Unbeknown to us all my father was having a romantic affair in Liverpool and he and my mother decided that it was necessary to move away to ensure this ended. He obtained a job at St Mary’s Hospital, London. Because this was at a lower salary and by now there were 4 children as a family we had little money and the car was often on blocks in the garage to save the road tax. We moved to a delightful little place called Sunnymeads situated equidistant from Windsor, Slough and Staines.It was a sleepy place on the banks of a backwater of the Thames. It was built as a private estate of holiday homes for Londoners but had mainly permanent residents. So it had a sort of special atmosphere and was inhabited by some interesting people. Opposite us was a nursery run by a couple who were purportedly 7th Day Adventists but we never met them although we did play with their children and their parents who had a bungalow on the land were very welcoming to us. Next door on one side were the Higgs, a traditional old couple who were polite but that was as far as it went. On the other side were three fields that abutted us and in one of these the Duncans exercised their stage dogs who were apparently famous, as was Peter Black the Daily Mail TV critic.
Mum-mum moved down with us and found a flat quite close to Datchet station – just one stop away from our station, Sunnymeads. I occasionally would visit her there amongst her collection of antique furniture. It was a ramshackle, Dickensian place. She used to come over every weekday and help my mother round the house. She would leave before my father came home. My mother didn’t work whilst we lived here and took to having a nap every afternoon.
My Dad bought a punt and someone offered to let us moor it on their landing stage. It seemed to take forever to sand and varnish it with my Dad insisting I did my share. The river was one of the delights of my boyhood. At 14 I saved up my pocket money and built myself a canoe – a double kayak. There was a book and a second volume which contained the plans. The book listed all the items required, one type of timber for the keel, another for the frames and a third for the stringers. I can’t recall how I managed to acquire everything so I imagine my Dad must have done this part. I rushed headlong into the construction and quickly came up against problems. This was because I hadn’t read the instructions well enough. So my father forced me to take it apart, read the instructions and check again after that instruction had been completed. This was an important lesson and I’m forever grateful that he took the trouble to teach it to me in spite of my awful teenage behavior.
My Mother with my canoe in the background in an open shed
In the Easter holidays a school friend, John Sellers, and I, both 14, canoed up the Thames in this craft from Sunnymeads to Oxford and back. We camped and cooked our own food. I remember my friend and I argued an awful lot so we must have found this hard. I think I learned a lot on this holiday about self reliance and I have encouraged my children to be equally adventurous. Self reliance is one of the most important lessons for a teenager and it gives them self confidence.
I went to Datchet C of E School for my final year of primary education. This was one stop on the local train – already electrified and of no interest to a train spotter. I enjoyed my stay there getting on extremely well with my teacher, Mr Matthews , and shining academically. I had to change the way I spoke though and quickly lost my Liverpudlian accent. Although I began to find girls, particularly one girl, Susan Seagrove, attractive I also became extremely shy and bashful, an affliction that was to last through many of my teenage years.
I was so shy of the opposite sex that I would cross over to the opposite side if I saw any girl walking towards me. However at home I formed an attachment to Stella, the daughter of my neighbours opposite. We would sit opposite each other in a copse and write XX’s and love messages on the trunks of the trees. I don’t ever remember actually kissing her, but it’s quite likely we did kiss. Suddenly I went off her and she became Oouughach. Chris, my younger brother and I were then quite horrible about her. We also had two younger girls living in the house at the back of our house, across a little stream, called Lindsey and Nicola. We played a lot with them and my brother Chris says we used to play mothers and fathers and that I insisted we play properly, taking our clothes off and lying next to each other at our pretend bedtime.
We had quite a large garden at this house and my father tried to bring it all under cultivation. Eventually my mother became responsible for the front garden which was a flower garden and my father for growing vegetables to feed his hungry family on. He seemed to be forever digging. We were given our own little gardens to encourage us too. He was an adventurous gardener and moved quite large fruit trees which had been planted too close to the house to more suitable positions. It was a project which they both enjoyed and I have fond memories of them both working away in the garden. They had lovely sweeping curved flower beds which I tried to copy in my own gardens. We had a large number of fruit trees in the garden which provided us, and in a good year, neighbours, with large quantities of pears, apples and plums. Apples were stored in the air raid shelter.
My father seems to me now to have set himself a punishing schedule. He always prepared us breakfast, leaving my Mother to have a lie in, then cycled 4 miles to Slough station to catch the train to Paddington. He pushed himself hard at work, though he always felt he didn’t get the credit he deserved. He usually arrived back at about 7 or 7.30. Weekends were invariably spent in the gardens or doing one of his projects. These were also adventurous. He built a glass lean to with a concrete floor and metre high block walls outside the kitchen door from scratch. This was always known as Dad’s house and had a flap for the milkman and two sliding hatches to the coal bunkers he built at the back. He split the one bathroom so that the toilet was separate.
My parents hardly ever went out, although my Mum went shopping in Windsor every week and came back with nice crusty bread. One of the neighbours had a New Year’s Eve party and this was almost their only social occasion. Yet my mother said this period was the best time in her life.
The River Thames was my playground during my years here and my love of boats and water has lasted all my life so far. As well as the canoe and punt we also acquired an aluminum sailing boat. We fished and swam in the river, often going up to the weir because there was a small nudist colony there – not that we ever saw anything – but there was always the chance. I nearly drowned when I took my canoe too close to the weir and got sucked under by the standing wave. My paddle shaft snapped like match wood and I was sent to the bottom. When I surfaced my brother Chris, who had been watching in the punt, was in tears as I’d been under for so long.
My brother Chris was my main playmate but then the Craiks moved in next door but one and they had a son Bruce and a daughter Jackie. They had moved from Wraysbury – our nearest shopping place, just down river and introduced me to a person who has played a major role in my life, Mike Adkins. We already knew his mother who taught my sister the piano. I met Mike on the river at the age of 14. He was also in a canoe but was one up on us as his house had river frontage. In fact his grandfather had built the house as a boathouse with sleeping accommodation above. Bruce also introduced me to some girls from Datchet, Jane Byfield, Deryn Derry, Janet Bridge, and we had some great teenage parties. Mr Byfield had a mischievous streak and managed to get us over our awkwardness in some slightly risqué games. We played tennis on a Sunday in the Byfield’s garden. Jane’s older sister had a group of us staying at their place by the seaside – very strictly segregated.
After finishing my O Levels a friend, Peter Ayres, and I did some hitch hiking. We went to France but cut the holiday short because Pete wanted to get back for the results. We got as far as Poitiers and Clemont Ferrand and stayed in youth hostels or slept under the trees. We met quite a number of German youths doing the same as us. All we had heard about was they were our enemies and it was interesting to see they were no different than us and wanted not to be associated with their recent Nazi past. Our French improved dramatically. We also explored the east coast of England, visiting Lincoln and Cromer. I also remember us going to see the newly reopened Coventry cathedral. Another hitching trip was to Dale Fort to do a Field Studies Council course on Oceanography. I really enjoyed this and perhaps subconsciously this influenced my future career choice.
I decided to have a New Year’s Eve party on the last day of 1962. My friend and neighbour Bruce had moved from Wraysbury and knew some people there, including the Hanefey sisters and boy were they lively. We danced and laughed and joked all evening. The party was the start of a fabulous social life. The night after my party Bruce had a party and I spent the whole evening kissing a girl named Susan Slade. I was completely bowled over, although her breath wasn’t too sweet. Unfortunately she didn’t feel the same and the next time I saw her she was kissing one of my mates with similar enthusiasm. Somehow our Wraysbury group became involved with a crowd from Beaconsfield whose parents were quite well heeled and we went to some great parties there too. This crowd overlapped with some of my school friends as High Wycome was not that far away. Chris Ward was the nicest of the Beaconsfield crowd, lively and lighthearted and it was a great shock to us all when he was killed. He’d been skiving off college with a Wycombe lad and they had an accident on a scooter with a lorry on a roundabout. His funeral was a very sad affair and a bit later when my parents had left the country I stayed at his families home. He had a younger sister Jo, who was devastated. It was a gloomy stop. Chris’ room was kept as a shrine.
SINGER nine saloon
At about the same time another lad and his girlfriend announced their engagement. This was also a shock as it signaled another step into the adult world.
