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A Memory of Welling.

I grew up in Welling in a house on Ridley Road. My mother lived in that house for over 60 years until she died this past January. I have 3 sisters - that was a tiny house with 1 bathroom, at times we seemed to really fill the place - felt more like a zoo with a dog 2 cats a rabbit, hamster and a gerbil .
We knew everyone on that street - the guy who would never give back any of the balls that went over his fence, to the girls I went to Welling Secondary School 1970/75 with - used to walk there every morning past Pat (?) the lollipop lady, to buying sweets at the corner shop.
Friday night we went to Girls Brigade stopping for fish and chips on the way home great way to warm your hands in the winter Feeding the horses in the fields opposite Saint Michael Church .
Our shoes always came from the shoe shop next to the Coop - each of us would get a pair, more serviceable than fashion, our clothes where a lot of hand me downs or what our Nan could knit , every school jumper I ever owned,spent a lot of time at the warm shop on Upper Wickham Lane
Dad use to love to go to the butchers late on a Saturday afternoon to see what meat he could get cheap - good bacon for Sunday breakfast or something for Mum to roast
Mum grew up in Welling spent her whole life there moving only once and just 2 streets over
We went to the same primary school as her and the same secondary school - even the move to Bexley tech when she past the 13 + ( just at the end of W2 ) one of my sisters passed her 11+ and would take the 96 bus to school every day.

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