My Next Door Neighbours Memories of Epping in WW1

High Street 1921
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

I grew up in Epping, living next door to an old lady, Ann Young (nee Shakespeare), who lived in a bungalow her husband built on Bower Hill crica the 1920/30s. She had lived in Epping all her life. Her father, a builder, even named a house in Allnutts Road after her when she was very young (it still has the stone with her name in it today). She was a child living in Epping during the First World War. She would tell me that living in the Allnutts Road/Ivy Chimneys area of Epping, she would know when she was late for school, because she could hear the bells of church ringing. She even told me that on a clear day you could hear the fighting in France. I don't know if her point about hearing the war is true or not, but it's interesting that there was so little sound pollution that they could hear the bells all over Epping!