The Chocolate Box Smithers Family In The Late 1950s Early 1960s

A Memory of Camberley.

My grandparents ran the Chocolate Box in Frimley Road, Camberley (now Camberley Kitchen Studios) and I spent my early life there after my parents' marriage broke down. I remember going to nursery school along a tree-lined street somewhere near Watchetts rec, probably in 1962/3. We were made to have a nap before going home each day and I recall low beds with grey blankets and how I hated that part of the day and could never sleep!  

Later I went to York Town school. There was a song we used to sing in assembly which was always my favourite and I've never heard since, it had, somewhere in it, the words were "Do you know how many birds that sing...".  Does anyone else know this song/hymn? The tune is still in my head and I'd love to know the rest of the words. I remember two friends I had there, one called Tracy, the other Giselle, though I can't remember their surnames, Giselle went to ballet classes I think. There was also a boy called Derek who used to swing his legs under the school dining table and kick me!
We had a teacher called Miss Hall, who I remember as young with shoulder length hair, wearing a red jumper, on sunny afternoons we used to take our chairs just in to the woods behind the school and have a story read to us.

In those days the public were allowed to walk in the Staff College grounds and many times my mum used to take me walking around the lake. I remember the rhododendrons growing near the edge of the lake forming cave like structures. I would enter at one end and follow the dry path through the 'cave', mum able to hear but not see me until I came out at the other end. We'd walk on a while until I found another entrance and off I would go again. The smell of autumn leaves and the Teddy Bear song..If you go down to the woods today... always reminds me of York Town School and walks around the lake.

At the back of the Chocolate Box was a lane and a small allotment on the edge of which grew a gooseberry bush, I loved those big, hairy gooseberries. The lane led to the rear of other shops along the Frimley and London roads. I think it was a dry dleaning shop where I had another friend, Sherrie, who had an older brother called Robert.

I think, at the time I lived there, on one side of 'our' shop was the Home and Colonial. Going down from us, an electrical shop run by someone called Mr King, (dark haired with a moustache). Further down, across the alley, a restaurant on the corner. I think the people there at the time were Greek or Greek Cypriots, they had 2 boys I used to play with, Themi and Nicholi (probably wrongly spelled), and there was a Turf Accountants. There were other shops I'm sure but the only other I remember was at the end of the parade, similar to ours in that it sold sweets, but I think it was a Tobacconist & Newsagent.
At the top of the alley, which led to the lane & allotment on the left, was the side view & garden of a house belonging a family called Munday. Above one of the shops next door to us was also a man called Munday, apparently not related, I think he had a black Labrador called Rolley. On the right hand side, top of the alley was a small factory, possibly a printing works?  Between the factory and the Mundays garden ran a narrow path. It led nowhere, but I remember exploring it and being scared of the many snails that seemed to be there!

On the other side of the allotment were flats, I think. Mum knew the couple who lived at the top, Mr & Mrs Moth. To get to their flat we had to climb a metal, outside stairway. I was always afraid of the gaps in between the steps, it seemed very high to me then.

My grandmother, Annie died in 1962, my grand father, Frank Alfred Smithers in 1963. I've been researching my family history for the past few years and would welcome any memories of them or the Chocolate Box.

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