And now on a lighter note…I knew that Wood Green Electricity would spark some memories and…..(excuse the puns)
Douglas Merritt (44) writes-
The CHERRY ORCHARD
John Hulford was kind enough to present his father's historical account of the electrical supply in Wood Green, written in 1951. (Newsletter June 2006). I am most grateful to him.
After 68 years, here was an explanation of why my father had to buy a new wireless set when we moved to a house only a few doors away from the Hulfords in 1938.
Number 19 Bounds Green Road had only DC supply when my father and mother arrived from Dulwich. I was seven-years-old but remember the crisis this caused. DC radios were not easily obtained and I believe they were more expensive. My Dad could not be without the BBC service and a new radio was purchased immediately. It was, I believe, made by Pye of Cambridge.
At one point Mr L J Hulford notes a new generating station was built in 1914 'on the site of an orchard at Ringslade Road'.
That orchard was full of cherry trees. Its extensive remains were at the rear of our garden and a mass of blossom greeted us when we arrived at No 19 in the spring, a year before WWII. The house was Georgian and a roof tile that was inscribed in its wet clay, 'Michael Hammonds 1776', is still treasured.
I estimate there were eighty to a hundred trees, in regular rows with grass between them. A wide green gate barred our entry to the orchard and the eight feet-high wall was too much for boys of 7 and 2 years old. My brother, John, (Trinity 48) and I finally grew tall enough to climb in and harvest what no one else seemed to covet.
Close by there were two large mulberry trees: One was in the Yardley's family garden at 27 Bounds Green Road and one was in the store-yard behind the Tottenham and District Gas Company showrooms at 3-5 Bounds Green Road. As my father worked for the company we indulged in mulberries as well as cherries. Mulberry stain is almost impossible to remove from the skin and our clothes never recovered.
Wood Green deserved its name in those years and our world seemed rural. The mass of cherry trees remained until the early 1950s. When they were cut down the whole area was asphalted over and huge electrical cable drums rolled into view, creating a surrealist landscape reminiscent of a Paul Nash painting.
In Chekhov's Cherry Orchard one of the old characters yearns for the ancient regime while the profligate and ineffectual landowners are unable to deal with the changing world. The orchard they own is finally lost.
The destruction of the Wood Green orchard had to serve the needs of the district but a last line of trees against the wall could have been preserved as a reminder of the past and to enhance the view.
