Chapel Lane Milford

A Memory of Milford.

In 1944 a bomb dropped not too far from our home in East Barnet, Hertfordshire, so Mum and I went to stay with her Mum and Dad, Alice and Bill Tulett at 3 Chapel Lane, Milford (now No.10 I think) where Mum was born in 1907. Bill used to be the local baker and worked for a Mr E A Fullbrook but was retired by then as he would have been 78 in 1945. Next door lived Mrs Collins, the other side I think were called Elliott and further down the lane lived a Mrs Popple, a name which I thought quite strange at the time.I remember the landgirls working on Secretts farm which was on the other side of the road. There was a grocers shop, I think called Dowser's; Mum used to give nicknames to some of the assistants, like Grumpy, Mopey and Cheerful. Although I wasn't quite five, they let me start school at Easter 1945 at the little school along Church Passage. There were only two classes and the teachers seemed very old to me - maybe they were as many younger teachers would have gone into the forces. Milford wasn't the safest place to be as the German planes often flew over on their way to London, and there were army lorries thundering along the London-Portsmouth Road. The entrance to Church Passage was just across the road from the end of Chapel Lane. Of course, Mum took me to school and met me, but one day, she was a bit late and I was already at the end of the passage when she got to the end of Chapel Lane. I told her not to come across the road as I wanted to cross by myself! I don't remember any bombs dropping, but I do recall being in bed one night and hearing a loud thump. The window shattered, scattering glass over the bedspread and Mum rushed up to see if I was OK. Apparently, there had been an explosion at an ammunition dump near Witley. When peace was declared, Mum tiook me to Godalming and managed to find some red, white and blue hair-ribbon and a blue dress with red, white and green spots, the most patriotic thing she could find! Some of the people in Milford were quite amazed by this, and I don't recall any big celebrations, until we came back to East Barnet and had a bonfire in the road and a street party. If anyone else has memories of the war years in Milford, I would be really interested to hear them - or memories of families living in Chapel Lane between 1907 and 1953.

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