so I gave it the name of the 'dirty house'. After the war, council houses were being built to take care of displaced Londoners. My folks got one of the council houses, 23 Caishowe Road. We must have moved to this house about 1947. My sister Lindsey was born in this new home in 1950. We all went to Cowley Hill Primary school which was on Winstre Road. We took a short cut on a foot path from Caishowe Road to the back side of the school. Borehamwood was a wonderful quiet place to grow up. We didn't realize that we lived so close to London. Borehamwood was part of the green belt, so we felt like we lived in the middle of farm country. Even the movie studios had sheep on their... Read more
I moved to Boreham Wood when I was six weeks old in 1952 and lived there until 1977, spending my whole childhood there and my teens and early 20s. My parents moved from there in 1984 along with other family members so I have not been back there since. My memories of Leeming Road shops are quite clear as we lived in Theobald Street near Aycliffe Road and my mum used to send me often to the shops which actually spilled out into Aycliffe Road. Firstly there was a Post Office in Aycliffe Road on the corner of Baldock Way, next to that a clothes shop, then Eros the jellewellers (owned by Mr Rosenberg) the Bidmeads the pet shop. Round the corner in Leeming Road was Lamberts the shoe shop, then Gands hardware shop, then a dry cleaners, then Mansbridge's toy shop (Mr Mansbridge walked with a limp as I recall), then was a ladies hairdressers, next to that Kershaw & Creaseys off licence, then the Redifusion Television hire... Read more
Leeming Road Shops Page 2
Further to my list of shops which cut off after Kershaw & Creaseys Off Licence, the next shops on that side of the road were George Wilkie's, bookmakers, followed by a butchers first called Atwells and then in the late 1960s George's which was a family run business. Next to that was a greengrocers that changed owners quite often and next to them was a sweet shop called Mayfair. Crossing the road to the Green Dragon side, first was a dentist called Fasht & Rabin, next to them was a chemist run by a Mr Ghan, next to that was a hardware shop called Holts, then came a barbers/ladies hairdressers called My Fair Lady, next to them was a bakers and next to them a sweet shop called Josephines, next to them was a ladies clothes shop called Macys, then came a mini supermarket called Pearks and next to them was a double fronted shop another supermarket owned by the Co op and next to them was a Co op... Read more
