Wartime memories of The Grove and Croxley Green (From Watford Observer)

Wartime memories of The Grove and Croxley Green

10:17am Friday 2nd July 2010 in

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Maple Cross resident Ed Barnett sent a photograph to Nostalgia with memories of World War Two from his mother.

He wrote: “My mother, Doris Purnell (married name Barnett), remembers working at The Grove, which was the headquarters of the London Midland Scottish Railway during the war.

“We recently returned to The Grove for lunch; very different from the war-time canteen lunches.

“Mum noticed that the cricket ground at the rear of the house no longer exists – they have some lovely water features there now.

“Later mum joined the Land Army and worked at a poultry farm in Moor Park and then at Russell’s Nurseries (Hempstead Road) where the work consisted mostly of tomato growing, which she still continues to enjoy doing.

“After the war mum returned to work at The Grove. At the time she lived at number 60 Winton Drive, Croxley Green, (due to renumbering this later became number 54).

“In 1945 a victory party for children and their families took place outside the house. The first block of semis on the left are numbers 62 and 60. As there were no children in the family, mum and my grandparents, Josh and Frances, watched from the windows.

“I was born in Winton Drive in 1948 and lived there until 1949 when my parents bought their own house on the Kingswood Estate.”