Hackbridge, the Old Red Lion c1955

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 and Sutton as a teenager.  My old school Elmwood High is no longer there, so different to my wonderful childhood there.  Happy memories.

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 a snowman and throw snowballs around. A short time later, living in Niagara Falls, Canada, I would ceased to be very impressed by an inch of snow!
Just down the road and around the corner from Longfield was the Red Lion. My cousins and I spent many happy hours playing in the garden, enjoying crisps and lemonade, while our parents drank something obviously more interesting than lemonade and played






shove ha'penny.
Across from the railway station was the Kelvin Works. My grandfather, Nick McRae, worked there for forty years, 1915-55. I was fortunate enough to inherit his retirement watch. It doesn't run at present but if any traditional watchmakers do it will soon.
The triangle was the centre of the village. Half way down the road,toward the Red Lion,was the school. The head was a Mr. Moor(e) who I recall as a very gentle man who once called me in to present me with a fabulous picture book of British trains that he said had been sent by my grandfather. The fact that both of my grandfathers lived within a quarter mile of the school escaped the notice of both of us and I happily took it home. The next day my grandmother explained to me that there had been a mistake and I had to return it. It had been intended for a different Paul. Sic transit gloria mundi. The activies at the school were quite segregated. The girls on this side, us on the other. During recess we boys played football and rounders. The rounders experience came very handy when baseball was played at school in Canada; the cricket my father tried to teach me before he left somewhat less so.
Away fom the triangle and past the Red Lion was a bridge over the river whose name escapes me. My cousins and I would dare each other by walking over the arches. Luckily, no one lost by falling in. To the right was a path that had a sign with the stern admonition that bicycle riding was strictly prohibited on fine of 20 (?) shillings. My father, who as a member of the RAF had been shot down and hospilatized in WW11, tended to view such peace-time interferences as petty and bureaucratic, and was consequently charged by a Bobby of whom he said had lain in wait for him. They certainly were simply times then.
Up that path and across from the river lived my other grandparents, Alex and E.E. Strong. Grandfather Strong had served in WWI, on horseback according to his pictures, but like so many who had been there spoke nothing of it to my ears. Granny Strong was a dear old soul who took me to the ice capades in London every year, and after I had spent an afternoon of netting tadpoles and sticklebacks from her river would send me off into the garden to pick gooseberries while she surruptiously returned my catches to their rightlful haunts.
For me memories of Hackbridge are quite distant. I have returned but once in the intervening 55 years, but hope to come back one last time. Is it too much to ask if the Red Lion has a shove ha'penny board on hand?
P S If anyone who reads this ,has or can find knowledge of, the burial place of Georgina Mary Strong (nee McRae) 1924 (?)-1948(?) a contact at
apstrong@tbtel.net would be greatly appreciated. Thank you . Paul Strong

Welbeck C.S Boys School

My dad attended this school in the 60's/70's does anyone else remember this school or go to it? I would love to find out more about this school as I am building my Family Tree and woud love to hear from anyone who may remember Graham Hurle or have any stories/photos of life at this school or about my dad. Does anyone know what the school is called now as I can not find it on the internet?
I look forward to hearing from you.

School Days

I went to Carshalton High School for Girls from 1970-76. I wish knew then what I know now. I was a bit naughty at school, I wasn't the teachers' pet. I remember walking from Wallington to school through the duck ponds over the bridge at the old water mill, it used to frighten me to death in the winter dark nights and that. I also remember they used to have a fun fair in the park between the girls' and boys' schools, we had some great nights there. I remember going to another park too (I can't remember the name), it had a big dip in the middle and they sometimes held open air concerts there.
One of my best friends used to go to St Phillys so we used to congregate quite a bit at dinner time in park (duck pond). I also remember we used to go to a youth club (and disco?) somewhere on the High Street and we spend a bit of time in the pub when we went out with our dad. But when we were really young we used to go a lot to feed the ducks. It's amazing the feeling you get when you think back like this, but I am realising now that these were probably the best years of my life.