Photo: Francis Frith
Damian Thompson has been unravelling the mystery of bloggerists and tweeters who have been involved in a byzantine plot, posting information and counter-information about Jacob Rees-Mogg, conservative MP for North Somerset. See: Updated: Jacob Rees-Mogg denies allegations of meeting wife in frozen fish department of Sainsbury's, Cheam
My personal interest in the story comes in with the question of the location of the Sainsbury's and the mention of North Cheam. I am proud to say that I was in fact born in North Cheam - at 139 Henley Avenue to be precise, at 9.30am on 1 July 1958. Along with G K Chesterton, I assert this information
"Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment..."I was moved to Croydon, along with my older brother and sisters, at about the age of one, so I am unable to comment on the location of shops at the time, though I was delighted to discover the above photo which shows the North Cheam Cross Roads shortly after I was translated.
In Rome, the Gregorian University and other bodies had us fill in forms which routinely asked for "Luogo di nascita" (place of birth.) I always used to put down "Cheam Septemtrionalis."
8 comments:
Well, its a small world. We lived at 12 Frogmore Close, North Cheam from 1966 to 1976, which I guess is less than half a mile away from 139 Henley Avenue. I probably had to walk past the house twice every Sunday in order to sing at the Eucharist and Choral Evensong in St Oswald's, North Cheam, and every day during term time to go to Cheam Park Farm Infants & Junior Schools.
I must stop. I'm getting nostalgic!
I never really investigated whether we were in what Tony Hancock reffered to as "Cheam - the posh part."
Small world indeed. Another chorister at St Oswald's here.
I have to point out, though, that you were definitely the wrong side of the tracks for poshness. That's reserved for south Cheam (where I went to school at Nonsuch High).
When I were a lad, the border between North Cheam and Cheam Village always used to start at the junction of Tilehurst Road and Malden Road just by the second entrance to Nonsuch Park. So 139 Henley Avenue, and the whole of the Park Farm Estate, would definitely not have been in the posh part.
The other test was whether you used to see Labour posters in the window at election times. I don't think I ever saw a single one in Cheam Village, though I occasionally did in North Cheam, especially near the border with the Socialist Republic of West Sutton!
Incidentally, appropos of Rees-Mogg, I can remember when what is now the Sainbury's in North Cheam was a cinema with an organ that used to come up through the floor at the half time interval. This was as recently as 1970!
My Grandparents lived on Malden Rd and my Grandfather was the Headmaster of St Cecilia's Primary School which is there abouts, from the early 50s til he retired in about 1972.
My other claim to fame is that I saw Rees-Mogg in the Oxford Union in the early 90s. Dazzling anecdote.
Isn't North to East Cheam a little like North Lewisham to Blackheath, Father?
Leutgeb - my father taught at St Cecilia's and my sisters were at school there for a bit. We moved to Croydon because my father got the job of Head at St Mary's Primary. At least I think that is what happened :-)
I assert this information "Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment..."
Funnily eno' it seems to be Martin Luther who first made this joke.
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