Nostalgic memories of Colemans Hatch's local history

Share your own memories of Colemans Hatch and read what others have said

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.

Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.

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Displaying all 7 Memories

I remember Wrens Warren camp vividly as I was one of many sent there during W.W. 2. It was a happy period in my life as a young boy in the 1940's. I and my friends spent many hours exploring the surrounding woods, making a dam in the stream below the camp and swimming in the pool we had made. Making bows and arrows, spears, and vaulting poles out of young Chestnut trees. Making musical whistles. Sledding ...see more
I'm now of the age 79years, i't must have meant a lot to me, a 2week break at Wrens Warren. It must have been about 1951/53 when I was there with my school, Sir Hugh Middleton, they were all wooden dormatories, a small stream running in the dip across which we used to jump on our cross country run. When I last tried to find it, to my suprise the name was the same, but a gate secured a private residential housing area, but my memories will never be lost,
I'm reading a book. Came upon the name Christopher Wren (astronomer around 1683). Suddenly it slipped into my mind the combination Wrens Warren Camp and via google came upon this site. I'm Dutch, survived the winter of 1944/1945 in that part of the Netherlands still occupied by the nazi's. Almost no food and cutting trees to get some firewood in order to burn the stove in freezing winter. The city of ...see more
My husband has just come across a book which was rescued from the Newbridge Mill during the flood it suffered in 1953. The book entitled 'Knole and the Sackvilles' by V Sackville-West has an unsigned, written inscription inside telling a short note about the flood and the ensuing condition of this rescued book. This book is in remarkable condition with unspoilt photos of the Knole interior and is in very readable condition.
We moved to Yew Tree Cottage, out on the Forest, in December 1940, when I was 20 months old, and my father finally sold up in the early 1980s. I loved the Forest, and was allowed to roam free from an early age. I have many memories of the wide open spaces [yes, they were then, when the smallholders cut and gathered the vegetation for their animals' food and betting, and cut birch for firewood]. ...see more
In 1949 I was a pupil at Wrens Warren Camp School near Colemans Hatch. The school was housed in long huts which I believe to have been used in the war. It was a school for children who had been ill and needed some form of convalescence whilst still able to attend lessons. The headmaster was a Mr Punch, and the head for the girls was a Miss Hoad. We slept in long dormitories and the whole place was quite austere. I would love to hear from any other member who was there.
Living at Forest House - just up the road from the post office. The school coach would drop us off at the bus stop, and on our way home we would stop in to what our family called "the little shop" to stash up on sweets. The shop was run by Barbara and Len Waghorn.