Leigh, the School 1904

Priory Road 1962 to 1988

My father, William J Smith (Bill) had a newsagent at 47 Priory Road between 1962 and 1988 which was opposite Ports the Bakers. I remember seeing queues of people coming out of the Bakers on a Saturday morning to get their shopping. My fondest childhood memories were of living above and behind the sweetshop and playing with friends in Priory Road when there were just a few cars in the street, not like it is now. I remember the Butchers at number 50, the Greengrocers, the Cliff's Fish Shop and the handy shop. Nurse Banks the local midwife lived further up the road on our side, I don't know the number but it was past number 35. I also remember the Tuck Shop in Allingham Road opposite the Co-Op, the Post Office with it's dark wooden interior and all the wooden drawers behind the counter.
I also remember both the corner shops, on the corners of Allingham Road and Eastnor Road and Eastnor Road and North Road. I think it's a shame that all of these shops have become houses and that new people to the area would never know that Priory Road was such a thriving village at one time.

Doodlebug exploding in village, WW2

I was just 3 yrs. old staying in my aunt and uncle's bungalow in Newdigate, (they were working in a local munitions factory).   My mother and baby sister were there from Sth. London with me.
It was a lovely sunny day, I was in the garden playing when the Doodlebug engines cut out and it came down in the field next to the bungalow. The lady(Emily) in the next bungalow gathered me up from the garden and took me into her home and we hid beneath the table, whilst all the soil thrown up from the exploding bomb settled.
My mother and sister were trapped beneath a large porcelain sink they had hidden beneath as the roof was blown off the Wood's bungalow by the explosion.
My legs were cut by flying glass otherwise I was excited by the event, but mother refused to settle and insisted my father collected us and so we spent the war years, particularly the Battle of Britain period, in the safety of our cellar in Balham. Can you please give me the lat. /long of the field where the doodlebug landed, if you know it. Many thanks.

My birthplace

I was born in the master bedroom on the main floor to the existing owners of Anstie.
During our 3 years there we converted it to suites and modernised it considerably.
On the day that I was born there were construction workers in the house and one of them cried when he heard the sound of a newborn baby, I was told many times.
My parents split in 1956 and my mother sold it and moved to Canada. She regretted the move all her life as it was a special place for her.
She trimmed the yew hedge diligently and was delighted to see how it had been maintained 30 years later when she visited it.
I have a few pictures of it then inside and out.