Canalside Memories

A Memory of Southall.

I was born in the bungalow at Lock 93 in the Hanwell Flight in 1936. I went to St Marks School in Hanwell and then on to Borderston School along the Boston Road. I grew up in the lockhouse and we had an avery, allotments and some livestock (chickens, a goat named Suzy and a dog named Bonze). When I was older I worked for the British Waterways as a carpenter with my father repairing locks and lockhouses and then went on to tractor driving where I towed dredgers and mud hoppers up and down the canal from Brentford to Cowley, Paddington to Cowley and back. During the second world war, our house was used by the local home guard when they were practising for an invasion. We were having tea and they come in through the living room window and out through the bedroom which gave us all a fright and my mum nealy sufferred a nervous breakdown because she thought the Germans had arrived! Behind the house was Warren Farm and on the track they had an anti aircraft gun running up and down shooting at aircraft pretending we had a lot of guns. A doodlebug fell and damaged the boiler house and part of the asylum (St Bernards Hospital). I worked for BW up until 1965 leaving to work for Southern Electricity Board in Uxbridge. By then trade and canal traffic was almost finished. Some of the last runs were transporting lime juice from Brentford to Box Moor. Oh such sweet memories!!