Growing Up

A Memory of Hinchley Wood.

My family moved to Hinchley Wood when I was very small. We lived in the flat over the butchers shop on The Parade, at that time it was called Hodson & Harmer but later progressed to Baldwin Brothers and later still to West Butchers which it was for several years later. The shop can be seen on the picture of The Parade.
My father Reg Martin became manager of this shop and was so for a good few years. My mother Eveline Martin often helped at christmas times and suchlike in many ways and at christmas times would be catering for many extra staff called in for 'plucking and trussing' the turkeys. This was of course before frozen birds became available, an event which relieved some of the pressures of the christmas trade. My brother later became manager of Coopers Stores at the far end of The Parade and my mother worked in the household side until her untimely death in 1962. Miss Barnard had run that shop for some long time before she retired and Mr &Mrs Cooper took over, adding it to the hardwear store they had. At the opposite end of The Parade was a chemists shop run by Mr & Mrs Jones who to the awe of us children owned a big green motorcar, not a common site in those days so we were rather impressed that one of our close neighbours was so fotunate.
The Hinchley Wood Hotel was always rather a classy looking place and on most wednesday evenings my father and his friend Mr W Weaver would spend a pleasant time playing snooker there. Mrs Johnson was our next door neighbour and had a stationary shop which was a joy to me as even when quite young I delighted in looking at the goods she sold. She also had a library which was quite popular and my mother would send me to return and replace her library books. Later on Mrs Johnson also had the post office in the shop. In the centre of The Parade was a grocery shop run by Mr Clapp who seemed to be a little on the grumpy side, however in hind site he was probably in a lot of pain from a damaged leg. My sister and I were despatched once a week to the shop with a list of goods to buy , the first item on the list was Rations for which we had to produce the ration books for all the family. Next door was a sweet shop run by Mr & Mrs Williams and we spent a long time agonising on what we could buy that would be covered by both ration allowance and pocket money. Near to Coopers were a fish shop and Greengrocers both owned by a family called Choules and a toy shop and a shoe shop came in before a dry cleaner then the butchers.
The picture of the school brings to mind memories, firstly because I went there both in the secondary section and the commercial section. I believe that it was originally intended to be a boys school but the advent of the war made it more suitable to transfer the Kingston Commercial school from that town to this less populated location. By the time I went there the two schools had been amalgamated into one school with two departments. My youger sister was one of the first pupils to attend the primary section of the school complex which was then built so unlike us older ones did not have to travel to Long Ditton for her schooling. By that time a school bus was provided unlike when we older ones went to Ditton and had to walk or cycle. There was no public transport link between Hinchley Wood and Long Ditton, unlike today where there is a bus linking Hinchley Wood with Esher and Claygate as well as Ditton. There was at that time as there is today a rail link between Guildford and London Waterloo which connects these small places.
The war years saw us carrying gas masks as part of our school uniform, and my Dad being a member of the Homeguard which entailed being on call at all kinds of odd hours and going on manouvers on Esher common where there were trenches cut deep into the ground. These trenches gave us a fun playground after the war ended but I am sure we had no idea of the seriousness with which they were built.
Another playground for us was Telegraph Hill which was wonderfully blessed with trees to climb, grassy areas to play on and glorious bluebells in season. A bottle of water and a pack of jam sandwiches would keep us happily there until teatime. The last time I went there it had been cordonned off and the lovely play areas were no longer accessible though one could still walk over the hill into Claygate.
Behind the parade of shops was a garden Nursery run by Mr Parker who grew Dahlias for export among other thingss. On the station approach was a butchers called Hammetts and later a bakery shop owned by Mr & Mrs Missing, I understand that this shop is still open and producing the most tempting and delicious bakery goods. On the other side of the Approach was a hairdressers a greengrocers, a newsagents where the post office was for some time, a Dance school called Ann Shepherds, a haberdashery run by Mrs Ghilchrist and a dairy.
There is more but how long have you got ?