Laleham memories
Here are memories of Laleham and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Laleham or a Laleham photo.
My Happy Days at Laleham Abbey
I was a pupil here for about 4 or 5 years up to 1952. I loved it there and have such happy memories. There were two sisters in particular who were so kind and understanding - Sister Constantia and Sister Pauline Mary. The quadrangle remains in my memory with the huge tortoises which I was told were about 100 years old. If anyone remembers me my name was (then) Pauline Brenda Flenley, I was known as Brenda as the girl sitting next to me in class was also Pauline! Look forward to hearing from someone to my email address: p.hughes175@btinternet.com Thanks, Pauline
1 Year at Laleham Abbey
I attended Laleham Abbey just for one year (1953 - coronation year). My surname then was Hebden. I was very shy and didn't make many friends. The one girl I do remember was an Australian whose surname was Snedden who I believe didn't go home for holidays. I also enjoyed the Corpus Christi celebration and also the time we were all given a bible to celebrate the coronation. Another special event was when we were taken to see the colour film of the coronation at the cinema. During the year I did have a small garden plot where I grew some flowers. I spent part of my year in the dormitory and then moved to my own room. I was 12 during 1953. Do you remember meal times where if we did not like something it was passed to someone else at the table when the nuns were not looking and I think at one meal one or two fellow diners ended up with a large amount of dried figs.... Read more
Laleham Abbey in The Late 1940s to Mid 1950s
I recognised several of the names mentioned by Clare. I was Tricia Heathcote then. Michele Tooth came to stay with me one holidays. Her parents were actors and she had a boxer dog named Tree. (Strange the things you remember!) There was also an Elizabeth who had some connection with Princess Marie Louise, and the head girl was Hazel Mary Wheatley. My best friend was an American girl, Brenda Payton. We, and a couple of others, tried to run away and she was expelled. Mainly, I suspect, because as an American she did not 'fit in'. As well as the regular doses of senna I remember the daily bottles of milk - frozen in winter and sour in summer, regardless of which we had to drink. I did ballet, music and elocution; also horse riding which I loved. It was also an opportunity to get outside the walls! I remember the freezing winters when we would knit mittens to try and keep our hands warm. Nevertheless my fingers... Read more
Laleham Abbey 1947-1952
My sister Catherine and I attended Laleham Abbey from 1947-1952. Sister Margaret Rose was the Head and Sister Catherine Mechtilde her Deputy. We were sent away to boarding school after various entrance exams to day schools. My mother had died in 1944 and my father remarried in 1945. It was a strange time. I was 10 - my sister (stepsister actually) was 11. We lived the life the nuns lived - feast days and fasting days! The routine of the daily life was hard - there seemed always to be a chronic shortage of food for hungry girls. We enjoyed the lessons - English was inspiring under Sister Catherine Mechtilde and we could do extras - I did ballet for a while - a lay teacher came in - and then music. There was also horseriding. Summers at Laleham were lovely - by the river and we watched the punters practising for competitions on summer days when we were out on school walks - which were the only times... Read more
Laleham Abbey
I was at the school from 1945 to 1947. Names which spring to mind, on the spur of the moment, are Shirley Anne Blyth, Maitland Bond, Penelope Bovill, Hilary Cunningham, Anne Elliot, Faith Fabian, Jennifer Jeffries, Brigid Baverstock-Moran, Angela Pierce, Mary Riches, Sylvia Ryland, Britt Walker, Catherine White, Julia and Margaret Winterbottom, and Rowena (I still have the cards which she gave me on my birthday in 1946). Also Sister Bride and Margaret Butler. We had to drink senna pods every week - the trick was to stand at the open side of the cloister and tip it over the low wall! There was a tortoise in a house in the centre of the cloistered area. Britt was only about 3 years old and had been left there during the Second World War. My mother had to work at an aircraft factory during the war and lived at Colnbrook Hostel. She had a lot of Irish friends, at least from Lambourn, hence my arrival at the convent. Many of the... Read more
Laleham Abbey
My sister Kathleen Taylor (former name) was cook in the kitchen for the retired old ladies. I was always staying with her during school holidays. Her husband then (now deceased) was Barry Taylor and they had two children, Sarah born 1966 and Michael, her younger (not sure of his age) brother, who went to the village school in Laleham. Barry was a sort of joint caretaker. Sister Flora Mary was in charge of Nazareth House and very close to my sister and Sister Francis Anne worked in the main Abbey House kitchens and was the youngest of the nuns as far as I remember but great fun. Corpus Christi was sacred yet fun as I remember making the bags of goodies up to give out. My sister lived in the corner of the main cloisters next to the small chapel. I remember the big square fish pond in the centre of the cloister gardens. I liked to play in the woods and I recall a type of bamboo tent house... Read more
Laleham Abbey School
I was at Laleham Abbey School from 1955-7 I remember the name Tania Morley. I think I may have been in her class. Sister Constancia was the head when I went there and Mother Sarah was Superior. She was succeeded by Mother Marie Louise. Sister Marianna was head when I left in 1957. It would be good to hear from other ex-puils, somewhere I have photos, including some of Corpus Christi processions. I have an old B&W school brochure.
Good Times
When I was 4 years old my mother used to work for the nuns at Laleham abbey, she used to take me with her, what fun I used to have. I used to roam all over the grounds and also inside the buildings, all the nuns were wonderful. l remember Sister Mary Phillipa, Sister Flora Mary and Sister Mary Gertrude, I think the best event I used to attend was Corpus Christi. I also remember at lunchtimes tramps used to come to the abbey kitchen door to get food and often they gave me a sixpence. It was a sad day when I had to start school but I looked forward to the holidays. I moved away from Laleham in 1976 but often go back to Laleham. I only wish I could go back being 4 again.
I was Rita Jarvis back then.
Laleham Abbey Convent School
Is there anyone out there who was at Laleham Abbey Convent School around 1953?
Northfield Road
I moved in to Northfield Road when I was 3 months old, as I grew up I made a lot of friends, I lived there until I got married in 1976 . As a child I had so much fun there, myself and my friends used to play in the circle or we used to be in each other's houses. Life was so much simpler and they were carefree days. Unfortunately I have since lost touch with a very special friend, Valarie Randolth, and her brother Martin. Many the day we went fishing down at the Laleham Reach and the best thing was my dad used to sell ice-cream there from a bicycle on Sundays.
Campsite
As a family we used to go camping at Laleham every weekend, spring to autumn. This was from about 1950 until the mid 1960s. It was an amazing time, like most childhood memories. My nan and grandad were the Greenland family and they had their own tent. My two aunts both had tents, plus a cousin and my mum and dad and 4 kids. The riverside was much more open then and you could ride along the banks as we used to on the way back from I think it was called the Three Horseshoes pub in Laleham village. As kids we sat outside with our wagon wheels and bottle of fizzy drinks while the adults enjoyed their brown and mild or port and lemon. I remember every year there was a feast on Lantern Night where every tent would be decorated with some theme or another and prizes were awarded for the best turned out tent. These tents were not of the modern variety with... Read more
Penton Park Caravan Ppark.
My memory of Laleham is of when my father would come and collect us for weekend visits, he would come and collect us on a Saturday, and take me and my brother to the caravan park where he lived at the time, now known as Penton Park, at the end of Mmixnams Lane. My grandad also lived there, Albert Stock. My brother and me used to walk across the golf course to get to the river, and a man would take us across the river on a ferry type boat, so we could play in the big field on the other side. The man would tell us how long we had to play before we had to catch the ferry back again. The ferryman as we called him used to live in a little house on the edge of the water on the golf course side of the river. Then one day for no reason as we know of, my father Arthur Stock didn't come for us any more. It... Read more
Was I There?
I have a vague memory of attending Laleham Abbey convent/school. We seemed to move around quite a bit during these years. I think I might have been seven years old when I arrived at Laleham and have no idea how long I stayed. However, seeing my name, Catherine White, on the page, rather makes me believe I really was there!
Sisters and how to write a letter correctly... chilblains and huddling around a huge boiler to get warm. My mother and aunt visited during one of the breaks or maybe it was a weekend, and took me to a local cafe where I had Horlicks.
I remember a Sheilia Frost, but can't be sure if that was later in life. Did Laleham have a grassy area with trees? We found mushrooms, which we were positive the fairies had left, just for us. I'm sorry I can't recall more than this. Is there any way to contact an office with records? Trying to put those years together is... Read more
Laleham
Well a first visit to camp by the river and walk to the Lock and so on was really in 1962 with Guides, then a schoolfriend. Later my first 'serious' boyfriend and fiance came from there. I wonder if any of you recall not only the Abbey but the few (4) homes which were alongside the inner Abbey Road, facing across the River to St Anne's Hill. His family lived in one of those properties, next to the Vickers/Armstrong people. Further along was a splendid 2-3 level Victorian house belonging to some maiden ladies.
Wonderful times were swimming in the river, attending the Regatta when Penny Chuter, who lived along near The Red House belonging to The Benfields, was still 'a local' and hopeful in Rowing and Punting. A well-known name today! More as a biographer now though. As is 'The Lucan Arms'. We rarely went there, as my boyfriend's pop drank at 'The Feathers'. We used to go to The 5 Horseshoes to play Shoveha'penny, if we didn't go... Read more
Memories of Middlesex
Penton Camp Club
The Penton Camp Club started in about 1903. Its members included the Manager of Martin's Bank, London, the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre and many other rich men. They would come by train to Staines, the old station at the entrance to Two Rivers Shopping Centre, walk to the bridge and be taken from there by the owner of the large hotel that stood on the left bank opposite the Swan to the weir - the right bank opposite Penton Hook Lock Island.
One weekend there was a disaster, the camp was flooded and the local residents came to the aid of the stranded campers. In July 1903 it was suggested by the campers that a local association was formed, which stretched from the Fishing Temple to the camp. This club lasted for many years. Each year there would be a magnificent ball in London and in the summer a regatta at Silver Sands including punting and diving. The last regatta was advertised for 1914 but had to... Read more
The Weir
Not exactly sure of date, but as a child growing up in the 60s, a few houses upstream of Penton Hook Lock, I recall walking "round the Island" on many weekends. The most memorable bit, looking back, was the wooden weir crossing. You crossed the lock gates - and I can remember them being the large wooden sort - then walked towards the Island over this remarkable wooden structure. It had a roof, which made it so distinctive, and I could just about look over the sides at the water rushing over the weir. I distinctly recall the scary but exhilarating feeling I got when I looked through the FLOOR (between the wooden slats) at the fast-flowing water below. The wooden weir was demolished - I can't recall when - but it was one of those things that I really missed when it went, and this was well before I had any sense of "heritage". At least the Island is still there, and still something of a haven of peace,... Read more
The Pond
This picture is of the pond near the junction of Pound Pond Road and Abbey Road in Chertsey. As a child I would walk pass this area on my way to school, but the 'pond' was more like a muddy ditch!!
Stepgates
The picture of is the new Stepgates Girls School, opened in September 1908. Very little had changed between 1908 and 1960, the road had been given a smoother surface and railings placed in front of the gate.
The Weir
See my comments under photo S175052 - Penton Hook Lock - about the wooden weir you can just see in the middle of this image.
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