Orpington,Snow And Warren Road School

A Memory of Orpington.

My family lived in Orpington Kent from 1959 to 1964. I was 5 when we left. We lived in Repton Road.

It snowed so heavily one year(62/3?) that a train was stuck at the top of the embankment above our house.The snow came to the top of my legs.

Once I went into the High Street with my mother and there were "men with big heads",I was always scared they would be there again (but half hoped they were) . I assume they must have been people dressed up, maybe a carnival?

I started Warren Road School at 5 years old. We read "Old Lob" as our first reading book.
Dorothy Pailing was our lodger and she taught there.
Mr Stevens was still head then and we would bring our pennies to balance him on a huge scale (I assume for charity).

Myself and my two older sisters brought bags of conkers to school for the children to play conkers with.

I think my teachers were Mrs Edwards or Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Marshall. Another infant teacher was called Mrs French she had a black bun and wore her cardigans draped around her shoulders.

We loved gypsy tart and hated lumpy rice for our school dinners and we couldn't go out to play until we had eaten all our dinner. I remember the dinner ladies feeding me lumpy rice!