Grandad's Caff

A Memory of Caterham.

The white-fronted terraced shop on the left was owned by my mum's parents from 1940-44, from where they ran their cafe. My bedroom was the little attic room on the front. Most of the customers were from the Canadian Army Regiments billetted in big country houses that had been requisitioned to accommodate the soldiers. They were, I was told, a pretty wild bunch - most of the houses had large amounts of their floorboards missing, having been used as firewood.

Across the road was a Sainsbury's shop with marble counters and butchers in smart aprons.

We didn't have an air raid shelter during the war and I can remember standing at the front door during air raids targeting the Guards' Barracks and RAF Kenley, hanging on to my nan's hand as the guns up on the by-pass fired at passing aircraft illuminated by the searchlights in Marden Park. On Sunday mornings my Nan used to brew up tea adding a teaspoon of whisky 'to keep our spirits up' - including me, a six year old.

My dad was the RSM of the Royal Engineers in North Africa, my mum worked in the Food Office and her sister at the Air Ministry in London, doing duty at night as a Fire Watcher. We all moved to the High Street, Caterham on the Hill later that year - but this was no safer, as the V1 rockets were just starting to arrive!