At Nannan and Grandad's

Gill and I used to go and stay quite often at Nanna's. She really loved having us to stay and made such a fuss of us.

Behind the house was the Heath that gave rise to the name Colney Heath. We used to roam all over it for hours. There was a little stream that ran through it and that made it the perfect playground. I once cut my foot on some glass in the water. Gill ran back to the house to get Grandad. He was a little disabled, and wore a raised-soled boot on one foot which made him rather limp. But he carried me back piggyback and Nanna patched me up.

There is a Village Hall at the end of the row of cottages. Gill and I used to climb onto a little store with a black felted flat roof and sit in the sun there, talking for hours. I looked at the Hall a while ago on Google Earth, and it was still there, although if you look now there has been an extension to the hall on two sides which has swallowed up where the little store was. 

Gill could climb up anything. It took me a bit more effort but I was taller. I could never climb trees, but Gill was always up them.

One weekend when we were staying there was a funfair on the Heath. Grandad gave us threepence each to spend. I don't remember what I bought but I do remember the stalls. There was one of those things where you hit the knob with a hammer and try to get the shuttle to run right up and ring the bell. I don't think Grandad had a go but we stood and watched it for a while. Apart from this there were the usual roundabouts and swing boats.

The other end of the road, going towards St Albans, was a playing field. We all went there one Saturday to watch races etc, and Dad took some photos. He was always a good photographer. Here are some of them.......

Here is me on the gate post. I remember this day and being lifted up.

Mum with Paul. Mum was a real beauty, so full of energy. In her teens she was a runner. She entered racing competitions and at 13 and 14 years was beating the 16 year olds. She had an ambition to be a gym teacher, but got married and had a huge family instead.

Back to Grandad and Nannan. Here is a photo of Grandad and his pride and joy.....a soft top Morris

Looks from our clothes as if it was the same day as the fete.

Grandad died two years later, and Nanna had a nervous breakdown. The house was disbanded and after she came out of hospital she went to live with Aunty Anne Pounder at Handside Lane, Welwyn Garden City....her older sister. I think the last time I actually stayed was before I started school. (I started school on the day I was 5.....the 6th September 1954.)

Sometimes in the summer Dad used to cycle to see his parents at weekends and Gill and I used to cycle with him on our tiny bikes. Gill was very slow and I remember suggesting we got a long stick with a pin on it to poke her with! The trip through the back lanes was more or less flat riding. It was a pleasant ride. Three and a half miles each way. I think we did rather well to cycle that before I was 5, and Gill was a year younger. Dad used to have Paul on a little saddle on the crossbar. Like this.....

The M25 now almost cuts through the very quiet country road we used to use. How times change......

Grandad always used to buy us tins of John Bull Humbugs. They often visited us at weekends and he always brought a tin with him. I can remember him bringing them to Harvey Road, London Colney, where Dad and Mum moved to when they had just got Gill and I and were expecting Paul. This was the downstairs front room of 1, Harvey Road. In that room was a double bed, and two cots (in the fireplace alcoves) for me and Gill. Under the front window was a table where Mum did everything. There was a bowl for washing up. I don't recall how she cooked as I don't remember a stove. Perhaps she used the kitchen of the householder. I certainly remember going down into the larder under the stairs in the hallway outside our room. 

They had to manage in that one room until Paul was about 6 months old. Then we moved into a brand new council house at 4 Manor Road, London Colney. It had three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, and a sitting room, dining room and kitchen downstairs. I remember Mum and Dad viewing the house before we moved in. There were paint tins in the sitting room. We moved them in front of the fireplace and sat as if we were living there. We walked there from Harvey Road. Paul in the pram, Gill and I walked. I was two and a bit, Gill was one and a bit. About half a mile....! We were sturdy little walkers!