Where I Was Originally Born

A Memory of North Acton.

My mother was born at 8 Queens Grove Road in 1921 and lived there for a further 58 years before she moved to Highams Park. I was born in Chingford in 1947 and lived at that address until I got married at 20.

One of my grandfathers was a saddler, his surname was Leech and he had a business at the top of that road, and the other grandfather, his surname was Bowen, and he worked for Hurry's as an undertaker/coffin maker at Leyton.

I went to school at Kings Road School, where my mother and her father before her went. I joined the school at Heathcote which was very modern and had been built for the children on the new estate, living in Chingford I was a bit of an outsider.

My mother was married at St Peter's and St. Paul's Church, as I was years later.

My grandmother and I would tend a relative's grave and I remember 'alms houses' where at Harvest Festival we delivered gifts to the old people

We did not have a car as my father worked for the railway and could not afford one. We would travel on holiday to Perranporth by train and the big event was when there was an excursion to Southend - that meant we could get in the train at Chingford, travel into Liverpool Street and instead of having to get off and change we could stay on the train and they would re-track it as it pulled out.

When I worked in the City I would catch the train which was driven by steam though eventually this was replaced by electric.  A large 'cleaning' siding was put in just outside Chingford station, a very modern state of the art venture where trains would be cleaned.

There were many local shops ranging from Gallops the bakers, Jafee a ladies clothing shop, Redcliffe's an electrical shop, Brimbles the newsagents/book shop, the bank opposite where chaps putting the takings into the night safe had chemicals thrown into their faces when the takings were stolen.

There was also King's dancing hall where I learnt to ballroom dance and where he and his wife also ran more modern dancing on some evenings.  Lots of 'twisting' went on there.

We would walk regularly along the Chingford Plains, climb up Pole Hill and wander through the woods with my Dad and our dog, great times that I remember with fondness.

I often wonder if all the little twisting and turning paths we wandered on through the woods still exist or have they overgrown through not being used any more.