Archived News - High Street
Poplar trees being felled at the corner of Northall Road and High Street, circa 1950s
Photographer John Bodsworth
This was a very memorable event for me, watching the trees come down with my older brother Paul. I'm pretty sure date-wise this would be late 1953, 1954 or early 1955. (We moved to Park Lane, Eaton Bray in December 1952, I had just turned 5. The earliest this would have been would have been late 1953.)
The three bigger boys are the Clarke brothers (from L to R), Sammy, Brian and Freddy, who also lived in Park Lane. I'm unsure who the smaller boy in the middle on the left of the picture is.
The family that took the poplar trees down was Cecil Rose and his sons, one of whom was Brian. Brian drive a tractor that I got to ride on occasionally. When they took the trees down, because they were so large and so close to the house, Brian and his tractor were tied to the trees and when the each tree began to fall, Brian drove as hard as he could to make sure the trees fell clear of the house. They had at least one close call! As I said, I this was a very memorable event for me.
Article updated to reflect detail provided by Dawn Clarke in comments.
Source: Ron Evans