Abbey 1890, Thorney

Thorney And The Rose And Crown

The Rose And Crown Hotel c1955
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The Rose and Crown at Thorney was managed, I believe from the early 1930s by my Great-Aunt Ellen and her husband Joe. My mother, Daisy Steele (nee Camp), and other members of her family spent pre-Second World War summer holidays there, and during the war, presumably during the heavy bombing of London and the later V1 and V2 rocket attacks, my mother and I, along with other members of the family spent time at the Rose. I remember soldiers being billeted there and how I made off one day, aged about four, with the rifle of one of them, and dragged it into one of the bars. I remember how heavy it was and how disappointed I was when it was taken off me. I went to a school somewhere in Thorney and vividly remember being in class in the mornings and then being taken to the fields in the afternoon. This was not a good preparation for 'proper' school in Fulham after the war, where we lived, as I fully expected... Read more