May Baigent b 1919.

May moved to Wood Street  aged 8 to a new house called Sunny Side on Oak Hill opposite the School.   In c1927 it cost £500.  Her father was William John Baigent & her mother Ada.

The Baker Family

See the Yellow Book for more details:  First recorded in 1625, a wealthy John Baker left his 40 acres farm to his son Henry Baker. Later, Russel Place Farm and Littlefield Manor were recorded in their family.

John Baker

Lived at Sunnyside (opposite the scholl) from 1949 to 1951 & attended the village school.  The father George was a policeman. Mother Joyce and sister Joan.

Children in the photo John & Joan Baker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Peter & Terry family

Peter Baker ran Jubilee Stores. His son Terry was well known in the village as his assistant.

Roy Baxendale.

Wood Street cricket club committee member.  Each year as part of the cricket club awards, the Baxendale Shield is awarded to the fielder of the year.

Anita Ball b1931 d 2003.

Went to Wood Street school and gained a scholarship to the County Grammar School.  As a child she remembers:  Mrs Crick the post lady & how her two sons were posted as missing in action but to great relief they both turned up safely.   Tom Denton the bus driver who drove the little blue bus ( Crouch’s )from the Green to Guildford every hour. There were two other buses then, the Aldershot Green bus and the Camberley Yellow bus.  The Langford family-owned steam engines used for harvesting crops, hired by local farmers.  Sid the Publican of the Hare & Hounds was a very portly man.

Pam Bole. B 1933 d 2009

Pam lived at 1 White hart Lane from when it was built in 1957. She was a teacher in the village school from 1962 & had two children, Paul, Stephenie & Robert.  Her husband Ken ran a Pool maintenance service from home.   She recalls the headmaster Mr Warner & other teachers from the school, Miss Diamond, Mrs Porter, & Mrs Rochester. & Ajay Dalal, a local child at the school who became a consultant cardiologist in Memphis USA.  Molly Boxall now Jones, was a child minder that allowed busy mums to go to work knowing the children were in safe hands.

Boyton or Boytoen Family

Thomas John Boyton & Elizabeth nee Wookey both died 1929.  They had 11 children between 1904 and 1923. They attended the village school. Daisy b1904, Thomas, Percy, Ruby, Cyril, John, Donald, Peggy, Peter, Betty b 1923.

Steve Bradley.

Well known to readers of the Sun’s Gardening page and of the books he has co-authored with his wife. A former lecturer at Merrist Wood College he worked with children to produce a huge pyramid of colour at the Chelsea Flower show 2004.

Stephen Bradley – Wood Street Village

 

Len Alfonso Brown b 1919 d 1994

Len, known as Fonso, was born in Wood Street Village, lived at 2 Primrose Cottages, now Willow Cottage, His mother ran the Post Office from the house. He attended Wood Street School until he was 14 & then became an apprentice carpenter. During the war he was in the Royal Tanks Corps as a wireless operator & in the D Day landings. He met Joan who was in the Women’s Land Army, and they married in 1948. Daughter Rosemary.  He worked as a builder with R Holford & Co. the whole of his working life. He was a parish councillor, British Legion Secretary & helped build the Legion’s Hall on the Green, ran the football club, Hort. Soc. Member for 45 years and Normandy Cricket Club member.  His father lived in the village from c1913 and was killed in action in the first world war before Len was born.

Joan Brown died in 2004 aged 84. She worked at Kemps nursery for nearly 30 years spending the mornings there. She was secretary of the British Legion for 30 years, keen gardener and supporter of village events.   Photo Len & Alice Brown outsode Primrose/Willow Cottage c 1920.  Primrose/Willow cottage was divided into two at that time with the Gaffs living next door.

Len Brown & Sid Pearcse c 1930 outside Inholms

 

The Honourable Victor Austin Bruce b 1897  d 1978.

 One of 9 children to Lord Aberdare.  Moved to Wood Street in 1959 after retiring from an illustrious career.  At 17 he joined the students’ battalion, saw service in the Army Transport Corps, the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) & Marines. Finally seconded to Gwyn’s at Hammersmith manufacturing aero engines. After the war in 1919 he became a test driver for AC Motor Company driving in numerous rallies.  He raced ACs, Aston Martins and Alvis’. In 1924 he was the first man to drive to the 1km summit of Snowdon in his AC 6-cylinder car using the mountain train track. In 1926 he drove his small AC convertible from John O’Groats to Monty Carlo in 4 days in Winter, on rough roads to win the Monty Carlo Rally.  He married Peggy in 1941.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colin ML Bruce, b1944 d 2012

Colin moved to Little Inholms in Wood Street in 1959 aged 15. He did an electrical engineering apprenticeship and worked at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough for 15 years before moving to British Telecom. His father Victor Bruce won the Monty Carlo Rally. After Victor died in 1978 Colin & his mother Peggy moved across the road to 1 Frog Grove Lane.  Latterly he enjoyed being a minibus driver taking children to school and then for GBC delivering meals on wheels.

 

Cyril Burrows b c1907   d1972

Cyril owned the bungalow ‘Anchorage’ on Frog Grove Lane in the 1940s.. This was a market garden where a friend Roy Edmonds used to look after the estate while Roy was away a lot.  Cyril & Ivy Critchlow nee Shooter, had a son, Peter Barry, brought up by adoptive parents..

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