Exiled To Fair Oak

A Memory of Fair Oak.

During 1957, at the age of 13 I was 'sent' to live with an elderly Aunt in Burnetts Lane. I attended the local school and made many friends in the area. My Aunt's name was Fanny Godwin. Her neighbours on one side were the Thompson brothers and their sister Anne. My cousin, John, lived on the other side of 'the Bays' at 'Kelso' where he farmed pigs and chickens. He later went on to run the local Post Office at the crossroads with Knowle Lane. Opposite my aunt lived Stewart Wallace (Wally). I remember also Ann Tidby who lived at Burnetts fields, we sometimes used to play truant and go skinny-dipping at six arches along the railway line. I remember the lovely long thatched farmhouse on Burnetts Lane which was always surrounded by cabbages. One of the schoolmasters was a Mr Morgan (he looked like Clark Gable), he was very popular since he could play the guitar - he claimed to be Harry Secomb's brother in law. Blackberrying along Whites field, scrumping greengages and plums, long walks to school, the little one-roomed chapel just off Burnetts Lane. All such precious memories, and sadly, looking at Google Earth...all gone. I am so glad to have found this site. As a Londoner it was all so wonderous to me. It would be wonderful to hear from anyone who remembers me or knows any of those I have mentioned.

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