Lane End Born Bred From 1956

A Memory of Lane End.

I grew up in Park Lane, this is the eastern side of Lane End, and then consisted of mostly 1940s- & 1950s-built council houses. I grew up in Coronation Crescent, a semi, 3 bed council house. These were not so much pebble dashed, as gravel dashed houses, sharp to the touch and the stones a mix of white, pink & red. Our back garden backed onto the farm of Mrs Archer, who kept pigs, and apparently had a pet fox she would take for a walk, but I never saw this. I went to school in Wheeler end, then later Bartholomew Tipping in Stokenchurch. I attended ballett class for a while in Lane End Village Hall. I was not so much shy as a nervous wreck, so hated any group activity. My mother always entered the Horticultural Show each year with home-made wine, jam, cakes & handicraft, also eggs from our own hens; while I did jam tarts, dinner plate garden, flowers in a jam jar & flowers in a small paste jar. I was also entered for fancy dress contests, oh how I hated that, but mum loved making the costumes.
In my later teen I went to the discos in the Village Hall.
My sibling, much older than myself, grew up on the other side of the village in Ditchfield, a cramped 2 up 2 down. During the war there was my 2 brothers, sister, mother, and dad when not at war. They also had 2 evacuees, sisters from London, where they all fitted in I don't know. The boys had one bedroom & my sister was in my parents' room. They were offered the chance to buy the place for £100 shortly before they moved.
My parents moved about a year before I was born, by then my eldest brother Reg was in the army at that time. He was the first to sleep there, coming home on leave the day before the family moved in. My siblings had all moved on by the time I was 5.
In about 1969 the fields from Mrs Archer's farm became the rabbit hutch estate as we called them, due to their small backyard-type gardens, then about 10 years later the big red brick estate beyond that was built. Both then were council houses, I expect few are now.
My mother at one time worked as a cleaner for Jim Please & family who ran the Old Sun pub, one day I was with mum, ran down their sloping lawn, fell and rolled into what their large dog had done, mum was so happy about that. Mostly she left me on my own when she went to work, could not do that now. Dad worked in Wycombe as a French polisher, but my brother Dave worked in Lane End at T & L's as a labourer.
The Meaks family did & still do have the blacksmith forge near the church.
I remember Josephine who had a habadasher shop opposite Harris the Bakers, and John Carr who had the grocers in the former Temperance Hotel, he lived by the (later) motorway bridge and had a small raised swimming pool. The Druce's had the newsagents. The post office was then next to the Old Sun & was small and dark, the public area was just the hall of a house. Ivy's hairdressers, an ironmongers, butchers, another grocers opposite the Village Hall. Then in Park Lane 2 shops. I remember we would take back Corona bottles to the one on the corner of what is now Archers Way. A grocers van would also call to our street. The ice cream van, where we would get a block of Neapolitan ice cream, in the days before we had a fridge. I used to have some milk ice lollies, the plastic sticks inside would have a Disney Snow White or one of the 7 dwarfs model, I would place them the front garden. The house was cold, one fireplace only. My parents use an paraffin oil heater in the kitchen & would also bring it into the living room when very cold. The rooms never got cosy, so you sat by the fire, front melting, back freezing. This helps explain why we took so few baths back then. Later they got those electric fire with bars that glow, & the cat sat too near & singed her coat. The water was heated by a back boiler behind the fire, in the summer we used a copper, a big cylinder with a tap. It was stood in the spare room across from the bathroom, it took ages to fill & empty it with a bucket, oh health & safety. My sister Ann remembers a shoe-maker, as mum back then did not want kids in the house, so sis spent time there to keep warm. She also spent a lot of time with Mr & Mrs Clinkard that lived near by, but was told to keep away from our grandparent who also lived near by. We never got to know them, but I have found out that George & Mary Barlow were known as Polly & Joe, and I think they were very fond of children. He came from Towerage, West Wycombe but Nan was born in Lane End.
My dad who grew up in Lane End was in the Lane End football & cricket teams, in his younger days. He grew lots of fruit & veg, not just in our garden but had several allotment plots. My uncle Eric also lived his life in Lane End, as did Aunt Monice, & Uncle Bernie lived in Bolter End. As a child I did not get to know the older people of the village, I now wish I had, most are just names I sometimes remember.