Oxshott In The 50s And 60s

A Memory of Oxshott.

My maiden name was Agnew. I was born in Great Bookham and moved to Oxshott in 1949 when I was 5. We lived in Lattice Cottage, Steels Lane, then Woodfield in the Ridgeway, finally The Spinney in Heath Road until 1970.
Have so enjoyed reading the other memories - the second doctor was Dr.Berridge who was also a surgeon and sewed up my knee when I burst a blood vessel in a fall in Sally Johnson's garden - they ran the village post office.
I went to Oxshott Primary (or The Royal Kent School, as it was called). Miss Brown was Headmistress - a rather sharp-tongued lady, then Miss Gladys Mayo who was young, blonde and pretty. She left to go as a missionary to Uganda. Classes were large (40 in top class) and only 3 teachers. I was an early and fluent reader but dreadful at arithmetic - Miss Mayo advised my parents, if funds permitted, to send me to a private school in order for me to pass the 11+. I went to Rowan Hill in Claygate for 2 years and hated it - full of bitchy, horse-mad nouveau-riche little girls who made my life miserable because I worked hard and did as I was told. But it did have benefits - small classes, extra coaching in the holidays - I passed the 11+ and spent 7 very happy years at Guildford County School. Plus Rowan Hill taught French and the early start helped me to develop a gift for languages that eventually led to a job as a bi-lingual PA in London.
But back to Oxshott - Brown's sweetshop - always seemed a magical place to me - full of big jars of proper sweets - peardrops, sherbet lemons, mint lumps - all weighed out in little paper bags. The Christmas Fair in St. Andrew's Hall, with the Rev. Herbert Evans, dressed up as Father Christmas, presiding over the bran tub - girls' presents wrapped in pink crepe paper, boys' in blue. Lots of village activities - I was in the Brownies and in my teens I sang in the church choir for a couple of years. Ballet lessons with Rosemary Miller and later, Margot Conrad. Ballroom dancing classes in the holidays run by Paddy Hackett. The Sports Club - my father was an ace tennis-player and won the triple crown many years in a row. My parents were into amateur dramatics - they founded and ran The Oxshott Players. They both acted and directed and my father designed and painted the sets and did everyone's stage make-up - stage lighting was quite harsh in those days (hired in from Strand Electric in London) and it was Leichner stick make-up - blending No.5 and No.9 took some skill. I had my first part with them in 1960 and have acted and directed ever since, until I was 67.
Although a small village, we had a good range of shops - I remember going under the archway next to the garage to the baker's and buying little Hovis rolls for 3d - and paying in farthings. Grimditch and Webb, the butcher's - run by Mr and Mrs Chowney. Cullens for groceries - though my mother rarely set foot in the shop itself. On Thursday afternoons Mr Parsons would arrive on his bike and, over a cup of tea in our kitchen, he and my mother would discuss her order for the week which was delivered by Douglas in his van the next day - the precursor to Internet shopping! We moved to Guildford in 1970, and after I married, to Wiltshire where we still live. I have never been back to Oxshott and was bemused to see it has become the most expensive "village" in England - I doubt I'd recognize it now - I prefer to keep my memories of a small, friendly community, where we knew almost everyone by name and where I spent a very happy childhood.