Hillside Standon

A Memory of Standon.

My parents (Harold and Peggy Warden) bought Hillside (which was the miller's house, the mill fell down after the First World War) and moved my sister (Rosemary) and I from Surrey in April 1951, I was then 7 years old. Later that Month it snowed, cutting off Dark Hill and therefore Wellpond Green. I enjoyed Standon School, in particular the teachings of Mr E N Butler who taught me Chess and an appreciation of Medieval buildings and churches. I went on three separate school journeys to Great Yarmouth, Cheddar, and the Dove Valley. I kept in touch with Anne and "Billy" after they retired to the Isle of Wight until their respective deaths. I will always be grateful for Mr. Butler's help in getting me to Hertford Grammar. My friends in Standon were Danny Day, John Shayle, Richard Warner (whom I am still in contact with), John Hobbs and Derek Thurston, both from Wellpond Green, and John Dann and Andy Blay from Standon High Street, Chris Kennedy from Puckeridge and Mick (Flicker) Foot. I met Alison Painter when she moved into the Gables in Puckeridge when she was 10 years old, and though she moved away to Dane End 2 years later I met up with her again at Hartham Pool when she was 15 and we married a year later! I have very fond memories of Standon School and of course St. Mary's Church which I visit occasionly and both my parents are buried there as is my maternal grandmother. I did the paper round for Westwoods for 3 years and I can recall the River Rib flooding in (I think)1959 and a pair of swans swimming up the High Street which was flooded up to the green, where the telephone box was. The introduction of Country Dancing and May Day was introduced to the school and to the village by Mr. Parker who remained at the school until he took a Headship at Hertingfordbury but died shortly afterwards, a very young man who had married Chris Kennedy's oldest sister a few years before. Again the Butlers encouraged the dancing which took the School to Digswell and the meeting of the dancing introduced back into the country by Cecil Sharpe.