Ruislip Blacksmiths, Bury Street

A Memory of Ruislip.

Back in the 1950's, on the way home from the Sacred Heart School, we sometimes used to come down the High Street and go to the blacksmiths. They were located between the duck pond and the bowling green. We used to stand at the doorway and watched as horses were shod, wheels repaired, gates and ornamental fences made from steel. The roar of the furnace, the bellows going, the smell of the hot shoes being placed onto the hoof of the horse, these are all smells I can still remember so clearly. Yet it seems that smithy has disappeared from any of the books about Ruislip!!

We used to live in Ardley Close, which backed onto the farm on Tile Kilns Lane. Many a morning we would wake to find cattle or horses in our road, eating the grass from our green, or actually in our gardens destroying all the hard work of our mums and dads. The stock used to break down the fences and travel down the bank of the river Pinn to Grasmere Avenue.

I also remember being told by my mum and the doctor that, if we cut ourselves, we must tell mum straight away to have it cleaned properly, or go to the doctors for an anti-tetanus jab. At the time, Ruislip was the second ranked most dangerous area in the country for tetanus, due to the high levels of horses in close proximity to residential houses. Tetanus is spread by the horse fly, either by biting you, or being on an open wound, or you cutting yourself on areas where the flies had been.

And Ruislip Lido, Battle of Britain House were at their best, before LBH ruined both, burning down both B0B House, and the Lido building, both beautiful 1920's Art-Deco buildings.

The days of real Ruislip are done, now ruined by all the townie incomers, and their ugly modern buildings. Have you noticed, a lot of incomers claim they move here because of the green-ness of the area, and immediately cut down all the trees near them?

David Munroe