Pat Benning - Memories of Croxley Green
Recorded 2nd April 2023
Recorded 2nd April 2023
Int: Thanks for agreeing to the recording.
PB: I’m Pat and I was born in 1939.
Int: What are your earliest memories of Croxley when you were young?
PB: Croxley Green – now, let’s think – I can remember as a small child I had whooping cough and congestion of the lungs and at that time, although we had an air raid shelter in the garden, we also had what they called an Andersen Shelter in our front room, a cast iron thing for Mum and Dad and my elder sister and myself to sleep in, and I can remember Dr. Ferguson, who was our doctor then, and the surgery in those days was on the corner of Durrants Drive and Baldwins Lane, just a house, and another doctor, Dr. Pitt. Anyway, I can remember Dr. Ferguson coming to see me when I was poorly, and there was a little pot of sweets on top of the shelter roof, and he said to my mum “Mummy, I’m having one of these” and he took a sweet. (laughter). But as regards the air raid shelter in the garden, it wasn’t until my sister and I were older and that was our den and we would play down there and have clubs and that sort of thing, which was always great fun. Yes, it was built by my Dad and my Grandad Hill – my maiden name is Hill – anyway. Yes, we also played in the street, but you don’t today, but we used to play Please Mr. Fisherman, may I cross the water and have skipping and having runs round the block from Claremont Crescent round to Winton Drive, Girton Way. Yes. Good times.
Int: And where did your father work?
PB: My father – well, originally he was a plumber, but then he went to Wembley and worked up at Wembley – what was he known as? A maintenance engineer at that time. Would you believe it, sometimes he would ride his bike to Wembley! Before going on the train, you know. And my Mum’s a Croxley person, she – and my great grandparents were all in New Road.
Int: So, generations of Croxley born.
PB: Yes, I can remember my Grandma-great as we called her. I don’t remember the great grandfather, but I can remember they lived at 123 New Road. I can’t remember how many children they had, but obviously my grandfather, always Grampy Beament – yes – oh, and Auntie Elsie, I can remember – Great Auntie Elsie, of course – I can remember her, but the others I can’t remember.
Int: They must have been here in the First World War?
PB: Yes. I’ve got pictures of the First – two great uncles were in the First World War, obviously Grampy’s brothers, sadly one didn’t come home. And then in the Second World War my uncle Jess, another two uncles, they were in the army together and one came home and one didn’t, but both their names are on the memorial on the Green.
(You can see their WW1 Memorial page HERE)
PB: I’m Pat and I was born in 1939.
Int: What are your earliest memories of Croxley when you were young?
PB: Croxley Green – now, let’s think – I can remember as a small child I had whooping cough and congestion of the lungs and at that time, although we had an air raid shelter in the garden, we also had what they called an Andersen Shelter in our front room, a cast iron thing for Mum and Dad and my elder sister and myself to sleep in, and I can remember Dr. Ferguson, who was our doctor then, and the surgery in those days was on the corner of Durrants Drive and Baldwins Lane, just a house, and another doctor, Dr. Pitt. Anyway, I can remember Dr. Ferguson coming to see me when I was poorly, and there was a little pot of sweets on top of the shelter roof, and he said to my mum “Mummy, I’m having one of these” and he took a sweet. (laughter). But as regards the air raid shelter in the garden, it wasn’t until my sister and I were older and that was our den and we would play down there and have clubs and that sort of thing, which was always great fun. Yes, it was built by my Dad and my Grandad Hill – my maiden name is Hill – anyway. Yes, we also played in the street, but you don’t today, but we used to play Please Mr. Fisherman, may I cross the water and have skipping and having runs round the block from Claremont Crescent round to Winton Drive, Girton Way. Yes. Good times.
Int: And where did your father work?
PB: My father – well, originally he was a plumber, but then he went to Wembley and worked up at Wembley – what was he known as? A maintenance engineer at that time. Would you believe it, sometimes he would ride his bike to Wembley! Before going on the train, you know. And my Mum’s a Croxley person, she – and my great grandparents were all in New Road.
Int: So, generations of Croxley born.
PB: Yes, I can remember my Grandma-great as we called her. I don’t remember the great grandfather, but I can remember they lived at 123 New Road. I can’t remember how many children they had, but obviously my grandfather, always Grampy Beament – yes – oh, and Auntie Elsie, I can remember – Great Auntie Elsie, of course – I can remember her, but the others I can’t remember.
Int: They must have been here in the First World War?
PB: Yes. I’ve got pictures of the First – two great uncles were in the First World War, obviously Grampy’s brothers, sadly one didn’t come home. And then in the Second World War my uncle Jess, another two uncles, they were in the army together and one came home and one didn’t, but both their names are on the memorial on the Green.
(You can see their WW1 Memorial page HERE)
Int: So you were obviously very young in the Second World War. But you would have started school in the mid-forties then?
PB: Yes, about 1944 I suppose, something like that. And my first school was, would you believe it, the Scouts Hut in Watford Road, just across the road from Valley Walk, and we had a lovely teacher called Miss Curtis. I can remember we used to have to hold a clean handkerchief up in the morning and some didn’t have a handkerchief, but they might have a sweet wrapper! Silly things you can remember! And also she had a relative in Canada who used to send sweets over and she’d have this container on her desk, a papier mâché type of container and if you were very good and well behaved she might give you a sweet. But she was a really lovely lady. From there the next school I think we did – in the Institute, that was just the big hall itself, and one end was a classroom and the other end was a playground, and so many children there. I don’t think that lasted all that long before we went to – or I went, and othe children obviously, to Watford Road, to the Old Boys School, which is no longer there. I can remember – oh, the toilets were outside and I can remember the milk crate in the winter would be put on top of the burner to warm it up, and you’d see the ice – the milk top kind of rising up where the ice was coming up, getting warm! And from that school I went to Harvey Road, never to Yorke Road, and also St. Oswald’s church, that was before the hall was built. My sister went there, a classroom there. Yes, to Harvey Road until 1949. Miss Cooper there, the Headmistress. And Little Green Lane was opened in that year, 1949 wasn’t it, so I went there as a ten year old for the last year at junior school and then on to Durrants.
Int: Why did you end up moving from Harvey Road to Little Green?
PB: Well, I think it just seemed to be the children the other side of Watford Road stayed at Harvey Road, but the children this side of Watford Road went to Little Green.
Int: There were a lot of evacuees here weren’t there?
PB: Well there were, but you know I can remember we had evacuees at home but they were only babies, never children that would be of school age.
Int: So you remember your mum looking after evacuee babies?
PB: Oh yes, yes. Well, the mothers would come, there was a Mrs. [Tow] and her son. In fact it was only just before Covid, because I was born in Claremont Crescent, there was something going on about people parking in Clarement Crescent, and you know, ambulance wouldn’t get by, or the fire engine, and I just answered back ‘no cars in Claremont Crescent when I lived’. I must have said the number as well. Anyway, somebody got back to me, because I always wanted to go back to see what it was like now. And yes, and I went and met this family with two small children that lived in my old house and see all the changes. Yes, it was nice.
Int: So then you went on to Durrants?
PB: I went on to Durrants.
Int: Happy memories?
PB: Yes. Well, I always loved school, I really did, but I’m sad to say I’m not academic whatsoever! But there we go.
Int: What did you like doing in your spare time? How did you amuse yourself?
PB: Well, as children we would play over Barton Way Recreation Ground. Everybody calls the Rec, the Park now, and the same up Baldwins Lane – the Park. No – it’s the Rec! Can’t get used to calling it a park. But, yes, school summer holidays, you know, always good times. Happy childhood. Lovely.
Int: Do you remember any favourite teachers from either Harvey Road or Durrants?
PB: Oh – Harvey Road. There was a Miss [Iles] at Harvey Road; Miss Cooper – I think was she Yorke Road and Harvey Road? I think, I’m not sure.
Int: I think so.
PB: Yes. Not so many teachers there. Little Green, it was mistresses – Mr. Worthy was the Headmaster and Mrs. Worthy. And also a brother and sister were schoolteachers there – names gone! I can see their faces but I can’t – their names have gone. But they were always very nice, and yes – lots and lots of nice teachers, and the same at Durrants, and in fact the PE teacher – I met a lifelong friend at ten years old at Little Green - and she used to call us ‘eggs and bacon’ because we were always together! (laughter)
Int: And leaving school, what did you do when you left school? And how old were you when you left Durrants?
PB: Not very exciting, I’m afraid. I went to work at Peter Lord’s the shoe shop in Watford as it was then, all Clark’s shoes and that. And for my sins, because by Saturday evening after the shop had closed we were having to tear up all the shoe boxes, and I only wanted to get home and have my dinner and go up the Town Hall jiving – although you weren’t supposed to jive. But we did! Yes. From there - I was there about a year I should think, and then I went down to Rickmansworth to Ocean Insurance office and worked down there. Yes.
Int: So you liked going dancing and jiving – what else? Was there anything like that to do in Croxley or could you only go jiving in Watford or Rickmansworth?
PB: Well, no. Actually my auntie and uncle that lived in New Road – Dick and Auntie Ethel Lovett – they used to run old time dancing at the Guildhouse, the Institute, and Mum and Dad loved dancing and my sister and I would go there. I mean we were only children, not that tiny obviously, but – yes, and my cousin Barbara and a friend who’s coming tomorrow actually, she used to come as well, used to have some nice dances there. Old time dancing.
Int: What do you mean by old time dancing? Waltzes, quickstep?
PB: What they call modern dancing you see – the Valetta and the Square Tango and those sort of dances – yes.
Int: And were there a lot of young people, or was that more for the sort of parent crowd?
PB: There was, you know, lots of young girls and fellas and their mums and dads and – yes, it was always good times there. And my dad – he was a keen snooker player up at the Guildhouse, yes.
Int: And what about the Revels? Do you remember the Revels starting or going to the Revels?
PB: I don’t really. But I can always remember Mum saying they danced round the maypole, you know, when she was a youngster, yes. But I can’t remember the schools taking part back then, although there was a club called Greensleeves that was held at Little Green School for many years and my sister and I were on a float one year – it was Royal Ascot. Yes, I remember being in that.
PB: Yes, about 1944 I suppose, something like that. And my first school was, would you believe it, the Scouts Hut in Watford Road, just across the road from Valley Walk, and we had a lovely teacher called Miss Curtis. I can remember we used to have to hold a clean handkerchief up in the morning and some didn’t have a handkerchief, but they might have a sweet wrapper! Silly things you can remember! And also she had a relative in Canada who used to send sweets over and she’d have this container on her desk, a papier mâché type of container and if you were very good and well behaved she might give you a sweet. But she was a really lovely lady. From there the next school I think we did – in the Institute, that was just the big hall itself, and one end was a classroom and the other end was a playground, and so many children there. I don’t think that lasted all that long before we went to – or I went, and othe children obviously, to Watford Road, to the Old Boys School, which is no longer there. I can remember – oh, the toilets were outside and I can remember the milk crate in the winter would be put on top of the burner to warm it up, and you’d see the ice – the milk top kind of rising up where the ice was coming up, getting warm! And from that school I went to Harvey Road, never to Yorke Road, and also St. Oswald’s church, that was before the hall was built. My sister went there, a classroom there. Yes, to Harvey Road until 1949. Miss Cooper there, the Headmistress. And Little Green Lane was opened in that year, 1949 wasn’t it, so I went there as a ten year old for the last year at junior school and then on to Durrants.
Int: Why did you end up moving from Harvey Road to Little Green?
PB: Well, I think it just seemed to be the children the other side of Watford Road stayed at Harvey Road, but the children this side of Watford Road went to Little Green.
Int: There were a lot of evacuees here weren’t there?
PB: Well there were, but you know I can remember we had evacuees at home but they were only babies, never children that would be of school age.
Int: So you remember your mum looking after evacuee babies?
PB: Oh yes, yes. Well, the mothers would come, there was a Mrs. [Tow] and her son. In fact it was only just before Covid, because I was born in Claremont Crescent, there was something going on about people parking in Clarement Crescent, and you know, ambulance wouldn’t get by, or the fire engine, and I just answered back ‘no cars in Claremont Crescent when I lived’. I must have said the number as well. Anyway, somebody got back to me, because I always wanted to go back to see what it was like now. And yes, and I went and met this family with two small children that lived in my old house and see all the changes. Yes, it was nice.
Int: So then you went on to Durrants?
PB: I went on to Durrants.
Int: Happy memories?
PB: Yes. Well, I always loved school, I really did, but I’m sad to say I’m not academic whatsoever! But there we go.
Int: What did you like doing in your spare time? How did you amuse yourself?
PB: Well, as children we would play over Barton Way Recreation Ground. Everybody calls the Rec, the Park now, and the same up Baldwins Lane – the Park. No – it’s the Rec! Can’t get used to calling it a park. But, yes, school summer holidays, you know, always good times. Happy childhood. Lovely.
Int: Do you remember any favourite teachers from either Harvey Road or Durrants?
PB: Oh – Harvey Road. There was a Miss [Iles] at Harvey Road; Miss Cooper – I think was she Yorke Road and Harvey Road? I think, I’m not sure.
Int: I think so.
PB: Yes. Not so many teachers there. Little Green, it was mistresses – Mr. Worthy was the Headmaster and Mrs. Worthy. And also a brother and sister were schoolteachers there – names gone! I can see their faces but I can’t – their names have gone. But they were always very nice, and yes – lots and lots of nice teachers, and the same at Durrants, and in fact the PE teacher – I met a lifelong friend at ten years old at Little Green - and she used to call us ‘eggs and bacon’ because we were always together! (laughter)
Int: And leaving school, what did you do when you left school? And how old were you when you left Durrants?
PB: Not very exciting, I’m afraid. I went to work at Peter Lord’s the shoe shop in Watford as it was then, all Clark’s shoes and that. And for my sins, because by Saturday evening after the shop had closed we were having to tear up all the shoe boxes, and I only wanted to get home and have my dinner and go up the Town Hall jiving – although you weren’t supposed to jive. But we did! Yes. From there - I was there about a year I should think, and then I went down to Rickmansworth to Ocean Insurance office and worked down there. Yes.
Int: So you liked going dancing and jiving – what else? Was there anything like that to do in Croxley or could you only go jiving in Watford or Rickmansworth?
PB: Well, no. Actually my auntie and uncle that lived in New Road – Dick and Auntie Ethel Lovett – they used to run old time dancing at the Guildhouse, the Institute, and Mum and Dad loved dancing and my sister and I would go there. I mean we were only children, not that tiny obviously, but – yes, and my cousin Barbara and a friend who’s coming tomorrow actually, she used to come as well, used to have some nice dances there. Old time dancing.
Int: What do you mean by old time dancing? Waltzes, quickstep?
PB: What they call modern dancing you see – the Valetta and the Square Tango and those sort of dances – yes.
Int: And were there a lot of young people, or was that more for the sort of parent crowd?
PB: There was, you know, lots of young girls and fellas and their mums and dads and – yes, it was always good times there. And my dad – he was a keen snooker player up at the Guildhouse, yes.
Int: And what about the Revels? Do you remember the Revels starting or going to the Revels?
PB: I don’t really. But I can always remember Mum saying they danced round the maypole, you know, when she was a youngster, yes. But I can’t remember the schools taking part back then, although there was a club called Greensleeves that was held at Little Green School for many years and my sister and I were on a float one year – it was Royal Ascot. Yes, I remember being in that.
Int: So your husband was a youth football player in Croxley?
PB: He was, and Croxley Boys, that was run by a man called George Falkner, in Winton Drive, and I don’t know how it came about but as the boys got older they went to Watford Football Club and my late cousin, Roger Beament, he also played, and they went on to Watford and then some carried on, you know, to play for Watford, as my husband did, although my husband he was never a fulltime professional because he was doing an apprenticeship for Odhams, but he was always part time, and a local lad, whereas these days they’re never local boys, are they? You know, come from other countries.
Int: What years did he play for Watford?
PB: Well, luckily, it was the good – well, they always to hark back at those times. Yes, late fifties into 1961, 62, and by then we’d got our first son, yes, in 1961. But it was the year they got promotion from the Fourth Division to the Third Division and – not so much the youngsters now, but the older people they always remember those times for some reason. I’ve got a picture hanging in the hall there.
Int: Did he ever meet Elton John?
PB: No. No! He wasn’t there in Graham Taylor’s time. Actually my eldest son, he was down there for a time when Graham Taylor was there, and yes, then Terry got told that he wouldn’t make it as a professional. Bu he did actually, because he went to Brentford and with another local fella, they used to go together, [Bob Walker], and of course that’s where Bradley Walsh was. So – another local lad as you know.
Int: Was there a strong local kids football team?
PB: Oh yes. And my Dad, my Dad played at Dickinson’s. I’ve got pictures of him in the late 1940s.
Int: So Dickinson’s ran a football team as well?
PB: Mmm, back then, yes, yes.
Int: So could anybody join the Dickinson’s football team if you could play or was it only people from the Mill?
PB: I wouldn’t know, but I can see him now, going off on his bike all in his football kit, going to play. (Laughter) Yes. In fact one year all friends and that, we all went to a holiday camp and there was 32 of us, and my Dad was the oldest, but all the younger ones, they made up their own football team and my Dad was in goal and he was past forty at that time. (laughter).
Int: Where did you go on holiday?
PB: Well, this particular holiday camp was Kessingland Beach in Lowestoft and we went for many years – I think I was fifteen when I first went, and then when we were married and got our children and my sister and her husband and their children, yes. We still see some of these 32 people that were all there and still friends, if they haven’t passed away.
Int: So your late husband also born in Croxley, grew up in Croxley?
PB: He was from Warwick Way.
Int: And where did you meet – here in Croxley?
PB: In my first year at Durrants School (laughter).
Int: So also at Durrants School – your late husband? And so you went out with each other from a young age at Durrants School?
PB: A very young age, but then by the time he was fourteen, football was his greater love. So that was the end of the romance. But then my sister was going out with his brother, that was Jean going out with John, and come 1957 Mick came home from Germany on leave from National Service and it happened to be on my 18th birthday, and Jean and John were getting married the following Saturday. The boyfriend I’d got at the time borrowed my Mum’s suitcase and went off to Butlins with his mates, but by the end of the day Mick and I were a couple again!
Int: I see – it was meant to be!
PB: Going to, I think it must be Heathrow – Jean and John were going to Jersey, and Mick’s Dad Charlie drove his lovely old car that he’d got, and yes, so it all started again, and then three years later we got married. And it lasted for 59 and a half years before he passed away.
Int: And you married in one of the churches in Croxley?
PB: All Saints, yes. The Reverend Suffrin - that’s a name for a vicar, isn’t it?
Int: Had you always attended All Saints?
PB: No, to be honest. I used to go to Sunday School at St Oswald’s, Brownies was at St Oswald’s, yes. In the church hall, because even then the church itself, the hall wasn’t built.
Int: So why did you choose to get married at All Saints?
PB: I don’t know.
Int: Was it your late husband’s or family – the family’s church?
PB: Not really. I don’t know. I think really – although it sounds silly – but St Oswald’s, lovely as it is, it’s not like a lovely old church, is it?
Int: For the photos.
PB: Yes. (laughter all round)
Int: And did you have a reception here in Croxley?
PB: We did. And guess where? At the Guildhouse, the Institute. Because that was a – oh, it was like a rabbit’s warren, that place, all these different rooms and that. The Boy Scouts, the Gang Shows, they were always there, it was entertainment there.
Int: You remember I expect the end of the Guildhouse, and remember the fire.
PB: Yes, yes. Well, we were married in 1960 and I don’t think it was that long after that.
Int: No, 65 I think.
PB: Was it 65?
Int: People have spoken about it. A lot of people got married, had their reception there. What do you think have been the major changes in Croxley in your lifetime?
PB: Well, as I say, we used to live up Little Green Lane and we sort of more or less backed on to the Old Merchant Tailors, lovely sports ground, rugby, you know. Sadly when that all turned out to be all housing, and of course as a kid from Claremont Crescent and also my cousins lived in Claremont Crescent, and we’d go and play round where the bottom shops are, you know, because it was just waste land and there must have been something there left over from the war, a great big concrete surround thing, but it had got like a trench round it that we used to jump across the trench and hope you didn’t fall down there – I mean it wasn’t that far down. I can always remember Mum and Dad saying that there would be a school built on this field one day, on the horses’ field, but it wouldn’t be a proper school – well, it would be a school for naughty boys and girls called a Borstal. (laughter)
PB: He was, and Croxley Boys, that was run by a man called George Falkner, in Winton Drive, and I don’t know how it came about but as the boys got older they went to Watford Football Club and my late cousin, Roger Beament, he also played, and they went on to Watford and then some carried on, you know, to play for Watford, as my husband did, although my husband he was never a fulltime professional because he was doing an apprenticeship for Odhams, but he was always part time, and a local lad, whereas these days they’re never local boys, are they? You know, come from other countries.
Int: What years did he play for Watford?
PB: Well, luckily, it was the good – well, they always to hark back at those times. Yes, late fifties into 1961, 62, and by then we’d got our first son, yes, in 1961. But it was the year they got promotion from the Fourth Division to the Third Division and – not so much the youngsters now, but the older people they always remember those times for some reason. I’ve got a picture hanging in the hall there.
Int: Did he ever meet Elton John?
PB: No. No! He wasn’t there in Graham Taylor’s time. Actually my eldest son, he was down there for a time when Graham Taylor was there, and yes, then Terry got told that he wouldn’t make it as a professional. Bu he did actually, because he went to Brentford and with another local fella, they used to go together, [Bob Walker], and of course that’s where Bradley Walsh was. So – another local lad as you know.
Int: Was there a strong local kids football team?
PB: Oh yes. And my Dad, my Dad played at Dickinson’s. I’ve got pictures of him in the late 1940s.
Int: So Dickinson’s ran a football team as well?
PB: Mmm, back then, yes, yes.
Int: So could anybody join the Dickinson’s football team if you could play or was it only people from the Mill?
PB: I wouldn’t know, but I can see him now, going off on his bike all in his football kit, going to play. (Laughter) Yes. In fact one year all friends and that, we all went to a holiday camp and there was 32 of us, and my Dad was the oldest, but all the younger ones, they made up their own football team and my Dad was in goal and he was past forty at that time. (laughter).
Int: Where did you go on holiday?
PB: Well, this particular holiday camp was Kessingland Beach in Lowestoft and we went for many years – I think I was fifteen when I first went, and then when we were married and got our children and my sister and her husband and their children, yes. We still see some of these 32 people that were all there and still friends, if they haven’t passed away.
Int: So your late husband also born in Croxley, grew up in Croxley?
PB: He was from Warwick Way.
Int: And where did you meet – here in Croxley?
PB: In my first year at Durrants School (laughter).
Int: So also at Durrants School – your late husband? And so you went out with each other from a young age at Durrants School?
PB: A very young age, but then by the time he was fourteen, football was his greater love. So that was the end of the romance. But then my sister was going out with his brother, that was Jean going out with John, and come 1957 Mick came home from Germany on leave from National Service and it happened to be on my 18th birthday, and Jean and John were getting married the following Saturday. The boyfriend I’d got at the time borrowed my Mum’s suitcase and went off to Butlins with his mates, but by the end of the day Mick and I were a couple again!
Int: I see – it was meant to be!
PB: Going to, I think it must be Heathrow – Jean and John were going to Jersey, and Mick’s Dad Charlie drove his lovely old car that he’d got, and yes, so it all started again, and then three years later we got married. And it lasted for 59 and a half years before he passed away.
Int: And you married in one of the churches in Croxley?
PB: All Saints, yes. The Reverend Suffrin - that’s a name for a vicar, isn’t it?
Int: Had you always attended All Saints?
PB: No, to be honest. I used to go to Sunday School at St Oswald’s, Brownies was at St Oswald’s, yes. In the church hall, because even then the church itself, the hall wasn’t built.
Int: So why did you choose to get married at All Saints?
PB: I don’t know.
Int: Was it your late husband’s or family – the family’s church?
PB: Not really. I don’t know. I think really – although it sounds silly – but St Oswald’s, lovely as it is, it’s not like a lovely old church, is it?
Int: For the photos.
PB: Yes. (laughter all round)
Int: And did you have a reception here in Croxley?
PB: We did. And guess where? At the Guildhouse, the Institute. Because that was a – oh, it was like a rabbit’s warren, that place, all these different rooms and that. The Boy Scouts, the Gang Shows, they were always there, it was entertainment there.
Int: You remember I expect the end of the Guildhouse, and remember the fire.
PB: Yes, yes. Well, we were married in 1960 and I don’t think it was that long after that.
Int: No, 65 I think.
PB: Was it 65?
Int: People have spoken about it. A lot of people got married, had their reception there. What do you think have been the major changes in Croxley in your lifetime?
PB: Well, as I say, we used to live up Little Green Lane and we sort of more or less backed on to the Old Merchant Tailors, lovely sports ground, rugby, you know. Sadly when that all turned out to be all housing, and of course as a kid from Claremont Crescent and also my cousins lived in Claremont Crescent, and we’d go and play round where the bottom shops are, you know, because it was just waste land and there must have been something there left over from the war, a great big concrete surround thing, but it had got like a trench round it that we used to jump across the trench and hope you didn’t fall down there – I mean it wasn’t that far down. I can always remember Mum and Dad saying that there would be a school built on this field one day, on the horses’ field, but it wouldn’t be a proper school – well, it would be a school for naughty boys and girls called a Borstal. (laughter)
Int: And then they built Croxley Danes! OK.
Int: That took quite a long time to finally get a school.
PB: It did, didn’t it, yes. But it all turned out well in the end, you know. We were dreading it because 19, 20 horses in that field, they were lovely. But they – you know, it never went right up where it does now. It did the far end, because again, snow in the winter, all the mums and dads and kids would be up there, on their toboggans.
Int: Did you have lots of snowy winters when you could go tobogganing?
PB: Well, I can remember 1947 and my Dad, bless him, my sister and I on the sledge and my Dad taking us round Claremont Crescent, Girton Way, round the block.
Int: Snowy winter.
PB: Yes, there was no central heating in those days, just an open fire.
Int: I mean did you always have a fire in your living room as well as bedrooms, or did you?
PB: Oh no, no! Just in the dining room. And as I say, my cousin, my Auntie Joyce and Uncle Bert, that’s my Mum’s sister, they were at 27, we were at 33, and of course as kids we believed in Father Christmas, and this Great Auntie Elsie, she’d got this beautiful Father Christmas outfit, that I didn’t realise at the time of course that it was always my Dad would dress up as Father Christmas and all the kids, we’d be waiting and we’d hear the bang on the window and these bells ringing and, you know, and then I’d realise my Dad wasn’t there, and I’d say to Mum “Where’s Dad, then, where’s Dad?” “Oh, he’s just gone up home to light the – make the fire up.” Or if it was the other way round “Oh, he’s just gone down to Auntie Joyce’s to make her fire…”
Int: And you didn’t guess.
PB: And he did for years.
Int: Was it lovely to grow up in Croxley with so many – so much of your extended family around you. Did you do a lot of things together?
PB: Well, really, yes. Even latter years we used to put in a pot so much each week and then hire a hall and have a Christmas party with extended family and friends and that. That was always good.
Int: A hall here in Croxley? Where you had a Christmas party like that?
PB: Yes. I think we had the New Road – well, the Red Cross that is now closing, and we had the Sea Scouts hut down the bottom there.
Int: And can you remember any street parties, maybe, for the Coronation or anything?
PB: We – our street party for the Coronation, it wasn’t on Coronation Day. We had an auntie and uncle and my youngest cousin, because the other two were older and wasn’t – well, we had a television for the Coronation, like thousands of other people did, but this auntie and uncle lived in North Watford and they came over to watch it on the telly. But the party wasn’t that day because I said to Margaret, that for my sins once again I went to the pictures in the afternoon! (laughter).
Int: I think it was wet anyway, wasn’t it? It was raining.
PB: It was, yes, a very wet day. But our party – oh, I think it was the Guildhouse again. Because I’ve given Margaret some pictures. So, what was I? Fourteen then.
Int: And then later street parties, maybe the Silver Jubilee in the 70s?
PB: No, I don’t remember parties for then. VE Day, well that was a party.
Int: But you would have been very small, wouldn’t you?
PB: We had Winton, Claremont, Girton, all joined together and the houses on that corner, just up from the school, there was a stage set there and kids were in fancy dress. That’s other pictures that I’ve got that Margaret’s got.
Int: Wonderful.
PB: And my Dad did, you know, quite a lot of organizing of that as well, which was nice. [doorbell rings]
Int: So did your children also go to school here in Croxley Green?
PB: They did, yes. Terry and Paul, they both went to Malvern Way. Of course Malvern Way, I just missed that, because I was too old to go to Malvern Way, but they went there and to Little Green Lane and Durrants, so like their Mum and Dad.
Int: Have they remained in Croxley as well, your children?
PB: No. Terry is in Abbots Langley, he’s my oldest son, and Paul is in West Sussex.
Int: And why have you always wanted to carry on, why have you always stayed in Croxley?
PB: Croxley Green. Well, we did have four and a half years out of Croxley Green and a friend of the family, she always says ‘Pat, there is life after Croxley Green’ and I said ‘Oh, really, I didn’t know that?’ But the thing is people often say if they don’t know anything ‘Ask Pat Benning, she’ll tell (laughter_
Int: You’re the expert on Croxley. But you came back after being away?
PB: Yes, we came back in 1966, yes. To Little Green Lane and stayed 35 years there and 22 years I’ve been here this year. Because Mum was born in Croxley but Dad was Liverpool Road Watford.
Int: Obviously you’ve mentioned all the extra housing that there’s been built. Do you think there have been any other major changes to the village, apart from the fact that it’s expanded.
PB: Expanded, that’s it, yes. No, I mean it’s still somewhere where I love to be, you know. We’re so lucky with Whippendell Woods, you know, and that’s other places we used to go, you know. You just used to run free there, didn’t we, not like today where they can’t, not allowed to go here, there and everywhere. I think we had the best years.
Int: That’s what I was going to ask. Do you think that change, that children don’t have as much freedom as you did.
PB: Of course they don’t.
Int: Is that the worst thing that’s changed over time, do you think?
PB: Yes, yes. And I can remember my sister and I having roller skates and Mum was working at that time and to us Winton Approach was always Pike’s Bridge and we used to go on our roller skates over Pike Bridge to meet Mum off the bus coming home from work.
Int: Where did she work?
PB: Mum – she worked at Elmcote on the Green, insurance office.
Int: the big house, yes, oh right. So that was in there in the forties – that was in the forties, fifties?
PB: No, no. No – well, wartime she used to clean for a lady over Valley Walk way somewhere, and they had a hairdresser’s business on the corner of New Road and Barton Way – Samuels, the name was. Just sort of work where you could sort of in those days. She was a shorthand typist by trade. And she was the only one out of seven – five brothers and one sister. They all went to Yorke Road school from starting to leaving, and my Mum was the only one that passed to go the school in Watford. Can’t remember the name.
Int: Watford Girls?
PB: No, no. It wasn’t the Girls – Central, Watford Central, but you had to pass an exam to go there. So she was the brainy one. I just wish I had her brains, but …
Int: It was quite unusual for a woman to be working when she had children in those days.
PB: Well there again my Auntie Joyce was only a few doors down and she would keep an eye on us, yes.
Int: It was possible with an extended family.
PB: Yes.
Int: Was your Dad away serving in the war?
PB: No, well Dad was thirty the week I was born but he always had cartilage trouble so he wanted – well, he tried for each force, you know, Navy, Air Force, Army, and they wouldn’t take him. But he was ARP Warden, I can remember ARP on the gate, you know. So he used to go out in a tin hat.
Int: And was he an ARP Warden here in Croxley?
PB: Well, he must have been, yes. Lovely Dad. Lovely Mum. Very fortunate. But then I was just coming up for 18 and we had a baby brother! (laughter)
Int: Your Mum had her hands full! Do you remember much about the shopping that she used to do.
PB: Well, we had Pike’s Stores and Standen’s just down the road, there used to be a little greengrocer’s outside Pike’s Stores as well, but we always got our groceries from Watford Road, from Alf Hedges, he ran the grocer’s shop, and Bill his brother was always the delivery man, would bring the groceries to the home, you know, and the same in New Road, Saunders the butcher’s, and George – he got shot in the front during the war – and obviously it affected his speech, but funnily enough his grandson lives over the road, and I can see his grandad – Roger over the road. Yes.
Int: Any last memories, anything about Croxley that’s always been special to you?
PB: I don’t know. I’ve always enjoyed my life in Croxley, you know. Never been one really to want to wander far. No.
Int: Thank you so much. It’s always a great privilege for us to have memories given to us.
Int: That took quite a long time to finally get a school.
PB: It did, didn’t it, yes. But it all turned out well in the end, you know. We were dreading it because 19, 20 horses in that field, they were lovely. But they – you know, it never went right up where it does now. It did the far end, because again, snow in the winter, all the mums and dads and kids would be up there, on their toboggans.
Int: Did you have lots of snowy winters when you could go tobogganing?
PB: Well, I can remember 1947 and my Dad, bless him, my sister and I on the sledge and my Dad taking us round Claremont Crescent, Girton Way, round the block.
Int: Snowy winter.
PB: Yes, there was no central heating in those days, just an open fire.
Int: I mean did you always have a fire in your living room as well as bedrooms, or did you?
PB: Oh no, no! Just in the dining room. And as I say, my cousin, my Auntie Joyce and Uncle Bert, that’s my Mum’s sister, they were at 27, we were at 33, and of course as kids we believed in Father Christmas, and this Great Auntie Elsie, she’d got this beautiful Father Christmas outfit, that I didn’t realise at the time of course that it was always my Dad would dress up as Father Christmas and all the kids, we’d be waiting and we’d hear the bang on the window and these bells ringing and, you know, and then I’d realise my Dad wasn’t there, and I’d say to Mum “Where’s Dad, then, where’s Dad?” “Oh, he’s just gone up home to light the – make the fire up.” Or if it was the other way round “Oh, he’s just gone down to Auntie Joyce’s to make her fire…”
Int: And you didn’t guess.
PB: And he did for years.
Int: Was it lovely to grow up in Croxley with so many – so much of your extended family around you. Did you do a lot of things together?
PB: Well, really, yes. Even latter years we used to put in a pot so much each week and then hire a hall and have a Christmas party with extended family and friends and that. That was always good.
Int: A hall here in Croxley? Where you had a Christmas party like that?
PB: Yes. I think we had the New Road – well, the Red Cross that is now closing, and we had the Sea Scouts hut down the bottom there.
Int: And can you remember any street parties, maybe, for the Coronation or anything?
PB: We – our street party for the Coronation, it wasn’t on Coronation Day. We had an auntie and uncle and my youngest cousin, because the other two were older and wasn’t – well, we had a television for the Coronation, like thousands of other people did, but this auntie and uncle lived in North Watford and they came over to watch it on the telly. But the party wasn’t that day because I said to Margaret, that for my sins once again I went to the pictures in the afternoon! (laughter).
Int: I think it was wet anyway, wasn’t it? It was raining.
PB: It was, yes, a very wet day. But our party – oh, I think it was the Guildhouse again. Because I’ve given Margaret some pictures. So, what was I? Fourteen then.
Int: And then later street parties, maybe the Silver Jubilee in the 70s?
PB: No, I don’t remember parties for then. VE Day, well that was a party.
Int: But you would have been very small, wouldn’t you?
PB: We had Winton, Claremont, Girton, all joined together and the houses on that corner, just up from the school, there was a stage set there and kids were in fancy dress. That’s other pictures that I’ve got that Margaret’s got.
Int: Wonderful.
PB: And my Dad did, you know, quite a lot of organizing of that as well, which was nice. [doorbell rings]
Int: So did your children also go to school here in Croxley Green?
PB: They did, yes. Terry and Paul, they both went to Malvern Way. Of course Malvern Way, I just missed that, because I was too old to go to Malvern Way, but they went there and to Little Green Lane and Durrants, so like their Mum and Dad.
Int: Have they remained in Croxley as well, your children?
PB: No. Terry is in Abbots Langley, he’s my oldest son, and Paul is in West Sussex.
Int: And why have you always wanted to carry on, why have you always stayed in Croxley?
PB: Croxley Green. Well, we did have four and a half years out of Croxley Green and a friend of the family, she always says ‘Pat, there is life after Croxley Green’ and I said ‘Oh, really, I didn’t know that?’ But the thing is people often say if they don’t know anything ‘Ask Pat Benning, she’ll tell (laughter_
Int: You’re the expert on Croxley. But you came back after being away?
PB: Yes, we came back in 1966, yes. To Little Green Lane and stayed 35 years there and 22 years I’ve been here this year. Because Mum was born in Croxley but Dad was Liverpool Road Watford.
Int: Obviously you’ve mentioned all the extra housing that there’s been built. Do you think there have been any other major changes to the village, apart from the fact that it’s expanded.
PB: Expanded, that’s it, yes. No, I mean it’s still somewhere where I love to be, you know. We’re so lucky with Whippendell Woods, you know, and that’s other places we used to go, you know. You just used to run free there, didn’t we, not like today where they can’t, not allowed to go here, there and everywhere. I think we had the best years.
Int: That’s what I was going to ask. Do you think that change, that children don’t have as much freedom as you did.
PB: Of course they don’t.
Int: Is that the worst thing that’s changed over time, do you think?
PB: Yes, yes. And I can remember my sister and I having roller skates and Mum was working at that time and to us Winton Approach was always Pike’s Bridge and we used to go on our roller skates over Pike Bridge to meet Mum off the bus coming home from work.
Int: Where did she work?
PB: Mum – she worked at Elmcote on the Green, insurance office.
Int: the big house, yes, oh right. So that was in there in the forties – that was in the forties, fifties?
PB: No, no. No – well, wartime she used to clean for a lady over Valley Walk way somewhere, and they had a hairdresser’s business on the corner of New Road and Barton Way – Samuels, the name was. Just sort of work where you could sort of in those days. She was a shorthand typist by trade. And she was the only one out of seven – five brothers and one sister. They all went to Yorke Road school from starting to leaving, and my Mum was the only one that passed to go the school in Watford. Can’t remember the name.
Int: Watford Girls?
PB: No, no. It wasn’t the Girls – Central, Watford Central, but you had to pass an exam to go there. So she was the brainy one. I just wish I had her brains, but …
Int: It was quite unusual for a woman to be working when she had children in those days.
PB: Well there again my Auntie Joyce was only a few doors down and she would keep an eye on us, yes.
Int: It was possible with an extended family.
PB: Yes.
Int: Was your Dad away serving in the war?
PB: No, well Dad was thirty the week I was born but he always had cartilage trouble so he wanted – well, he tried for each force, you know, Navy, Air Force, Army, and they wouldn’t take him. But he was ARP Warden, I can remember ARP on the gate, you know. So he used to go out in a tin hat.
Int: And was he an ARP Warden here in Croxley?
PB: Well, he must have been, yes. Lovely Dad. Lovely Mum. Very fortunate. But then I was just coming up for 18 and we had a baby brother! (laughter)
Int: Your Mum had her hands full! Do you remember much about the shopping that she used to do.
PB: Well, we had Pike’s Stores and Standen’s just down the road, there used to be a little greengrocer’s outside Pike’s Stores as well, but we always got our groceries from Watford Road, from Alf Hedges, he ran the grocer’s shop, and Bill his brother was always the delivery man, would bring the groceries to the home, you know, and the same in New Road, Saunders the butcher’s, and George – he got shot in the front during the war – and obviously it affected his speech, but funnily enough his grandson lives over the road, and I can see his grandad – Roger over the road. Yes.
Int: Any last memories, anything about Croxley that’s always been special to you?
PB: I don’t know. I’ve always enjoyed my life in Croxley, you know. Never been one really to want to wander far. No.
Int: Thank you so much. It’s always a great privilege for us to have memories given to us.