Donald Finn - Memories of Croxley Green
Recorded 30th November 2015
Recorded 30th November 2015
Interviewer: Right, now would you like to tell me your name?
Interviewee: Donald Finn.
Int: and the place and date of birth?
DF: In Winton Drive; I was born at home in Croxley Green.
And your father?
DF: Aubrey Finn. And he worked for Mackay Transport. Mum was a housewife.
And did they both come from Croxley?
DF: No. Dad was born in Kent, but moved up to West Watford with his family because my grandfather was the miller for Grove Mill and my mum met when she was a bridesmaid at her cousin’s wedding, just along from my Granny’s place in Belgrave Avenue and that’s where Mum and Dad met.
So they were in Croxley Green for …?
DF: Oh, apart from – they came back from Bexhill and went to Kingswood and from Kingswood we moved back to Croxley and Dad had the two houses in Winton Drive and I started secondary school, Leggatts Way, and then of course I transferred to Durrants when we came back to Croxley. But my original school was the Scouts Hall on Watford Road and then I went from there to Old Boys. And then we moved to Bexhill on Sea and so …
So the school – the Scouts Hut – was that a temporary ..?
DF: It was during the Second World War, so we used to have our school meals round St. Oswald’s Church Hall, before it became a proper church, but then other times I probably used to eat in the British Restaurant in Winton Drive because my Auntie was a cook there.
Can you tell me a bit more about the British Restaurant?
DF: Yes, my Auntie Doris was one of the cooks there and Mrs Hamling used to sit behind the desk and take the money. I was at school with her son John, he’s not around any more unfortunately, neither is Mrs. Hamling. And when it closed down it became the National Association of Boys Clubs venue, so there was a couple of nights a week, went in there, the old bar skittles, table tennis, darts, things like that, you know. Though all of the kitchen stuff was still in there. And we could only use the hot water for making tea.
And what age would you have been then, when you …
DF: I’d just come back from Kingswood so I would have been about 11, 12. Because I went into Durrants from Leggatts Way, and I left Durrants in 1953, when I was 15.
So thinking about your childhood – what was the house like that you lived in with your parents?
DF: It was quite big, three bedroom semi-detached, Tudor style, shared driveway, garage. Couple of fruit trees in the back garden. Dad was away a lot during the war, because he was a lorry driver, and there was just Mum and me, and then we had a cousin of hers had the small back bedroom, with her son Peter because Uncle Charlie was in the Forces. And my Auntie Mary and Auntie Doris, they had the large back bedroom. Auntie Mary was a clippie on the buses and Auntie Doris worked in the British Restaurant. So it was quite tight knit, really.
Yes. Quite a lot of family around, then?
DF: Yes. Gran and Grandad they were in Belgrave Avenue, you know. And Uncle Alec, their eldest son, he lived in Chester Road. Uncle Jack was in the army. He married a Dorrofield.
That’s a local name.
DF: Local family. They lived on the Watford Road, just up from the Scouts Hall, just up from the British Legion. And he worked at Mackay Transport as well.
Were they a big employer?
DF: I think so at one time. I think they must have had at least twenty lorries, I’m not sure. They used to have a yard directly opposite the Sun Printers. Then they moved from there round to King’s Avenue, I think, round off the Ricky Road. And from there they had a purpose built place in Colonial Way. And old Mr. Mackay passed away. His son in law took it over – Dick Miller – and then when he went the twins took it over - Peter and Paul. And it no longer exists. All these big transport companies came along and that was it.
So you had quite a lot of family around? So how did you used to celebrate? What did you do for birthdays and Christmas? You know – did you have all the family around?
DF: Well, not really – not in the first part, because it was during the war. But later on when we moved back to Croxley into 35, my Mum’s second oldest brother, he came to live with us supposedly for a few months till he got settled, and he was with us for I think it was fifty years. And then
Did that work out all right?
DF: Oh yes, Uncle Ted, yes. He and I worked down at Sun Printers at one time. But then their younger brother, he worked for – Marconi’s, I think it was. But he moved from Bishop’s Stortford into Croxley and all the family used to go round there at Christmas, throw a party, so Mum’s other sister, Auntie Betty and her husband and their children would come down from Highgate or South .. later on. The other brother, Harry, would come down from Coventry – there’d be the whole family in there, you know. That was about the only big get together we used to have.
Going back to education – how did you get to school? You walked?
DF: Walked, yes.
How many classes did they have in the schools?
DF: I can remember classrooms. One in the lower corridor …
And which school was that?
DF: Durrants. The Scouts Hall and Old Boys – the Old Boys one was divided, it had a dividing foldaway wall. But the Scouts Hall was just open plan, like it is now. Miss Curtis was the Headmistress. She lived in Valley Walk.
And what was she like?
DF: Very nice, very nice lady, yes. But Durrants – you came in off the playground and if you went and turned left, you entered the old gymnasium, turn right you had cloakrooms on the left hand side. And there were classrooms in there, and then you passed the teachers’ common room. Mr Jefferies’ office, and then you had his wife’s classroom – she taught Music and Religious Instruction. I can’t remember what the next one was, but straight in front of you was what they called the Flat, that’s where they used to teach the girls Domestic Science. And then you came round the corner and you had the Science place – I can’t think what the other one was. But upstairs you had – you went up the stairs and you turned left, you had Mr (Fones) who taught History, then Miss Bishop taught English, Madame Meyer taught French obviously, Miss Slight – I forget what she used to do in there – but Mr Beer was the Art Teacher and Miss Slight’s other classroom, where she taught – I think it was Needlework and commercial stuff. Then you came down. And then there was the Huts, where you had the Metalwork and the Woodwork, on the left, which now backs on to Owen’s Way, that was there. But on the other side was a bit of a sports field. You had one, two – I think you had about four more classrooms in huts, that’s why they were called Huts, obviously. And then just beyond that was the cookhouse and the dining room. And the top gates took you out as if you were going out into Old Merchant Taylor’s place.
What did you like about school?
DF: History, Geography – I didn’t like football and cricket – I preferred cricket to football. I preferred the gym, in there. And we used to do a bit of long distance running. Maths I could never get on with.
And what did you dislike about schoolwork?
DF: Not much really. Made some good friends – not many around now because they nearly all moved away. You know, so …
You told me earlier that you moved away for a little while.
DF: Yes, well, we came back and I left Durrants in the Christmas 53, and I started down at the Sun Printers in the January 54. I got an apprenticeship there. Then I got called up to be a National Savage (sic) – so that was two years. Came back, went down the Sun, finished my time, got fed up with it and went back in the army for another twelve years. Went all round the world. My first posting was Kensington! It was a good life. Then I – I’ve got a question here (long pause) ‘my first job was Sun Printers – what was my first pay packet?’ Nineteen and sixpence a week. ‘What did you do in your spare time?’ I used to read an awful lot, or go to the cinema.
Where was the cinema?
DF: Well, any from one, two, three, four, five in Watford – the Gaumont, the Carlton, the Regal, the Empire.
So your leisure you spent quite a lot of time reading or going to the cinema?
DF: Yes. Or we used to – when we were still at school, lark around in the woods and that, you know, go chestnutting, when it was the season. But prior to them building Malvern Way School we used to play in what was called the Spinney, a little open ground.
So what about – you know – meeting up with your future wife, when did that happen?
DF: That happened in 1972, and it was in Hong Kong. And she was married to my friend, but she got there on the Thursday, he got made up to sergeant the following Thursday to join me in the sergeants’ mess and he was dead the following Thursday. And then Stella went back to Belfast where she came from, and I met up with her again eighteen months later and we were married within about three months, four months, something like that. And – we got married in February 1974, and
Where did you get married?
DF: In Belfast, in her Mum’s living room. Seriously, yes! Well, the Troubles were on and it was a bit iffy going to churches and that, you know. And I came out of the army at the end of 74 and I moved back into the house I was born in because I bought it off my Dad in 62, and
So you always intended to come back to Croxley Green?
DF: Oh yes, yes, yes. My sister, she moved away but she came back to Croxley and now she’s moved up to Yorkshire, but my other sister, she wanted to come back to Croxley but instead of that she lives in Abbots Langley, about six months of the year. The other time she’s in France. ‘What is your favourite memory or place in Croxley?’ I suppose Croxley Woods or Whippendell Woods or Barton Way Recreation Ground. I didn’t go to church here so much but I was a choirboy when I was in Bexhill and I was a choirboy when I was in Kingswood.
But religion didn’t play a big part in your life in Croxley Green? You didn’t go to any particular church then?
DF: I used to go to Sunday School round at St Oswald’s and I’ve still got some of the – the little book where you get the stamps commemorating the different events, you know. So – my wife was religious, she used to go to the Mission on Vicarage Road, West Watford, Christian Fellowship. Yes, and I can remember the Coronation, because my uncle took me up there the day before the Coronation because a friend of the family was a Royal Quartermaster, lived in the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace. And yes, I do remember World War Two. When the landmine hit the church and what is now Costcutters. And then I always remember the doodlebugs going over, and my next door neighbour – I’d come up to Croxley Met Station to meet my grandfather, and Hedley Thomas came up on his bike and took me home in rather a hurry (laughs).
So it was quite an impact, the war in Croxley Green?
DF: Yes, my Dad was away most of the time because his eyesight wasn’t very good, so he was medically downgraded and by the time they were accepting his medical things he was learning, or teaching drivers to drive what was known as Queen Marys, they used to carry aircraft brains, wings, bodies – things like that – and so he got a reserved occupation by then, and – but he could go away on say a Friday night and we wouldn’t see him for about another five weeks. It was a bit hairy, but we had good neighbours. Funnily enough, one of them was mentioned in here (looks through something, long pause) Hardware and Do-It-Yourself. Maclean, 143 New Road. And I think that was one of the Macleans who lived across the road from us in Winton Drive, there was a family of them, and
I think that shop is a gym now.
DF: Yes, I think he moved from there and they opened up a glassware shop on the parade of shops by Sycamore Avenue, round there.
Thinking about shops, of course Croxley Green has changed a lot. At one time you could probably get everything you needed in Croxley Green – not quite the case now. Can you remember what shops did you used to use?
DF: Busy Bee I can remember. The banks, because they’d started in Watford when Dad lived in Belgrave, we always used to use what became the Nat West, on the corner, which is now a pub. Butchers was Gadsden’s, chemist was Wymans because we’d always been in the doctor’s at the top of Baldwins Lane, when it was Doctor Ferguson. Cleaners – no, because Auntie Iris and Auntie Marjorie, the Dorrofields, worked at Croxley Laundry before it burned down and then opened up their laundry at the bottom of Scots Hill, a family one.
Where was Croxley Laundry?
DF: Before it burned down I think it was where High Rise Scaffolding used to be, which has just closed down and they are building the new houses there.
So a bit off New Road, then – towards the Green end of New Road.
DF: Yes. It backed on to Dickinson’s Guild of Sport. Clocks and watches again because Dad lived in West Watford we used to use, I think it was Kings in Market Street, opposite what was then the Post Office. Clothing usually LCS. Confectionary and tobacco and newsagents – well, the one we used to use was Standen’s.
And where were they?
DF: Where Croxley Antiques are, on the corner of Winton Approach. And Radio Renters, up near Penney’s, wasn’t it? Freddy’s – because the lady I worked with used to do part time work there.
What was that?
DF: Freddy’s fish and chip shop. Footwear was LCS or Wright’s. Fuel was Eric Simmonds, he was a foreigner – came from Maple Cross! Furniture, before Penney’s came on the scene it obviously came from Watford somewhere. But later on we did have furniture from Penney’s.
And they are still going, aren’t they, Penney’s?
DF: Yes. Garden – I don’t know, because my Auntie Doris used to do all the gardening. Greengrocers. Used to be Pike’s Stores, next door to Standen’s, where the tattoo parlour is. There was a grocer’s and greengrocer’s, you know.
And where would you get your hair cut, for example?
DF: Ch[…] Evans, Idris, in New Road. It’s where the bay window cottages are, just before you get to the Fox. And hairdressers, Mum used to go down into Ricky because my sister worked in one down there, in Church Street. As I say, I think it was MacLean’s, or Carr’s, different bits and pieces. I think that’s the one that used to be next door to the Fox and Hounds.
Our launderette, yes.
DF: Petrol is Fisher’s or the one down the bottom by the railway bridge, where Croxley Car Centre is now. […] opposite the Red House. And wines – I take it that means wines and beer?
Yes.
DF: That’s where […] Dad drinks. Before they widened the road, where you go over the canal bridge, there was a pub there called the Halfway House. Then they built the Two Bridges, so it was handy from when Dad used to park up in the Bridges on his way up to walk up Winton Drive.
And that was where your father used to go – the Halfway House?
DF: Yes, and that was where I used to drink as well, because it was at that end of the village, you see.
And when that went, where would you go then?
DF: Well, when the Halfway House went, it was the Two Bridges, which is now the Harvester. But the few times he was able to take us out, when he was home, we’d walk up through Dickinson’s Alleyway, back of the Guild of Sport, have a drink in the Coach and Horses, down to the Artichoke, then down to the Fox and Hounds, then the Red House and then home. And that was the circuit.
Don, is there anything particular that you find quite striking, you know, about coming from Croxley Green and living in Croxley Green for a long period of time?
DF: I think it’s the people that have moved into the area and you ask them why and they say ‘because it’s so peaceful and quiet’. And when you think about it, it is really. Not an awful lot of crime.
[brief chat with waitress about clinking glasses]
And as I say, my Mum always wanted to come back here, it’s one of those places.
She missed it when she moved away?
DF: Oh yes, yes, yes. She moved – they moved away when I came back out of the army, because my youngest sister took the house over in Winton Drive, the other house, and they moved down to the Isle of Sheppey, to a bungalow that Dad had bought with the money I’d paid for 66 Winton Drive. But then my other sister, her husband got promoted and instead of working in Tonbridge, London, was working in London Stevenage. So it left Mum and Dad out on a limb down in Sheppey, so they moved up to Flitwick, and then they electrified what was known as the Bedpan Line, and made a nice profit on the house in Flitwick and were able to come back and lived in Watford, which was as near as they could get to Croxley, you know. So near the family, because my other sister by this time was back in Croxley. Hazel was in Abbots Langley, I was in my place, so it worked out well in that respect, you know.
What did your wife think of Croxley Green when she moved here, because it must have been different for her, coming from Ireland?
DF: Oh yes. Well, she lived here longer than what she did in Northern Ireland, because she’d just turned 25 when we got married, because I was ten years older than her, and we were married for 38 years, before she passed away. Yes. She loved Croxley. She tried different churches. She tried St Oswald’s, couldn’t get on with that. She tried – I think she tried the Baptist Church, that’s the one in New Road, isn’t it?
No, Methodist in New Road.
DF: Methodist. I always get mixed up.
Baptist in Baldwins Lane.
DF: And then she met one of the ladies at Watford General Hospital, because that’s where she worked at one time, and she said ‘oh, come to our little church’ and it was the Mission, and she left there for about four months and went to the – it’s the first church in St. Albans Road, past Leavesden Road, on the left. I can’t think what it is. Anyway, she left there and came back to the Mission and then it was there that a lady and her husband there who lived in Maple Cross started a thing whereby they were supporting an orphanage and a home for mentally and physically handicapped people in India, and that’s where we’ve been going ever since – Stell went out there several times in twenty odd years. I was out there in March.
You go out there regularly?
DF: Well, I’m going out there again in March. See how I get on.
Anything else on Croxley Green?
DF: Some nice people live in Croxley.
Don, thank you very much for your memories.
Interviewee: Donald Finn.
Int: and the place and date of birth?
DF: In Winton Drive; I was born at home in Croxley Green.
And your father?
DF: Aubrey Finn. And he worked for Mackay Transport. Mum was a housewife.
And did they both come from Croxley?
DF: No. Dad was born in Kent, but moved up to West Watford with his family because my grandfather was the miller for Grove Mill and my mum met when she was a bridesmaid at her cousin’s wedding, just along from my Granny’s place in Belgrave Avenue and that’s where Mum and Dad met.
So they were in Croxley Green for …?
DF: Oh, apart from – they came back from Bexhill and went to Kingswood and from Kingswood we moved back to Croxley and Dad had the two houses in Winton Drive and I started secondary school, Leggatts Way, and then of course I transferred to Durrants when we came back to Croxley. But my original school was the Scouts Hall on Watford Road and then I went from there to Old Boys. And then we moved to Bexhill on Sea and so …
So the school – the Scouts Hut – was that a temporary ..?
DF: It was during the Second World War, so we used to have our school meals round St. Oswald’s Church Hall, before it became a proper church, but then other times I probably used to eat in the British Restaurant in Winton Drive because my Auntie was a cook there.
Can you tell me a bit more about the British Restaurant?
DF: Yes, my Auntie Doris was one of the cooks there and Mrs Hamling used to sit behind the desk and take the money. I was at school with her son John, he’s not around any more unfortunately, neither is Mrs. Hamling. And when it closed down it became the National Association of Boys Clubs venue, so there was a couple of nights a week, went in there, the old bar skittles, table tennis, darts, things like that, you know. Though all of the kitchen stuff was still in there. And we could only use the hot water for making tea.
And what age would you have been then, when you …
DF: I’d just come back from Kingswood so I would have been about 11, 12. Because I went into Durrants from Leggatts Way, and I left Durrants in 1953, when I was 15.
So thinking about your childhood – what was the house like that you lived in with your parents?
DF: It was quite big, three bedroom semi-detached, Tudor style, shared driveway, garage. Couple of fruit trees in the back garden. Dad was away a lot during the war, because he was a lorry driver, and there was just Mum and me, and then we had a cousin of hers had the small back bedroom, with her son Peter because Uncle Charlie was in the Forces. And my Auntie Mary and Auntie Doris, they had the large back bedroom. Auntie Mary was a clippie on the buses and Auntie Doris worked in the British Restaurant. So it was quite tight knit, really.
Yes. Quite a lot of family around, then?
DF: Yes. Gran and Grandad they were in Belgrave Avenue, you know. And Uncle Alec, their eldest son, he lived in Chester Road. Uncle Jack was in the army. He married a Dorrofield.
That’s a local name.
DF: Local family. They lived on the Watford Road, just up from the Scouts Hall, just up from the British Legion. And he worked at Mackay Transport as well.
Were they a big employer?
DF: I think so at one time. I think they must have had at least twenty lorries, I’m not sure. They used to have a yard directly opposite the Sun Printers. Then they moved from there round to King’s Avenue, I think, round off the Ricky Road. And from there they had a purpose built place in Colonial Way. And old Mr. Mackay passed away. His son in law took it over – Dick Miller – and then when he went the twins took it over - Peter and Paul. And it no longer exists. All these big transport companies came along and that was it.
So you had quite a lot of family around? So how did you used to celebrate? What did you do for birthdays and Christmas? You know – did you have all the family around?
DF: Well, not really – not in the first part, because it was during the war. But later on when we moved back to Croxley into 35, my Mum’s second oldest brother, he came to live with us supposedly for a few months till he got settled, and he was with us for I think it was fifty years. And then
Did that work out all right?
DF: Oh yes, Uncle Ted, yes. He and I worked down at Sun Printers at one time. But then their younger brother, he worked for – Marconi’s, I think it was. But he moved from Bishop’s Stortford into Croxley and all the family used to go round there at Christmas, throw a party, so Mum’s other sister, Auntie Betty and her husband and their children would come down from Highgate or South .. later on. The other brother, Harry, would come down from Coventry – there’d be the whole family in there, you know. That was about the only big get together we used to have.
Going back to education – how did you get to school? You walked?
DF: Walked, yes.
How many classes did they have in the schools?
DF: I can remember classrooms. One in the lower corridor …
And which school was that?
DF: Durrants. The Scouts Hall and Old Boys – the Old Boys one was divided, it had a dividing foldaway wall. But the Scouts Hall was just open plan, like it is now. Miss Curtis was the Headmistress. She lived in Valley Walk.
And what was she like?
DF: Very nice, very nice lady, yes. But Durrants – you came in off the playground and if you went and turned left, you entered the old gymnasium, turn right you had cloakrooms on the left hand side. And there were classrooms in there, and then you passed the teachers’ common room. Mr Jefferies’ office, and then you had his wife’s classroom – she taught Music and Religious Instruction. I can’t remember what the next one was, but straight in front of you was what they called the Flat, that’s where they used to teach the girls Domestic Science. And then you came round the corner and you had the Science place – I can’t think what the other one was. But upstairs you had – you went up the stairs and you turned left, you had Mr (Fones) who taught History, then Miss Bishop taught English, Madame Meyer taught French obviously, Miss Slight – I forget what she used to do in there – but Mr Beer was the Art Teacher and Miss Slight’s other classroom, where she taught – I think it was Needlework and commercial stuff. Then you came down. And then there was the Huts, where you had the Metalwork and the Woodwork, on the left, which now backs on to Owen’s Way, that was there. But on the other side was a bit of a sports field. You had one, two – I think you had about four more classrooms in huts, that’s why they were called Huts, obviously. And then just beyond that was the cookhouse and the dining room. And the top gates took you out as if you were going out into Old Merchant Taylor’s place.
What did you like about school?
DF: History, Geography – I didn’t like football and cricket – I preferred cricket to football. I preferred the gym, in there. And we used to do a bit of long distance running. Maths I could never get on with.
And what did you dislike about schoolwork?
DF: Not much really. Made some good friends – not many around now because they nearly all moved away. You know, so …
You told me earlier that you moved away for a little while.
DF: Yes, well, we came back and I left Durrants in the Christmas 53, and I started down at the Sun Printers in the January 54. I got an apprenticeship there. Then I got called up to be a National Savage (sic) – so that was two years. Came back, went down the Sun, finished my time, got fed up with it and went back in the army for another twelve years. Went all round the world. My first posting was Kensington! It was a good life. Then I – I’ve got a question here (long pause) ‘my first job was Sun Printers – what was my first pay packet?’ Nineteen and sixpence a week. ‘What did you do in your spare time?’ I used to read an awful lot, or go to the cinema.
Where was the cinema?
DF: Well, any from one, two, three, four, five in Watford – the Gaumont, the Carlton, the Regal, the Empire.
So your leisure you spent quite a lot of time reading or going to the cinema?
DF: Yes. Or we used to – when we were still at school, lark around in the woods and that, you know, go chestnutting, when it was the season. But prior to them building Malvern Way School we used to play in what was called the Spinney, a little open ground.
So what about – you know – meeting up with your future wife, when did that happen?
DF: That happened in 1972, and it was in Hong Kong. And she was married to my friend, but she got there on the Thursday, he got made up to sergeant the following Thursday to join me in the sergeants’ mess and he was dead the following Thursday. And then Stella went back to Belfast where she came from, and I met up with her again eighteen months later and we were married within about three months, four months, something like that. And – we got married in February 1974, and
Where did you get married?
DF: In Belfast, in her Mum’s living room. Seriously, yes! Well, the Troubles were on and it was a bit iffy going to churches and that, you know. And I came out of the army at the end of 74 and I moved back into the house I was born in because I bought it off my Dad in 62, and
So you always intended to come back to Croxley Green?
DF: Oh yes, yes, yes. My sister, she moved away but she came back to Croxley and now she’s moved up to Yorkshire, but my other sister, she wanted to come back to Croxley but instead of that she lives in Abbots Langley, about six months of the year. The other time she’s in France. ‘What is your favourite memory or place in Croxley?’ I suppose Croxley Woods or Whippendell Woods or Barton Way Recreation Ground. I didn’t go to church here so much but I was a choirboy when I was in Bexhill and I was a choirboy when I was in Kingswood.
But religion didn’t play a big part in your life in Croxley Green? You didn’t go to any particular church then?
DF: I used to go to Sunday School round at St Oswald’s and I’ve still got some of the – the little book where you get the stamps commemorating the different events, you know. So – my wife was religious, she used to go to the Mission on Vicarage Road, West Watford, Christian Fellowship. Yes, and I can remember the Coronation, because my uncle took me up there the day before the Coronation because a friend of the family was a Royal Quartermaster, lived in the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace. And yes, I do remember World War Two. When the landmine hit the church and what is now Costcutters. And then I always remember the doodlebugs going over, and my next door neighbour – I’d come up to Croxley Met Station to meet my grandfather, and Hedley Thomas came up on his bike and took me home in rather a hurry (laughs).
So it was quite an impact, the war in Croxley Green?
DF: Yes, my Dad was away most of the time because his eyesight wasn’t very good, so he was medically downgraded and by the time they were accepting his medical things he was learning, or teaching drivers to drive what was known as Queen Marys, they used to carry aircraft brains, wings, bodies – things like that – and so he got a reserved occupation by then, and – but he could go away on say a Friday night and we wouldn’t see him for about another five weeks. It was a bit hairy, but we had good neighbours. Funnily enough, one of them was mentioned in here (looks through something, long pause) Hardware and Do-It-Yourself. Maclean, 143 New Road. And I think that was one of the Macleans who lived across the road from us in Winton Drive, there was a family of them, and
I think that shop is a gym now.
DF: Yes, I think he moved from there and they opened up a glassware shop on the parade of shops by Sycamore Avenue, round there.
Thinking about shops, of course Croxley Green has changed a lot. At one time you could probably get everything you needed in Croxley Green – not quite the case now. Can you remember what shops did you used to use?
DF: Busy Bee I can remember. The banks, because they’d started in Watford when Dad lived in Belgrave, we always used to use what became the Nat West, on the corner, which is now a pub. Butchers was Gadsden’s, chemist was Wymans because we’d always been in the doctor’s at the top of Baldwins Lane, when it was Doctor Ferguson. Cleaners – no, because Auntie Iris and Auntie Marjorie, the Dorrofields, worked at Croxley Laundry before it burned down and then opened up their laundry at the bottom of Scots Hill, a family one.
Where was Croxley Laundry?
DF: Before it burned down I think it was where High Rise Scaffolding used to be, which has just closed down and they are building the new houses there.
So a bit off New Road, then – towards the Green end of New Road.
DF: Yes. It backed on to Dickinson’s Guild of Sport. Clocks and watches again because Dad lived in West Watford we used to use, I think it was Kings in Market Street, opposite what was then the Post Office. Clothing usually LCS. Confectionary and tobacco and newsagents – well, the one we used to use was Standen’s.
And where were they?
DF: Where Croxley Antiques are, on the corner of Winton Approach. And Radio Renters, up near Penney’s, wasn’t it? Freddy’s – because the lady I worked with used to do part time work there.
What was that?
DF: Freddy’s fish and chip shop. Footwear was LCS or Wright’s. Fuel was Eric Simmonds, he was a foreigner – came from Maple Cross! Furniture, before Penney’s came on the scene it obviously came from Watford somewhere. But later on we did have furniture from Penney’s.
And they are still going, aren’t they, Penney’s?
DF: Yes. Garden – I don’t know, because my Auntie Doris used to do all the gardening. Greengrocers. Used to be Pike’s Stores, next door to Standen’s, where the tattoo parlour is. There was a grocer’s and greengrocer’s, you know.
And where would you get your hair cut, for example?
DF: Ch[…] Evans, Idris, in New Road. It’s where the bay window cottages are, just before you get to the Fox. And hairdressers, Mum used to go down into Ricky because my sister worked in one down there, in Church Street. As I say, I think it was MacLean’s, or Carr’s, different bits and pieces. I think that’s the one that used to be next door to the Fox and Hounds.
Our launderette, yes.
DF: Petrol is Fisher’s or the one down the bottom by the railway bridge, where Croxley Car Centre is now. […] opposite the Red House. And wines – I take it that means wines and beer?
Yes.
DF: That’s where […] Dad drinks. Before they widened the road, where you go over the canal bridge, there was a pub there called the Halfway House. Then they built the Two Bridges, so it was handy from when Dad used to park up in the Bridges on his way up to walk up Winton Drive.
And that was where your father used to go – the Halfway House?
DF: Yes, and that was where I used to drink as well, because it was at that end of the village, you see.
And when that went, where would you go then?
DF: Well, when the Halfway House went, it was the Two Bridges, which is now the Harvester. But the few times he was able to take us out, when he was home, we’d walk up through Dickinson’s Alleyway, back of the Guild of Sport, have a drink in the Coach and Horses, down to the Artichoke, then down to the Fox and Hounds, then the Red House and then home. And that was the circuit.
Don, is there anything particular that you find quite striking, you know, about coming from Croxley Green and living in Croxley Green for a long period of time?
DF: I think it’s the people that have moved into the area and you ask them why and they say ‘because it’s so peaceful and quiet’. And when you think about it, it is really. Not an awful lot of crime.
[brief chat with waitress about clinking glasses]
And as I say, my Mum always wanted to come back here, it’s one of those places.
She missed it when she moved away?
DF: Oh yes, yes, yes. She moved – they moved away when I came back out of the army, because my youngest sister took the house over in Winton Drive, the other house, and they moved down to the Isle of Sheppey, to a bungalow that Dad had bought with the money I’d paid for 66 Winton Drive. But then my other sister, her husband got promoted and instead of working in Tonbridge, London, was working in London Stevenage. So it left Mum and Dad out on a limb down in Sheppey, so they moved up to Flitwick, and then they electrified what was known as the Bedpan Line, and made a nice profit on the house in Flitwick and were able to come back and lived in Watford, which was as near as they could get to Croxley, you know. So near the family, because my other sister by this time was back in Croxley. Hazel was in Abbots Langley, I was in my place, so it worked out well in that respect, you know.
What did your wife think of Croxley Green when she moved here, because it must have been different for her, coming from Ireland?
DF: Oh yes. Well, she lived here longer than what she did in Northern Ireland, because she’d just turned 25 when we got married, because I was ten years older than her, and we were married for 38 years, before she passed away. Yes. She loved Croxley. She tried different churches. She tried St Oswald’s, couldn’t get on with that. She tried – I think she tried the Baptist Church, that’s the one in New Road, isn’t it?
No, Methodist in New Road.
DF: Methodist. I always get mixed up.
Baptist in Baldwins Lane.
DF: And then she met one of the ladies at Watford General Hospital, because that’s where she worked at one time, and she said ‘oh, come to our little church’ and it was the Mission, and she left there for about four months and went to the – it’s the first church in St. Albans Road, past Leavesden Road, on the left. I can’t think what it is. Anyway, she left there and came back to the Mission and then it was there that a lady and her husband there who lived in Maple Cross started a thing whereby they were supporting an orphanage and a home for mentally and physically handicapped people in India, and that’s where we’ve been going ever since – Stell went out there several times in twenty odd years. I was out there in March.
You go out there regularly?
DF: Well, I’m going out there again in March. See how I get on.
Anything else on Croxley Green?
DF: Some nice people live in Croxley.
Don, thank you very much for your memories.
