Forest Green memories
Here are memories of Forest Green and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Forest Green or a Forest Green photo.
My Forest Green Family
I moved to Forest Green when I was 2 but my whole family comes from the area. Christine Dendy (my maternal grandmother) was born in the village. Her parents were a housemaid and a gamekeeper/odd-job man for the Vaughan-Williams estate. My grandmother was born in the row of First World War council houses erected behind the village green and she married the son of a village shopkeeper from Ockley. Their children were my mother and my uncle. My mother married a Londoner she met through her job and I am one of her four children. Two years ago my husband and I upheld four generations of tradition when we married in Forest Green church and were doubly proud to display my grandmother's wedding pics from the same venue! Hopefully at some point we will move back to the area, though sadly the village school at Walliswood which at least four generations of my family attended has been closed.
Memories of Surrey
The Royal Alexandra & Albert School
I came here at almost 5 years of age, in September 1949, to commence my schooling with the then newly amalgamated Royal Alexandra and Royal Albert Schools - both being of London orphanage origins from the mid-eighteenth century. The beautiful 250 acre estate, formerly belonging to the late Sir Jeremiah Colman ("The Mustard King") was acquired by the newly-formed RAAS shortly after Sir Jeremiah's demise in 1948, and I was among the very first juvenile occupants in Gatton Hall's new guise as a boarding school. In the 62 years since then, there have been significant developments and additional school buildings; most were completed by 1953, but as the school and it's requirements have expanded, so too have the considerable number of additional buildings and facilities - all sympathetically in keeping with the ambience of the estate, which has much history. In 1086 it was mentioned in the Domesday Book, given parliamentary borough status in 1450 with it's own rudimentary 'Town Hall' (still standing), and was landscaped into parkland in 1766... Read more
Leonard Douglas Martin Born 1892 Gatton Park
My grandfather Leonard Martin was born on the Gatton Park Estate in 1892, where his father George Martin was the 'Head Coachman Domestic'. The family actually occupied four rooms over the stables. He went to school on the estate, and I have a couple of photographs of him there, when he was five years old.
I would love to discover more information about the Gatton Park Estate at that time and whether anyone else has family connections to this place.
Wartime Funeral
My mother died in 1943,when I was still a child. It was strange, terrible time but I remember vividly standing in the peaceful churchyard at the burial. The place is dear to my heart.
My Childhood
I was born to Victor Owen Colman Emmerson and Jean Florence Emmerson at the family home of Garden Cottage, Holmbury St Mary in September 1957. I have an older brother, John and a younger sister Diane who were also born there. My grandmother Catherine or 'Kit' was for many years housekeeper to Dorothea Flower who lived next door in Hurtwood Cottage. I have many memories of growing up in the village, attending Holmbury St Mary primary school, belonging first to the brownies and then the girl guides. Although I no longer have any family connections in the village there are still a number of family friends that still reside there. Some of my fondest memories are that of the special bonfire nights held near the village, the pyrotechniques of which were originally orchestrated by a Mr Bill Narroway.
Garden Cottage is still very clear in my mind, being built on a raised bank directly opposite the rather grand house and grounds belonging to Lady Catto. It was, and still is... Read more
Grandfather
According to 1901 Census my grandfather, Charles Thomas, was a footman at Hopedene. I would love further information about the house, the family and staff if possible.
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