Recollections of Life in Villiers Road

This is a transcript of a recording of Mrs Florene Clewlow and her sister Mrs Grace Bishop made on Wednesday 24 November 1993.

Grace and Florrie’s father lived above the baker’s shop that their father ran at 90 Villiers Road.  Their mother had come there as a bride in June 1905.  Grace was born in 1909, Florrie in 1918 and their brother Arthur in 1906.  The baker’s was called H.E. Hunsdon and later became H. E Hunsdon & Son until 1945 when it was sold following their father’s death in 1944.

Grace and Florrie recalled their childhoods around Oxhey and in particular, they remembered the shops in Villiers Road.  They talked of their difficulties in getting jobs before and during the Second World War, and on meeting their husbands and getting married.

In 2000, Florence Clewlow still lived at 77 Villiers Road, and sadly, Grace Bishop died in June 2000.

To read their stories in full, please download the pdfs below.