Hurst in the 1940s

In 1941, having survived much of the Blitz in Chelsea, Ted Lukey moved with his mother and sister to live in Tape Lane. Ted has many happy memories of his time in Hurst, and also has a few questions that he hopes someone reading this and future instalments can answer for him. There is too much information to include in one newsletter, so we have decided to run this as a regular feature until we have covered Ted’s memories and any feedback we receive as a result.

“I remember going to the village bakery and watching the baker take bread from the oven with a long handled shovel, I still remember the smell! Almost opposite was a tiny butchers shop; I believe his name was Mr Pibworth. He ran a hire car and we used to hire him to pick my father up on Friday night at Twyford Station. This was always very exciting for me as I loved cars - and still do! Mr Pibworth called me the "why" boy as I always bombarded him with questions about the car.”

“My father and mother used to walk hand in hand to the Green Man with us and it must have been a terrible time for my mother with my father in London during the week. I can remember her standing in the garden and watching the searchlights and fires etc in London, all clearly visible.”

“One day sticks in my mind, we saw thousands of glinting things in the sky very high up over the field across the lane. My sister and I went out to see and after a while loads of silver strips floated into the field and we picked some up and took it to No 5. We learnt later that it was chaff dropped by aircraft to confuse enemy Radar. I always wonder who dropped it, them or us!”

To be continued ...

If you are interested in Ted’s memories of Hurst, you can read more on the Village Society web site (www.hvs.org.uk). If you have similar memories and can answer any of Ted’s questions, then please get in touch with him via the form below or talk to Duncan Kendall.