The Great Life In Waltham Cross

A Memory of Waltham Cross.

The Great Life in Waltham Cross
Life in Waltham Cross started for me in 1936, I was six years old and my father had just completed 25 years of service with the Royal Navy, we actually stayed with my father’s sister who lived in Forest Road Cheshunt for a few weeks, how she coped I do not know as I also had three sisters - it must have been a bit crowded.
In a few weeks we moved into a brand new house in Hedworth Ave (cost £350.00) and it is there that I spent my childhood. As various families moved in, so our friendships developed. There was Ron Smith, Derek Etheridge, Jo Stevens and the two Haigh families who owned the little cafe by, the then, bus terminus in Eleanor Road, just below the Four Swannes Hotel, which some time later caught fire and burnt down, much to the excitement of us boys.
We all went to Kings Road school and came under the strict regime of Mr Cooper the Headmaster. Our teachers were Mr Pretty, who's feet left the ground when he gave you six stokes of the cane across your bottom, Mr Howard, Mr Kendrick, and Polly Whitmill who, once she was upset, would say something that you did not want to hear, about one inch from your ear, then step back and clout you across the head with her open hand.
Despite all this life was good, our school Christmas party was held in the main hall and we were all served by the teachers, we didn’t have to put on a school play to please our parents it was just for us. At the appropriate moment, the window above the Head’s office was flung open and there in person was Father Christmas with presents for us all, how wonderful it all was.
Then of course there was Cedars Park. Just inside the gates there was an old world war one tank mounted on a concrete plinth which we were able to climb over and get inside, fighting all sorts of imaginary battles. Not forgetting the gravel pits just opposite, were we built rafts to visit some south sea islands, getting told off by the local bobby for lighting a bonfire on the bank.
Just up the road was the New River and the Temple Bar Gates which once stood in the city of London, we used to imagine the heads of criminals being stuck on the spikes.

Saturdays were fun, it was time for the Saturday matinee at the Central cinema in College Road Cheshunt. It was three old pennies to get in, which included a free bar of chocolate if your ticket number was called out before the film started, but the real fun was taking our pea shooters, itching powder and stink bombs. There were good cowboy films like Hopalong Cassidy, Jean Autry etc along with Abbott and Costello with the Andrew Sisters, Charlie Chaplin and not forgetting the nail biting weekly serial of Flash Gordon, will he escape the clay men? We will have to wait until next week!

Then the snow arrives, we busily knock up wooden sledges and hurtle down the railway embankment hundreds of times a day a distance of at least twenty feet, the Theobalds line was not in operation in those days apart from the occasional goods train.

Things were soon to change, the threat of war was on the horizon, my father was recalled to the service in 1938 and a feeling of gloom and uncertainty surrounded us but hey, come on guys, lets get out there and have fun and so we did our best. But September 3rd 1939 soon arrived and suddenly we are at war, I was 10yrs old. Within fifteen minutes of the war being announced the wail of sirens could be heard and we all scrambled across the railway lines to shelter under the arches of Theobalds Railway station, it was a false alarm.
Things progressed rapidly with the war and we soon found the enemy just 20 miles away looking at us through binoculars. As boys, what were we to do, simple really, we armed ourselves with air guns, old bayonets, catapults and whatever we could find, no one was going to spoil our party.
Our lives did change quite a lot as things moved on. We still carried on with a lot of what we did, but as time went on we found ourselves swapping large pieces of shrapnel from the gunfire the night before, but the biggest prize was a nose cone off an anti aircraft shell, especially if it still had a dial on it showing the height it was to explode at.

Waltham Cross was about to change, it was not long before our sleepy little town began to see lots of American service men, they wanted to talk to us, gave us chocolate, chewing gum and were even more interested if you admitted to having sisters, they were great guys, lonely and facing who knows what. The skies were to fill with American planes of all descriptions, one of which was to crash nearby killing all ten of its crew.
By now we were all leaving school at fourteen. I went to R W Webster in their drawing office for two years, then at sixteen took an apprenticeship with H C Leach building contractors. At eighteen I started my National Service in the Royal Navy, what a delight it was to come home on leave to Waltham Cross, it was still managing to hold on to its original charm but not for much longer, how did things go so wrong.
I suppose that’s life as they say, I left the area when I was 21 but have visited many times, one thing is for sure they cannot destroy my memories of this once lovely place.

Posted: 15/08/2012 16:12:29 - By Ronald Bennett