Relocation To Elm Park

A Memory of Elm Park.

It's very early 1947. My father has accepted a position as Mechanical Engineer with JRichard Costain. We purchased a new Costain home at number 90 Windermere Ave, Elm Park. It was a bitterly cold late winter period. Water in the systern in the attic froze, as did the pipes in the bathroom, we had no water for days, what a welcome. The quality of the house left a lot to be desired, but we had bought it so we had to live with it. We had Mr & Mrs Battle next door a very nice couple he had been a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain.

We had just moved from my childhood home in Buckhurst hill where I had lived all my fifteen years. Naturally I had to go to a new school. So I attended Suttons Secondary School in Hornchurch. I made some good friends, like June Crisp whose father held a senior position with  the Daily Mirror. He was very interested in radio and devoted a lot of his spare time to his beautifully equipped Anderson Air Raid Shelter turned into an above ground studio for his Ham Radio Equipment. As I still had a lovely girl friend in Chingford, visiting her was a bit more challenging. I'd take a local bus to Romford Market, then catch the CITY Coach and then another bus to South Chingford.
Another school friend was Jessica Baxter, who lived the opposite side of the main street. I got a job helping our milkman deliver milk on saturdays from his  Hitchman's Dairies electric milk float. We only lived in Elm Park for about a year, as my Dad became Ill and had to leave Costains'. Later in 1948 after I left school we sold up and moved to the Scottish Highlands, to a tiny hamlet called  Fasnakyle  in Geln Affric near Inverness.
My stay in Elm Park was short but pleasant, Perhaps one day I'll get back to see it again, I hope so.
M. Denman Lalonde

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