War Times And A Bit More

A Memory of Colindale.

I was born in Colindale in 1937 living in Sheaveshill Ave. We had an Anderson shelter in the back garden in which I would sleep all night when bombing was bad, it was easier than getting me up when the sirens started at which time I would be joined by the rest of the household. I went to Colindale school, the headmaster was Mr Grassam, I can recall the names of all the teachers who taught me there. The area didn't come off too badly regarding bombs, a couple of houses were flattened near the school where Woodfield Ave joins New Way Rd also what seemed to be the rocket motor of a V2, which came apart in mid-air, landed in the front garden of a house in Court Way. The Odeon cinema used to open on Saturday mornings for the kids after which sometimes a couple of us would go to the 'British Restaurant' at Varley Parade for dinner, pretty awful food but there again, what with rationing, eating at home wasn't up to much. I used to enjoy tripe, rabbit and a pig's trotter but I don't think I would be too impressed now, sometimes we would get fish & chips from Neptune's round the corner from Coleman's the newsagent. Shopping used to be a nightmare with all the queing and having the ration books marked up, most people used to swap around their registered butchers or grocers when they got new books but it didn't seem to make much difference. The grocery in Sheaveshill Ave was 'Jack's', two ladies, Betty and Eve would do the serving and it seemd to take ages, an old cat would often be seen sat on a sack full of some food or other, no one seemed to mind. Apparantly Jack was once hauled up before the magistrates accused of Black Marketeering; he came off quite lightly as the chief magistrate was one of his best black market customers. Towards the end of the war there were fewer bombing raids, just the doodlebugs which were quite safe as long as you could see and hear them going on to some other unfortunates. There was no warning with V2s, we were lucky. As kids we used to spend most of our time out doing what kids used to do, trying to avoid getting caught. Areas of 'play' included the land now occupied by Sheaveshill Court, it used to belong to the Scholes family, the area between Rushgrove Ave and Colin Gardens which I believe is now Rushgrove Park but was then known as 'The Swamp' through which the Silkstream flowed. The area at the back of Sheaveshill Ave and Colindeep Lane beside the underground line and Silkstream, the park near the tube station and of course the railway lines the other side of Colin Crescent. I can remember VE day, the pubs were crowded, there were bonfires in the streets and fireworks were let off. These must have been pre-war stock, by the time Nov 5th came there were still some to be had, my Dad queued up to get a box which contained 81 'Standard' fireworks for 5/-, fireworks nights in subsequent years were relatively quiet as there were not so many being manufactured. The winter of 1947 was grim, coal was in short supply and some would take a pram to the local yard as deliveries were limited. There was a lot of snow but I do not recall this stopping the buses and trolleybuses from running, unlike now. I used to lug my homemade sledge all the way to Sunny Hill Fields the other side of the Watford Bypass, it was the only place with a reasonable slope. Shortly after the war the land at Rushgrove (The Swamp) was used as a dumping ground for what came out of the local incenerator, we would scavenge and find all sorts of interesting things, later the silkstream was re-routed, the dumped stuff was covered with soil and it eventually became the park. There was an open air swimming pool at Goldsmith Ave(?) near the Welsh Harp sports grounds. A child's season ticket was 7/6, normal admission was 4d so most of us got a season ticket and went pretty near every day once it had opened. At times the water was very cold, but we had to get value for our 7/6. In 1948, at the time of the London Olympics, I was there on a Saturday morning; a staff member ordered us all out of the pool when a rope was stretched from one end to the other about half way across, we were then told we could occupy one of the halves. We then saw these people dressed in blue, which turned out to be track suits with the word Nederland on the back, they stripped off down to their cossies and entered the water. It was amazing, none of us had realised people could move in water with such speed, we simply stood and watched, the other half of the pool was empty. It was the nearest I got to the 48 Olympics.