The Railway bridge: A memory of West Drayton

The Railway Bridge

A Memory of West Drayton.

In this picture I can remember that on the left was W H Smith's, a bicycle shop and an Options on the corner of Colham Road. To the right between the two pubs many years earlier was Pat's Garage. In the picture we have the new railway bridge which was a great improvement from the old one. The old bridge was lower, narrower and only had one narrow foot path on the left. The vehicles came so close to you and made so much noise it was scary. The double decker buses could not get under the bridge so would turn round in the station yard and return to Uxbridge. Once a driver forgot what route he was on and got the double decker stuck under the bridge. It was there for ages until someone suggested letting the tyres down a bit and it reversed back out.

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Added 30 December 2008

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Barry Hawgoods memory is good. The stores along Station Road from Ferrers Avenue to Colham Mill Road in the 1940s were a bank at the top of Ferrs Avenue where there was a police public call box (like the Dr.Who Tardis) and, behind it an air raid siren, then a ladie's dress shop and further on was a grocers, Pearks, I believe, where once in the days of rationing and when I was young enough to use a phrase I heard at home, asked "Do you have any under the counter?" and was served with the item in that location! Further on there was Moss's bakers, a chemists, the bicycle shop mentioned by Barry, a sweet shop with the sweets kept in tall glass jars from which they would be brought out and weighed, usually as a "quarter" ( four ounces, about 100 grammes) with a dentists Boyer or Butler) at the end of the row.

By macxlii on Mon Feb 29th 2016, at 2:08 am

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