So many memories! One to go start with is that ,as a South-African born ex serviceman’s daughter ,I was indignant when my classmates at Little Furze PrimarySchool refused to believe that I was ‘South African’ as I was not black. In this day of precious i.d. documents I find it hard to believe that my mum allowed me to bring my birth certificate to school to prove my origin. It must have worked as no one contradicted me from then on.
I also recall the school lunches & one day finding a spider in my steamed pudding & being stood over by the duty teacher & made to eat around the creature. Ugh!
Mr Corteel is a teacher I recall.Young & kind, he dealt wisely with me, a petrified 9 year old who had flicked a blotting paper pellet at the boy 2 desks in front, hitting him on the neck, but was too terrified to confess. My attempt at partial truth would have convinced no adult (I had MADE the pellet but had not flicked it, someone must have found it & THEY must have flicked it!)
Feigning illness I went home at lunch time, surprising Mum & giving her the same story. I suspect she phoned the school as when I returned after lunch, I can remember that Mr C let the matter drop. I will never forget the fear though!
I remember the Yeomans, Bobby Freeman, the Merrills, Nangles & Angels, all neighbours at Ashburnham Close.The marvellous ex golf course opposite & playing in the woods. Wonderful memories!
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Hello Peter, I am an infrequent visitor to this site- my apologies! I remember your mother very very well (quiet and shy)as she was Mum’s immediate neighbour and often popped in to visit my warm,kind mum.We used to make a home in the alley between our two houses and your dad was not best pleased to to arrive home to find all the obstacles in his path to the back gate. I do remember Lena who was a few years younger than I.My sister is Eileen but I doubt that Lena remembers us..Your mum must have had quite a story to tell re her wartime experiences.We returned to S.Africa in 1956…Mum was so happy in Oxhey that she wanted to stay.She ran a little Sunday School in her tiny kitchen.
Val,
I’ve responded to another post you made about my Family – The Nangles.
We moved away to Slough around 61-62, I was 2 or 3, my brother Paul would have been around 5 or 6 and my sister Lena would have been around 12 -13.
Not quite sure why we moved.
My mother Greta was from Lithuania, she met my dad in Braunschweig in Germany 1947, she was 15 and within a displaced persons camp. So Val, you may well have met my mother, sister and brother. Sadly my mother passed away in 1993 and my brother in 2007.
I now live in Wivenhoe, north Essex
I have very little if any memory of Ashburnham Close, I did visit my old house around 17 years ago.