A Wartime Child

A Memory of North Harrow.

I was born in 1935 at 25 Cambridge Road, maiden name Lee. There were six of us, parents, 2 older sisters, Beryl and Gwen, and grandmother.
I remember many of the shops from the late 30's to the early 50's when we moved to Surrey. Turning right into Station Road, opposite a hotel (or was it a pub?) there was a drapers and almost next door, a market which was held under cover about once a week. Near the first station entrance was a greengrocers and next to the second entrance, an opticians. There was a row of plane trees along the edge of the road and a chemist on the corner of Northumberland Road. On the other corner was a sweetshop. Turning left out of Cambridge Road there was a newsagent, a photographers, butchers, shoe shop, a United Dairies dairy- all cool brick red tiles and not much else - and where the road bends to the left, a small sweet shop next to a greengrocers. The window of this sweet shop had nothing in it but a large cut out blue bird and a stack of blue bird toffee tines for the duration of the war. Further down there was a chemist, a fish shop and another drapers, Miss Hymers. On the other side of the little road that led behind the shops into the top of Cambridge Road, there was a sweet and top shop, a ladies' dress shop and a Smiths. On the other side of an entrance behind the next parade of shops there was a 'Pay'n'take' - a grocery shop with open tins of dried fruit and tea and marvellous mixed up smells. Further along was a bakers and the post office. On the other side of Woodlands Avenue there was a strange triangular building with a large clock which we called the 'Morris Clock'. I think this was a car show room though I can't remember ever seeing cars in it. Next to that was a cobblers, then Woolworths, a hair dressers, a wool shop and somewhere in the vicinity I think, another butchers. There were the first floor co-op rooms where my sisters learned ballet and later Gwen had her weddding reception at the end of the war, then a sweet shop, a hardware shop and another newsagent. I'm sure there must have been another grocers somewhere and probably a third butchers but I can't remember them.
Longfield School was closed for some of the war so I went to a little school called St Andrews opened during the war by a Miss Grey. It was in a large house on the corner opposite the Embassy Cinema, near the traffic lights. Later, I joined my sister, Beryl, at St Joan of Arc's Convent in Rickmansworth, five stations away from the bombing. I'm not sure where the platforms are now that North Harrow is a tube station, but in those days - 1943 - they were up three flights of steps. One morning the glass roof, which I think had some sort of protective netting over it, began to fall in behind us and at the same time the siren wailed. Beryl, her friend pam and I sprinted to the top of the steps just in time to avoid being buried by the remainder of the roof. We made our way down again and rushed home to find all our windows had blown in but the bomb had hit one of the houses in a road off the Harrow Road (can't remember the name) and that of Pam's grandmother had been virtually cut in half, leaving her sitting up in bed exposed to the world and waiting to be rescued. Another bomb fell near our church, St Albans. Our then vicar (the Rev. Butler) immediately made the resultant crater into rose beds. The newly opened British Resteraunt also seemed to be the the target for bombs - twice - which had people wondering whether Hitler wasn't on our side after all. The food there was terrible.
When I was 8, we moved to a larger house, 11 Manor Way, which had a vast number of fruit trees, including morello cherries, a mulberry, plums, pears and apples. A lot of the main garden was dug up for vegetable growing, and my parents also kept bees and chickens. Later, my father had two allotments off George V Avenue where there was a track to Noah Hill. Further along George V Avenue, there was a farm called 'Noah Farm'. We used to walk along the avenue, and through the farmyard where it came out just before the bridge over the railway at Headstone Lane. On the other side of the bridge there was a large camp for Italian prisoners-of-war. When the war was over, the site was rapidly cleared and immediately filled with pre-fabs.
After the war my parents were very much involved in the Pinner Horticultural Society, which held its shows in the school near the fire station along the Pinner Road. My father, I think was secretary and my mother something with the rather grand name of 'convening secretary'. I believe there may still be a cup awarded which I think is called the 'Lee Cup'.
It's many years since I visited North Harrow and I'm sure I wouldn't recognise it now but mine was a happy childhood in spite of the war and I remember most of it vividly. In those days it was a good place to grow up in - still small enough for us to know many people who lived there.


Added 12 July 2010

#228919

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