A Stolen Childhood.

Good morning everyone have a great day. Stevie and I visited a beautiful London Village on Tuesday, to see friends and family. It was such a beautiful day. We went to places were we played as children and I had a lump in my throat when we drove home. On the nostalgia side it is still all there just waiting for a municipal body to spend a few hours a week to bring back my childhood. There are lovely copses, breath taking wide open spaces, and a hidden picture of South Oxhey beauty, that has probably been deliberately hidden.

I am a grey haired old man now, but when I squeezed my eyes I could see it all. All my old friends that I had the pleasure, and honour, of growing up with, running through endless woods with a stitch in my side, always laughing. South Oxhey has always been a very proud place and each and everyone that lives their now or in ‘The old day’s’ has the right to be proud as South Oxhey has always had to fight for itself. It was never given much help because ‘outsiders’ were always seen with a hint of suspicion.

I felt that suspicion yesterday, not by the residents as they were warm and friendly.

The suspicion was for the local authorities and the assets South Oxhey has.

The place is a goldmine for new people moving to South Oxhey because of its obvious location, then my mind began to wander:

Is it just by chance a community that has always had work and good commerce in the past suddenly starts to lose the shopping areas and local jobs. I thought to myself that how can a, once self sufficient community die, right before my eyes.

But then it came to me that if faceless bureaucrats saw the place as we do, they might think it a clever idea to run down one of the most potentially prosperous area in North London. And if a few of them may have thought, that if we could get rid of the people living there away, at least from the station, it would be the biggest lottery win England have ever know.

How is it that not too many years ago, St. Andrews Road was heaving with shoppers and their children just a few years ago, what happened to change all that.

It used to be an old trick the used in London to release prime land and bring in others with better paid jobs and create a new economy.

But that would force all the long standing residents out. Sell houses at prices only people with high paying jobs from Inner London could afford.

To do this successfully all the Secondary schools would have to be demolished, in case education raised it’s head in South Oxhey once again.

But all that could never happen!

Could it?

This page was added on 11/02/2016.

Comments about this page

  • Unfortunately, yes it has happened.
    I always loved living there, but when I do go back to visit, I find myself no longer loving the way it made me feel, instead, I can no longer wait to go back home. It isn’t ‘home’ anymore. I still have all those beautiful memories from my childhood (80s for me) but it’s really not a very nice place anymore.

    By Lucy goosey (13/11/2021)

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