Waterworks Cottages Purley

A Memory of Purley.

I spent my childhood living in one of these cottages on the waterworks gated property in Purley. I walked to school under the railway bridge that crossed the road to the left as I walked out the gate. We called them "The Purley Gates" due to their location and as a reference to the biblical "Peary Gates". I remember a nursing sister who walked under the bridge going in the opposite direction on her way to work at the hospital. She and I would sometimes chat as, for various reasons, I was often at the hospital outpatients and emergency. That experience influenced my later career choice. We left Purley in 1954 to emigrate to Australia, I was then 11 yrs of age. I later trained in general and midwifery nursing at Wollongong Hospital, NSW Australia. I have many fond memories of Purley and more particularly growing up in the waterworks cottages.

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