LOOKING FOR ALLOTMENTS

Yes Celia it was taken on the 25th May 1931, late afternoon by the shadows !

As children I can remember us playing in the air raid shelter. This may be below roughly 8 houses down from the left.
I wonder if any of my contemporaries remember?
Brian and Anne Raycroft. Leslie Templeman. Irene and John Thompsett, (John sadly no longer with us) Peter, Shelia and Alan Clark. Ron Terrill my brother. There were a few more of us, we used to have quite a time together. I bet we made our parents' hair curl.

I remember the air raid shelters very well. There was one a little way down the allotments which was above ground and would probably be in the middle of the photo. This was corrugated tin and slightly sunk into the ground but there was also another which may be the one that Celia is refering to which was underground and built of concrete at the back of No.44. Eve and Harry Woolford used to live at No.46 and I use to spend many of my childhood days with their 2 sons Barry and Pete. This would have been between 1954 and 1960. Of the names you mentioned above I remember a Peter Clark who was a couple of years younger than us and Irene Thompsett may have been a couple of years older. Think she had a sister called Marion. The 'Temlemans' lived at No.22 Murray Avenue and I remember Dennis who was in my class at school.

I was one of the crowd mentioned above, Sid Clark being my dad. We lived next door to the Raycrafts. I stay in contact with Barbara, Ann sadly died. Mum still lives in the house in Evelyn Avenue, must have lived there 70 odd years. Our initials are still engraved in the brickwork of the porch. It was a good childhood, we ran a bit wild and free, but I like to think we were a good bunch of kids, brought up by pretty strict but fair parents.

My Grandparents lived in the top house on the right in Evelyn Avenue. Its the top one on the right in the photo, looks out onto Brighton Road. Grandad died there in 1949. He was only 60, he sufferd all sorts of problems after being gassed twice in WW1. Although I was only 3 when he died I can remember being in the house, having meals in the front room, which is now a garage.