The Allotments Cricketfield Road 1950's
A Memory of Uxbridge.
My father would put me on his bycycle crossbar and took us from Elthorne Rd to the allotments via Whitehall Road and Vine Street. Cricketfield Rd was (is?)a dead end. A footpath to the left passed by a nursery school and on to the library and medical centre. There was a huge Mulberry tree just by the nursery school and i remember the purple stains on the ground from the fruit.
The other footpath forked to the right and took onto the Allotments. I remember it as being a large area of land. Whether it was the actual cricketfield that had been ploughed for the war effort or whether it was a separate parcel i cannot remember. I remember the cricketfield being there at a later date. Perhaps somebody can help with this?
Dad grew cabbage and bruxelle sprouts and winter green as well as runner beans. It was all devoted to veg. I dont remember anyone growing flowers. Food was the most important thing in those postwar days when a lot of stuff was still rationed.
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The Allotmenents were on the North and West side of the ground. The ones on the West side where my father had an allotment were adjacent to the Nursery. I remember climbing the "Mulberry" Tree and the mess it made when in fruit. However I thought it was a Loganberry Tree which are quite rare now. There was also a large Oak tree on the footpath from Crcketfield Road and the Library (and Clinic).
Where the Allotments bordered the North Side of the cricket ground there was also a Lawn Green Bowls Club. My Grandfather had a double allotment on the North Side of the cricket ground and used to grow all our vegetable needs, including potatoes. I used to help him sometimes but hated the "double digging" in wet soil needed to plant the potatoes eep enough. Neeless to say I made myself scarce most of the time.
These allotments were themselves borrdered on the North by the Library and on the East side by St. Andrews Vicarage Garden. It must have been at least an acre and most of it was like woodland with huge trees. When my grandfather was working on his allotment I either used to watch the cricket or bowls or sneak into the Vicars back garden (who was Father Carr) and play amongst the trees. It was fantastic. Later when I was in the 6th Uxbridge Scouts (who were attached to St. Aandrews Church with Father Carr as Scoutmaster) we used to camp out in the garden amongst the trees. You could not see the vicarage from the camp site,the garden was that big.
In the Summer they used to hold a Fete on the cricket field which was very well attended, but charged tio get in. i lived in Walford Road and we used to walk along Whitehall road and then get in by crossing the raliway line on foot by Manor Way (when the signalman in the Signalbox was looking the overway) and entering through a hole in the hedge in the SW corner for nothing,
That was until they got wise and one year had a table and chair set up there to make sure we paid to go in!
The whole thing was like a bit of countryside in the middle of Uxbridge and it was very sad when it was all swept away with Cross street when the bypass was put in, and as part of the redevelopment included knocking down the CE Primary School attached toi St.Andrews, it was resited in what had been the Vicars huge back garden so it all went at one go.