My First School

A Memory of Chingford.

My very first memory is in 1934 when my parents, sister and I came to live in rooms over a private school in The Mount (from memory) near to a new Fire Station that had just been built. I was four years old and my mother was carrying me in her arms. My sister was l5 months older than me and so she started school at the Catholic School in Station Road, Chingford. After a few weeks I was getting restive and missing my sister so they let me start school as well, just before I was five years old. I remember so well the young Sister Constantine who looked after the young ones, my schooling consisting of playing in the sand tray for much of the time, the smell of which remains with me now. I remember her asking me if I would like to stay for (probably) Vespers in the R C Church next to the School on Friday afternoons after school, and the memory of the Church and the candles on the altar have a permanent place in my mind. Sister Wilhelmina taught us the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and other important elements of the R C Faith, and she was quite stern and insisted on accuracy. Sister Michael was the Headmistress so we didn't see much of her but she was always very pleasant.
I remember that I got hold of a pair of scissors (with rounded ends) and thought it a good idea to try trimming my hair with a rather large V cut in the fringe. My mother was a bit upset when I got home as she thought I could have injured myself, and spoke sharply to Sister Constantine the next day, to my great regret. It took about ten years for the V cut to grow out !
I look back on those first school days with great affection which gave me a great respect for the Christian faith and although we moved away from there soon after, I became a choirboy in my village Church of England church just before my eighth birthday and have sung in many church choirs until I had to give up after 70 years as a chorister due to shortage of breath, which meant I could no longer sustain the notes. It puzzles me, however, that young people nowadays find it difficult to find their feet in the Christian faith, when in my childhood we were encouraged and made to learn the elements of the Faith with firmness, which stays for ever!
There was a park near to where we lived and my mother allowed my sister and I to go and sail a toy boat that I had been given, in the round pond in the park with the strict instruction that I was not to fall in ! However, on arriving at the pond I felt a need to dip my toe in the water and promptly fell in, getting wet through in the process, the water only being about a foot deep at the edge of the pond. My sister hurried us both home, myself dripping wet and crying noisily, and we got home for my mother to dry me off and give me a good telling off .
I remember the steam trains at the Chingford Terminus, which would take us up to Fenchurch Street Station (?) but the real memory of the steam engines was that they gave off a curious puffing sound whilst they were stationary at the platform as well as a wonderful smell of 'steam train' which you don't have nowadays, unless you visit a restored steam line where a hint of the lovely smell of steam can be had. Yes, happy memories of Chingford. Alan Holden (83)