Barbara Warren (nee Coveney)
Greetings from Australia. Been going through your website, and having a wonderful time reliving memories of dear old Walthamstow. I notice Manzie's Pie Shop was often mentioned - I had pie and mash in the High Street when we visited England in 1989, and was so pleased to find that was one thing that had not changed. I recall wonderful shows at the Palace, the ice cream at Rossi's, but I don't think I saw any mention of Strutts in Markhouse Road - their coconut ice and cough candy was to die for! Whipps Cross - riding my bike over the hills, and picnics by the water. Someone mentioned Walthamstow Wolves speedway team - I was a regular there, outfitted in the red/white/black team colours. Dick Geary was the captain at the time. Then there was football at Walthamstow Avenue, and dancing and rock 'n roll at the Royal, Tottenham.
I was born in Walthamstow in June 1936. I went to Gamuel Road School but remember hardly anything of it, and soon transferred to St.Saviours in Markhouse Road. I went to Markhouse Road secondary around 1947/48 and left in July/August 1951. The headmaster was Mr Easton and through him I found my first job, as a junior secretary for a friend of his in the city. I had learned shorthand through Mr Bowyer and also went to commercial college. Other teachers I mainly had were Mr Roberts, Miss Townsend, Miss Astell and Mr Blumston.
My parents were Alexandra (known as Queenie) and William Coveney, and when my maternal grandmother died my parents, older sister, and myself, then aged 4, moved to 256, Boundary Road, Walthamstow, where my grandfather, William Chase, owned and ran Chase's Store. My mother helped him, and we lived there for the next 4 years. It became too much for my mother and so she and her sister, Sylvia, who also lived in Boundary Road, almost opposite the shop swapped homes. My Uncle George (McNabb) was a chauffeur and also ran a car hire service, having a Humber Pullman and a Humber Super Snipe in the large yard and stables area behind the shop. He drove for many local weddings, including mine.
I met my husband to be the day I started my first job. Eventually I found work closer to home at Harris Lebus in Tottenham, and remember walking home in the fog many a time when the buses stopped running! I also worked at Bluestone and Elvin, furniture manufacturers, and Micanite, anyone remember them? I left Micanite to go with my husband to Cape Town, S.Africa for some two years, and then a few months in Salisbury, then Sthn Rhodesia. Back to England, we lived in Edinburgh for 5 years, two years in Cheshire, before flying to Australia in 1967 with our two sons.
We returned to England last year staying mainly with relatives near Romford, and Leicester. We had 3 weeks of really hot weather, apart from one day when it rained hard. That day was our 45th wedding anniversary and a huge gathering of both families and some of our friends had been organised. It was a standing joke that it just had to rain that day as it had rained on our wedding day too! We did not see nearly enough of England before it was time to depart for America - time just flew.
Thank you John for your website. We love Australia (we are in Victoria) but one doesn't forget where one was born and grew up. If anyone remembers me I would dearly love to hear from them.
Barbara Warren (nee Coveney)
email: barbwar@netspace.net.au
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