A century of change through Hilda's eyes

Mar 31 2010 By Suzy Talbot

Hilda Warinton

A WOMAN who knew Chertsey as a rural farming area, saw it survive World War Two and emerge as a commuter town, has died at 95.

Hilda Warinton as born in Gogmore Lane on April 4 1915, one of three children of George and Lilian Church.

Her father owned a poultry farm as well as a factory in Ottershaw called Curfew Appliances, which is now a garden centre. It was here Hilda saw the beginnings of change in Chertsey, including watching her father's landlady build a Post Office in Little Green Lane.

Hilda went to Stepgates School in Chertsey before leaving to become a cook for a wealthy family in Cranleigh, where she enjoyed many luxuries such as being taken to The Ritz in a Rolls Royce.

One of Hilda's abiding memories of the area was on November 30, 1936 when she stood on St Ann's Hill with her future husband Arthur and watched the Crystal Palace fire. It was here they stood again once they were married and watched the Germans bomb London.

Hilda and Arthur were married on December 26 1938 in St Peter's Church in Chertsey and moved to Devonia” in Vincent Road where there only son John was born in 1951.

When war broke out, Hilda took in evacuees and worked on her father's farm where German prisoners of war were used to help the war effort.

Arthur worked in the Ottershaw factory, making incubators for the developing world and dummy aircrafts to use as decoys. During one of the many air raids, Vincent Road was hit and the roof of Hilda’s bungalow was blown off. She spent the night looking after the wounded as they were brought into her hall.

After 62 years of marriage, Arthur died of a heart attack on November 2 1991.

Hilda continued to live in Little Green Lane, in the property her and her husband had renovated, until September 12 2006 when at 91 years-old she moved to Villeréal in SW France.

Hilda died at home in the early hours of Wednesday, March 31. The funeral service will be held in Tonneins, Lot et Garonne at 11am on 3 April 2010. Flowers from close family only, but donations to Amicale des Sapeurs-Pomoiers de Villeréal, a voluntary organisation which deals with medical emergencies, accidents and fires.

Cheques can be sent to her solicitor: Andrew Boxall, Barlow Robbins LLP, Concord House, 165 Church Street East, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6HJ.