Rosehill, Carshalton
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I went to a catholic school which also comprised of our Church, St Theresa's. About 500 yards away there was a large orchard owned by a family named Lampkin who ran a removal company. We often went scrumping over there and we knew that the risks were high as the house overlooked the apple trees. During one lunch time a few of us decided to go scrumping over Lampkins. We got in ok and proceeded to fill our shirts with the fruit - just typing this brings back the smell and the thrill of scrumping! - anyway we suddenly saw Mr Lampkin and he saw us and began shouting and chasing us through his orchard. We ran as fast as we could but realised that we daren't go into school with Lampkin still chasing us, so we decided to seek sanctuary in the church! We didn't think that he would come in after us as he wasn't a catholic! We hid in the confessional boxes and kept quite, Lampkin could be heard walking about in the church but he didn't realise that we were in the priests
side of the confessional box . We waited until he left then decided that he could be waiting at the school for us so we hid all of the fruit under the cushions on which the priests sat!! We then sneaked out of a side door and into school. A lucky escape! But no fruit, so we didn't win that one!
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On another occasion my brother, me,and a friend decided to scrump the orchard on the road to Sutton. As this was on the main road we agreed to go after we had been to the pictures. When we came out of the cinema it was nice and dark and quite late. It was a bit creepy getting through the fence and into the orchard , it was so dark we could not get our bearings, suddenly a light came on in the house, a window was opened and a man stood there brushing his teeth! The light from the bathroom was enough to show us where the trees were that we wanted, so very quietly we filled our shirts with some lovely large apples but it was a scary time. I remember when my brother and I eventually reached home, our mum had a right go at us for pinching apples, women just didn't understand about scrumping and small boys!
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Then there was the time we scrumped from All Saints Church in Sutton. It was daytime so we were taking a chance! I was volunteered by the others to climb the best tree and throw down the apples to the rest of the gang. Suddenly there was a lot of shouting "look out the vicar!"and they ran off! I was stuck up the tree so had no chance of escaping. The vicar nabbed me after I climbed down and he told me that he was taking me to the police station. he had me by the collar and started walking, he then asked me for my name and address, which I told him, we then continued walking, and again he asked me for my name and address, so once again I I told him . " Well" he said " At least you aren't telling me lies" and he let me go, so we didn't always win and the moral is, never tell lies!!
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It started on the morning of Friday January 24th 1947 when the country awoke to find a blanket of snow covering the land. It was the start of the coldest spell of that century! It wasn't just the snow, with it came gale force winds. Even the River Thames froze over. Over three hundred roads were closed, transport just came to a standstill, fuel ran out as well as food etc. There was a postmaster in Essex who walked 16 miles through some heavy snowdrifts to obtain some food for his village, even the dead could not be buried.
Snow continued to fall every day until March 16th. The majority of homes in the forties still had open coal fires but without coal they were useless unless you had access to wood or as in my case, a coke yard!
Then in March the thaw began, when the snow melted the rivers overflowed and counties were flooded, one disaster after another!
I have three lasting memories of the 1947 winter.
One: Coal was still in short supply after the war and when we could afford it, mum bought half hundredweight of coke from the Sutton gasworks. I was thirteen and often had to walk down Rosehill to the cokeworks, if I was lucky my mate Frank would also be going and his dad had a handcart which meant I could put my bag with his on the cart if he didn't go, then I would have to carry the sack somehow all the way home. The reason I can remember this particular Saturday in 1947 was that it was so cold, my shoes were no protection from the thick snow and I had no warm clothes just a jacket and I was still in short trousers! The queue was so long and moved oh so slowly towards the scales where the men would weigh up your coke, and tip it into your sack, and I remember crying because I was so cold, how I managed to get the coke home in the snow I just cannot remember now, I just remember crying in that cokeyard.
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To see some photo's of the 1947 winter see link below.
http://www.topfoto.co.uk/gallery/1947Winter/default.htm
TABLE OF OCCUPATIONS
Heads of householders January 1939
Bricklayer 111
Carpenter 203
Clerk 342
Printer 267
Electrician 112
Engineer 127
Plumber 220
Labourer 868
Metal Worker 144
Driver 408
Bus Conductor 162
Bus Driver 99
Packer 141
Painter etc 350
Pensioner 237
Porter 212
Post Office 428
Railway Worker 471
Warehouseman 372
Widow 149
Misc 144
Ray Crawley 2001