Beech Road and Callowland schools

Hi I lived in beech road and have all the same memories as Raymond Jenner apart from ron aldersly the co-op milkman and horse there was also fred the milk from express dairy big competition then. Archie the rag and bone mans visits were allways welcome by the kids in the street exchanging old clotes for a few pennies or a toy sometimes even a goldfish. I went to callowland infants school circa 1955 – 1958 anyone in miss lilys class know of the whereabouts of the foster sisters carol and I think mary. Lastly I remember a few of the families does anyone remember us from number 25 beech road.

 

Thinking back to our days in Beech Road in the 1950s it was a wonder none of us was seriously hurt. From racing down Fuller Road hill on our trolleys, to stone fights using our dustbin lids as shields, making bows and arrows in harebreaks reck and using them in cowboys and indians duels ha ha great times. Playing games, lighting fires in the air raid shelters in harebreaks reck. Scrumping was always a great thrill too, we used to scrump at a house next to the salvation army on st albans road, one day w got caught and the woman said if we wanted the fruit jus knock on the door and ask , we didnt do it anymore ha ha instead we went down to the bridle path and scrumped from an hotel there, what fun we had. Sadly bygone times.

 

I remember Percy Grillo he used to come to our house for a cuppa, as my step brother worked for him. My step brother started with Percy with an ice cream fridge and a bycicle on the high street on the corner by the pond. I see a photo of The Odeon cinema in north watford ( or the pictures as we called them ) saturday mornings was our treat going to saturday morning pictures, being left in suspense wondering if hop-a-long cassidy would be alive for the next wek ha ha. Also we used to change our farthings for bread at the yorkshire bakery on st albans road and it was still hot mmm lovely what a treat. Anyone out there used to go to callowland infants 1954-1956 and later the boys school up the road 1956-1959 then we moved to the meriden estate. My fatheer used to go hunting for rabbitts at the weekends so we had good stews, my uncle knew a good spot to fish for pike which was great for us when he came to visit a lovely big pike for dinner. Hope this has stirred memories in you take care all.

This page was added on 23/11/2018.

Comments about this page

  • I also went to Callowland Infants School during this period and was in Mrs. Lilys class. She was a lovely, tiny lady in her 60’s I would guess, with silver grey hair. My most vivid memories of her was our writing practice on blackboard slates, progressing to pencil and paper, times were bad, so when the pencils got short we would push a little metal tube on to the stub which extended the life of that pencil.
    She always used to tell us a story in the afternoon, I think she made them up as she went along, the main character was always Old Dame Hobeldy Hoy… never forgotten that, I think she was a nice witch? The other thing she used to do bless her, was to comb everyones hair just before we went home, which was lovely, only trouble was she used the same comb on all of us and the whole class got fleas.
    One of the other teachers was a Mrs Glazebrook and she once organised a miniature garden competition for the next Friday. We had to get a kitchen tray and construct a make believe garden on it, I remember some of them to this day, mirrors for ponds, moss, mushrooms, bits of foliage for trees, little people figures etc… I was inspired and years later with that fascination for miniature plants started making Bonsai trees, which I do to this day at my home in South Australia, just goes to show how little things early in life, can stay and inspire you in later life.
    It was a a good school and I enjoyed my time there, progressing to Callowland Junior boys School just up Leavesden Road.
    Happy memories Doug Petty

    By Doug Petty (27/04/2020)
  • Hi
    I lived in beech road as well from 62 till 84. @ number 20, you must of been on the edge of the green

    By Terry Hawley (12/02/2020)

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