Don's Story - In His Own Words

Construction

Introduction to London Road Introduction
Time Line Time Line
Residents of Loughton Residents
London Road Landmarks Landmarks
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RE-CONSTRUCTION OF WATLING STREET

The Watling street was re-constructed from Fenny Stratford to Loughton and through to Stony Stratford in the early 1930's-middle 1930's. And Loughton was to be bypassed, which it now is. But the bypass was not completed until 1955 because the 2nd World-War came. Although the constructors had already built part of what is now the fly-over, they were unable to complete the bridge and the rest of the road because of war-time conditions.

WIMPEY'S HILL

The Embankment which goes up to the bridge-the modern bridge, because Wimpey's were the contractors for the whole project, so the mound at the back of what we think of as the old Co-op(where the chemist and the Post-Office used to be). That embankment was known for many years as Wimpey's Hill. As children, we used to play on it.

CONCRETE BRIDGE

Another thing about the construction of the "New Road-Project" (from Fenny to Stony) was heavily talked about in the neighbourhood because the construction of it was concrete, and this was I'm sure talked about, in the older generation, as being something quite new. Prior to that, all roads were constructed of stone, shingle, anything that can be laid on fairly locally, as a base, and gradually built-up to a thickness and then covered with cinders and eventually covered with tar and stone. But the concrete was done in sections and it was quite talked about.

At that time steam-traction was still the way of transporting heavy materials by road. The bridge which is over the brook between Furzton and The Bowl, you can see till this day has holes in the side. Whereas prior to that date, often the steam-engines would replenish their water supply in what was known as the "spring" outside the Fountain. This of course would be out-of-bounds when the new road was going through. The constructors and planners, in their wisdom decided when they built the bridge over the brook, at Furzton, that they would have to put holes in the wall, so that the traction engines wishing to replenish their water-supply could poke their supply pipes through the hole into the brook..

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Loughton Middle School Clutch Club is one of the first round of clubs funded by awards from the Millennium Commission. Each club consists of 5 parents of school-age children, in this case Charlotte Cashman, Bernadette Gill, Dave Johnston, Mumtaz Ladak and Gill Sloyan.

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