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Hackbridge
Hackbridge maps
Historic maps of Hackbridge and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Hackbridge maps
Hackbridge area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Hackbridge and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Hackbridge
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Hackbridge.
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Changes
Today, all the shops have changed. On the right there's an Indian resturant, a shop, a cafe, a tile shop and a salon. Directly ahead, there are 3 shops; one is also a post office. There is also a betting shop, a funeral parlour, but I think it's a hairdressers now, a kebab shop, a chip shop and an Indian take-away shop. The bus stop you see on the left have been moved back a bit. And the little garden-like thing you see on the left was once an office block and a car park. But that was demolished in 2011 and the site is now being made into flats.
Beddington Corner 1940-1957
I lived in Seymour Road, Beddington Corner from 1940 until my parents moved to Carshalton in 1957. As a child I first attended Hackbridge infants school followed by the junior school and finally on to the dizzy heights of Elmwood County Secondary, having failed the 11 plus which was rigged in those days so that the bulk of the 10\% who passed came from a private prep school called Collingwood paid for by parents who could afford it. My parents were honest working class, Mum looked after the house and us and Dad worked at Mullards for a modest wage. I had a wonderful childhood despite the war with little traffic around we played in the streets ,yes Orchard avenue rec, New Road, York Street, etc .But best of all was Mill Green and Mitcham Common just down the road . They were allowed to grow wild during the war to save labour I suppose, but it meant that the wildlife and flora were never disturbed ,Butteflies abounded, all... Read more
Hackbridge
I lived in Orchard Avenue, number 4, when the whole road was mock Tudor exteriors. I had quite a shock to revisit a few years ago to see them all plastered over and looking very tired. In the l950s and early 1960s when I lived here we had a red phone box and blue police box at the top of the road. The church was over the road and the rec was at the bottom of Orchard Avenue. Mullards was the factory whose outside wall backed onto the rec. We has two swings there and that was all, there was a small entrance leading into Culvers Avenue, leafy and unmade up road, and the entrance into Mullards where our mother worked part time. During school holidays we waited outside the factory gates for her. The sewage farm at the top (London Road) used to stink to high heaven and I can't imagine what it's like living on the new housing there now. Hackbridge Station was the gateway to freedom, Croydon... Read more
Carshalton - My Junior Years
My husband & I are researching our family trees and I cannot find anything beyond my Mother & Father. I lived in Milner Place, High Street from birth till my Nan (Sheila Reed) passed away. I was never again to see the house I lived in nor Bill (William Reed) who helped raise me. In my head I can go to the house, parks, playground, allotments, schools and shops but can't remember the names of any of them. Was there a primary school in Denmark Road? If so, I may have gone there. Does anyone know when and what happened to the half-dozen homes in Milner Place? If anyone knew me, my Nan or Bill and can help fill in the blanks in my memory I'd be very grateful. My name was Wendy Browne and I lived there from 1950 to May 1959.
Gillian England
Where is Gillian England that went to Elmwood school?
I have been informed that her name was Gillian England not Gillian English.
I still wonder what happened to her?
Ronshelleyis@gmail.com
USA
Elmwood School/ Mullards
I was checking the street views on Google Earth and for fun eventually found myself checking out HACKBRIDGE for which I have very mixed feelings. Like another of your writers I used to wait by the factory gates of Mullards for my mother Jean (Emma Jane). She had worked there since post war and moved to Pascalls sweets (Mitcham) around 1956. Having passed my 13+ with flying colours...mostly A's and B+'s (I still have all my Gorringe Park School reports) I "won" a place at Elmwood School and "studied" there from 1953 to 1956. Sad to report it proved to be the saddest period of my early life and from loving school I slid to positively loathing every day of it. Apart from the sport and school dinners being about half a mile away I particularly remember the Head Master John(?) Stacey. A figure that "lives" with me to this day some 55 years later. Our mutual contempt of each other certainly affected school work and I particularly remember him... Read more
Elmwood School
I went to school at Elmwood 1949-51.
I remember a beautiful girl there named Gillian English - I always wondered what became her.
The Grange - the boating lake - and Beddington Park were my favourite haunts.
Ron Shelley
ronshelleyis@gmail.com
USA
39londonroad
I was born in Hackbridge in 1944. I lived there until 1953 when my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins put me on a plane on May 2 to join my father who had emigrated to Canada the year before. My mother, who had lived in Hackbridge at 39 London Rd. before her marriage, with her parents, Frances and Nick McRae, had died of TB c. 1948.
My earliest memories are of living at 44 Longfield Rd. Next door, at 46, lived my Aunt and Uncle Iris and Jack Gower and my cousins Keith and Wendy. Aunt Iris kept chickens in the back garden and I helped her feed them and collect eggs.Rationing was still in force so everyone made do. One day I climbed up their fence which had a large rusty nail in it. I still bear the scar of this ill conceived escapade on my left arm. I remember that it snowed one Christmas and that this was such a magnificent event that we rushed out to build... Read more
