Memories Of Palmers Green & Winchmore Hill

I also went to Hazlewood lane school, i think it was from 1948 to 1952, when we moved from Selbourne road, up at the Cherry tree, to Winchmore Hill. Then I took the bus from outside the cinema there, I cant remember the name of it, to Palmers green. It was just a bit too far to walk, and spend my bus fare on sweets, unfortunately. We used to go swimming at Barrowell Green pool, it was pretty basic but the summers seemed hot and long and we were as brown as berries. Broomfield park was our playground and I had some friends in Palmers green but when I got a bike I would go there and would not get home until I was hungry. Usually one Mum or another would feed us in the day. If I got home too late my dinner was in the cats tummy, but luckily he did not like apple pie, but he did like my cream. Often we would pack up camping things and go somewhere foreign like Cheshunt or Hoddesdon for the weekend or longer in the school holidays, parents trusted that we would get home alive then. We took fishing rods and if we caught anything we had dinner and often the local farmer would bring us bread and cheese and some milk, if we had knocked at his door and obtained permission to camp. Once our tent was uprooted in the night by a Bull, so we slept in the open. He was quite friendly, thank goodness, and allowed us to unhook it in the morning. I wonder how many children have this freedom now? We were educated in what to do if a nasty person tried to harm us, and knowing which bit to kick and how to stick a finger in an eye would have come in useful if any of us had ever been in that kind of trouble. Happy days.

Do you remember the foggy days when you could not see a foot in front of you. I used to walk near the garden walls so I had an idea where I was going. Was Mrs Hughes the head mistress at Hazelwood Lane Primary School while you were there, I started there around 1956. My brothers and I would play at Broomfield and Grovelands Park when we moved to Winchmore Hill.
I remember the Cherry Tree it was quaint. We would cycle down Broadwalk to enter Grovelands and from the entrance to where opened out near the aviary there would be Rhodendrons in full bloom. Sometimes we would cycle to Southgate and try to cycle up Stag Hill, but due to the piggery farm on the left we could only cycle a third of the way if that , due to smell. Those were funny days.
"Good memories"

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Cheers, Rick

My first job after leaving school was at Janes and Adams cycle shop on the high street in Palmers Green. I used to cycle to work from Muswell Hill every day. Two guys used to work out the back of the shop repairing and preparing cycles. I bought my first motorised bike from them. It was an old cycle master.

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