Memories Of Kingsbury

A Memory of Kingsbury.

Hi Geoffrey Schwalbe! I've only just discovered this Site. I think we were in the same class at Glenwood School from 1954 to 1956. Teachers I recall were: Headmistress Doris Anderson, Mr Dyde, also Freeman, Marsh and Vallum. Boys in the class were Billy Course, Leon Appleberg, Tony Thorne, David Green, Brian Swain, Raymond Little, Derek Allen, Alan Cakebread, John Smithson, Robert Laidlaw, Colin Lisle, Alan Skene, Geoffrey Webb, Tony Beasley, Howard Hurford, Paul Lynch, Robert Taylor (not the film star!), Donald MacDonald, Dennis Brown, Martin Carroll, Nicholas Mallett, Bobby White, John Ralling and Barry Collins. Girls were Valerie Whitewood, Hazel Wood, Sylvia Plassard, Jennifer Dawson, Pauline Bell, Jacquline Barndon, Linda Bayjent, Doreen Bryant, Phillipa Talbot, Pat Sharp, also Lorraine, Doreen and Hazel. Having easy access to the old Welsh Harp was wonderful. No imprisoning fence in those days.
I remember the Rubbish Dump being dumped on one side of the Harp. I wonder how many people now know of its existence beneath their feet? And the WW11 bomb craters revealed in 1974 close to the Yacht Club when the Reservoir was drained for repairs to the dam wall. Several of these are not shown on the Bomb Sight Census map of the Blitz. One crater, right beside the water, we knew as the Bomb Hole - long the home of frogs and other pond dwellers. I recall another and earlier Rubbish Dump on the ground next to Townsend Lane opposite Meadowbank and Sunnymead Roads. There were Nissen Huts here too, just after the War. Some of us boys would rummage in the Dump for useful items and imagined treasures. There were slow fires smouldering away here and there, with a distinctive damp smell. Good times indeed!
David Yendall.