The above photo (1906)  should be compared to the one below, where the Church has appeared!

Here's the collection of PG wartime pics I have! Of course it would be fun for some of the aunties to tell us about about their memories of the war... Aunty Mary??

This last one is apparently a picture of Hazelwood Lane houses hit by a bomb. And below is a sign indicating the presence of the ARP Staff Shelter - Air Raid Protection, which (on top of the one at Broomfield House shown above) existed at the PG railway station, because this is a writing which apparently is still visible on the London-bound platform wall. I'll have to go there one day and see for myself!

These are the only pictures I'm sure about which concern PG, and I have found a few extra ones on the FB pages devoted to Enfield & PG, but I'm not sure they refer to the area:

Here you'll find the text which I am copying below (thanks for letting me!), the memories of a certain Martin Beckett telling about Wartime in Hazelwood Lane Infants school, where Auntie Olive used to be headmistress:

"We lived in Ulleswater Road, which was the first road in N14 Southgate, but was really much closer to Palmers Green N13. At age 5 and a few weeks I started at Hazlewood Lane Infants School in September 1944 and during my first term an incident occurred which I have never been able to identify for certain. One day during class our teacher suddenly told us to get under our desks as quickly as possible and take cover. As soon as we had done this there came the sound of a most enormous explosion not very far away. I'm sure it happened in that order, with the teacher's warning before the explosion and not the other way round.

Now I can remember my parents telling me about a German V2 rocket which landed on the railway line near Palmers Green station. I don't actually remember that rocket but it definitely happened and I know the date and time of its landing. However I'm certain that rocket was not what led to the incident at school. Firstly the V2 at PG station is reported in the official records as landing at about 6.45 p.m. which was well after school hours. I know that time is about right because a fragment of the railway track came though the roof of the house where one of my classmates lived, and she remembers it was in the evening before bedtime. The second reason why it could not have been a V2 is because no-one could hear or see a rocket coming and it would have been impossible for our teacher to warn us. Even the Germans when they fired off the rockets didn't know exactly where they would land.

One possible explanation which fits with my recollection of what happened is that the explosion during school hours was caused by a V1 flying bomb landing somewhere near Palmers Green. The V1s were known as ' buzz-bombs' because of the noise made by their jet motors, and when that noise stopped you knew the bomb was going to land close by within a few seconds. If what our teacher heard was the sound of a V1 engine cutting out then a warning to take cover could have been given. The problem is that, not for the want of trying, I have so far been unable to track down a date or time for V1s which landed in or near Palmers Green. There were several V1s within the Borough of Southgate which in 1944 also included Palmers Green. This information must exist somewhere. The date would probably have been fairly close to that of the known V2, which was 26 October 1944, otherwise it is unlikely that I would have remembered my parents telling me about that incident. If anyone reading this has the details, please post them here. Many thanks."  A memory shared by Martin Beckett , on Sep 20th, 2009.

Below is a picture of Cath talking part in the "Victory dance" - Broomfield Park?

And these contemporary pictures are of the Broomfield Park decontamination centre:

Check here for some explanations.

For those interested, lots of things about WW2 in the area to be found here: https://enfieldatwar.wordpress.com/

A post (the one hundredth!) dedicated to St Monica's parish church. Above, an aerial view of where the church would be built!

Here and there on the blog some pictures about Church practice have been posted (check this link, and that one): here you'll find them all assembled under one heading. Father Gallagher was Grandpa's priest when he started being active in the parish. We can see him in the picture below his portrait with people gathered to inaugurate St Monica's church in 1912.

And here he is in front of his church that same year:

My information tells me this is what the congregation looked like in 1914, just before WW1:

A view of the same, but modern:

This one is looking towards the exit:

And here are some pictures of the outside:

above was 1945

here's a more recent one:

Do you remember that our grandad used to be the church organist for a long time?

And here is a view of the organ, revamped in 2014 (check here):

We all know that some important family events took place in this church:

Here you'll find a summary of the history of the church: LINK

Did you know that before the church was built, there used to be a chapel, situated in Hazelwood Lane? I'm not sure its was RC though.

Apparently it got sold (after the Church was built?) and became a shop:

Above is a London bus blind which apparently can be bought on the net. As for the photos, I tried to post the pictures chronologically, but am not sure I have succeeded! I thought the presence  of a numbers of trees indicated a greater antiquity, and then only one was left.

Below a colourised version:

The last tree grew, grew, until...

...one day it was gone

Here you'll find that the Triangle used to be a meeting place for the suffragettes early in the century!! Here's an extract:

The Recorder
FOR PALMERS GREEN, WINCHMORE HILL AND SOUTHGATE.
JUNE 18th 1914. One Penny 

SUFFRAGETTES MOBBED AT PALMERS GREEN.

"Mrs. Pankhurst's Brother takes Refuge in Magistrate's House.

THERE were lively scenes at Palmers Green Triangle on Saturday night, when a party of local suffragettes was mobbed, and prevented from holding a meeting. Some of the London newspapers gave a rather exaggerated account of the affair, but the experience was a sufficiently unpleasant one for the suffragettes, and, but for the intervention of the police, would probably have been even more exciting. As it was, eggs and flour were thrown, Mr. Goulden, ex-secretary of the Winchmore Hill Ratepayers' Association, and a brother of Mrs. Pankhurst was knocked down, and one lady was roughly handled. Altogether, it was something rather more lively than the scenes to which staid and respectable Palmers Green is accustomed, something of the sort might have been expected, for on the previous Saturday, when the local members of the W.S.P.U. held a meeting the speakers were howled down, their voices being drowned by the singing of popular airs, including "Who killed Cock Robin?" and "God save the King".

Moreover, threats were made that future meetings would be prevented. The interrupters were as good as their word.

When the suffragette party, including Mr. Victor Prout and Mr. Goulden, arrived at the Triangle on Saturday last, they found a hostile reception awaiting them. The lady speaker who was to have conducted the meeting was late in arriving, and while the party were waiting, the crowd, which consisted largely of young men, began booing and indulging in horse play.

Someone bought a copy of a suffragist publication from a lady on the outskirts of the crowd, tore it up and jumped upon it. This caused a disturbance, in the course of which Mr. Goulden's hat was knocked off. Seeing Mr. Goulden bareheaded, the crowd closed upon him with cries of "Mrs. Pankhurst's brother," and in the rush he was knocked down.

Several policemen, both in uniform and in plain clothes, were present, and doubtless seeing that the crowd was bent on mischief, a police sergeant came to Mr. Goulden's rescue, and escorted him in the direction of Fox Lane, followed by a jeering mob."

Over the past months, I have collected enough old photos of BP swings, slides, seesaws and witch hats for me to open this dedicated post. So here goes.