War Years

A Memory of Orpington.

We lived first in Vinson Close, then in Glencorse in the High Street, next door to the Commodore. My friends included Eric Cox, who lived opposite in a flat over the undertaker's; Les Forrow, whose father was manager of a grocer's shop further down the High Street (Goodrich's?). We went to the Palace Cinema (Bughutch) on Saturday mornings and were kept in order by Mr. Skinner, the commissionaire. We played in the woods behind Sherry's Restaurant (by the War Memorial). We collected shrapnel after air raids and accumulated quite large collections until we were persuaded to give them up for salvage. During the blitz we were put to bed in the Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden every night.
Later, we moved to Lockesley Drive, then to Charterhouse Road, in the new houses at the top. Ours was directly opposite the Church.
I first attended Chislehurst Road Primary and then Orpington County Secondary Modern, in Charterhouse Road. Teachers I remember were: "Johnny" Walker, the headmaster, Messres Redmond, Hayward, Eccles, Cripps, Holmes, "PT" Jones, "Music" Jones and "Woodwork" Jones. And Miss Stephenson, who taught French. Fellow pupils included George Calveley, Eddie Barnes, Colin Payne, Brian Everest, John McCarthy, Bill Roberts, Brian Lipscombe, David Evans, Alan Giles, Vincent Haslam, Eric Pacey, Noel Jack, Eric Cox and John Ayres, Peacock and Laing.
I left Charterhouse at Christmas, 1948 and the family left Orpington in 1955.

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