vince dale

Lived in Cobham old Air Force / Navy camp from about 1946 to about1950 ish. Father and Mother bombed out of London and became squatters in the camp until eventually the local council took over control. So Myself and my sister grew up in the area discovering the whole area. Well remember the entrance to the old coal mine, had a little picket fence to stop us kids going in. On the hard shoulder of what was then the old A2, there stood a white coach that had been converted into a roadside tea stall. My father got a job doing night shift and I would spend hours there watching and chatting to all the lorry drivers that came in. There was a large hill over the top of the mine that we called the Scamells, covered in rabbit holes with a view right down to the river Thames. In the summertime we would pick little wild strawberries and wild damsons from the kerbs and trees alongside the road. I am retired now but have many happy memories of living in the area and going to Cobham Primary School and then to Southfields Secondary Modern when I was 11.