Move to Horton

I think it was about 1986 when I moved to Horton, I was around 7 years old. We only moved from Wraysbury Road near Staines but it may as well have been 500 miles, leaving all my friends that lived all along the road to moving to Horton. There wasn't that many kids in Horton back then. We moved into the house next door to the Five Bells pub, a large detatched 4 bed house, it felt like a mansion house. Darlaron was the name of the house because the owner of the house, Stan Errett's granddaughter, couldnt pronounce the real name...my mum and dad changed it to Forge Cottage. Horton has changed a lot in the years since I left. The pubs have had many different owners! A lot of new houses and apartments have been built. When I moved to Horton the close where my sister lived until 2011, Champney Close, was a paper mill. Me, my brother and our friends would jump the wall on the weekends and have a look around and play in the yard. And behind the house of a friend of mine was an old derelict factory, I am not sure what it was but we used it as our playground until it was turned into a housing estate, Cherry Way I think it's called. As there wasn't much to do in Horton we made our own fun, most of it getting in to trouble and annoying the local farmer Raynor. Things like throwing stones at the bee hives and running away from the swarm, getting into his farm and playing in the barns. The days when you were carefree.