Early Days

A Memory of Mytchett.

I was born at home in Coleford Bridge Road in 1935 and grew up there, went to school in Frimley and lived in Mytchett until emigrating to Australia in 1964. In those early days life seemed very simple, only a handful of cars, making street cricket safe. Every body walked, our nearest shops were through the bridle path to the main Mytchett road, there we found Days Store, Dawes the butcher and on the other side of the road was Eades the shoemender and the Post Office, where I had a post office savings account as I grew up. Outside the shops was the bus stop for the Aldershot & District Traction Co (green) bus service between Aldershot & Woking and the yellow bus service between Guildford (I think) & Camberley. The nearest train station was Ash Vale, Southern Rail to London (Waterloo). I remember that the train arrival times coming back never tied up with the bus, so most times we had to walk home. There were two farms in the road and behind our house was a large field where they grew wheat. I looked forward to harvest time with all the noise and bustle as the wheat was cut, the sheaves placed in stooks, in rows for the men to toss them on to the horse drawn hay cart, using large and very dangerous looking pitch forks, before being threshed by the belt driven threshing machine, powered by a great steam engine.
At the end of the road was the River Blackwater, which in those days always seemed to flood with the winter rains, providing us kids with yet another adventure. The train line running alongside the river was the London South Eastern and Chatham Railway. Halfway along Coleford Bridge Road was 'the Copse', an area of woodland with a pond in the middle. Here we built our gang headquarters in the largest oak tree, dammed the small stream feeding the pond and caught newts using string with a worm tied on the end. The male or king newt was sure to get everyone's attention. Later on the same tree was used to spot fires breaking out in woods on the mostly army owned land past the Basingstoke Canal and around Tunnel Hill. We would then try to find the fire area on our bikes. A dangerous business as there was a lot of unexploded ammunition laying around.
I spent a lot of time fishing for roach from the banks of the canal, and there was a swimming hole along the canal towards Frimley Green, but our best swimming hole was on the far side of the lake where a sand bank extended out into the lake.
Not a lot changed for us youngsters during the first part of the war, but we could see the glow in the northern sky from the London blitz, and once or twice dived under the dining room table when we heard the 'Doodle Bug' engine cut out while passing overhead. Lots of excitement one day when an escaped barrage balloon with its big ears floated over our house being chased by a fighter. It was not brought down, probably due to the built up area. We sometimes used to find black and siver foil lying around the garden and roads, which I believe was to do with aircraft radio or radar jamming. Toward the end of the war a German aircraft dropped a bomb, which made a large crater in a farm driveway along Mytchett Road. As I understand it lots of people went to see it, and I heard tell the farmer charged a nominal fee for the privilege.

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