Childhood

A Memory of Saffron Walden.

I lived in Saffron Walden as a small child, I moved away when I was aged 10 but still think of it as home. There used to be a fishmongers in King Street which I think is a butchers now and we lived in the flat above it. I went to R.A. Butler School and spent many happy hours playing on the common. I remember clearly the night that the Rose and Crown Hotel burnt down as we could see it from our windows. My mum worked in the Saffron Hotel and I used to visit her at work sometimes with my gran for a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps. My mum's friend Muriel ran the Youth hostel in Magdalen Way and my friend Colin's family ran the Hoops pub. I got ran over by a car once on the corner of the road by the Hoops! I don't get back to Walden often enough, usually a family party or funeral, and really should make the effort as I love the place. I remember market days, Tuesdays and Saturdays I think, and remember visiting the cattle market and the sale rooms. Father Christmas used to visit and give the kids a ride around the town on an old fire engine. There was a carnival in the summer where there would be a procession of floats around the town and a bed race up King Street.