School Days In Hornchurch

A Memory of Hornchurch.

I was born in Hornchurch and attended North Street School, I can still smell the greens from the canteen. We had little beds put up in the hall and after dinner we had to have a little sleep before afternoon school, then they changed the boundaries and I had to go to Suttons Junior School. I was at school with the Wilton twins and Mrs Wilton who was very gentle and kind. I also remember all the teachers that Elizabeth mentions and I also liked Mr Moore. So many menories came back when I was reading her story, the horse and cart with the milk and the baker who had to pull his cart along and the lovely smell of the cakes. We shopped at the Towers end of Abbs Cross Lane as I lived in the Avenue, there was Clarkes the butchers and the Yorkshire Cake Shop and a greengrocers so you did not have to go right into Hornchurch, then on other days we would go to the Co-Op, the money would be put in a box and sent across the store to the cashier who would open it and put the change in and send it back. All the counters were separate so you went to one for cheese and another for bacon and so on, but all seemed good fun and the smell was always lovely. My mum was a waitress in the Towers Restaurant upstairs in the cinema, all the office staff would come in for their lunch and then afternoon teas. Georgie Hurrel would be the window cleaner and he would clean the big windows by climbing out of the window on the balcony, when he was finished they would make him a cup of tea and he would play the piano for them. My mum worked in many shops in Hornchurch and like me loved people, one was Timothy Whites and they all hated it when people came in for the pink paraffin that was outside in the cold, she also worked in Woolworths, again in the kitchen, making their lunches. I lost my mum when she was very young. I was christened in 1942 and also married at St Andrew's in 1962, both my boys were also christened there. In 1986 I lost my dad and Mr Mulley said "I know just the person to conduct the service", it was Mr Occomore (how strange that was) after being my headmaster all those years ago. Having started I could go on forever, I have memories of some really happy and sad times.