Journey to John Goddard’s family home area

Journey to John Goddard’s family home area Willesden, North West London on 21st October 2023 This is the account of the journey made by the family Goddard to where John lived until the age of 16, before he moved to Rickmansworth and met Janet. The journey took place on the first anniversary of Janet’s death.

West Kilburn

We start our journey at Saint Luke’s church in West Kilburn (Picture 1). This is where my grandfather George moved to London from Cambridge. He was a coach builder making horse drawn coaches for the wealthy. He moved to London to start making motor carriages. That is putting a petrol engine into a coach made of wood. He and his wife Florrie went to church at Saint Luke's. Not the building shown in this picture which was a redevelopment after he moved away. His first house was close by alongside the London Midland and Scottish railway. He then moved to a new house in Kensal Rise but continued to worship at Saint Luke's church as did his children including my father, mother and me.

Picture 2 No 6 bus stop which my parent took to go from home to church.

Picture 1 Myself with David, Jane and Jennifer at St Luke's Church where my grandparents and parents worshipped.

We took the number six bus from West Kilburn to Kensal Rise. Which was the same number and route which I and my parents used when we lived in Willesden to travel to catch the Bakerloo line at Warwick Avenue to go into central London.

Picture 3 Getting the bus at Kensal Rise Station.

Kensal Rise

Kensal Rise was a station on the north London surface railway that looped from Willesden 1

Junction on the Great Western Railway to Dalston Junction in the east. It was also the terminus of the number six bus. It was a short walk from the bus terminus to 32 Ashburnham Rd where my grandparents moved to from West Kilburn. This is where my father Burgess was born.

Picture 6 32 Ashburnham Road where my Dad lived.

Picture 4 Kensal Rise train station where the No 6 bus terminated.

Picture 7 32 Ashburnham Road.

Picture 5 Ashburnham Road where my grandparents lived.

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My father had two brothers George and John.

He trained as clerk at Pitman College and went to work in the office of the National Cash Register company (NCR) on the Marylebone Road. NCR was an American inward investment to London in the 1930s. This was a time of high unemployment, and he was lucky to get a job which would normally have gone to a woman. My uncle George was more technically minded and worked for another American inward investment the General Electricity Company (GEC) at Park Royal in West London. He worked on the design of cathode ray tubes eventually used in early TVs. My uncle John was less talented and ended up as a bus driver. He was less wellpaid and could not afford his own house. So, he lived upstairs in Ashburnham Rd with his

eldest wife Marian, eldest son Ken, daughter Janet and twins Peter and Paul. It was a very crowded house, and they were eventually moved to social housing in the new town of Hemel Hempstead. John transferred to the Greenline long distances busses that were part of London Transport. And I missed my best and only friend, cousin Ken. The Goddard family were quite self-sufficient.

There was a back garden where my gran looked after the chickens (hence the name Nanny Chick chicks). Grandad had an allotment beside the North London railway accessed via the platform at Kensal Rise Station. He rode everywhere on his bike and would pick up and cook in a pie dead pigeons knocked over by cars in the street. He also regularly cooked a pigs head and pigs trotters on a coal fired boiler in the scullery. This was also the clothes boiler. And occasionally they would eat exotic Caribbean food gifted by West Indian neighbours in the multi-occupied house next door. During the 1950s Ashburnham road houses were painted in bright colours by migrants who came to work in the transport services that dominated the local economy.

As he had a regular job my dad managed to get a mortgage and moved a short distance to a semi-detached house, 175 Chamberlayne Rd, after he had married my mother who lived in 101 Burrows Road parallel to Ashburnham Road. As they lived in adjacent streets my Mum and Dad went to the same primary School, Princess Frederica, just around the corner on College Road and beside the bridge over the north London railway.

Picture 8 Burrows Road where my mum lived.

My maternal grandfather Alf Bridge had worked as a lockkeeper on the Bridgewater Canal in Somerset and when the Great Western Railway took over the canal, he was offered a job as a porter at Paddington Station. He was a tenant in 101 and that is where my mother Maud Mary (Molly), her sister Jess and brothers Fred and Alfred were born. My grandmother’s two sisters who were single and one was “deaf and dumb”, also lived with them, so it was also a crowded house. My mother worked as an assistant in a dry cleaner laundering the clothes of the wealthy and her sister, Jess, was a lady’s maid and married the chauffer. My aunt moved to Australia with her lady and chauffer. They never had children but were left money by their employer and brought a condominium on the North Shore of Sydney Harbour. At the time of her death, I was her only living relative. Uncle Fred faked his age and joined the royal engineers, married into a naval family and lived in Portsmouth. Ater the war he worked as a clerk in the Ministry of Defence in London. Uncle Alf followed the family links in the GWR and became a steam engine driver based in Reading. My grandfather died of throat cancer before I was born. As she could not pay the rent my Nanny Bridge came with her sister Maria to live with 3

my parents in Chamberlayne Road. And as commuting from Portsmouth was out of the question after the war my uncle Fred was a weekly lodger, so another crowded house.

Picture 11 Kensal Rise Library where I first explored the world through books.

Picture 9 Primary school where my parents went.

Picture 12 College Road

Willesden

The railway marked a divide in the growth of London. To the north the land was owned by All Souls College, Oxford and not developed until the 1930s, hence the name College Road.

Parades of shops were developed and included Latchams where my Mum continued to have her groceries delivered by the shop assistant on a pedal bike right up to the late 1950s. (Picture 10). There was also a public library which I regularly visited when cycling from Chamberlayne Road to visit my grandparents (although it was not open when I went for Sunday tea and to play chess, drafts or dominoes with my grandad Picture 11) Tea was often winkles or other shellfish brought by my grandad from the market in West Kilburn which was open after church.

Picture 10 Formerly Latcham's shop where my mum had her food delivered from.

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The bike ride from 175 Chamberlayne Road to Ashburnham Road went along Hardinge Road.

My mother’s best friend Annie Loeffey lived at number 24.

Picture 13 24 Hardinge Road where my Mum’s best friend and Jewish refuge lived

She was a Jewish refugee from Austria and spoke many languages as well as being an excellent mathematician. So, when I was on course to fail maths and French at O-level Mrs Loeffey coached me.

Roy, and more disposable income and brought an Austin 7 and ferried us around. George also assembled a TV for us which my dad housed in an NCR cash register packing case. And when my Mum became the centre organiser for the Willesden WVS we got a telephone – Willesden 0381. Our drive also housed the WVS Meals-on-Wheels van. Whist she was away I looked after Nanny Bridge and Aunt Maria and my Mum’s dachshund Fritzi Mitzi – quite a responsibility. I also accompanied her to the old people’s club linked to St Lukes church back in West Kilburn and kept the old dears happy.

The immediate neighbourhood had a multicultural civic identity. Our next-door neighbour was Jewish and a shoe salesman.

Opposite was the Constitutional Club, a meeting place for business people (Picture 15). Around the corner was a parade of shops including a delicatessen and bakery. (Picture 16) Chamberlayne Road School, my primary school, was opposite the parade. So everything was within 200 yards.

Picture 14 My home until the age of 16

And so to my home until I was 16. A classic 1930’s semi with a garage at the side. We did not have a car until I was a teenager but my Dad took me all over London on his crossbar, including to the bombed out City of London.

My Dad was exempted from active war service because he had a damaged lung from TB but was a fire warden and I was evacuated with my mum to Chalfont St Giles. At the age of seven I got a bike and rode as far as Hampstead Heath to the east, Stanmore Common to the north, Horsenden Hill to the West and my favourite, Old Oak Common railway shed. I crawled under the wire and when caught mentioned Uncle Alf and was let off. When we needed a car uncle George who did not own a house but rented a flat in nearby Donnington Court had only one child,

Picture 15 Wilsden Constitutional Club

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Picture 16 Former Deli in Sidmouth Parade round the corner from my home

Willesden High Road

Our next stop is Willesden High Road. The 52 bus went up Chamberlayne Road from Kensal Rise enroute to its terminus at the garage on the High Road. The former Synagogue at the top of the road is now flats. The main reason for going there was to see the WVS Centre at the end of the road where my Mum was the local organiser and Annie Loeffey her Deputy.

They sold second hand clothing, provided advice and prepared the Meals-on-Wheels.

We passed the pub where the WVS hosted organised the catering for a community TV viewing of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth but now a Costa Coffee house. (Picture 17). The High Street is now packed with cafes with cuisine from all parts of the world. We had lunch in one next to the former pub (Picture 18).

Picture 17 A former pub on Willesden High Road where I watched the Coronation of Quen Elizabeth II

Picture 18 Lunch in a bistro on Willesden High Road

Journey to School

With an August birthday I was one of the youngest in my class and a late developer. We were streamed and my stream was not expected to pass the 11+, so had no practise.

On the day of the exam, it was the first time I had seen a test paper. And the Scottish gym master, Mr Mcintosh, who used to slipper me for poor performance, stood over me as the invigilator. Not surprisingly I failed. My mum was determined that I should not go to the secondary modern school so sent me to take the common entry exam at a direct grant grammar school, Latymer Upper in

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Hammersmith. In addition to the broadly based exam papers, I was interviewed by the headmaster, Mr Wilkinson. I must have impressed him as I got an offer of a fee-paying place. Following a means test, this was subsidised by the school as my parents were not well off. Because of my age I was allowed to re-sit the 11+ the following year and passed. But not with high enough marks to get a free place at Latymer. I could have moved to Kilburn Grammar School but my parents decided to continue paying to keep me at Latymer.

Latymer Upper School

Picture 21 Outside Latymer Upper School

This meant a long journey - by 52 bus from the stop near my house to Ladbroke Grove, on the Metropolitan Line to Hammersmith and then the District Line one stop to Ravenscourt Park. It took nearly an hour (Picture 19).

Picture 19 Getting the Metropolitan line at Ladbroke Grove

Picture 22 Latymer Upper School crest

Picture 20 Arriving at Hammersmith

Picture 23 Latymer Upper School frontage onto Kings St Hammersmith

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on the bench. I was offered swimming. More travelling and little success. I was then spotted by my woodwork master Mr Watson as a possible rowing cox. I was hopeless at woodwork but the smallest in the class. I started coxing the colts eight in the 4 th form.

This did not involve travelling as the school was by the river.

Picture 24 Inside Latymer Upper main thoroughfare

My first year at Latymer was tough. I was not good at maths and failed machine gun tests by my teacher – ex army Colonel Steward. Fail one mental arithmetic test and you stood on your desk seat. Fail two and you stood on your desktop. Fail three and you were slippered. At the end of the year, I was streamed into the next to bottom class and stayed there until OLevel. Geography which I liked was naming capes and bays and reciting town industries (e.g., Yorkshire woollen towns). I was slippered again by my teacher Mr Tuttell for facetiousness for saying ‘marmalade’ for Oxford. But I got through this and with a new geography teacher Mr Elliot in the 4th Form was performing well. So much so when my score for physics was 9% and geography 90% my physics teacher put an arrow in my report linking the two subjects with the comment ‘boundless energy elsewhere’. Fortunately, I had a good chemistry teacher in the lower fifth and this was a science subject which I could set against a maths failure at O-Level.

My best subjects of geography, history and English literature clearly benefitted from the rich cultural life and diversity of Latymer outside of the classroom – drama and public debates in the Latymer Guild, orchestra and organ recitals. I could act but not remember my lines. My most memorable role was an elf to Alan Rickman’s wizard.

I was not good at sport – I could not catch or control a ball. The sports ground at Wood Lane near to Wormwood Scrubs was a long journey on a trolley bus from Hammersmith and an equally awkward journey home on the trolley bus and number 46 bus. I spent hours

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Picture 25 Latymer Prep School overlooking the Thames

We boated from Furnival Sculling club a short walk from school through Furnival Gardens alongside the river. In this my energy and enthusiasm paid off and I was promoted to the first eight. But then disaster when in the final of the London Schools rowing league against St Pauls I was so excited I did not notice a pleasure steamer and hit it. I was promptly demoted to the 4th eight. I was nevertheless loaned out to cox Westminster Bank after school and got to know the Thames between Putney and Mortlake very well.

Picture 26 Furnival Gardens on the way from school to rowing

upstairs so we had to find a bungalow and ended up in Rickmansworth many stops out on the Metropolitan line and just beyond the green belt. I commuted from there to the sixth form in Latymer every day. The bungalow at 54, Sherfield Avenue was on the edge of the town and a ten-minute bile ride to Ricky station. The Met to Baker Street, change for Hammersmith and District line to Ravenscourt Park.

Mum and Dad joined St Mary’s Church and I joined the youth club where I met Janet. And that’s the next episode.

Picture 27 Furnival Sculling Club where Latymer stored and borrowed boats

Picture 28 National Provincial Bank rowing club now headquarters of sport governing body British Rowing

Rickmansworth

Notwithstanding being in LVB2 and my Mum being in and out of hospital with severe angina during the exam period, I did well at OLevel with ten passes. Mum could not get 9