Medway Drive Perivale
A Memory of Perivale.
I was born on 24 September 1937 when my parents were living at No 54 Medway Drive, Perivale, Greenford. I thought I was born in a maternity hospital ( possibly Perivale Maternity Hospital, but no records now exist for this hospital) but my birth certificate shows me being born at home, so maybe I was. Apparently we moved into Medway Drive soon after the houses were finished being built at the end of 1936. I am interested to know if the houses in Medway Drive were part of an LCC Estate, and so were rented by hoseholders or were privately owned. If anyone has any information on this I would be glad to know.
Many of the houses in Medway Drive were completely demolished by a so-called Parachute Landmine Bomb dropped by a German raid in the early hours of Thurs 26 September , rendering some 450 people homeless. Fortunately my mother, sister (Sheila) and I were in the Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden and were unharmed. My father was a volunteer ARP warden and was on duty otherwise he would have been in the house and probably killed. Apparently my only concern was the loss of my special cake for my 3rd birthday - two days before !!
The raid was of such intensity and the damage so great that King George VI and Queen Elizabeth ( later known of course as "The Queen Mother" visited the site on Friday 27 Sept. I have a number of interesting photos of the damage done to Medway Drive and of the visit of the King and Queen, including one of them talking to a number of ARP Wardens, including my father.
After being bombed out we were housed locally by some friends of my parents before moving to Virginia Water and then to Egham where we spent the remainder of the war. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has any knowledge of the bombing of Medway Drive in Sept 1940.
Alan Grose
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My mother moved into The Medway Estate the day WW2 was declared and lived through the landmine falling on Medway Parade. Time may have mixed up her memories as she believes it was early 1941.
She recalls “In early 1941 there was a landmine that landed during the night and the house we were living in became untenable because it crarcked from top to bottom. We didn't lose any of our furniture - we just had a few cracked vases. It landed behind Hodder Drive, (in Medway Drive) and took out 2 houses and some people were lost, but we felt the blast. In those days when a house became untenable, if you found somewhere that was empty the council would requisition it on your behalf. It was sad we had to find somewhere else to live as we had just redecorated.
Whilst walking down Barmouth Avenue we stopped at a house where the man there was going back up to Immingham to be with his wife and family and he just handed us the keys”. They loaded their furniture onto a borrowed hand-barrow and pushed it around the corner & moved in. She has been there ever since!