The War Years

A Memory of Isleworth.

In 1930 I was born at 25 Northumberland Avenue, Isleworth. I lived there until 1951 and my most vivid memories are of the Second World War years.
My dad dug a hole in the middle of the garden and installed an Anderson shelter in which we slept during the London blitz of 1940.The metal walls were dripping wet with condensation by the time the morning came and we emerged unscathed into the daylight. I can remember the vapour trails of aircraft overhead as the Battle of Britain took place in the blue skies above us. One day there was the sound of a sharp crack and I later found a piece of shrapnel that had torn through the earth and hit the metal wall of the shelter. At night time I would stand in the road outside the house, along with the neighbours, to watch the huge orange glow which seemed to hover at the end of the road. It was of course London burning as the bombs fell onto London, especially the dock area. My dad was an auxiliary fireman (AFS) and he was frequently called to help fight the fires along with his fellow firemen from Heston auxiliary fire station. At Gillettes Corner, on the south east side of the junction with the Great West Road, stood the VP Wine Company which was the British wine company at the time. On that site fell one of the very first of Hitlers V1 rockets. (Not the doodlebugs.) It was completely unexpected and caught every one off guard. It did not do an awful amount of damage, but never the less innocent people were killed.
Later in the war we used to have troop convoys traveling along the Great West Road and sometimes they had chalked on their canvas sides "Don't wave at us girls - we are British".
I delivered the newspapers to the Northumberland Estate announcing victory in Europe (VE Day). I well remember thinking 'this is history'. On that day there were street parties everywhere and just round the corner in the evening there was a huge crowd singing and dancing and house owners were taking off their wooden gates (all the metal ones had long since gone for munitions) and throwing them onto the bonfire. The tarmacadam caught fire and there was quite a hole in the road for a while.
Then afterwards soldiers, sailors and airforce people came home on demob leave with their chalk stripe suits and slowly life changed away from the war years.
Strangely enough after the war I remember just east of the ex VP site there was an American car importer where huge black cars were sold. There was a very busy greengrocer in Hounslow, at the end of the parade of shops opposite the Dominion cinema, and the owner Jack Swift probably bought his magnificent black V8 Packard from there.
In conclusion I must not forget the wonderful fish and chip shop in the middle of the parade at Busch Corner. It was always busy and their cod and chips, or rock salmon and chips were a delight in the Evening Standard. Winston Churchill paid a visit to Busch Corner during his election campaign soon after the end of the war. My mum said to me "Doesn't he look tired" - he had worked so hard for 5 years, getting us through those dark years of war.