I don't know much about the history of Hill House, wrote Ray Crawley, but obviously it is much older that the LCC estate built around it. It must have been a very nice private residence before the builders moved in to create the St Helier Estate.

It was used, and I believe still is, as a sort of community centre run by the local council. I remember a vet having premises on the first floor. The grounds were large and had some lovely 'conker' trees!

We used to climb in over the back railings with some heavy sticks, which we threw up to bring down the conkers. It was quite a thrill to split open the prickly green shell to find the glistening brown conker inside. (See photo below.)

These were then drilled through the centre to enable a string to be threaded through, then you were ready to play. It was considered cheating to soak them in vinegar, or to bake them in the oven. It is very nice to see that there are still conker fans in this country and that they run a world championship!

The residents' association used to run a Christmas Loan Club here, which meant a weekly visit to pay in our subs. At the beginning of the year you would state how many shares you wanted, which would cost 6d each (that is about 2.5 pence decimal). I used to have five shares for 2/6d a week.

During the year you were allowed to take out a loan, say £20 for holidays, which you then paid back with a small interest added; this was how the money in the bank increased.

Come December it was payout time! We all went down on a certain evening to collect our savings for the year. The more loans that had been made the more we got back per share. It was great having some money for Christmas. I doubt if the club is still going.

Just across the road was the school that all my family and I attended: the Holy Family Catholic School. You started the school in the nursery, going right through the school until you left in the seniors! So you had the same mates right through the school.

During the war, the playground was ripped up and they built about 20 air raid shelters. These were marvellous to play on: we use to have races over them. Eventually there were only about fifty pupils of us there while the evacuations were going on.

We had no lessons, for we were in the playground all day except for the air raids when we were hurried down the shelters. I was evacuated with my sister in 1944.

Conkers (from horse chestnut trees). To find out more about the schoolboy game of conkers, click on the picture.