I remember the teachers - Mrs Barr, Mr Whyte who taught some of us to play piano and guitar, and Mr Garner was headmaster at the time. Lots of my classmates' parents had also attended the school before them.
I went to Lambourne Primary School, the tiny little village school, which I loved. I remember new housing being built on the site of the derelict house, a little cul-de-sac called The Poplars. The cricket field was home to the annual village fete - I loved the fancy dress competitions - there was cricket here too, of course. One front garden, opposite the pub The Maltsters, would be completely covered in Marguerite daisies. I guess these were still the post war years and part of a village way of life. People would sell flowers and vegetables grown in their gardens, at their gate. I can also remember there being a grocer's shop, maybe owned by the Bayles family near here too, sort of at the front, or maybe next door. There was a big old house, derelict, almost on the corner of Hoe Lane, before the cricket field, which had an orchard at the back. Then, there was a butchers - Owen, a Hairdressers - called Susannah, the Post Office too which seemed to sell everything! Then in the late sixties a trendy boutique appeared, called Janice. Opposite was the doctors surgery and I remember this as a big house, old and musty smelling. The other buildings in the Market Place were interesting too, there was a car showroom selling Volkswagens, called Abridge Engineering, which was by the bus stop. When they closed the shop to make way for the Roding Restaurant, I was about 10 years old, I was given an old tin toy, from the shop's old stock, a monkey which ran up a string when you pulled the string tight. The shop was old and dark and had a distinctive smell with creaky floors, I remember the older couple who ran the shop - Mr and Mrs Brighty, I guess. I remember Brighty's little sweet shop and the cafe quite clearly. I remember my Dad extending the tiny bungalow to fit us all in! I was born in 1967, closely followed by my two brothers. My Mum had a job in the city and would commute to work on the no 10a bus, my Dad was an electrician and travelled to wherever he was working on his motor bike. They were captivated by the village's charm, and bought one of the new bungalows, we lived at 5 Alderwood Drive. They were eastenders who belonged to a cycling club and used to visit Abridge at weekends - their destination was Brighty's cafe. My parents, Rene and Freddie Gook moved to Abridge in the mid fifties.
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