Memories of the Slades Hill area in 1938 -1945
In 1938 the area south towards London was covered in newly built or developing estates, and at that time there seemed no end to the encroachment of the green fields to the north.Our new home, prce £830, mortgaga £4.7s.9d monthly collected in cash each month by a collector at the door, was on the Wimpey Estate, now known as Enfield Rd,Trentwood Side,Elmer Close and Grafton Rd and are built on the land of a house known as The Chase(formerly Chase Cottage). It had been a large two storey building with servants, a drive and out buildings, and in the 19th century had been the home of a military man named Major General A.L.Walker, who had served in China with “Chinese Gordon” of Khartum and was his friend. In the early 20th century it had been the home of the Eberstein family who belonged to the Enfield Chase Hunt , which often met in the drive.
Grafton Rd was being built and the road and services had been laid out.It was where Wimpeys had their pole store, which were all wooden poles and took up a lot of space. It was still possible to make out some of the garden of the old house. On the west of the estate, where the prefabs were to be built after the war,later to be replaced with the permanent houses that exist today, there was the remains of the old orchard. The field to the north and east,with the Merryhills brook going through it, must have been the pasture for the horses and there was also a Victorian rubbish dump, mostly broken bottles. When they laid out the estate there was a problem with the brook that ran right through it and the gardens in Elmer Close, Grafton Rd and Enfield Rd had very small gardens for that time. To comply with regulations at that time, Wimpeys came to an agreement with the Council and the field was nominated an open space.At the beginning of the war the council dug some trenches for shelters but they quickly got waterlogged and filled in for allotments .One interesting feature of the old estate was a pair of gateposts to the drive that stood in the bushes in the verge opposite No 51 Enfield Rd until they finally rotted way about thirty years ago.In this verge there were still several tall pine trees that must have been planted in Victorian times, and soon after we moved in one was cut down probably because it interfered with the overhead telephone wires. The felling was done by a man with a large sharp axe (no buzz saws in those days) and I remember my Mother getting me to go round and collect the large white pine chips that made excellent kindling for the fires we all had One selling point of these Wimpey houses was that they were all a little bit different, in an attempt to break away from the rowsof identical houses being built at that time, and these small differences can still be seen.
Up the road, towards Oakwood (then called Enfield West) Laings had bought the South Lodge Estates and, by 1938, had demolished the old house and laid out roads and services over the whole estate right down to Boxers lake. Most of the building was still in the north of the estate but some buyers had chosen special sites,and there were a few isolated houses round the lake. These were eventually surrounded years later after the war by other houses but can still be made out as older style. At the junction of Merryhills and Lonsdale Drive, Laings had built an estate office and during the war this was an auxiliary fire station, later changed to a clinic and then demolished to make way for the houses that stand there today. The lake by Lakeside was always an attractive feature., but it was larger and deeper in those days. On the other hand, Boxers lake had a very neglected and isolated look. Only the east of the island was clear of rushes, which covered the whole of the lake to the west. It was possible to walk across to the island on boards laid in the rushes, which had a bad smell, particularly in hot weather. Timber was cheap in those days and lots of large pieces from the Laings building sites found their way to the lake and were enthusiastically made into rafts by local boys, including me. Some were well made and some hardly held together , but there were always one or two that could be poled about provided you could get one near the edge and get on. On the east side of the lake the earth dam , grass and bush covered , that had been built to make the lake in the days of the South Lodge estates, was clearly discernable, being eight or nine foot wide at the top, falling rapidly to a hollow, which was filled in thirty years ago to make the playground that exists today. Boyish attempts were sometimes made to dig a channel across the top, but as the water level was some way down at that spot, always unsuccessful. There were plenty of frogs and I recall one summer when thousands of little frogs all emerged on the bank at the same time, and you had to be carefull where you put your feet. Nobody seemed to mind what skylarking about went on at Boxers lake and it was a boys paradise.
` Behind the Jolly Farmers, in Linkside the bungalows were going up fast and Bincote road was almost completed, linking up with Worlds End Lane which up to then had finished by the brook, hence the name . The old lane was unlighted and cycling along it in the dark was a hazardous business ,particularly in the black out,and you had to look out for the white painted stones occasional;ly marking the edge.
Up Slades Hill , Windmill Gardens had been built a few years earlier and on the other side of the hill Slades Rise was being built..The cottages on the south side had been there for ages and on the west side of the bridge there was still a row of four terraced cottages with the last one beijng what had been the old Jolly Farmers beer house. The new pub was already built behind the cottages which were demolished later to make part of the car park. The old hawthorn hedge in front of the cottages had white paling fences which have now gone but you can stll see part of the old hedge just by the bridge.
In the 1890s there were already sewers down Windmill Hill but to cater for the growing demand for water closets in the Hadley Wood and west Ridgeway areas a new sewer was laid starting at the bottom of Stag Hill following the level of the Salmons Brook on its way to the Lea valley. At that time there were some differences between the Enfield and Edmonton Councils and Enfield could not get agreement that the new sewer could cross Edmonton area. As a result a pumping station was built at the bottom of Slades Hill with a tank below to collect the sewage until there was sufficient to pump it up the hill and release it down the Windmill Hill sewers. A gas supply was laid on down Slades Hill and a gas engine pump installed with a detached cottage next door to house the pump man,whose job it was to start the pumps when necessary.After a few years the differences between the Councils were resolved and the sewer extended as originally planned ,leaving the pumping station and cottage redundant.They were still there in 1938 and they still are today.,with the pumping station used as a garage.
Opposite the pub the lane up to the rifle club, which had been there since before the Great War, was still a dirt lane , and on the right there were three small tennis clubs each with its own small pavilion.There was one right of the lane before the brook ,another on the far side of the brook and a third in the far right corner. At the crest of Hog Hill, where the gun emplacements were later to be built, there was a cricket pitch and a small pavilion belonging to the North Enfield Club.It was not the ideal cricket site , on the top of a hill, and I knew somebody who played there who jokingly said that if a fast bowler took a long run he appeared to come up over the brow of the hill. On a 1658 map what we now call the Salmon Brook at this point was called the Hog Hill Brook On an even earlier map it was called Stebbings but I think that when the Ordinance Survey maps came along in the 19th century all the old names went and brooks kept the same name right through different districts .Tided up ,as it were.
Where the shops and flats are now between Linkside and Cotswold Way was open space ,later to be allotments until about 1950, and by a large oak tree there was an old fashioned horse drawn tea wagon with large wooden wheels and a flap that let down where local buiding workers could get a cup of tea and a bun.
` In Victorian times,the road from the top of the hill to East Barnet was all called the East Barnet Road.At the turn of the century a family named Slade had the Jolly Farmers beerhouse and the hill became known as Slades Hill.In 1938 it was was still called the East Barnet Road up to the top of Cat Hill.The road from the bottom of Slades Hill up to the station was tarmacced without kerbstones and most of the way with only one footpath on the north side.. The only bus service was the 107 which went from the George at Enfield to Arkley Hotel, Barnet. The fare from the Farmers to Enfield West station ( later changed to Oakwood ) was one penny and a light came on at the ends of the canopy when a train came in so that if there was a bus in the driver would know and could wait for the passengers getting off.. There was also a large notice on the far side of the road, visible to people as they came out of the station, telling them that Enfield Town was two and a half miles away. The bus would stop anywhere to let you get off and it could be hailed anywhere along the route, although there were designated stops. Half way to the Farmers one of the fields on the north side was rented by Kinlochs as a sports field with a pavilion backing onto the road and a large wooden sign over the gate with Kinlochs on it. In the field opposite the station there was a n old barn backing on to the railway , that was the last remaining outbuilding of the old Westpole Farm that was demolished to make way for the cutting that the track now runs through. The farm was rebuilt and is now a riding stables. Further down along the brook there was a small copse of trees full of beehives.
Where Merryhills School was to be built there was a derelict nursery still with lots of flowers in its neglected grounds that were happily collected by new residents to help fill their new gardens.It was at this time I saw my first snake down by the brook by Worlds End lane, Over the fifty years I had an allottment on the Trentwood Side site, I saw many grass snakes, mostly swimming in the Merryhills brook., and even found one or two dead ones, On one summer day in the early 1990s I went down to the plot with my grandson,Phil, and we were startled to see a large coiled grass snake, about three foot long and quite thick, coiled with a large toad in its mouth. It had blown itself up and in no way was the snake going to be able to swallow it and they just sat there. Phil asked what we should do and I said we would let nature sort it out and just watch. After a while the snake gave up and let go. The toad went off one way and the snake the other. In my opinion Snakes Lane which runs from Oakwood to Trent Park was named with good reason.
The nearest shops were either Windmill Hill or the newly built parade at Oakwood. A lot of them were still empty and remained so until after the War, but the Express Dairy, Normans the butcher , Cricks the greengrocer and Murrays the newsagents quickly come to mind.During the war one of these empty shops was used by the Methodist Chuch for services and the people in the flat above used to complain when the congregation was in full voice. The new Church was built in Westpole Ave The houses on the corner of Trentwood Side at the Bincote Road junction had been laid back diagonally by Wimpeys to allow for a large roundabout to be built. This was part of a traffic scheme to allow traffic on the west of Enfield to get access to the newly built Cambridge Road without going through Enfield Town. It involved upgrading Worlds End Lane, Bincote Road and Trentwood Side which were both built as wide roads, and then over the fields crossing The Ridgeway and eventually down Tenniswood Road, also built wide , crossing Willow Road with a large roundabout still there today, on its way to the Cambridge Road. The War came along and then the Green Belt, and it was never completed, so we are left with just bits of it.The present roundabout at the junction of Enfield and Bincote Roads was built about thirty years ago.
In the Munich crisis in 1938 a half battery of 3.7 inch mobile guns were set up in the fields at the back of Trentwood Side and the crews were housed in the newly almost finished houses behind us. I remember my Father and I laughing because my Mother and Sister were shocked because the War Dept did not provide curtains.The guns went after Chamberlain returned but when the war started a permanent gunsite was built in the Slades Hill valley.They were 4, 4.5 naval type anti aircraft guns set in concrete emplacements , together with ammunition stores ,control rooms, shelters all on the top of Hog Hill where the old cricket pavilion had stood.The old dirt lane up to the Rifle Range, was concreted and carried on up to the guns at the top of the hill.Lower down , between the guns and the Salmon Brook a complete road lay out was made for the standard army huts to house the crews together with Headquarter Block,kitchens,canteens etc, each with a very strong five foot high brick blast wall round it . The whole site was wired off with an entrance permanently manned by sentries.
The 4.5 gun was one of our largest AA guns and fired a shell about 12 miles or had a ceiling of 44000 feet and they were part of the outer London gun belt It was the 469 Battery Heavy Royal Artillery P section served by both male and female gunners, with the other half of the battery at Whetstone. In 1941 Chuchills daughter Mary who was a sargeant in the ATS was posted to the site and served there for some time. On one occasion her father visited the site and the word got round and a small group of locals gave him a cheer at the bottom of the lane There was a story that he laid some bricks ( which he did at Chartwell) on some construction that was going on, Mary, now Lady Soames remembers this and the amusement it caused. (See appendix 2.She was there from Oct 1941 to 1942 so she missed the big London Blitz in the winter of 1940 to 1941, when London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights and the Slades Hill guns were in action every one oif those nights) The valley was a very noisy place to be during the raids and in our back bedroom we were near enough if the wind was in the right directiuon to hear all the laying instructions,and then the order to fire. If they were pointing over our houses the shells sounded like tube trains going over and we jokingly used to say we opened the back and front widows for them to go through.
One of the first incidents during the war was a medium sized bomb that fell bang in the middle of the road between Oakwood and Chase Road, before it was diverted to join opposite Cat Hill with the big roundabout there today. Apart from the crater it caused little damage but caused quite a stir and everybody went to see it. Later when the Blitz really got started there were lots of incidents. One night a small stick of bombs fell across the fields and the allotments with the last bang on a detached house in Enfield Road which collapsed like a pack of cards, killing an old lady inside. Amazingly the semi detached houses on either side were hardly damaged at all with just one or two windows broken Another night a cluster of incendiaries fell mainly on the allotments and one or two bombs fell at the bottom of Cotswold Way where the houses had not been built and again did little damage. The worst night was in Nov 1940 when several parachute mines fell in the Enfield area and one was behind the bungalows at the bottom of Linkside . It really shook the valley up and we lost windows hundreds of yards away and it blew the bungalows right through. The last incident was a flinging bomb in the field behind Cotswold Way near Enfield Road.
After the war the guns were taken away and all the huts made into an Army record Office and were all connected with wooden corridors.In the early 60s it closed and the huts put up for auction One was purchased together with a length of corridor, by the 19th St Marys Scout Group for a few hundred poundsIt had to be demolished and taken off site and the Rifle Club agreed that it could be stored (it was a lot of sections and timbers)on their site until some where was found to rebuild it Eventually Ian McLeod our local MP who had had a daughter in St Marys guides, got the Council to allocate part of the Trentwood Side allottment site and it was re-erected down the lane behind the houses in Enfield Road, where it is today.When the Cambridge Roundabout road building was done , thousands of tons of spoil was dumped where the huts had stood and completely covered the road network. In the early seventies a group started a motor cycle club for teenagers in the sunken part of the actual gun site but had to stop because of the noise. Later a lot of the actual gun emplacements and buildings were covered with dumping before it was stopped. If it is not built on, future archaeologists will have a field day on the site.
In 1938 the bells of St. Mary Magdalene at the top of Slades Hill and Windmill Hill rang out over the valley as they had done since 1881 when the Church was built. However, if you wanted to hear those bells today you would have to go to Mount Grace Church in Charleston. USA. In the 1990s the old bells were found to be too heavy for the weakened state of the tower and they were sold to a church in America and the money was used to have a lighter set which ring out today. Just as sweet but not as loud.
It is hard to believe that this was all over eighty years ago. The valley has changed quite a bit but it is still a very pleasant place to live.in
Herbert John Brown (always known as Jack)
Appendix I
Extract from Chapter VII of “The lost village” by Cresswell describing a walk from Winchore Hillt o the WorldsEnd and the Slades Hill Valley
Quite a number of houses were clustered round the “Chase Court Tavern”, some of them both ancient and picturesque.The hills between the Tavern and the field on which Chaseville park was afterwards built, were so steep that the valley resembled a half open book with the swift running stream in the fold of the binding. There were. old houses or rather cottages on the opposite hillside. There was a mineral well here so strong impregnated with Epsm salts that in the early part of the last century it nearly led to Winchmre Hill becoming a fashonable Spa.
Winifred and the Boy with the fair curls were on their way to the Worlds End to gather cowslips They grew to such quantities that the Grandmother sometimes made cowslip wine.It was a most delightful walk and never more so on a day like this.As the ground rose ,all houses were left behind and at the summit a ragged barn and a field gate marked the entrance to a cart road leading to Oak Lodge haf a mile away and a fine view .was obtained towards Slades Hill and South Lodge.A lake could be seen far below,.white at the margins with water crowfoot, that curious plant which has broad leaves to float on the surface and another pattern finely cut as seaweed in the depths below, In summer it was a place for water lilies, yellow iris ,and the rare and beautiful flowering rush,one of the most graceful wild flowers that exist. Before the houses of Chaseville Park and the great mansion of Eversley was thought of,much less built, was a complex avanue of beeches and oaks meeting overhead,wide stretches of grass were on the other side,deep ditches overgrown with brambles and dog rosebushes, rushes three feet long might be gathered for basket plaiting, and now and again squirrels might be seen running in a spiral course up some smooth beech trunk or a weasel gliding snake like across a road..In the field where Eversley stands was a large gravel pit and a considerable rabbit warren. At the further end of the lane,where the gates of the Fever Hospital are now,there was scarcely a habitation in sight,a gabled farm was on the opposite hillside and above it,a landmark from all around,stood Enfield Windmill.It was marked on theOrdinance Map as “Lonesome Cot” The road turned to the left and became wilder at every step.
and descended sharply to a farmgateand cottage on the right,and on the other side blossoming furze and blackthorn, bramble and briars covered the roadside,soon theland descended sharplytoa farm gateand cottageon the right, and on the other sidewas a one storey wooden house, assort of settlers hut,glittering white with a very red roof and bright green window shutters. The dwellerseemed to have a tastein plaster statues and the goddess Minerva, painted a bright blue,presided over the garden When these were passed, the grass began to grow in the middle of the road thicker and greener at every stage,till at last it was a mere track winding steeply down the hill ,to come to an abrupt termination at two fivebarred gates.This was the Worlds End itself,and a very out of the world place it was. Looking across the fields to the windmill and the watermeadows in the valley,it could be seen that they were yellow with cowslips,such cowslips as one seldom sees,tall and thick stemmed with aheadof bloom that was almost a cowslip in itself. Thesewerethe “Cowslip Meadows”never to be forgotten.The Larks rising higher and higher float on the air with song, the note of thecuckooform the apple orchardof the farm aboveand the children wandered up and downthe steep hillsidefilling their baskets with flowersThen they went down to the water meadowsby the deep bed of the stream.It wasa pictureresque rivulet and one of many moods, now it was flowng rapidly over its pebble bottom, the deeper pools reflccting the blue sky and the fleecy clouds of spring. Shallows swarmed gaily under its banks and where it broadened so that the cattle could change their pasture there were shallow pools full of frogs spawn and tadpoles
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Appendix 2
The Lady Soames LG, DBE
West House,Addison crescent London
W14 BJP
Dec 2005
Dear Mr Brown
Thank you very much for your letter which my son has forwarded to me. First of all –I am delighted to hear that you and your wife are octogerian like myself and have boldly acquired a word processer!
Your letter pleases me and interested me so much, and has brought back very clearly those approximately ten months- Dec to October 1941-1942- that I and my cousin ,Judy Montague (we had joined up together) served with the469 Battery at Enfield until we left there for the OCTU in Windsor before being commissioned Of courseI remember the Jolly Farmers which wasa very cheery meeting place off-duty for us all.I am really sorry to think of the distured nights we must have given all of you who lived near the ginsite. I do not think we would have fired off hundreds of rounds in any engagement more like thirty or forty.,batteries used to put in “claims” for targets they thought they had hit—but of course several batteries would nearly always have been firing at the same target as well.One used sometimes to see in the seachlight beams, Germanm aircrews making parachute dascents after thir aircraft had been hit. I think raiding aircraft were very wary of heavy anti-aircraft fire, certainly our planestook heed of it when attacking German targets.Wherethe Heavy AA Batteries did score visibly successfully , was against the V-1s- Doodle Bugs in the summer of 1944. Many London batteries were moved down to the South coast including the one I was in, which was stationed in the middle of Hyde Park. A new and advanced markof Radar had just come into service and that combined with the nature of the V1s which held a constant height speed and direction, made them good targets, and the whole aim was to prevent them getting to London- their pre-ordinated destination. After the barrae of AA guns, the RAF fighters swooped in,and finally ther were the Barrage Balloons.
Thank you so much for sending me that very jolly photograph of some of my comrades. May I keep it please? Or if you want it back I will make a copy.I don’t think you are are right that we had only just been issued with trousers-- I remember we were kitted out with battledress at Oswestry where allthe girls volunteering for mixed batteries went for their AA training
Yes—you are quite right—my father (Wiston Churchhill) did lay a few bricks to a wall being constructed, when he visted the camp—much to everyones surprise and amusement I hope I have covered all the points you raise in your letter and of course, I am quite happy for you to use any of this material in your own account of those stirring days
With warm regards toyou bothand very best wishes
Your sincerely
Mary Soames
____________________________________H.J.Brown (Always known as Jack) a