VINALL FAMILY - FAMILY PHOTOS 1930's & 40's
Allotments in the Valley
By Val Lidster
I'd love to know if other people have memories of the allotments on the land that became the Valley estate.
My grandparents, Mr & Mrs Frank Vinall, lived in Lewes Road, and their allotment was in the family for years (possibly beginning with my grandmother's parents, named Simmons), and ending when the Valley Estate was built.
The 1st picture of the lush greenery and two greenhouses brings back memories; the larger greenhouse was dismantled and later stood in the garden of the house where I was born, in Western Road.
The 2nd photo shows our lovely Aunt Rose and her daughter Rita (now Funnell) taken, I think, in the late 1930s.
The 3rd picture is of my sister Pat, and brother Rod on a swing taken about 1946. It is one of a few we have showing the old gasometer which stood near the back of Lawes Ave; I remember it, although I'm not sure when it was demolished.
The picture of the family playing rounders is taken near Bullens Bush (we never called it 'Bollens'!) it was taken about 1931; the women in the picture were the 'Simmons sisters' and their children, my dad Edgar Vinall being one of the two boys. Much of this higher ground was unchanged until well after I left home in 1969.
The final picture shows the lane, both sides of which led to our 2 allotments (one had some of the ponds in it) - the lane became Willow Walk.