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Chesham Stories

Yolanda 'Lola' Richards (née Matto) - Schooldays

In September 1941, shortly before my fourth birthday, I started attending Chesham Bois School, which was located a little way down Bois Lane below our house. The reality of war was ever with us, even as children, as we had to take our gas-masks to school with us, and had a daily drill on how to use them. Fortunately that aspect of the war never actually touched us, but we were prepared. This photo is of myself and my Dad in his army uniform, both wearing our masks. I think at 3 years old I looked on it as a sort of game.

I remember that Miss Knight was our Headmistress, and I had a very kind classroom teacher - I think her name was Miss Weedon. I can still 'see' the alphabet printed up on the wall charts for us to learn how to make our letters.

Food was in very short supply during the war, and fresh fruit was almost unknown. Well one day somebody brought a real strawberry to school - and it was the equivalent of 'Show and Tell' in the playground! Most of us had never seen one before, and it was passed around from one grubby hand to another so that everyone could have a lick to find out what it tasted like!

We used to spend ages out in the playground scooping up the gravel into lines to make walls and doorways etc. so we could play 'house'! Of course we played all the other games as well - skipping, bouncing balls against the school walls, etc. - each with their accompanying rhyme or song! One singing game had a special meaning for me - 'Oranges and Lemons' - where two of you made an arch and the others would run through underneath until one was caught.

'Oranges and Lemons'...say the bells of Saint Clement's,
'You owe me five farthings'...say the bells of Saint Martin's,
'When will you pay me?'...say the bells of Old Bailey,
'When I grow rich'...say the bells of Shoreditch,
'When will that be?' ...say the bells of Stepney,
'That I don't know'...says the big bell of Bow

After leaving Chesham Bois School, I attended Townsend Road School in Chesham. I was fortunate to have a great teacher, Miss Wheeler, who really encouraged me, and coached me so that I passed the dreaded 11-plus exam to be allowed into Grammar School! She was a very special lady in the Community also, being a tireless worker for the St John Ambulance Brigade. I was delighted many years later to hear that she had been awarded the OBE for her wonderful service!

One of the big celebrations of the year at Townsend Road was the May Day Festival, at which a May Queen was chosen. A funny memory comes to mind about when I went to school in Chesham. After we finished for the day, we would walk down to the bus stop to catch the bus back home, and there just happened to be a sweet shop right there, nice and handy! Well, not having much pocket money, I and my friends used to buy the wafers that they put each side of ice cream sandwiches. These cost a farthing each, so you could get several. And sometimes we bought lemonade powder in a little cone of wax paper (you licked your finger and dipped it into the powder, then sucked it, thus ending up with a bright yellow finger!) Or else sherbert powder which went all fizzy in your mouth! Oh yes, and licorice stems which you chewed on for ages until they went soft, and then you could suck on them for hours! Ah, the delights of childhood!

Also in Chesham, I remember spending happy hours in Lowndes Park. One time our school took a Nature Walk there, studying all the different kinds of trees, their leaves and bark. I also seem to think there was a Barrow there, (a sort of hump in the ground was all you could see) which had been a communal grave during The Great Plague - I can't recall much about it.

Yolanda 'Lola' Richards (née Matto), born 1937
Read more on Lola's web site.

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