Heston As A Young Lad

A Memory of Heston.

I was born in West Middx Hospital in July 1942 and lived in Vicarage Farm Rd from then until about 1960. Went to Springwell Infants then onto Heston Junior School. Failed the 11+ so went to Heston Secondary Modern.Great teachers Mr Songi (woodwork)Mr Pusey (metalwork) Mr Parsons,Mr Thron and Mr Thomas the Headmaster. The summer before going to HSM I found my love of cricket in Heston Park.A lad named Jimmy Warman had all the gear (stumps,pads,bats,ball and gloves) If Jimmy could not play his Mum or Dad would let us use the gear in the park. After a few days Mr Clayton the groundsman cut and marked out a full size pitch for us to play on.he also provided some more cricket balls and scorecards and showed us how to use them to record runs,byes,wides. One day the captain of the first eleven came over after talking to us asked if we would like to join the colts.(bit of a problem there as mum was a widow and could not afford whites for me)
Learned to swim in the Gravel Pits of North Hyde Lane,Joined the Army Cadets (Royal Engineers at
the TA center in Heston) and had my first drink in the Elm Tree pub At the entrance to Heston Airfield off Cranford Lane there was an aircraft fuselage that we use to play in.Further along Cranford Lane in the airfield was some sort of USA post but if you got too near it the Yanks would chase you away.
What great times we had around Heston Park,the gravel Pits and Heston Airfield.