In common with many English people, I grew up having a Gardening Mum!! So from a very early age I appreciated all the lovely flowers around me. I used to go exploring into the field by the church, and wander along the hedgerow looking for wild violets, daisies and celandines. Our own garden was a source of real joy to me also, because in addition to my Mum's cultivated flower beds there were so many different wild flowers too.
Instead of Mother's Day, in England we used to celebrate Mothering Sunday, which is the 3rd Sunday before Easter. On this day, I would get up really early and creep out into the garden to pick a bouquet of flowers for my Mum! Usually I could find primroses, purple and white violets, and heather on a clump beside our pond. Then we would attend the church service, and in the afternoon my Mum would make a Simnel Cake - the traditional cake for Mothering Sunday, with a layer of marzipan baked into it! Yum! It was iced with a thin layer of almond paste also, and decorated with tiny coloured Easter eggs. In the centre we would carefully set 2 or 3 empty egg shells on end (keeping as much intact as possible) and these held water and little Spring flowers - probably from my bouquet! What a beautiful decoration!
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A little later on in the Springtime, I used to love to walk through the 'Bluebell Woods,' just down at the end of Bois Lane. This path started by going under the railway bridge (by where the Chesham Moor bus used to turn around) and led on through the beech woods, coming out at North Road by the Common. That walk was like magic to me - the delicate young green of the beech leaves overhead, ( when you stroke a new beech leaf, it feels just like velvet!) - and the ground just carpeted with bluebells! (I was always very careful not to step on any if I could help it.) And if you were very lucky you would find some white ones - and even the odd pink one!!
Just to the left of the Bluebell path was a steep path called the ' 99 Steps'! These climbed the hill back up to behind St. Leonard's Church and were quite a challenge. The steps were cut out of the hillside and very uneven in height, partly due to tree roots and rocks sticking out of the ground. They rose so steeply that even as a child I used to have to stop and catch my breath before reaching the top! When I visited Chesham Bois with my daughter Michelle in 1994, we climbed them together and counted them -actually there were only 64! - and you can rely on her total because she majored in Mathematics!! But it seemed like 199!
Well, after leaving Chesham Bois School, I attended Townsend Road School in Chesham. I was fortunate to have a great teacher, Miss Wheeler, who really encouraged me, and coached me so that I passed the dreaded 11+ exam to be allowed into Grammar School! She was a very special lady in the Community also, being a tireless worker for the St. John's Ambulance Brigade. I was delighted many years later to hear that she had been awarded the O.B.E. for her wonderful service!
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One of the big celebrations of the year at Townsend Road was the May Day Festival, at which a May Queen was chosen. (Ooh! - I can hear the comments - pretty cool, eh?) But in those days we thought it was quite special. Anyway, here is a picture of the whole school, with the May Queen in the centre, holding an armful of May blossom, and surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, with her courtiers sitting in front! It was rather a spectacular pageant in its way. Yours truly is way at the back, being tall by that time, with just the top of my head showing! (Maybe you can see the circle I have drawn around Me!)
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A funny memory comes to mind about when I went to school in Chesham. After we finished for the day, we would walk down to the bus stop to catch the bus back home, - and there just happened to be a sweet shop right there, nice and handy! Well, not having much pocket money, I and my friends used to buy the wafers that they put each side of ice cream sandwiches. These cost a farthing each, so you could get several. And sometimes we bought lemonade powder in a little cone of wax paper (- you licked your finger and dipped it into the powder, then sucked it, thus ending up with a bright yellow finger!!) Or else sherbert powder which went all fizzy in your mouth! Oh yes, and licorice stems which you chewed on for ages until they went soft, and then you could suck on them for hours! Ah, the delights of childhood!!
Also in Chesham, I remember spending happy hours in Lowndes Park. One time our school took a Nature Walk there, studying all the different kinds of trees, their leaves and bark. I also seem to think there was a Barrow there, (a sort of hump in the ground was all you could see) - which had been a communal grave during The Great Plague - I can't recall much about it.
One story that my Mum used to relate was about the the time when we went to Lowndes Park for a picnic, (this was when I was much younger, I hasten to add) and she suggested that I might like to go on the slide. Well, the story goes that although I really wanted to have fun like the other kids there, I couldn't pluck up the courage to do it, and just hung around at the bottom watching the others. Finally, when my Mum had given up on me and was packing up to go home, guess who decided to give it a try?! And, when I had done it once, well she couldn't get me off it! I went up and down so many times, I almost wore a hole in my shorts!
And then there were the annual Fairs, both in Old Amersham and Chesham. I always loved a fair - so much hustle and bustle and excitement! I enjoyed the Merry-Go-Round, with its cheerful calliope music, and the wonderfully painted horses to ride on! I've learnt recently (from Lovejoy, actually) - that these rides were handed down from father to son - and that the horses should never be separated from the original group.
One game at the fair that fascinated me was called 'Treasure Island' - it was a glass case half-full of sand in which prizes were buried, and a miniature crane above. You put your money in, then manipulated controls by which you guided the crane's 'claws' to hover over a 'treasure' in the sand below. Then suddenly it would drop to the sand - and you held your breath to see whether it would get hold of the 'prize' and deliver it to you!! Such joys as a tiny doll, or a ring with 'real' jewels!! Pretty neat, huh?
Finally, the Helter-Skelter! That is very vivid in my mind still! You climbed up inside the tower, and then sat on your mat and zoomed down the outside - around and around the tower - it was really exciting!! Actually it was amazing that I enjoyed it, because I wasn't much of a daredevil, as I just mentioned! But I was older then, I guess.
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A great source of delight to me at the Fair was to buy some candy floss! I enjoyed it so much that one time I wanted to share the pleasure with my Mum, so I carefully brought some home on the bus with me, for her to enjoy! Of course, you know what happened - it all melted away to a sticky blob of sugar before I reached home. I was so disappointed. I am also still addicted to toffee apples! - just ask Michelle - she can't go to any fair here without bringing back a toffee apple for Mum!! (I'm just a kid at heart!)
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