Gerrards Cross

For three years, about 1972 to 1975, we lived in village called Gerrards Cross, about 20 miles west of London. We lived in a neat old house called Nettleton House. The house had originally been on grounds so large that the tennis courts at the bottom of the garden were sold off and two houses placed on it, and the garage and orchard on the side of the house got sold off and another house placed there.

The really amazing thing is that 30 years later, my memory still worked perfectly. I found the footpath I used to take to school, my old Doctor's house near the High Street, and a vast bomb crater hidden in the woods that was still relatively fresh 30 years ago when I lived there--now a beautiful wooded dell. I did everything using long dormant memories, and to my surprise, they were dead-on.

A half-block from where we lived was the "Chiltern-Chesire Home for the Incurable." It is now a nursing home.	Sort of a slantways view of the house....it is the part on the right.	The house they built on the garage and the orchard.	The front of Nettleton House, or Cadogan House as it is now known. Straight in front of the gate you can see where they bricked up the original front door, which was kind of stupid.
Front-right view. The main front door is now through the Conservatory on the side of the house. The driveway didn't exist in my time...it was beautiful hedges all the way across, and very private.	One of my pseudo-wide-angle shots from my digital camera. Not very effective, as the chopped-off car shows.	The side or "tradesmen's" entrance.	A neighbor's house.
The footpath I took to get to school. These paths are about 2 1/2 feet wide.		It's easy to miss the signs and entrances unless you know what to look for.	The busy intersection I had to cross to get to my bus stops.
Yes, a real English public telephone booth.	The bus stop where I got dropped off in the afternoon.	The pick-up spot was just on the edges of a wooded area.	A Pub that I could never go in when we lived there, because I was too young. This time, it was closed, so I still couldn't go in. Some things never change!
Hidden back in the wooded area I remembered there was a huge bomb crater...	Eerily, I walked straight to it, after 30 years...	Now a beautiful overgrown wooded dell.
6 miles to school.	The sign announcing Gerrards Cross.	The new home of the Chiltern Cheshire Home...	...note they no longer say "For Incurables or Severely Handicapped."
Alas, large ugly apartment complexes have appeared in Gerrards Cross.	Looking towards the end of the High Street.	My old Doctor's house. The entrance to the house was on the left; the entrance to his practice was on the right. This is looking through a large hole in his outer hedge.	The Gerrards Cross High Street.
Yuck! Sleepy Gerrards Cross now has a GNC! Capitalism has a lot to answer for!	It seemed so strange to see cell phone towers sticking up in the middle of Gerrards Cross.	The theater where I saw 2001, The Computer That Wore Tennis Shoes, The Worlds Greatest Athlete, Sleeper, and Bananas is still there. Saturday mornings we'd watch cartoons and Flash Gordon serials for 50p.	W.H.Smith, the stationery shop, is still there, still in the same place.
From the middle of the railroad bridge, looking down the tracks.	The train tracks basically cut the village in half.	The other half of the High Street.	The old Post Office getting a face lift. It's probably been essentially unchanged for a hundred years.
Looking back along the far side of the High Street back towards the railroad bridge.	The station. One difference is they have a touch-screen ticket machine instead of a human ticket agent.	Looking up towards High Wycombe.	Looking down towards London.
Sometimes it is the verbiage that strikes you as strange, like "Way Out".	The station sign.