I am writing this article on the 80^th anniversary of VE day (8 May 1945) so it seems only fitting to look back on Chrishall’s experience of the Second World War.  When I was a child in the 1960s, memories of the war were still vivid and its legacy, the Cold War, very much part of the background to our lives.  It seems to me to bring the war years to life to think about their impact on individuals in our own communities.  No lives were left untouched by the experience of being at war and Chrishall very much played its part in the war effort.

Mrs Cranwell’s scrapbook, entitled Chrishall History, and compiled from the 1950s when wartime memories were very fresh, is a wonderful source for the war years. Fourteen evacuees from Tottenham were welcomed into village homes and with their teachers shared the rather cramped school facilities.  For a while the Chrishall children were taught in the mornings and the London children in the afternoons!  There is a lovely letter in the Archive, written by an evacuee to a Chrishall resident in 1957, in which she describes how her time in our village gave her a lifelong love of the countryside.  It must have seemed like another world to children who had grown up in the hustle and bustle of London.  Another evacuee, Norman Sherry, sent a wonderfully detailed account of his experiences to Mrs Cranwell in 2002, which you can read here. our.  It is very clear from his account that his years in our rural community left him with very many fond memories and some lifelong friends. There are some great anecdotes, including memories of a German plane coming down in Elmdon woods, scrumping for apples in Pigg’s orchard and the weekly Weeden’s bus service to London, which sometimes brought parcels from home.    

Chrishall rose to the wartime challenge on the Home Front.  Under the direction of the Royal Air Force, local men manned the Observation Post that was put up at the corner of Hertford Lane, where there would have been an excellent view of passing aircraft.  The two-storey concrete structure is still there and can just be spotted half hidden in undergrowth.  There was a Chrishall Civil Defence Corps and an impressively large cohort of men formed the Chrishall Home Guard (see photographs).  Many familiar local names are represented in these organisations.   

Remembrance Day soldier silhouettes

Many of you will have noticed these silhouettes dotted around Chrishall, Chrishall Grange and Builden End during the weeks before Remembrance Day. They represent the eight men lost in the First World War of 1914-18, whose names are remembered on the War Memorial in the centre of the village.  Many are positioned close to the home the soldier once lived in.  

These silhouettes, supplied and maintained by Chrishall Archive Group,  are a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by our own community in that terrible war.  If you would like to make a donation to the upkeep of these lovely silhouettes please get in touch.

Sarah Cahill.