From Len Hall................Perth.............Western Australia..............15th September 2008

Hello Richard,

And so we meet again after an absence of several years, I have looked through every nook and cranny of the website and I think it is much improved since the last time I looked, I am so glad that you kept it going.

As you are aware I still yearn for all things pertaining to Walthamstow as it was even though I have lived in various parts of Australia now since 1970; at present and for the past 32 years I have lived in Perth in Western Australia.

Over the past few years I have made contact with several old Markhouse Secondary School friends, either via Friends Reunited or via adverts in the local newspapers.

I am sad to report that one old mate named Arthur Brown of Callis Road, whom I found in Launceston in Cornwall passed away last month, we had met up last year in Newquay for a reunion after a gap of 55 years so all was not lost.

Although I have no wish to visit my old haunts such as Markhouse road and the high Street I still think about such places from time to time.

For many years I lived in a flat above and behind a shop near Davies Dairy on the corner of Markhouse road and Ringwood Road. Access was via the alleyway that went from Ringwood road to the vacant land behind the Common Gate Pub on the corner of Queens Road opposite the Lighthouse Church.

I realise that the area and the populace has changed a great deal since I lived over there and I sometimes wonder how you stalwarts can still live over there, if the television series ‘The Bill’ is an example I know I couldn’t. In my youth the Teddy Boys and Mods and Rockers were the worst that one had to endure.

However much to my chagrin I do have a son who has chosen to live in Sussex, and bring up his family there so I am doomed to visit them every few years and experience the UK way of life once again.

There are still many names that I recall from my schooldays and if anyone would like to contact me they can do this by email via :-

lcpmhall@bigpond.com

I was in classes that were taught by Miss Townsend, Mr Bowyer and Mr Easton was the headmaster at the time I left school in 1951.

Len Hall.