Childhood in Waltham Cross
I was born in Waltham Cross in 1941, right in the middle of an air raid. My dad was yelling up at the planes saying "Not tonight Adolf, not tonight!"
Waltham Cross back then was a wonderful village to grow up in. Sunday mornings only the sweet shop would be open at the top of Trinity Lane, named Foyles. You could walk up the High St and come across sheep being herded in the middle of the road, and all the traffic, well what there was of it, would come to a halt and await the shepherd and his flock.
The High Street was full of hustle and bustle on a Saturday morning and I would have to go into the Co-op furniture shop and pay on my mum's weekly HP for the furniture she had bought. I would then go across the road to Collins grocers and butchers and give them a shopping list my mum had given me and wait for the merchandise to be packaged. Friday nights my mum and I would wait outside the Embassy pictures for my dad to come off the 310 bus from his job in Hoddesdon and we would all go to the pictures. I would always get a choc ice and on my birthday I could have 2. I always knew I was special with my dad. On the way home he would give me a piggy back ride down Trinity Lane to Northfield Road where we lived as I was always tired.
I went to Holy Trinity School in Trinity Lane where the block of flats now are and as it was a church school Holy Trinity Church was our place of worship. I was eventually married at the church and had funeral services for both parents there in later years. I am very sad at the blight of Waltham Cross these days. Now a motorway runs through the town and the old shops and wonderful ways are gone. But I feel I had the best of times back then and wouldn't change a thing of that time.
Madeline (Clay) Rees
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Comments
RE: RE: Childhood in Waltham Cross
I enjoyed reading your story Madeline about Waltham Cross. It was a lovely place, and I am sure there are still parts of it that retain that charm.
I was born in 1942 and went to the same school as you did.
My grandfather was one of a few people in Swanfield Road to own a car, and when I returned I was a bit lost to find the road, now on a roundabout !
I lived with my grandparents and my grandfather owned an electrical shop in Wormley. So guess which bungalow was bursting at the seams when Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip were married ! Like you Madeline I have fond memories to keep.
Julia (Billingsley)Adams
Comment from Julia Fraser on Tuesday, 3rd March 2009.
RE: RE: Childhood in Waltham Cross
Dear Madaline,
This is very intetresting especially your mention of Foyles the sweet shop. My Mum and Dad bought this shop about 1955 and had it for 5 years before selling up and moving to Kingsfield Drive. I moved schools when they bought the shop to Cheshunt Sec. Mod. This was my last school and went into engineering after a few years of jobs I didn't get on with. I was christened, confirmed and married at Holy Trinity as were my parents also there was youth fellowship attached to the church which I used to help run.
I now live in a small village in Northamptonshire and expect to be here until thay take me out in a box! I have lived here all my married life almost.
Your coments about how "The Cross" is now are oh! so true. My sister lives in Broxbourne and occasionally pass through. There is no way would I move back.
Peter Saunders
Comment from Peter Saunders on Saturday, 23rd October 2010.
RE: RE: Childhood in Waltham Cross
To Julia and Peter. I loved reading your response to my memories of Waltham Cross. The last time I was there was in 2006 when my mum died. Although I have many many relatives in the Ponders End Enfield area I have no intentions of ever going back. This makes me sad in a way because I feel my roots deeply probably because next year I will be 70. But my life, my children and my grandsons all live here in the USA now so this is home.
But I still love hearing from Waltham Cross people their memories and life and times there. Many many thanks to you both for giving me a smile this afternoon.
Best wishes Madeline Rees. PS My email is Mad4Naples@aol.com if you would like to write from time to time.
Comment from Madeline Rees on Saturday, 23rd October 2010.
RE: RE: Childhood in Waltham Cross
Hi, i was wondering if anyone knows of a place called 'The Willows' in Waltham Cross or in the Waltham Abbey area in around 1940? I am doing a story on the Romany Gypsies who had an encampment in these areas back in the 1940's, but I have come to a halt in finding 'The Willows'. My email is: carthorsedonkey@yahoo.co.uk Thank you from Tilda.
Comment from Tilda Smith on Friday, 10th June 2011.
RE: RE: Childhood in Waltham Cross
I was born in Ruskin Avenue in 1947 because my mum was visiting her parents and I came along while she was there. There was a field at the bottom of the garden which had pigs in, I think there's a block of flats there now. Mum and Dad were married in the Abbey, a lovely building, what's left of it. My mum worked in a sweet factory before the war, does anyone know its name?
Comment from Roger Jones on Tuesday, 6th September 2011.
RE: RE: Childhood in Waltham Cross
I was fascinated to read these - and I think I might remember Peter's Mum and Dad (a tallish chap with a moustache?) and they were sometimes assisted by another woman - taller than his Mum and with glasses. I remember it as a deep shop - and towards the back a glass cabinet with three sections: everything a penny on ths lowest section; 2d in the middle; 3d on top.
I lived in Waltham Cross from the age of three until 17 - in Cornwall Close on the Royal Estate and attending King's Road School and then Cheshunt Grammar School from 1956 to 1971.
Sad to say that the Planners, Developers and Supermarkets have mangaged to destroy everything that Waltham Cross ever was - initially to build the Shopping Centre in High Street/Eleanor Cross Road and more recently in allowing it to be crucified by Brookfield Farm.
Anyone remember a tiny confectioners on the corner of Swanfield Road (not the corner where Britannica House was built a few years later, but where there was a second hand car dealership - now a Quickfit workshop). I'm sure that it wasn't, but we used to call it "Little Asplands" by way of a reference to the rambling confectioner/newsagent/haberdashers/toys and almost everything else store at the corner with Park Lane.
In later years, my money was spent in The Record Centre and Marsdens (both long since gone - along with The Falcon, Four Swans, The Pantry, Greefield nursery school, the old Post Office, Rogers the Greengrocer, Stanley Bridges Cycles, Hills the Bakers, Stuart the jewellers to name a few) rather than in sweet shops.
Comment from Ray Kerr on Friday, 4th November 2011.
RE: RE: Childhood in Waltham Cross
What lovely memories. I was brought up in Waltham Cross from the age of 4. I really enjoyed living there, lived in Cameron Drive with brother Peter ,Mum and Dad. Dad died 1970, Mum had to go into a warden controlled place at the age of 80. As I said, I loved the Cross. Went to New Town School, bt it seems no one remember the school. Then Hurst Drive then onto Waltham Cross Secondary School Yes, I used to spend most of my money in Marsdens record shop. Remember Asplands, The Pantry, The Castle. My dad used to drink in the Castle and the 4 Swans. Does anyone remember the other end of Waltham Cross, Alington Garage, opposite there was the wool shop, pet shop and a car show room. Then there was a fish and chip shop, sweet shop with a barbers at the back, next door the ladies hairdressers. I could go on and on. It's one big shame they have gone and really spoilt oour lovely Waltham Cross. Even now I don't go there it,s a sham, so many memories Does anyone remember Victor Values? It was where Iceland is now.
Comment from Jean Cowley on Sunday, 22nd January 2012.
RE: RE: Childhood in Waltham Cross
What a trip down memory lane. I was born in Barnet hospital in 1945, and soon after moved to Northfield Road. What a wonderful place for kids those days. At the end of the street there seemed to be endless rows of greenhouses where we would play, with the only danger was of being chased off the site by the watchman. Bordering the estate was the then disused railway line where I remember spending most of the time jumping off the bridges onto a stack of hay collected when they used to cut it from the banks. The emergence of the Southbury loop line spoilt all that when the electrification of the line saw trains thunder through there. My early recollection of life there was when I started school at Holy Trinity School in Trinity Lane. I vividly remember that lovely old building, when morning assembly was held in a lovely sun filled room. It brings a lump in my throat still when the Hymn 'All things bright and beautiful' is sung. Another lasting memory is of being allowed to go to the shops without being accompanied by my mum. I must havee been about seven years old and the first day I was allowed I must have run down to them about 20 times. The ration books were being phased out which made things easier. A few of the shops have been mentioned previously, Foyles, Suttons the grocers. There was Cardies the Fish and Chip shop and the hardware shop the Magnet. I did my first paper round at Asplands which was towards the top of the high street near what seemed the gigantic superstore Fishpools. I hope this story revives some more memories, that today's children will never experience.
Comment from Alan Roat on Saturday, 28th January 2012.