81st REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 25 March 2016

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

I found it very interesting,Vic, that there is a website of 2007 with daily excerpts from Samuel Pepys's diary [see reply 80]. I enjoyed reading this immensely, including the daily correspondence in relation to it, some of it amusing as well as instructive. I lament the fact that the complete set I had and which I kept in a garage was destroyed in a fire caused by one of the low life young people we have in our area whether by arson or accidentally from a dropped cigarette. I may one day replace them but in the meantime am thankful I have some shortened versions and Claire Tomlin's biography as well as the prize I was awarded at school (Pepys of Seething Lane).

82nd REPLY

NAME: Nick Dean   

DATE: 19 June 2016

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71

School for Scoundrels [reply 2 et seq] was shown again on BBC2 recently. I looked out especially for the scene with the two 107s and, with a bit of freeze framing, was pleased to note a street sign that said quite clearly, "Furzehill Road". One thing I didn't know two years ago (but no doubt others did) is that Janette Scott is the daughter of Thora Hird. Not sure I would have guessed. Though she was evidently born in Morecambe (whose art deco Midland Hotel, as frequented by Hercule Poirot, is worth a stay, by the way), her accent is impeccably SE.

83rd REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 23 June 2016

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

My wife Ayleen and I used the 107 bus once more on the occasion of the Founders Day just gone (18th June 2016).It was only from The Arkley to Barnet Church the one way and from Queens Road to The Arkley the other way. Besides getting on at the front and out in the middle, a variation from my school days, there is of course a sign indicator and voice declaration for the various stops. We have this on some of the buses where I live in Ludgershall, Wilts but the information in many cases does not co-ordinate with the actual stops. There are many examples of this. The announcement of the Memorial Hall, for example, is given for the stop before it, i.e. Tesco and Co-op shops. As for East and West Lodges we are still wondering where they are and indeed why they got these incorrect direction orientated names.

84th REPLY

NAME: Nick Dean   

DATE: 03 December 2016

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71

I came across this in the Evening Standard: 'What the bleeding hell am I doing here?' Dame Barbara Windsor turns up to the Christmas lights switch-on in Borehamwood, only to find them already twinkling.

85th REPLY

NAME: Nick Dean   

DATE: 05 December 2016

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71

Erratum: Having come back to this thread, I noticed that, in reply 16, I has assumed that Wrotham Park was the location for Brinkley Court (Dahlia Travers) in Jeeves and Wooster. However, a few months ago I saw an episode on Gold, which featured Chuffnell Hall, Lord Chuffnell's residence in Devon, which I recognised immediately as Wrotham (possibly from the numerous adaptations of Lady Chatterley that were filmed there). A glance on line seemed to confirm this, though it appears that Wrotham was used for some interior scenes at Brinkley. Wodehouse has a habit of using names more than once. In the Chuffnell episode, Bertie W took on a manservant called Brinkley because Jeeves, who went to work for Lord Chuffnell, had resigned due to his employer's habit of purporting to play the trombone. Lord Chuffnell was engaged to Pauline Stoker, a former fiancee of BW and one he was incredibly foolish to have let slip.

86th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 10 December 2016

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

Ah yes, Nick, re your 84th reply, Dame Barbara Windsor of course has had a long-time experience of Borehamwood considering her part being the landlady of the Queen Vic in Eastenders for so long. She was of course also in several Carry On films in her younger days, quite a different character altogether. I sometimes look again at them when shown on TV as a flavour of the old days, so different in many respects. Some of them still make me laugh a lot even if I can recite the script at the same time as the cast. Sid James was also a regular stalwart of the Carry On films and I may have mentioned already we Borehamwood Athletics Club athletes shouting out to him at the Red Lion "Hello there, Sid" when he walked past. He may or may not have given us his characteristic grin. In regard to Christmas decorations I do not know if Borehamwood has the same ones as last year. Here in Ludgershall the set up of lights is unchanged. As last year we have a lovely gold decoration shining out at night above our house and there is a twinkling Christmas tree in the rose garden next door. All this is very pleasant but not worth anyone travelling out of their way to see. Bless the town council anyway.

87th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 28 December 2016

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

As you have been writing about Jeeves and Wooster and the various houses featured in the PG Wodehouse books, Nick [85th reply], I thought I would mention my enjoyment watching Victoria Coren Mitchell on the BBC TV programme Only Connect expressing astonishment that some of the panellists had not read any of PG Wodehouse's books. She then quipped about the names of various roads Reginald Perrin walked from his house to the station saying "surely you at least recognize the location of these roads such as Tennyson Avenue and the others named after different poets?" There must be some books and programmes that ought to be enjoyed almost universally, though as was once said "There is no accounting for taste."

88th REPLY

NAME: Nick Dean   

DATE: 01 January 2017

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71

Thanks to Jas for his reply 87. I can't remember her exact words, but Victoria C added something to the effect that the Jeeves books were the finest ever written in the English language. As regards Reggie Perrin, I recognised Tennyson Avenue immediately and, had it been a round 1 question, would have scored maximum points. Unfortunately, it was round 2 and I couldn't remember that the last in the sequence was the unoriginal, but maybe obvious, Station Road.

89th REPLY

NAME: Nick Dean   

DATE: 02 January 2017

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71

Shortly after sending the reply 88 above I saw a remarkably interesting documentary on BBC4 about Queen Mary, consort of George V (the things you do when you're waiting to go out on New Year's Eve). It seems that HM took a close interest in the education of her granddaughter, the present Queen and was horrified to discover one year that her summer reading list, compiled by her mother, consisted of 17 novels, all of them by P G Wodehouse. Sounds like the sort of education I would have enjoyed (and privately did).

90th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 05 January 2017

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

Yes, Nick, reading PGW was part of my enjoyment at school too and not just in the summer holidays. I have also been known to read some of the Jeeves books to my wife, who clearly had a poor education at Nottingham High School for Girls, not having read any PGW, though she did also watch with me some of the TV episodes of Jeeves and Wooster, acted by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. I did read other authors' books, especially in the summer holidays, unlike the ex Queen Mother's list for HM The Queen. Getting through the whole of War and Peace by Mr Tolstoy in two volumes one summer holiday comes to mind. I have especially enjoyed the TV series of this due to having also read the books. Someone was arguing the point the other day reading the book first is the better way than vice-versa.

91st REPLY

NAME: Nick Dean   

DATE: 12 March 2017

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71

This picture of a 107A at the Arkley Hotel was posted on Facebook by a volunteer archivist at Barnet Museum.

92nd REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 16 March 2017

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

Ah yes, Nick, a similar photo might be taken today at "The Arkley" but more likely in colour in the age of predominantly colour photos. As it was so long ago I do not remember the difference between the 107 and 107A routes. Perhaps you or someone else, such as Vic with his extensive knowledge of bus types and past bus routes, might remind us of the difference. Of course now with the 107 route only going as far as New Barnet station rather than to Enfield we do not have the succession of buses going past Queens Road only as far as "The Arkley Hotel", as it then was called. I remember running home towards Borehamwood fairly often rather than waiting ages at the Queens Road stop for a bus going through to Borehamwood. I fairly often went the whole way home rather than using my bus pass, which I had due to living more than three miles to school. Do such passes for free travel still exist and how many now come to QEs from Borehamwood? This website appears to show that from 1947-72 the 107A ran only from Enfield Lock to Oakwood Mon-Sat but on Sundays took over the weekday 107 route from Oakwood as far as Borehamwood and later in that period as far as Edgware. For a few years in the '60s it also ran on Saturdays to Edgware and Queensbury. So it seems the photo was taken on a Sunday.

93rd REPLY

NAME: Derek Scudder

DATE: 18 March 2017

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1957-64

That view of the Arkley Hotel bought back a strong memory from 1965. I was returning home to Boreham Wood from Maws, where I worked at the time, on my first bike, a 250cc AJS, when I saw somebody I knew at the bus stop near the school. I stopped to give him a lift home but should have asked if he had been on a bike before. He plainly hadn't because, as I leaned into the corner at the Arkley, he leaned the other way. The net result was us heading straight towards the pub. I did manage to scrape round the corner but we were very lucky nothing was coming the other way. It was a very long time ago but fear does stay in one's mind, pretty much forever.

94th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 21 March 2017

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

Thanks for the website link, Vic, to the 107A route [see green footnote to reply 92]. As it only appeared at "The Arkley Hotel" on a Sunday and I did not travel on the route on other days it was not a service I have travelled on. I am glad to se the 107, 306 and 292 routes still survive in the Borehamwod/Barnet areas after 60 odd years from my schooldays, even if following different route plans. I found reference to passing Oakwood station and going to Southbury station of interest. These are stations I have no recall of knowing. Oakwood I should have remembered, as I used to live in Oakwood Avenue in Borehamwood in my schooldays and until around 1969. Southbury station is now run by London Overground and is on the Lea Valley line, formerly until 31 may 2015 run by Abello Greater Anglia. Queensbury station will probably be well known to Barnet FC fans, as being very near to the Hive Stadium, the fairly new football ground of Barnet FC. I could relate my own near misses and spills on motor bikes, Derek [reply 93], but I am glad the girl I used to take out behind me on my Honda 300cc Dream bike used always to lean the right way, as did my wife on my Suzuki bike later.