1948
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Life in Herongate
We had a party for our birthdays each year and our mother worked really hard on the food, and our father with the entertainment. One year a ~11 year turned up with the, maybe, 7 year old sister and announced that her gran had ordered her to stay for the whole time!. Dad also did a game which involved pulling a rug away from under you - for some reason this terrified me . Our front room, rarely used, would host a magnificent spread
Dad travelled abroad a lot as sales director of Whichelow's Tannery . A treat for us was going to Northolt airport to wave him off, and watch the planes! There were usually presents for us on his return. From Australia I got a sheep and Hazel received Rosemary, a large doll: she still has her, whereas the sheep, albeit a trifle sad by then, must have been discarded from my dressing table when I left Ashton in 1967 ( my mother was always wanting to throw my 'junk', that I had left there, away)
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Chris & Hazel in Herongate back garden |
Hazel on the red trike with Rosemary |
Sheep and Bonzo- likely 1949 |
Rosemary |
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| A happy family on the beach during the annual summer holiday in Worthing |
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| Family in Herongate garden with Doris & Miss Baker?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hazel & Chris - maybe in Wanstead Park? |
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Hazel, Dad & Chris in Herongate garden
We apparently got green paint (from some railings) on the above two, almost new, light blue coats( with matching hats), which I assume Mum and Nan had made . We were sent to Sunday school at St Gabriels, so this presumably happened on a Sunday! Money was tight and rationing still existed from the war, and our mother had a fierce temper (or so it always appeared to me). My mother and Nan made all our clothes: we hated standing still on the morning room table whilst the hems were marked with the aid of a piece of chalk and a stick
Map showing Herongate Road & Endsleigh Gardens where my grandparents lived. I used to walk to see Nan through Valentines Park, with Hazel in charge of me: Grampy, a carpenter/storeman, was usually at work. We usually ate kippers there