they went on either to Debden Slade or to the Stubbles for games,
donkey rides and such-like amusements.
One occasion of note was when the retreat was visited by the
Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) and his brother the Duke
of York (later King George VI). The royal visitors succeeded in knocking
down a number of nuts at the shy and these were awarded as prizes in
a race on the Stubbles, in which all the children took part. The coco-
nut shy was operated by Bob Harrington and his wife looked after the
swings and the donkey rides. At the close of the day the children
walked back to Loughton station where the special train, having been
brought from the siding reloaded and returned to its starting point.
Whilst the children were provided with an enjoyable day the people of
Loughton were perhaps not quite so delighted for after the departure
of the party the local water cart was sent along the same route to wash
down the roadway. An alternative method of bringing the children was
by brakes each drawn by four horses and they were often accompanied
by a cornet player to enliven the journey. On these occasions the
horses were stabled for the day at the Crown, the Royal Oak and other
public houses with stabling available. The Shaftesbury retreat closed
at the outbreak of the Second World War and the building was
enlarged and converted to serve as emergency accommodation for
air-raid casualties. After the war, the building was used for various
commercial purposes before being demolished. The site is now
occupied by residential development.
As we have seen at some of the retreats provision was made for
various amusements of a "fair-ground" type such as the galloping
horse roundabouts, bicycle roundabouts, swings and helter-skelters.
There were often coco-nut shies, donkey or pony rides and a number
of subsidiary stalls at which novelties, sticks of rock, lemonade,
sweets or hokey-pokey could be purchased. These supplementary
items were not usually provided by the owners of the retreats but by
local people in conjunction with or by license of the retreat. We have
seen that the Harringtons provided the items at the Shaftesbury
retreat. At Theydon Bois the hokey-pokey stall was furnished by Mr.
and Mrs. Glasscock who made their wares in the yard of the retreat.
When they ceased doing so the ice-cream supplies were provided by
Tom Allworthy who was then using part of Guy's retreat as his factory.
W. Lynch had a toy shop and a number of penny-in-the-slot machines
in a corner of Theydon Retreat, George and Prudence Street provided
rides around Theydon Green in a "Victoria" at 2d per ride, whilst Rose
Street supplied still lemonade from a roadside stall at 1d per glass. The
water supply was obtained from and had to be carried from the retreat,
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