Ealing In The 1950s

A Memory of Ealing.

I am a New Zealander born in 1946. From about 1950 to about 1953 my father worked for the NZ Government in London and my parents, my older sister and I lived in Lynwood Ave, Ealing during this time. I have many memories of this time and would love to hear from anyone who might remember us. My special friends were Johnny Budd and Johnny Pearson (his Nan used to load me down with sweets whenever I visited) and I remember a school friend Mark Lister too. Wendy and Bridget Rogers lived opposite and Americans Judy and Gary McClendon (their father was in the USAF) lived up the road.

I started school in a Nissen hut known as "The Brent" I think. It was next to a coal yard near the Brent Stream and the playground was covered in coal dust. The floor was covered in duck-boards to keep our feet out of the water on the floor. Though only 5, I walked to and from school on my own or sometimes under the supervision of a "big girl", Thelma Jeans, who lived down the road and usually ran away once we were out of sight of any parent who might be watching. I remember walking to school along the Great Western Road past allotment gardens.

The Brent School soon closed and we were then bussed to a school in Greenford I think. So far as I can recall it was called Greenford Primary, but despite searching on the internet I can find no mention of it. It had classrooms beside an asphalt playground, toilet blocks opposite, a dining hall where school lunches were provided and near the entrance, closed off underground air-raid shelters. A rough grassed field to play on too, where I once discovered a green grass-snake..

The bus lady was Mrs Sutch, a lovely friendly lady, The Headmistress was Miss MacIntosh, also a wonderful woman. I thought it very funny that one of our reading books was "Mac and Tosh" too.
Life at school was not all sweetness and light however. I remember one boy holding a branch back and then letting it go to hit me in the face. This may have been my first experience of bullying. Another boy pushed my head down onto the drinking taps and could easily have broken my teeth. Having experienced these two unfortunate incidents I decided to take my defence into my own hands and had to be hauled off the latter miscreant, by a teacher, as I pushed his face into a brick wall. I don't recall any other bad experiences after that. I remember my teacher reading "Thomas the Tank Engine" and Enid Blyton stories to us and doing various handwork projects, including making felt a pin-cushion book for my mother. Another pupil had to finish it for me as I had to spend about a week in hospital having my tonsils out.

The Yorkshire pudding we were often given for lunch at school was flat and chewy, not like the lovely crisp version that my mother made.

A most memorable day at school was when a teacher dropped a box of little glass beads, used for hand work, in the playground. They went everywhere and the children pounced on them, competing to gather up the most. Great was the disappointment when a stern delegation of teachers went round each class demanding their return. I returned most of mine but couldn't help keeping a few in my pocket, taking them out from time to time to see them sparkle in the sunlight.

The Queen's coronation took place just before we returned to NZ and I was given a souvenir tumbler to mark the event. We were allowed to have them filled with soup after they were handed out at school but I didn't want to get mine dirty so declined the offer, which I still regret. For years the tumbler was used to keep our toothbrushes in.

I would love to hear from anyone who might recognise the school described above and correct me if I have got its name and location wrong.

I suppose these were my formative years. There are lots of other memories but it would take pages to record them all. Growing up in London just after the war was great fun, despite the rationing.

Dave J

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