Boxfields After WW2 Patricia Coles (nee Smith) December 2016
Box Highlands School photo from 1948 (courtesy Richard Pinker)
Earlier this year we published a photo and article about Box Highlands School contributed by Dave Chave and Richard Pinker and asked if anyone could name the children. Thanks to Patricia Smith (now Coles) we now have the names and are seeking those children to supply more memories of their childhood. This is Patricia's story.
Yes I can help name the children at Box Highlands School in 1948. I was there, having moved from Oxford to Hawthorne in 1947, where my father worked for the Ministry of Supply. I was perfectly happy and had lots of new friends to play with and plenty of freedom to roam the countryside. Above you can see a copy of the Box Highlands photo with the names of those I remember. (Spellings could be wrong as I was only eleven years old when we moved from Box into Bath in 1952 and I left Box Highlands School.)
I have read the accounts of Maureen Nixon and David Chave of their time at Boxfields during World War 2 and on reflection it appears that we all have happy childhood memories but I do wonder about the thoughts of adults. At the outbreak of war my parents had moved from London to Oxford, where I was born, and then on to Hawthorn in 1947, to a new community, in temporary dwellings, in the middle of nowhere. My parents were happy to have been housed and employed in a relatively safe place after the war but it was a totally strange area for us. Boxfields was very egalitarian; we all lived in identical houses, although my mother apparently burst into tears when she first saw our house in Aldhelm Crescent with its distempered breezeblock walls in all the rooms.
I suppose many others had arrived in similar circumstances, some when the British Aircraft Corporation factory and its workers were relocated to the Box Quarries after the Bristol bombing in 1940. Others were worse off, having left Bath when their home was destroyed in the Blitz in April 1942. Some families were there much longer than mine and my recollections span a mere five years. But it left an indelible mark in my memory even though a Google view of the site shows it has completely disappeared, just a few crop marks to identify where it had been. That makes it even more worthwhile to record its social history.
I have read the accounts of Maureen Nixon and David Chave of their time at Boxfields during World War 2 and on reflection it appears that we all have happy childhood memories but I do wonder about the thoughts of adults. At the outbreak of war my parents had moved from London to Oxford, where I was born, and then on to Hawthorn in 1947, to a new community, in temporary dwellings, in the middle of nowhere. My parents were happy to have been housed and employed in a relatively safe place after the war but it was a totally strange area for us. Boxfields was very egalitarian; we all lived in identical houses, although my mother apparently burst into tears when she first saw our house in Aldhelm Crescent with its distempered breezeblock walls in all the rooms.
I suppose many others had arrived in similar circumstances, some when the British Aircraft Corporation factory and its workers were relocated to the Box Quarries after the Bristol bombing in 1940. Others were worse off, having left Bath when their home was destroyed in the Blitz in April 1942. Some families were there much longer than mine and my recollections span a mere five years. But it left an indelible mark in my memory even though a Google view of the site shows it has completely disappeared, just a few crop marks to identify where it had been. That makes it even more worthwhile to record its social history.
Childhood Memories
I attach another school photo from 1952 with names. I had written them on the back of this one when I received it, hence the reason I was able to recount those on the 1948 photo.
I attach another school photo from 1952 with names. I had written them on the back of this one when I received it, hence the reason I was able to recount those on the 1948 photo.
Highlands School in 1952 (courtesy Patricia Coles, nee Smith)
Below left is a photo of the Box Hill Methodist Chapel Sunday School outing to Weston Super Mare via Burrington Coombe where we stopped to sing Rock of Ages at the very place where the Rev Toplady wrote the hymn while sheltering from a storm in 1763.
At the Rock of Ages on a Methodist outing (courtesy Patricia Coles)
At various times I attended Brownies and dancing classes at Hawthorn community centre and went to St John's Ambulance classes at the Bingham Hall. I had riding lessons at the end of Leafy Lane. My father gave me five shillings a month pocket money and I spent this once a month on a riding lesson. The pony I rode was called Playboy but I can't remember who ran the stables. I think they had a daughter called Celia who was a Landgirl. I think Annie Boyd was involved with the Brownies and St John's but I remember very little of these, just the smell and hiss of the gas fires in The Bingham Hall.
The photo below is of my mother and sister with the Edgell family posing in front of Harry Miller's coaches but I have no idea where they were. It was a community outing because the only school trip I remember in my time was the school trip to the Festival of Britain in 1951. We all walked down to Box Mill Lane Station to catch the train to London.
The photo below is of my mother and sister with the Edgell family posing in front of Harry Miller's coaches but I have no idea where they were. It was a community outing because the only school trip I remember in my time was the school trip to the Festival of Britain in 1951. We all walked down to Box Mill Lane Station to catch the train to London.
Coach outing, courtesy Patricia Coles
This is a real gem of a photo - everything about the picture shows life in the early 1950s, the utility clothes that people bought when they had saved enough ration coupons. The clothes were called utility because most production was of military uniforms for men and women and civilian clothing was of a utility pattern simplified to eliminate individuality and reduce cost. These restrictions were abolished in 1952. Notice also the formality of the Sunday-best clothes with even young boys wearing suits and ties as if they were miniature adults. In some respects they were because childhood was curtailed at the age of 18 with conscription in the war years and afterwards National Service enforced 18 months compulsory military service for boys aged 17.
You can also see the lorry-like coaches that were common with their split-screen front window, looking more like a tank than modern transport. This was because the Bedford manufacturing company had specialised their production on Centurion Tanks during the war, which continued afterwards. Of course, these were the days when coach travel was very popular before most people had their own private cars. Editor
You can also see the lorry-like coaches that were common with their split-screen front window, looking more like a tank than modern transport. This was because the Bedford manufacturing company had specialised their production on Centurion Tanks during the war, which continued afterwards. Of course, these were the days when coach travel was very popular before most people had their own private cars. Editor
As for utility clothing I think the only thing I had with a utility mark was my liberty bodice ! My mother was a dressmaker and made pretty much everything I wore. David Chave recalled names of families in the flat roofs estate. I can remember the names of about twenty families in Aldhelm Crescent but not their house numbers. I looked at a 1952 Kelly's Directory for Bath which we have. It does give Box and Box Hill but unfortunately doesn't include Hawthorn. I enjoyed my childhood at Boxfields and it is sad that the area has disappeared completely but I find it hard to call those years The Good Old Days.
We welcome all memories of Box during and after the Second World War so that the story of Box at that time is captured for the sake of future generations. Please get in touch if you can help Patricia's story or your thoughts about those times in Box.