Memories of Purley
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 Purley, High Street c1965 (ref: P121012) |
Working in Dartmouth Road
I worked at the gas board showroom on Dartmouth Road. It was next door to the bank on the corner of London Road. As well as selling gas appliances and receiving payment on gas bills we used to sell bags of "shillingsis!" for consumers to feed their slot meters. Black men used to call them punch meters! I used to park on one of the side streets off Dartmouth Road and one day the handbrake broke and I had to leave it in gear. My uncle helped run "Days Garage" on Sydenham Park Road. It was originally owned by a Peter Day (no relation). Today there are houses built over the old garage. My neighbour worked in the china shop along Dartmouth Raod and I can remember the big station with a W H Smiths store alongside. I lived in Queenswood Road next door to a bomb site. There were loads of 'em in the fifties and us kids used to play in the houses that were condemned down Miall Road in Lower Sydenham. One of my earliest memories of Forest Hill was when my parents voted in the 1951 general election. The polling station was in one of the big houses along Dacres Road. I can still remember the little pencil hanging on a string for voters to mark their ballot papers. All around Dacres was unmade road with loads o' trees overhanging the road. It really was like a country district in them days. Last edited: 24/06/2008 09:44 by Raymond Day |
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 Purley, Reedham Orphanage 1903 (ref: 49455) |
Year: 1950
My three years at Reedham
I recall walking past the gate-house with my mother on a Tuesday afternoon in March 1950. I was to start my lustrous career there for a period of three years, leaving in March 1953. Starting there was an real shock to the system. I was eleven years old at the time and this was the first time in my life that I living under the roof of people I didn't know. Up to that time I lived with my parents, brother and sister and if and when we went on holidays etc I was always in the company of a family member. I remember seeing the actual school looking gray and forbidding as I got closer to it. Music has been and still is, a big part of my life. Before going to Reedham I had lived in South Croydon and attended Bynes Road, Senior School. At a school concert I played a piano solo to quite a stunning reception by the audience. On the strength of that the school principal, Mr. Oliver, entered me for a pianoforte entrance audition to the Royal College of Music in London. The prize was a full scholarship there for six years. I duly sat the audition and was told that I was on the short list. Before I heard the result I was at Reedham. One morning about a fortnight later the house-master on duty was dealing with mail distribution. He blew a whistle and we all stopped what we were doing while he called out the names of boarders who had received mail. My name was amongst those called. I went to the table where the letters were laid out, received mine from the house-master who said, 'congratulations Donnan, you've won the scholarship.' Although pleased with my success I was really narked that I wasn't the first one to read it for myself. Mail both outgoing and incoming was vetted by the staff, a policy I never really took to. News of my success went around the school and I was referred to as 'professor.' I found music made me a lot of friends and quite oftwen I was allowed to play the chapel organ for weekly school assemblies. I used to attend the College on Saturdays. Although the first term was a difficult period of adjustment for me, I survived and at the end of three years I was almost sorry to be leaving the place. I recall on my last day there just on three years later I walked down the drive to the gate-house where I stopped, looked back and saw ghosts of myself and mum walking up that drive for the first time. In 1964 I migrated to Australia under the Ten Pound Assisted Passage Scheme. I landed in Sydney in May at the age of 26. I met my wife within a few weeks and got married not long after, in September 1965, in fact. Quite a few of my comtemporaries came to Australia at different times, settling in Sydney and other parts of the country. I still have fond memories of Reedham. Posted: 23/12/2007 06:27 by David Donnan |
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