The Grange, And Holy Trinity Church And School

A Memory of Northwood.

In the 1960's I was bought up living at The Grange on the Rickmansworth Road in Northwood. If we turned right out of the drive at The Grange we would walk along the road to church and school at the Holy Trinity church. Further along the road was Mount Vernon hospital where my Mother was a nurse, and opposite Holy Trinity church was the riding stables where I spent many happy hours with the horses.

When at The Grange I lived firstly in the smaller flat with Mr and Mrs Pratt, and later in the larger flat. As children in the smaller flat we were aware that the spinny was supposed to be haunted and went ghost hunting. On a 1960's tape recorder we taped foot steps behind us in the spinny, and took our tape to a man in Northwood Hills who was at the time writing A History of Northwood; this man took our tape and told us quite firmly not to meddle in things we did not understand. When I was living in the larger flat I was aware of the ghost of a monk that would walk through the bedroom underneath the priest hole, and the ghost of a lady that would sit at her dressing table in the largest bedroom.

At my time at The Grange, Father Hillburn was one of the priests at Holy Trinity Church, and he was a very dear friend to me.

During my lifetime I have had a really great pull towards monasteries, convents and the monastic lifestyle, but it is only recently that I wonder if the Christian influence in my life was formed in my time living at The Grange, which was formerly owned by the monks of Bec.