Page 36-Todays Family-Dennis John Pettard

Dennis John Pettard and Family

Chapter 9         The Family of Today, cont.

Dennis my brother was born London 1947, I was 6 years of age but remember this time well, his address at birth was 250 Northampton Buildings Finsbury, I on the other hand was born in my Grandmother Kelly’s flat a short distinct away in Clarkenwell Road, close to Farringdon Road Station. Our particular block of flats within the complex of Northampton Buildings had been hit by a bomb, prior I believe to us living there; I can still picture the image of our building with the flats to one side along with landings and stairs remaining but only the door and its adjoining wall remained of the flats opposite. From inside the building all looked fine but from out side a strange image of bare walls six levels high with just the front doors left exposed to the outside world.

                                        Farringdon Road Station 1866.

The station was opened on 10 January 1863 as the terminus of the original Metropolitan Railway the world's first underground metro line. The station, initially named Farringdon Street, was originally located a short distance from today's building. The line ran from Farringdon to Paddington, a distance of 4 miles. The station was relocated on 23 December 1865 when the Metropolitan Railway opened an extension to Moorgate. It was renamed Farringdon and High Holborn on 26 January 1922, and its present name on 21 April 1936.

Our time in London was brief, I was ten and Dennis only 4 when we moved to Weybridge Surrey, so my brother would have very little recollection of London.  I have lots of memoires that have come down with me through life; some seems as fresh as ever, I well remember my brother being very ill, at 6 weeks old he was rushed to hospital, St Bartholomew’s, for an emergency operation on a blocked tube, I can still see and smell the area in which we waited for hours during the night and early hours of the morning before a doctor appeared to inform us that he was fine. My mother on asking, was told she could not see Dennis yet and needed to come back later, you just did not say no to my mum at times, she pushed the doctor aside and went to find her son, only then was she contented and we went home.

                       

                      St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield

Founded in 1123 St Bart's is London's oldest hospital, and continues to this day. It was closely associated with the priory of St Bartholomew’s to which it was attached in 1122. While the priory was suppressed during the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII allowed the hospital to stay open, providing it with monetary support provided that it in turn supported the poor of London. The hospital grew very large, and was extensively rebuilt between 1730 - 1760. It was, and remains, one of London's primary teaching hospitals.

I can’t recall too much of significant to Dennis at this time, Dennis being very young only went on trips to aunt Liz and grandfather's when mum came too, normally it was just me and dad visiting family or places most weekends. I do recall one time we were all going somewhere together, we got a bus to the Kingsway Road where we changed buses, I got on with dad, mum followed carrying Dennis, with just one foot on and one arm holding Dennis she just got hold of the entrance pole, when the bus took off.  What followed after the woman conductor stopped the bus, always brings a smile to a situation that was frightening at the time, having given the conductor an ear full, she the ticket conductor, reacted by blaming the drive upon which dad went around to the front of the bus to have a word with the drive, this turned into an heated exchange with the driver blaming us for jumping on the bus after it moved off, which was not the case.  The exchange went on for some time holding up traffic until mum had had enough of the drivers rant and decided it was time to sort him, if allowed she would have got into his drivers cab, but whilst he was fine mixing it with dad one look at mum’s face and expression was enough and he drove off not daring to say a word to mum.

A Kingsway Subway Tram center foreground, not sure which tram the man running is after.

Kingsway Road was and is famous for many attractions, one that maybe little known to day is its tram subway.  The Kingsway Tramway Subway was part of the north to south tram system first established 1906, linking Highbury to the north with Westminster.  The Kingsway tram tunnel extended to the river Thames embanking, emerging under Waterloo Bridge, the line then made its way along the embankment to Westminster. 

Northampton Buildings were not the safest of places for a boy of 4 or younger to play, the building had been striped of all its  iron railings such that the opening to the basement flats were not protected, also the access road through the buildings was also minus it iron fencing has were the roof top edges of the building, all in the name of the war effort. I remember the winter of 1947 we had lots of snow followed by a freeze up lasting for weeks, we built snow igloos in the square which was the main center area for the buildings, this also was where the water stand pipes were located, being in constant use with the water supply to the flats completely frozen.

                              

London winter 1947:  Westminster, Catford, Buckingham Palace and the Thames at Windsor Bridge.

London was my playground, in these days not long after the war London was a safe place to wander and explore, with very little traffic on the road you could play street football or cricket down any road, there were still many bomb sites around, lots had been leveled and we use to spend hours sieving through the rubble on commercial sites looking for all sorts of stuff, ball bearing were a prize find.  Not all the bomb site had been leveled, I can still remember climbing a few via drain pipes and thinking now just how dangerous some of these climbs were.  In those days has kids during the holidays we would travel around London by bus and under ground train never paying a penny in fares, with the bus the trick was to go as for as you could before the ticket conductor got to you, then got off and catch another bus to repeat the process, this way we would often travel around London all day. It was much the same with the underground, most stations had service entrances and it was a matter of finding these to make your way down to the platform.  Back in these days most places had turnstile entrances and we were normally small enough to pass under these, in any case on the few times we did try to pay we were told to keep our money and slide under the turnstile, as long as the stile did not turn no record of entry was registered so the gateman was not bothered.

One of our favorite venues was London Zoo having made our way in, we normally finished up in the reptile area, in those days one of the enclosures for alligators was an open pit with a water ditch around, to try and get the alligators to move visitor would throw coins at them, I guess you know what’s coming, we would jump in and scoop up as many coins as possible then climbed out with the help from our mates, often it was a waste of time resulting in just a hand fall of foreign coins.

Football grounds were a particular favorite, we were fairly evenly split Arsenal and Spurs followers with both grounds being closely located, Arsenal F.C. being easy to get to by bus, number 19 if I remember rightly. I think I was first taken to Highbury by my uncle Patsy our mums brother, after that I went on my own from a young age, don’t know exactly when but would have been late forties with the likes of Jimmy Logie, Alex Fordes, Walley Barnes, Joe Mercer playing.  I first recall going without any money I think I got thrown off the bus and had to walk a fair way by which time the game had started and it was half time, that’s when I discovered that they opened some of the gates at half time and you could walk in for free.

Roundabout the same time I discovered that if you got there just after the start the gateman would let us slide under the turnstile, once inside, and it was always a full house, you only had to ask someone at the back to lift you and you got passed above the crowd from supporter to supporter until you got right to the front, sometime when there was a particular large crowd you were allowed to sit field side of the fence. There was no crowd trouble in those days and kids like us were very much looked after.  It was not long before dad was asking me how I was managing to get to Highbury by bus and then get into the Arsenal without any money, I though I was going to get in trouble but instead he said in future you pay for the bus and game, and from then on he gave me money on a Saturday. Old habits die hard and even with money in my pocket I still often got there, and in, without paying often coming home with money to spare having bought a program and peanuts. I regularly walked from Northampton buildings to Highbury and among other places of interest we passed was Sadler’s Wells Theater; this was one of our favorite places to try and sneak in, not for any performances but to wander around the large storage area full of props and scenery drops.

                                

                                            Arsenal FC, Highbury Stadium.

Arsenal Stadium was a football stadium in Highbury, North London, which was the home ground of Arsenal Football Club between 6 September 1913 and 7 May 2006. It was mainly known as Highbury due to its location and was given the affectionate nickname of "The Home of Football".  It was originally built in 1913 on the site of a local college's recreation ground and was significantly redeveloped twice. The first came in the 1930s, from which the Art Deco East and West Stands date; the second in the late 1980s and early 1990s following the Tay;or Report, during which the terraces at both ends of the pitch were removed, making it all-seater with four stands. The resulting reduction in capacity and matchday revenue eventually led to Arsenal opting to build the Emirates Staduim nearby, to which they moved in 2006. Recently, Highbury has undergone redevelopment to turn it into a block of flats, with most of the stadium being demolished; parts of the East and West Stands remained to be incorporated into the new development due to their listed status.

                      Sadler's Wells Theater, post 1998 and early interior.

Sadler's Wells Theatre is a major performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clarkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the most recent of six theatres that have existed on the same site since 1683. The building which stands today consists of two performance spaces, the 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive rehearsal rooms and technical facilities also housed within the site. Sadler's Wells is recognised as one of the United Kingdom's foremost dance venues and producing houses.

             

          

When we left London; Dennis was four and would start school at St Charles school Weybridge, much later he would get married at St Charles Church. Being six years older we did not have much in the way of contact at school, also respective friends were of both different age groups and pursuits. I don’t ever remember being a particular good brother seemingly not showing much patience with someone much younger then me. The only time I can honestly say I acted has a true brother, was when fishing the river Thames just down from Walton Bridge at a spot in the river called The Point, if you went to school in London you learnt to swim from a very early age, however, if you went to school in Surrey you never learnt to swim at school, so it was with Dennis. I still have moments when the thought of what happened next makes me shudder, Dennis slipped into the water, the current at The Point was very powerful being a split in the river the water raced past The Point, without even a split second of thought I gapped him by the scruff of the neck and pulled him out quicker then when we went in.

                  

           Weybridge - Church Street, Bakers Street, Queen’s Road and High Street.

Dennis Married Kathleen Clarke of Shepperton Middlesex in 1972, Kathleen comes from a big family totaling 13 brothers and sisters in all, they met when both were working at BAC Weybridge Surrey which was a focal point for most of the family and me.  Dennis, our dad and I all worked there at the same time, also the sporting facilities were such a high standard that we also spent much of our non working time at the companies sports and social complex at Byfleet.

                       Heath Road, St Charles Church to the right & Church Interior. 

                            Weybridge Cricket Common, River Wey and Weir.

I don’t recall all the locations where the married couple lived, just Ash and Guildford come to mind, with Ash being the family address when Marc Pettard was born, by the time Natasha was born the family address was Guildford. Guildford has long been they family home town where both Dennis and Kathleen, not to mention Marc, devoted much time and energy to extending and modernizing the property to almost twice its original floorage.  As I said before some where within these pages, there appears to be a family ability to construct any thing and every thing housing, I don’t include myself within this field although I have done my fair share of DIY, I am not in the league of Dennis, Mark, Reggie, Stan and Reggie’s Dennis.

Marc was born 1975 which was about the time I moved from Surrey to Essex, as such I did not see much of the children during their formative years outside of major family events like weddings. Marc and partner Wendy Forman set up home in rented accommodation within the Guildford area, having two children Rebecca born 1994 and Joe 1996.  Round about this time, 1994 to be precise, my mother and Marc’s grandmother Dorothy Mary Pettard always known as Mary dies at the age of 84, this left my dad William Pettard always known as Bill, living alone in a 3 bedroom semi attached rented property of 14 Segrave Close, Weybridge Surrey.

Like his father before him Bill was not the easiest person to live with. It was with good intention that my father persuaded Marc and family to move in with him.  This idea did not seem sensible to me, and due to my own experiences of living with my father, I could not see the arrangement working.   No amount of discussion between me and my father, and that of Dennis to Marc pointing out the difficulties involved made any difference with Marc and family moving in with Dad.   My father was approaching eighty and for him to be in a situation of two small children under his feet was recipe for concern, however, he hated the idea then of living alone plus he had been too long set in his ways, such that I doubt he could have lived with anyone after mum died.  It was sad when what we feared eventually happened, resulting in the break of relations between the two parties.  There are no rights or wrongs to such situations and it was clear at Bill’s funeral that Marc was the most upset of all the mourners.

Marc and Wendy finally decided to get married which was a very pleasant surprise to me, having moved to America I was forced to miss Natasha’s wedding due to USA immigration paper work and bull shit, this was the time shortly after the Twin Towers attack with a very strong tightening up of US immigration procedure.  At this time I did not have the necessary paper work to ensure reentry if I left the USA, but by the time of Marc and Wendy’s invitation , we were clear to go.

So on the 16^th September 2006 ten years after the birth of their daughter Rebecca, Marc and Wendy and all left for Scotland, a first for my wife Barbara and I, it was nice to be among my family on a happy occasion, some thing for many reasons I had not experience for a long time.

Natasha Pettard was born 1978 with family abode Ash Surrey.  I look back now and regret missing so much of her up bringing, but life points in different ways for us all and time passes almost without notice, it’s the present time that matters and what one does with it.  I well remember her giving us all the biggest scare imaginable, I believe I was at work when I got the call that she had been rushed to Great Ormond Street hospital for children in London, brain hemorrhage was suspected with immediate surgery needed. Marc had alerted his parent to the fact that Natasha was acting differently and so helping to a speedy recognition of the situation.  It was some what of a sobering and silent journey to London that evening not sure of what to expect but I remember with relieve to all when the news was encouraging.

Natasha married Paul Underdown in 2004 at Guildford Surrey, the wedding I was unable to attend due to lack of US immigration paper work. The following year Hannah Underwood was born and the world would not be quit the same for some. Hannah has that personality that all about radiates to her with an air of self assurance that the Queen would find hard to match.  Jennifer Underwood was born 5 Dec 2007 and I’m pleased to say that for once I was there along with my wife Barbara, and from the photograph in front of me I would say she does not have a care in the world, how could she with a sister like Hannah to help out.

I am please to announce that as of writing, Natasha gave birth to a baby boy, William Henry Underdown born May 2011.

                                  

Guildford High Street and its famous Clock.        Guildford Cathedral.