96 Melody Road Staplehurst Family

A Memory of Wandsworth.

I was born at St Teresa's Hospital in Wimbledon in December 1949 and taken home to our prefab in Melody Road. My dad was called Ernie, my mum Phyllis, and two older brothers Bill and Ted. Bill was 12 years older than me, and Ted was 9 years older than me.

The prefabs were built on the bombed side of Melody Road. I remember Mr and Mrs Sibley lived in the house next door with their daughter who we called 'Toffee'. Mr and Mrs Moore, was in the prefab next to us, they had one son, Alan, and one daughter Elizabeth. There was a Mrs Howe who lived across the road from us in a house, I remember her selling a lot of things, clothes, underwear, etc. There was also a family Mr and Mrs Machini, who had a son called Peter (dont know if I spelt their name correctly). It was a wonderful place to grow up in, and I remember being very happy there.

Our doctor was Dr Vance, and my mum adored him. I can remember when he came round to see us at home when we were ill and my mum and dad treated him with the utmost respect, almost as if he were a film star!

I remember going to a kind of nursery school, where my mum made me up some sandwiches to eat there. I remember these two ladies had a dog, and we sat in a kind of conservatory and ate our lunch. I hated it there because I was bored, so my mum didn't take me there again.

I went to school at All-Farthing Lane school, and I remember an awful lot about the school. In the school holidays Mum would take me down to the school playground so I could have my milk drink that was delivered into the playground. It was a happy time for me.

My two brothers, Bill and Ted, used to take me over to the Common, and I can remember my brother Bill climbing up a tree to get some conkers, when the old man, who used to pick up leaves with a kind of stick with a sharp spear type thing on the end of it, started shouting at my brother to get off the tree, and started running up at us, I can remember being terrified as my brothers took one if my hands each and ran home as fast as they could, and my feet not touching the ground. Very exciting!

I remember my brothers making the carts, with pram wheels and ball bearings, and string to steer it with. They used to let me have a go on it.

I also remember being outside the boys' school before I started school and an old man came up and started talking to the mums. I was very shy, and hid behind my mum, when he suddenly took his eye out (it was glass of course) and informed me that he was keeping his eye on me. I was absolutely petrified, all the mums just laughed!

I used to love walking down to Wandsworth High Street with my mum and pass by the brewery horses with their brasses on. To this day I can remember the noise the horses made, the clanking of their bridles, the nose bags, the noises while they were eating, and the noise of their hooves on the road. Marvellous memories.

We had to move when I was about 7 as the prefabs were being pulled down to build flats. My mum was heartbroken as we were being rehoused in Wimbledon in a very modern block of flats in Castlecombe Drive, and my school then would be Ronald Ross school, but that is another story, and more memories.

I am now 68 years old this year and gave been married for 50 years, but the memories are so strong, that it is as if I am there again when I think of it. We moved from Wimbledon in 1959/60 to Bletchley in Buckinghamshire as my dad wanted to move out of London and live in a house. So, yes, I now live in Milton Keynes!!