Park, Fields And The Ivy House

A Memory of Motspur Park.

I was born in 1947 - youngest of five (4 girls and a boy) lived on Seaforth Avenue. Motspur Park was a great place to grow up, we had such a wonderful childhood.
As well as "The Park" at the end of Marina Avenue - tennis courts, putting green, bowling green, large sandpit and paddling pool, cricket matches in the summer, the large Pavillion where one could have afternoon tea, etc. there were also the fields at the end of Arthur Road. Lots of apple "scrumping" wild blackberry picking, making our cowboys and indian camps by the tiny brook between the fields and the Park (Sir Joseph Hood). We were able to walk through the felds to the cemetery to take care of our grandparents grave, then if one passed the cemetery you could walk through over to N.Cheam. We also had a good number of friends around Motspur Park, some with 4 or 5 kids in their family, like us.

Then there were the grounds of The Ivy House, where we would throw sticks up at the walnut trees to get the walnuts. Cannot find any information about the Ivy House on the web. It was used to house injured military during WWII, then made into private apartments. I remember the large entrance hall, with a huge staircase that wound upstairs. The large verandah with green wrought iron railings spanned the front. Sadly it was pulled down to make way for the new shops, with 2-storied living quarters above. We also had Beverley Brook, where my brother and I used to swing back and forth across the brook on a rope, compliments of his friend who lived in a cottage next to the brook, think it was called "Blue House Cottage" if my memory serves correct.

Sometimes in the summer we would go to the Earl Beatty with our parents, and enjoy a shandy in the garden. Motspur Park was always bustling on a Saturday, 3 greengrocers, a bakery, a fishmongers with the huge marble shelf open to the street run by Mr. Bishop and his worker "auntie" Nora, 3 butchers, an ironmongers on the corner of Marina Ave, 3 newsagents/sweetshops, 2 haberdashers, a co-op, post office, hairdressers -Vivian's, Babettes, Clarks grocery store with Mrs. Harris in charge, the Dairy run by Miss. Hawks, next to the off-licence. Chemist owned by Welshman, Mr. Griffith, later sold to Mr. Dinkle. Pretty much everything one needed in Motspur Park.

One of my favorites was the library, across the road from Wayletts. Always there on a Friday evening and would watch for my sister to come home from work (London to Motspur Park Station) and then we would go into Wayletts so that she could buy a small box of black magic chocs for our Mum, and a 1/2 ounce of A1 tobacco for our Dad. Later on when I started work, I carried on that tradition.

Good schools, Bushey Infants and Juniors, then onto Burlington Secondary for Girls, plus of course we had a lovely little church nearby, corner of Adela and Douglas Avenues, The Holy Cross.