Growing Up In Potters Bar

A Memory of Potters Bar.

My name is Arhur Brown and I moved to Potters Bar from Tottenham when i was about eight years old along with Mum Doris Dad Arthur and sisters Sylvia and Jeanette and two years later my brother Stephen arrived on the scene.I went to Oakmere School where my teacher was MR Warren he was a brilliant teacher and instilled in me a love of history which i still have today.i then went to Mount Grace lower school and finally Mount Grace Upper School where my classmates included Janet Taylor Barbara Taylor Sandra Nolan Dane Clark Walter Dangerfield and Robert Medlicote.When at Mount Grace Lower on the way to school we sometimes used to go into Cobb's the bakers and buy a bag of stales[cakes left over from the previous day] to eat on the way to school or in our break. Having lived in Tottenham Potters Bar was so different it was quite a small town and surrounded by Beautiful countryside we took great delight in exploring.We lived in a brand new house in featherstone close on the new Tottenham estate and my Dads brother Les lived nearby in Conningsby Drive.My sisters and i used to play in oakmere park and parkfield park and my dad used to take me fishing in the lake at oakmere park.We used to go to the Ritz cinema in Darkes Lane and buy all the latest records in Delmars Music Shop and when i was older my girlfriend and i used to go to the Farx Club at Elmcourt where they had great bands like Mott the Hoople Savoy Brown and Curved Air come to play.Being quite a small town in those days there were no large supermarkets or big stores just lots of small independant shops,there was a Sainsburys and a Coop in the High Street but they were small by todays standards.Sainsburys was a small shop with a tiled floor and tiled walls and bacon ham and cheese were cut to order no self service in those days in the Coop you paid for your goods at a cashiers booth and recieved dividened coins depending on how much you spent. When i left school i went to work at Randalls toy factory in the stores department.I then went to work for Potters Bar Council working on the road gangs in the winter and grass cutting in the summer.While working for Potters Bar Council i worked with a couple of real characters who were well known in the area.The first was Harry Shuttlebottom who worked as a road sweeper for the council.Harry was in charge of three other road sweepers and was the driver of the electric barrow they used on their rounds.He was a really eccentric character who dressed in flying breeches highly polished brown despatch riders boots a deerstalker hat and sported a splendid handlebar moustache, he looked more like a country gent than a road sweeper.The other was Bert Watkins who worked on the road gangs as a lorry driver and was also one of the grasscutting team along with myself.Bert used to come to work on his BSA motorcycle and sidecar outfit and could often be seen tearing about town on it.During the summer you would often see it parked at various places around town as he carried out his grasscutting duties.Bert and his son Bill were motorcycle mad and were the the go too people for young motorcyclists in the town who needed help fixing their bikes.Bert and Bill would often be seen heading off on their bikes with Berts wife in the sidecar and a group of local bikers behind going to some motorcycle race meeting around the country.Bert took me to my first motorcycle race meeting at Mallory Park and i've been hooked ever since and im still riding bikes today.As well as roadworks and grasscutting Bert also looked after the maintenance of the gas street lights that were still in use in Bentley Heath where he lived at the time.
I later bought my first house in Mutton Lane and started work for Royal Mail as a postman at Potters Bar Delivery Office in Darkes Lane working with some great blokes like Arthur Martin Colin Johnson Alan Palmer and his dad Pedler Palmer Alf Turner Colin Tull and many more.I loved working there we had so many laughs and so much fun it was a pleasure to go to work.They were great days and i loved living and working in Potters Bar and have great memories of my time there.I now live in Diss in Norfolk and have retired from Royal Mail, i worked at Hoddesdon Mildenhall and Stowmarket delivery offices but none of them came close to working at Potters Bar and the great guys i worked with there those days will always be very special to me.When i worked at Royal Mail in Potters bar i got to deliver to a few famous people who lived there like Aker Bilk Peter Sallis Bernard Bresslaw and Shane Rimmer and i was once stopped by Joe Brown on the Southgate Road who asked me for directions to Aker Bilks house in The Avenue. I have been back to Potters Bar a couple of times to look around places i knew from growing up there but it has changed so much and sadly not for the better but i still have fond memories of growing up living and working there.`