Walking to School

My brother and I used to walk to Shepperton Green school across the fields from Manygate Lane,where we lived, we used to stop and watch the blacksmith shoeing horses just before taking the path that used to pass another smalll school and big market garden that stretched to Laleham Road, in the summer the gypsie waggons would set up camp near the school in Sheep Walk and they would make pegs and artifical flowers to sell locally, we often talk about all the butterflies and wildflowers that have been lost since the road was built. Saturday mornings I would drive about a dozen cows belonging to Merrick Farm along the road and over Walton Bridge to let them graze on the lush grass by the river, then take them back and got paid one shilling, we also helped out at a boat hire place near the Ship Hotel in the summer and part of the job was to row the fishermen across the Thames - what a lovely childhood we had, who remembers the the bonfire that was lit at the crossroads near Shepperton Staion on VE Day - truly happy times