Havering-Atte-Bower, Pyrgo Park 1910

Carefree days

I remember Bedfords from my childhood. When I was about 12 years old my friends and I used to cycle to Bedfords Park from nearby Elm Park, about 7 miles away. Bedfords Mansion as we used to call it, was being used as a Natural History Museum and had numerous stuffed animals and birds all said to be from the local area. Next to it there was and still is a deer pen with numerous deers. Sadly Bedfords was demolished in the latter part of the 1950s but the park remains as does the deer pen. I am retired now, but before I retired I worked for the local council and often had the job of feeding the deer, and cutting the grass over this very large park on a tractor and gang mower. I still visit the park with my daughters and grandchildren for walks over its many acres. From all over the park the views are far reaching and on a clear day you can see all over London and over the Thames to Kent. It's a view which has fascinated me since my first visit.

Romford and Havering-atte-Bower,very fond Memories

We moved to Romford in 1951 from Havering where we lived with Nan and Grandad in Pinewood Road. It was an exciting time for me but also an unhappy time leaving Nan and Grandad's house. We moved in a council house in Chelmsford Ave, I made friends with a boy called Raymond Crane, we started school together ,his mother and father ran a market stall in Romford and he had a young brother. I remember mum and I would go to the market twice a week, I loved the place, it was like Aladdin's cave, the eel stall used to fascinate me, in those times you could buy puppies and kittens. We use to visit Nan and Grandad three times a week in Havering,t hat was great, we used to walk, it was all country roads then. In 1955 we moved, but the year before that Raymond moved away, I remember being heartbroken, he gave me a photo of himself and his little brother which I still have to this day. Over the years I have often wondered what happened to him. Those memories will stay with me for always, they were good times.

Doing the Shopping

I lived a mile or so east of Rush Green, in Barton Avenue but my Mum would send me with a note to get the shopping for the family. She would give me sometimes had eight half crowns or £1 a lot of money then. I would cycle down, first to Brown's the butchers, the first shop after the houses. Mr Brown who had huge butchers fingers would serve me liver, H-bone or chops and he would write how much I owed on a marble slab underneath the wrapping paper. At the end of the week he would expect the bill to be settled. Sometimes mum had not given me enough, he wasn't happy then. Then I'd go into Ewins the grocers with a long list. I would wait in the queue then be served one item at a time. No supermarkets then. My friend at school was Barry Kitchener and his dad was the manager of the Coop butchers round the corner in Dagenham Road. He lived over the shop and his mum had asthma which she used an old fashioned air pump with a rubber bulb which she would pump air into a mask on her face. She was so breathless which frightened me a bit. Opposite Brown's was what we called the oil shop, I think it was called Everards a hardware store. When I'd finish shopping, I would have a heavy bag on each side of the handle bars and cycle home. Mum was always very pleased with me.

Memory Joggers

We moved to Romford in 1954. First we lived at Mawneys and attended the primary school there. In 1955 we moved to Oaks Avenue and I attended Pettits Lane Secondary Modern School. I left in 1959. The pillars just below the trees in the photo, was the gateway to the Whykam Hall which belonged to the church. I remember spending many happy times at the weekend dances. I could really Rock'n' Roll in those days! I used to go with my best friend Margaret Golding, who I sadly lost touch with. Another place I loved was the Nimbus dance hall. I believe it was above the Co-op at the top end of the market.  HAPPY DAYS!

First Home

I was born in Hornchurch in 1934, but my mother, father and myself were the first residents of 121 Warren Drive, Elm Park.  My brother was born in the house at 121, in 1945.  This is the last view I had of the street, as we left in a taxi, to sail to Canada in 1946.  Made a brief visit to Warren Drive in 1956.  I remember queuing up outside Meyers Greengrocers with my Mother to try and get a few oranges in 1940.  I also attended Romford County High School for Girls for a year and a half. Other friends and myself used to play in the fields behind the house, which had corn growing in it.  Also, the railings had been removed from the back to make, I presume, guns, tanks etc. for the war.  A doodle bug had dropped not far from Benhurst Avenue primary school.  All the mothers rushed out thinking that the school had been bombed, as a pall of smoke appeared to be in the direction of the school.  My Mother and a dentist's wife, also ran the keep-fit class in the assembly hall on St Nicholas Avenue.  I was also a girl guide and attended St Nicholas church. On one occasion we heard an air raid warning and saw a german plane hedgehopping over the trees behind the house.  My Mum and Dad had to take cover in the doorway of a store, enroute up to the Elm Park Station.  My Dad worked at Fords in Dagenham.  My story is a little disjointed, but you can tell the early years of one's life is vivid in memory.  Having lived in Canada most of my life, I still yearn to return to England.