Early Years In Motpsur Park

A Memory of Motspur Park.

Mum and dad moved to Consfield Avenue in 1941 when I was just 2 years old. The air-raid siren (on the top of Malden police station) always seemed to go off at the most inconvenient time, and there was always a panic to crowd into the shelter in the back garden,- and occasionally it meant sleeping there, which I always hated because Dad snored such a lot. Burlington Road school was a happy school, as I remember - although I was nervous about going into Mr. Griffiths' class (Class 1?) as he had a reputation for being very strict. However there was always playtime to look forward to, where we often played Spitfires and Messerchmitts - and of course we all wanted to be the Spitfires... I don't rememeber many names from those early years - John Phillips, Peter Vaughan, Pauline Bruck are just a few. I had a paper-round for quite a few years, working for Bernie Broomhead when he first worked from the garage in his house in Claremont Avenue before getting the shop, and then later for Wisemans. Saturday morning pictures was always a treat - and in those days you could stroll across the A3 at the end of our road, as the traffic was so slight. Mum had several local part-time jobs - with Bradbury Wilkinson, the bank-note people, with Shannon Systems, and briefly too with the Gala perfume factory on Tolworth Rise. I miss the trolleybuses, of course, as I think we all do - quiet, speedy, with a choice of the 604 or 605 in either direction, and also the old slam-door Southern Electric trains we used to catch at Motspur Park station. One thing I would dearly love to see though would be a photo of the street party that was held to mark the end of the war at the top of Consfield Avenue. I am sure there must have been someone there with a Brownie box camera.
John Elkington

---

---