Burnt Oak

After the war in Burnt Oak

Being conceived at the end of the war I don't have memories of it of course, but my late brother, my mum and sister had lots. The only street party I remember was the Queen's one in Mostyn Road where we all got a cup with the Queen's head on it. I regret losing that. But I still have the little ed book with all the pageantry in it.
My parents and siblings used to tell of dog fights during the Battle of Britain, over London where we lived, Cavendish Road in Balham I think it was. I was born in Clapham hospital overlooking the common. Mum said it had thick snow that day, December 1946. After that the bombs came ...read more here
Contributed by Fred East

Milkman

Your memory from Clive. Was that Clive the Co-op milkman?  I lived in Fortescue Road during the 50s and 60s and I used to wait on the corner of Fortescue Road and Watling Avenue early in the morning waiting for Clive to come along and, with luck, if he didn't have a milkboy I would get the job and the half a crown that came with it.  If Clive had a milkboy for the day I would wait an hour or so for Arthur the Express Dairy milkman to arrive. Clive was the better deal. Being young Clive was like doing the half marathon. He would have you running up the paths with the gold tops and you really worked up ...read more here
Contributed by ian stephens

Burnt Oak  ( A lasting memory )

The late 40's through the mid 50's.

Some 50 plus years have now passed, since I was a " kid " on the streets of Burnt Oak. How life has changed.

I now sit at my computer ( here in Tennessee, USA ), and have instant access to Burnt Oak and Edgware online, a place where I spent my younger years.

Having read the first three accounts of life in Burnt Oak in the 40's and 50's, many memories came to my mind, of the place I grew up in. Some bad, but mostly good memories.
The bad memories include having to sleep in a steel shelter in our back bedroom on Vancouver Road during the war. ...read more here
Contributed by Dave Miller

Burnt Oak a way of life.

What a great place this web site is.
I certainly love the Burnt Oak as I knew it between 1947 and 1969 when I then emigrated to SA (since back in Weston super Mare).
All the memories you folk have mentioned are mine too. I used to go to Mill Hill though and collect old sleeper wood cut down for firewood, using my trolley with old pram wheels on it. The wood was tarry and always set the chimney on fire.
You're right about going anywhere and we used to even walk or bus it to scratch woods and Moat Mount on our own (miles away), with girls too. No funny stuff, just a bit of scrumping when the worms started ...read more here
Contributed by Fred East

Burnt Oak at War

Hello everyone,
Thanks for the memories, I too was a kid during the war, why not order my DVD about Burnt Oak, you will know some of the names, maybe you will see your school, it will bring back lovely memories, just £12 inc p.p, a copy.
Something to show your grandchildren. money back if not satisfied.

Ron Vaughan, formerly of Homefield Rd, Woodcroft, and Goldbeaters School.

My home no, 02082058910, or e-mail me, my e-mail address is gunnervaughan@talktalk.net

Contributed by Ron Vaughan

St James School, Orange Hill Rd, Burnt Oak

My memory of the area is based on my secondary school days here at the St James Catholic School, I think it was in Orange Hill Rd? I lived in Wembley during the war years and started school at St Josephs Primary in Wembley Hill. In 1951 at age 11, I started at St James in Burnt Oak.
I remember I had to catch 3 buses, not sure about the first one but I know that the 140 and the 52 busses were involved. I remember the large brick wall at the front of the school and the entrance way. Memories of the shopping area like Toni's ice cream shop and Rosins bakers, also the Gaumont, later to become a bingo ...read more here
Contributed by brian telfer

Early Memories

My birth on 30 Nov 1946 at 34 Oldberry Road, Burnt Oak, is where it all started for me, but my mother & her parents moved into the house when it was built for the LCC. She's 89 now, but recalls that she, as a 9-yr-old in 1928, spent the first few days there just running up & down the stairs, as they'd come from rooms in Euston where noise, etc. was forbidden. They also had their own kitchen with cold running water, & a fire-copper in the corner for water heating & washing. Sheer luxury! Oldberry Road, as built, had 49 houses in it, and was a single-track road with a passing-place in the middle known as "The Bend". My ...read more here
Contributed by Anthony Kerrison

burntoakboy

As a boy growing up in Burnt Oak I remember the barrow boys in Watling Avenue, the hustle and bussle of everyday trading, the people gathering round the stalls, the banter, the laughter, the friendliness.  Like one family everyone pulled together on busy days.  The Baldfaced Stag pub was a meeting place at the end of the day's work for fun and some fights.  A few years later progress took over and the barrows which had stood at the side of the road for forty years or more, were suddenly in the way and were moved to a site behind the shops.  The change was not good.  A bit of Burnt Oak passed away because of this.  Whenever a stall holder ...read more here
Contributed by clive sambrook

Watling Avenue WW11

I remember Tonis Ice Cream, Rosins the Baker, Genners toy shop, Pegglies Bike and Sports shop, Endines for Leather, Wilsons the Green Grocer and the long line ups for those ever so rare oranges, Watlings the tool shop and of course the Co-Op.
I remember the shot down Messerschmitt displayed at the corner of Watling Avenue and Orange Hill Rd opposite Watling Park. I was able to sit in it because my mother bought a savings coupon.
One of the Market Stalls on Watling Avenue belonged to the Dunbrant's they sold material.
Sitting in Ottawa Canada 60+ years later these are fond memories.
Contributed by Phil Tillman

the busses

The busses we used to go anywhere we couldn't walk. This part of the broadway looks like where the barbers was and cheap jacks where we all bought hoola hoops in the craze.
Contributed by Fred East

1948

Edgware Middlesex, the cradle of my childhood,and Burnt Oak is where I went with Mummy as a special treat , we used to go into Lyons corner house for a nice cup of tea and a small treat, and it seems like only yesterday the whole family went into the coop shop to purchase an ironing board, I recall how we all stood around it in admiration.Wasn't much money about in those days , but all the love we had in our home made up for the lack of funds. That ironing board came home with us and oh how we all wanted to do the ironing just to try it out, and no more ...read more here
Contributed by Erica Firth

Growing up British

Since my birth coincided exactly with the outbreak of World War II in the September of 1939, my mum must have felt that childbirth was synonymous with calamity;  I was Mum's 'war effort'.

Home was a semi-detached two-storey house in Melrose Gardens, a cul-de-sac of thirty-two identical semis in Edgware, Middlesex.  Dad was a printer by trade, and during the war years Mum worked at de Havilland's aircraft factory.  My earliest recollections of those years was alternately being hoisted on Dad's shoulders to "watch the fireworks" (bombing) over London from our front door, or being hurriedly shoved into the pillow-lined steel cage Dad had rigged under the living-room table.  Sometimes we joined the other families in the street-shelter 'til the ...read more here
Contributed by Heather Rohrer