A Long Way From St Pauls Road

A Memory of Northumberland Heath.

Hi, my name is Susan Thompson, formerly Hawkins and I'm 54, I was born in the above address and lived there for 18 years although my parents lived there for over 40 years. I went to Brook St. school finally leaving in 1967 at 15 years of age, I'm afraid I didn't shine at school, I was bored for the last year or so, but I survived, working in the Co-op in Northumberland Heath and numerous other fairly dead end jobs. Fortunately for me, I met and married a very good and hard working man called Joe and 3 months after we married we went to Australia where we lived for 7 years. We had 2 children and decided to return to England, we didn't settle there, we currently live in Dublin, my husband is Irish. I have lots of memories of growing up in North Heath, we played out on the street and we roamed Bursted Woods, gathering chestnuts in the autumn and picking armfuls of bluebells in spring, we also practically lived in the recreation ground or "down the rec", as we called it. I was back in North Heath last year visiting my brother who still lives there and I hadn"t been there for years, and I couldn't believe how small my old house and road were, they never seemed that way all those years ago. I had good friends back then, sadly no longer in contact, my best pal was Irene Spooner, she lived in Northumberland Park, then there was Pam Bing and Gloria Stanley, Susan Mckee, John Evenden, Doug Capp, Fred Conner and Karen Conner, I would love to hear from any of them. I had such a lovely childhood and as I get older I find myself looking back more and more, all those street games, rounders, british bulldog, hopscotch, various skipping games and of course, knock down ginger, not popular with the neighbours but a great laugh when you are young! So that's my stroll down memory lane, and I loved doing it, I hope there is someone out there who can relate to my ramblings! Goodbye and best wishes.