Early Days in Feltham

Hello, I was born in 1942 at 88 Sunbury Road, Feltham. There were four children born at the house, 1938 Gwyneth, 1942 Carol, 1945 Hilary, 1949 Kelvin. My mother, Gwyneth, and dad, Stan, moved into the house the day they were married in Kingston upon Thames. A large bomb landed in the road. The back garden was very long and most was planted out to vegetables and fruit bushes - which my father loved to do. During the 1940s and 1950s we often had heavy snow falls and throwing ashes on the road to help was often done and clearing snow from the pavements. The postman came on his bicycle, sometimes when it was almost dark with the last delivery. The baker called - but Mam didn't use him often. The milkman called and at the end of 'Snaky Lane' was the dairy which bottled the milk, little cardboard circles sealed the tops. These were used by some to cover in wool and were then stitched together to make bags. There were painted small cows on the front lawns of the dairy. On Sundays there would occasionally be a cart coming round selling winkles and cockles. Coal was bought by the sack, 20 sacks would be carried around the back and Mam counted them as they came in. Of course, the rag and bBone man was a familiar sight. Rationing was on until the early 1950s and some things were in short supply but everyone was in the same boat. Darning and patches and turn ups and turn downs were common for all children's clothes. I can remember a man walking with his tiny wife along our road, he had lost a leg in the War and walked quickly with crutches and it always made me wonder how he did it. There were gravel pits long the road and lorries would leave by the exit along 'Snaky Lane' and a conveyor belt passed over the road taking the gravel to the lorries. Later the site was used to bring all the bomb rubble from outside Feltham, an opening was made along Sunbury Road. An awful accident happened when children were 'riding' along holding onto the sides and back of the lorries - a child slipped and consequently died, a very sad day felt by all. Up to the middle 1960s Gypsies would come and park alongside the market garden on the cinder road with covered wagons and horses. They would sell lace and odds and ends and mend pans with washers and rivets! The travelling folk would be welcomed. We all went to Feltham Hill Junior School at the end of Sunbury Road, close to the Three Horse Shoes Pub. On the other corner was St. Dunstan's Church, Rev. Caldwell, D.F.C. (First World War) came around after the war on his bycycle and asked for all the children who had not been baptised to come to the vhurch - there were many of us and I remember kneeling on a chair with a reed seat to be Christened at 7 years old. The other corner was the cemetery, which lost its lovely railings to the War cause. Close to that end of Feltham were a few shops. Les Frere sold wool, children's clothes, haberdashery in general. There was a small grocer's shop, where butter was sold from a large slab and wrapped in greaseproof paper. Along the other end of Sunbury Road was Stinton's fish shop, where he smoked his own fish at the end of the garden. A glass window shop, hairdressers, greengrocery, bakers, electrical shop where Dad got our first T.V. in 1953 for the Coronation, all the friends and neighbours gathered to watch our 8 inch screen, sitting on planks covered with blackout curtains, Mam did the most beautiful lunch for everyone, she was a great cook. Butchers, grocers, off licence and newpaper shop on the corner, which had a section of paperback books 6d a week to hire! On the wall next to this were two sites for cinema posters, giving what was on at the 'Playhouse Cinema' in the center of Feltham and a phone box. We would play a game having to name a film star with a letter beginning with 'A or S'... there wasn't much else to do. Some of the names I remember from the 1940s who lived along Sunbury Road are Ronnie Corbett my age, Ivy, Marion, Mrs Lee and Maureen (I was her bridesmaid and scrubbed to the bone for the day), Mrs.Green, Mr & Mrs Chitson (plumber), son Sid lived next door. Mrs Etherington. Molly worked at the hairdressers and was super fashionable. The senior school was Kenyngton Manor, which we walked to every day and home for lunch, going along the road to 'Parrots Corner'... this was a lot of walking, especially during the hard winters we had then. Us girls learned to dance in a hall at Parrots Corner, a ballroom of course! Then when old enough we caught the 117 bus opposite the 'Three Horse Shoes Pub' to Hounslow and go the the dance above 'Burtons' tailors. It finished at 11.00 but to catch the bus home we had to leave early. The 237 bus ran along Sunbury Road. Later we went to Hammersmith Palais and 'The Castle Hotel' ballroom in Richmond on Thames, where they had two rooms and two bands playing - it was great and of course the full skirts and stilettos were in and we did it all in style! There was a paddling pool behind some shops in Lower Feltham and a small one for little children, it was very popular. In Feltham centre the large pond with the Memorial was opposite a group of shops. Frisbys shoes. I think Liptons with the money on arial wires crossing the shops. Coaches left the Pond for Brighton, Eastbourne etc 7.30 am almost every day of the summer - it took 4 hours there and back, leaving at 6.00pm - we loved it!