Nostalgic memories of Elstree's local history

Share your own memories of Elstree and read what others have said

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.

Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.

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Displaying all 6 Memories

My family moved to the council estate in Elstree in the mid sixties. I used to play football on the pitch opposite Hill House, now sadly a new housing estate. Robert Stores for groceries, the aptly named Greens running the greengrocers who kept stuffed game birds in the window of his shop. The post office, now an Indian takeaway, was run by the Jacksons, the antique shop on the corner of ...see more
My grandmother who had lived in Elstree for most of her adult life would sometime chant "no one knows what lies betwixt Saint Nicholas and Pennywells" Does anybody know what lies betwixt? Saint Nicholas is the parish church and Pennywells is a stately house on Deacons Hill.
I could not think of a better place to spend my early years than overlooking the old reservoir. My grandmother's timber cottage was one of eight built long ago, probably to house estate workers. Each cottage appeared to be occupied by a relative, an uncle or an auntie, everyone seemed to marry someone who lived just two doors away. Before the war, water came from a communal well out the back but ...see more
I lived in Lodge Avenue from 1957 to 1976. It runs off Allum Lane, which was a major road that connected Watling Street to the Railway Station, which opened in 1868. Lord Aldenham, Governor of the Bank of England, lived in Aldenham House (now Haberdashers School) whose South Carriage Drive (double-lined with horse chestnut trees), connected it to Allum Lane and then to the Railway Station. Lord Aldenham’s ...see more
The day of Prince Charles' wedding to Lady Diana Spencer was declared an extra Bank Holiday so the dancers and musicians of Whitethorn Morris marked the occasion by dancing at pubs! We went to Elstree and had a lovely time at The Hollybush and The Plough, with the women looking splended in their scarlet and blue kit and shiny black clogs. I took my piano accordian to provide dance music and we even got the pub goers to join in!
The Three Horseshoes is an attractive pub facing the village green and the war memorial at Letchmore Heath, a beautiful place between Elstree and Aldenham just outside Watford. This pub regularly attracts morris dancers and one of the local morris sides is Whitethorn Morris who often perform both there and in the village hall. The dancers, plus the Whitethorn Band, form up in the narrow road ...see more