Grand Drive c1950, Raynes Park
Grand Drive c1950, Raynes Park Ref: R355003
Memories of Grand Drive c1950, Raynes Park
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Raynes Park & local memories
Read and share memories of Raynes Park and Greater London inspired by Frith photos.
Grand Drive
I remember Grand Drive in the mid 1950s as in the photograph. I was a teenager at the time. To the left of the fence were fields where horses were kept. It's all built up with a housing estate now. So sad to see the way a lot of the whole area of Raynes Park and Morden has been vandalised by developers.
Dedicated to my Dearest Dad, Victor Perrett
I was born in Cannon Cose in 1956, I have really happy memories of my childhood. My dad always used to go to The Earl Beaty on a Sunday for a beer. Another thing I remember was the corner shop where we always stopped for sweets, Witickers fruit and veg shop, Thomas's the hairdressers, Tom the butcher, and Mrs Wood's grocery shop, she wrote a small book about all her clients before she died but I have no idea if it was published. Also Cosmo's hairdressing salon and his son Frank, all I can say is I loved living in Raynes Park and if I had the chance to move back I would.
Motspur Park
I lived in Seaforth Avenue on and off with my nan and grandad. What I loved about Motspur Park was it felt like a village to me. The library was on the corner, it felt so small in there. I used to be taken to the Earl Beatty pub with my parents and brothers and sit outside and enjoy a packet of crisps and a ginger beer. I remember the corner shop in Seaforth Avenue, it was always full to the brin with things. It felt so safe in those days to play in the street and I loved going to the park, also I went into Carters Tested Seeds a lot after coming out of Bushey School and loving the smell in there, can't remember what is was of but I liked it. Happy days were had then.
RN Off No.
I lived in Seaforth Avenue for many years living opposite the Elim Gospel Hall. I worked at Chessington Zoo for a while after leaving Beverley Central School, then worked at Carters Tested Seeds in the small seeds lab dept before joining the Royal Navy in 1949. The family left the area some years later for Shoeburyness/Chelmsford where some of them are still located. I am trying to obtain photos of Carters, a magnificent building (if only a facade) but have had no success so far. Any offers out there - would appreciate a contact. Names from the past:- Mickey Milton Janitor of Beverley Brook School, Les Biggs from Carters (who also joined the RN, a joint suicide effort!!). Was a newspaper boy for Melumids paper shop in Raynes Park. Spent happy winter days sledging down the bank at the white bridge near Carters.
Also spent cold winter Saturdays during the war on my dads allotment in Motspur Park "Digging for victory" as it was called then - hated it!!... Read more
