[Information provided by Ted Aves, Audrey White's son]
The attached photos belong to my mother, Audrey White, who was born in Richings Park in 1930.
Larbourne Farm
Her parents moved there in the late 1920's, attracted by the easy travel into London and she lived in 38 Somerset Way, Syke Ings and then on Old Slade Lane.
38 Somerset Way
She married in1954 and bought 40 Somerset Way (where I was born) and we moved to Larbourne Farm in 1963 after she married Bill White, the only son of George White, who bought the farm in the 1931. We moved away from Richings Park in 1969. Bill knew the Sykes but I'm told that they didn't get on.
40 Somerset Way
Mum still has very clear memories of her youth during and after the war years; the section where the burning of oil to mask the Hawker factory made me laugh as she had already told me how she could wake up covered in an oily black soot despite the entire house being locked up tight. Not sure people would be so tolerant these days!
She clearly remembers the Spitfire coming down but strongly recalls it as coming down in Syke Ings rather than Wellesley Avenue as she ran down to see it just after it happened.
40 Somerset Way
Photos are: Larbourne Farm, date unknown, but I would guess late '50s, before Mr. White senior retired and moved away; 38 Somerset Way, approx. 1928/29; two pictures of 40 Somerset Way, the later one with the car taken in the '50s (I would guess around 1955). I was born there in 1957.
I've included the Richings Players programmes as some of the names could ring bells with some people still at Richings Park:
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