World War 2
I can remember at the top of the road here, on this side, there was a bomb, over there, back in Cornwallis, well that’s over the back of us, there was a bomb. There was a landmine in the next road. Cornwallis. There was a landmine there, and then there was the V2 Rocket which was up the top of the road which demolished everything. And there was a big crack down the wall- you could still see it, it keeps on opening up through the wallpaper…and there was a gap like that through the war. And we had this.. in the window, so we put in this…clear stuff- it wasn’t glass. Yeah you know, before they’d get the glass to do the windows. We slept in the air raid shelter all during the war, because it was the safest place to be. It was in the garden, well about two thirds of the way down the garden, and the people up the stairs wouldn’t use it, so they had one of these.. indoors, a bed thing it looked like metal, like a cage.
Eileen, Courtenay Road
When we dug up the pond we’ve got, we found lots of lead soldiers, I mean the pond’s about two and a half, three foot deep at one point. Old fashioned knockers, toy buses, you know like Britains toys, they weren’t from when I was.. drains, lots of metal, but that was about three foot down.
Sue, Cornwallis Road
I got bombed out a couple of times, in the war, and I thought to myself, I’m going to walk down, I’m thinking I’m going to have a look-see at where I got bombed out, bearing in mind I haven’t walked up there, for must be 40 or 50 years, sort of thing. Well the road is gone, and the buildings that I know, have gone. My granddad used to have a stables, on Boston Road, and I thought I’ll go and have a walk along and see what’s on Granddad’s place, that’d gone, it’s just a little block turning, you know.
Ray, North Countess Road
Yes, a lot of Clementina Road was bombed, because that was near the gas works. The day the bombs dropped on the waterworks down Lea Bridge Road, my friend and I were playing in the front garden in Theydon Street. I was about.. well it was the end of the war so I must have been about 10, because I came back from evacuation. And we all flew down the road to see what had happened, you know. They’d dropped these bombs and wiped out the waterworks.
There were the Wests above us, Mrs Rutherford next door, Mr and Mrs Bury, next door downstairs, the Woolfs lived in the end flat, Mr and Mrs Woolf, and on VJ night we had a bonfire in the square, in that part there. For the whole street, Wetherden Street, the lot, we had this massive big bonfire. And they were going to sue us because it was so hot it burnt the kerb. Warner’s were going to sue us!
Beryl, Elphinstone Road
Beryl
I was born in walthamstow but my home was Perth Rd from 1935 to 1952
Perth Rd was even closer to the gas works as it bordered our garden, during the war one of the first things
we did in the mornings was to count the incendary bomb holes in the roof the the furnace building, how
can you set fire to a furnace ?,
I don’t remember Clementina Rd being bombed, I think it was Kettlebaston Rd
that had a German plane crashed onto the Road, I don’t think any houses were damaged very much.
After the war Clementina Rd had a very smooth surface compared to the surrounding roads, and was great
for roller skating
Alan Perth Road