Felling the trees for the VE Day bonfires

I was born at the top end of Twickenham Road in the late thirties and lived there till 1962. … Have great memories of Finchley Road park and the park keeper `Moses`. In my early youth I helped deliver bread of a Saturday helping the Rolands Bakery roundsman, we covered most of the addresses from College Road up to Kings Road. Twickenham Road was completely tree lined right up to these celebrations when most were then cut down to feed the bonfires. The ingenious way they were felled might interest you. During the war, and for a couple of years after, large tins of corn beef were available they were opened using a key which was attached to a tag on the side of the tin and, by turning the key, a strip of metal was peeled from the around the tin. This strip was an excellent wood cutting saw, you could fell a sapling in just a few minutes.