My Mum Ran Comerfords Corner Shop

I wonder if Paul Devall remembers being taught by my mum - Mrs Winfield - at St Mary's? She taught there from 1952, retiring as deputy head from the new premises about 1975. Following a happy retirement at home in Longmead Road, she moved to a care home in Westbourne about 2012 to be nearer daughter Jo. She finally succumbed to her failing health in January 2016, one month after her 98th birthday.
Mum was born in 3 Park View on Portsmouth Road in 1917 and lived in Thames Ditton until marrying in 1940 when she moved to Hersham and then to Tasmania as a family of 'ten pound Poms' in 1947. We returned in 1949 to live back with mum's parents. For the next 60 years mum lived in Thames Ditton, loved by the many children who passed through St Mary's.
The pictures of Thames Ditton are fascinating, but why no image of AC Cars? What teenage boy could forget the throb of the V8 in the early Cobras and AC428's

Ah yes...the AC Cobra. I recall sitting on my push bike watching the Cobra cars being revved up on the forecourt. Probably about 1963/64. I also remember Comerfords and wandering round the massive showroom stuffed with motorbikes after school. I attended Hinchley Wood. I lived at Rhythe Court with my parents which was next to Guy Salmons the Jaguar dealer. T D was a lovely place in those days and remains so,.....just a lot lot busier. Lastly, the 602 trolley bus. Loved going on the trolley.....very fast up the Portsmouth Road and being electric....silent except for the 'whish' of the poles on the overhead wires. Great memories.

Reading these comments above bring back memories from when I was a child, I'm 80 years old now so I can remember my mother shopping in Budgens grocers shop each week during the war. My uncle worked for AC motors around the corner and I used to go round to the AC forecourt where in the summer some of the men were preparing cars for the spray shop. We were the Trotman family and lived at number 18 Summer Road. Myself as a young man had worked at Comerford's Motorcycles and will always remember the three salesmen who would stand in a line just waiting for a likely customer, and the cafe just along the road a tad where we all used for our tea breaks as Comerford's did not have a works canteen. Lastly as has been mentioned the trolley buses fantastic for anyone who thinks electric vehicles are a new invention, then think again as there not only the trolley buses, but milk floats and all Bentalls delivery vans in Kingston were all electric. Happy memories.

My Mum's family (Gran and Grandpa, and Great-Grandpa) were in Claygate Lane by 1921, although Grandpa died in 1927 and was buried at St. Nicholas church. I was born at 1 Manordene Close in 1952, but we moved to Ewell Road a few years later. I went to Ditton Hill school, St Marys, and Hinchley Wood. sooz462 - I remember your Mum, who was 'Auntie Ivy' (like most of my parents friends) until I went to St Marys. First class was Miss Ashby, 3rd class Miss K.R. Morgan, then Mrs Winfield, and finally 'Charlie' Hudson.

I think my Dad (a Molesey boy) started work at Andrews Stores around 1938, but then moved on to AC Cars, where he met my Mum, who was in the canteen. He got called up in WW2, and they married after he came back in 1947. He worked for AC for a few years after that, and then moved to a firm in Molesey. I worked for AC doing maintainance during college summer breaks in 1969 and 1970, so got to see all over the factory, and the Invacar paint shop and workshop at the end of Summer Road, and was warmly accepted because of my Dad. My Godfather 'Uncle' Fred was still in charge of the service department then. Some of the AC workers also played for Ditton Rovers football team in the 1950s on Giggs Hill Green, and Fred was the goalkeeper when my Dad was captain. AC also had a plant at Tagg's Island near Hampton Court in 1950s.

I also worked for Comerfords in summer 1968, and the salesmen were still 'standing round waiting for prospective customers to arrive' !