All Around Hadley

A Memory of Hadley.

My early years were spent in Monken Hadley. When I see photos of Hadley I can say I have been there. There's a little row of cottages oppisite Hadley Church, St Mary's, and my aunty Molly Ratling (nee Longland) lived there. My granny lived in the Chauffer's Cottage by the church and next to the Grange? owned by the Death family. I have been inside the Grange to the bedrooms and the kitchen. It ws very large and grand in comparison to the small cottage we lived in next to Hadley Infants School on the common. That was during the Second World War and the cottages have been demolished now and the school extended onto that land. But what a playground it was, the common and the woods, for us children. I remember Mill Corner when the pub was a pub. Next to it was a garage, Ramsay's, and next to that a village store I think called Moffits. My gran's sister lived in one of the cottages before Drury Road, and an Uncle and Aunt lived in Drury Road. The green had two ponds, one behind the brewery, since gone, and the 'little pond' on the junction of Druruy Road and hadley Green Road.
The high Street of Barnet had a Woolworths and a Cinema and a Cattle market and horse troughs. There were very few cars on the roads, but I remember seeing the first oil can that was thrown into the 'little pond' and starting the demise of that crystaline water.
I get very nostalgic about those times, and feel very alone with my memories.