The Bear Pub & Stuff

A Memory of Harold Hill.

I grew up in Noak Hill, living on the caravan site (Cummings Hall Lane) that was behind the Bear Pub on Noak Hill Road. There was a big long lane that ran up alongside the pub and I would sneak down there and through a gap in the fence, into the pub garden and sit on a swing, watching the REAL Bear in his cage. Nobody believes me when I tell them this ... of course, it seems unbelievable now but he was chained up, in a tiny cage and would just walk round and round in circles. I used to feel so sorry for him. I lived there until I was 13, in 1984, and was absolutely distraught when Mum & Dad told me we were moving.

Life on the site was just paradise, when I look back. The majority of residents were elderly, and I would go round and just walk into their caravans and they would give me biscuits & lemonade. I would sweep up there leaves in the autumn and they'd give me 10p. I would literally do that all day, all weekend, and earn so much money (and of course, more biscuits). The amount of easter eggs I got every year was actually probably a world record !! My Mum would stack them all up against my bedroom wall and I was allowed half an egg a day, or the middle, which of course in those days WERE filling, like a couple of full size mars bars that had chocolate half an inch thick around them. If they had been in the fridge, you had no hope of being able to eat it without a hammer !! By the time I finished them all, the Xmas selection boxes would start rolling in (yes I am overweight!!) ..

We had a little shop which was so tiny but seemed to sell everything, a phone box and a post box. I would whizz round on my orange chipper bike (girl's version of the chopper) or roller skates (the metal ones that extended as your feet grew) with no danger as there was a communal car park at the edge of the site, so apart from the odd maintenance man driving around, it was the safest place in the world.

I went to Ingrebourne infant & junior school in Taunton Road, (first teacher, Mrs Gupta, favourite teacher Mr Alloway, head teacher Mr Meyrick).... my Mum would come in and help with these sewing things, like cross stitch, but the thread was like wool and I remember queuing for the nit nurse, and the school dentist would give you this stuff to wash round your mouth that turned your teeth red.
Then Bedfords Park senior school (the one with the bridge across the road... what a trek that was in between lessons when you had a million school books & your PE kit in your bag). There was a tuck shop in between the 2 schools. Loved getting the giant gobstoppers that ended up being a bubble gum, and the popping candy.
I also went to the Meade school on a Saturday, learning to play the violin in the morning, and played in the orchestra, with all the other kids learning different instruments, in the afternoon.

Went to Brownies in the community centre, and swimming at Gooshays Drive. How scary was that top diving board! I can still feel the "sick with nerves" feeling now, when I think about it. The Brownies swimming galas, and the life saving certificates .... had to swim in pyjamas, then take the bottoms off while in the water, blow them up to make a life saving buoy and 'save someone' !!!

I remember sneaking in to the field attached to the 'castle' which became the home of Steve Davis, snooker player. Me & my friend, around 10 years old, just sitting there, innocently, on the grass chatting. This guy came running down the drive, screaming at us to get lost. It was Barry Hearn, his manager. I'm guessing he wasn't good with children .....

I remember spending many happy days up The Mount with my friends, and we would make a fortune carol singing. (Debbie Bennett, Julia Slater, Ian, Christian, ....) That road went on forever and they were really generous people! And we would play in the fields behind there all day in the summer, climbing trees, sneaking in to the barns. Got chased from that field too with a farmer and shotgun .... I stay away from fields these days.

174 bus to Romford Market, 5p. Littlewoods, C & A, the cinema .... I won a competition in the Romford Recorder, when those road sweeper things came out. had to colour in a picture of this brand new design, like a robot with round brushes for feet that whirled round. I got a prize awarded to me in the middle of the market place, it was on the local radio. Quite a big event for colouring in a picture .... oh, wait, I think they were there to see the unveiling of the actual road sweeper.... any way, that was fun. I was of course a "Recorderkid", which was a member of the Romford Recorder Kids club. We would have our birthday printed every year, enter competitions, I won a couple of book tokens for poetry , that kind of thing. I Would give anything to see those again ... sadly my little cut out snippets have long gone.

The Priory .... jumping in the water and realising it was bright yellow.... my friends told me it was because the cows wee'd in it.... I jumped out of that pretty quick... (Joanne Kay, Tommy Roper, Tony Crossley),

My first boyfriend was Sean Johns, from Appleby Drive .... wonder where he is now ...

Without a doubt, the happiest days of my life. God Bless the Hill

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