by Julie Heginbotham

To any Enid Blyton fan, Green Hedges, Enid’s home in Beaconsfield from 1938 to 1968 was the most famous address known to them.

A letter from “Five on Kirrin Island Again”.  “Green Hedges” is at the top right. From the Cave of Books at http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk

On all of my 60s hardback dust jackets of the Famous Five by Hodder & Stoughton, is part of that famous address on a letter heading on the rear cover.But it wasn’t until many, many years later, as an adult, that I was able to see exactly what Green Hedges looked like, and that was from a black and white photo in a book titled The Enid Blyton Dossier by Tony Summerfield and Brian Stewart. I loved the house as soon as I saw that photo, a lovely architect designed house of character with a partial mock Tudor look.  The saddest part for me was the photo was an auction one, for the house stood empty, alone and deserted of love, waiting for someone to buy it and bring it back to life once more. But even more sadness was to fall on Green Hedges, for it was purchased by developers and was demolished in 1973 to make way for a housing development, which is there now to this day, on Blyton Close. For me two words describe what happened to Green Hedges, and those words are ‘criminal’ and ‘greed’!

But I could see the beauty of that house, and it inspired me so much that I just had to paint a watercolour from the photo. I took advice of the colours from Barbara Stoney’s book Enid Blyton the Biography and Imogen Smallwood’s book A Childhood at Green Hedges.  When the watercolour was finished, I then had a Wentworth wooden jigsaw of 250 pieces made up from the painting.

Julie’s watercolour of Green Hedges, photo by Julie.

I took the jigsaw to an Enid Blyton Day in 2009 and happily for me, Imogen Smallwood, Enid’s youngest daughter, bought one.  The following year at the 2010 Enid Blyton Day I met Imogen once again, and she came up to me and said – “Julie, thank you so much for the jigsaw, I spent a lovely few hours during the winter months doing it. It was so pleasurable.” You can imagine just how overjoyed I was at Imogen’s words to me.

Upton Leigh, Julie’s own picture of Green Hedge’s next door neighbour that was has not been affected by the redevelopment.

I have been to Beaconsfield, and stood at Blyton Close, where Green Hedges once proudly stood, and have walked a short way down Penn Road to see if the house that stood next door to Green Hedges – Upton Leigh – was still standing. It was. I took a photo of the entrance to Upton Leigh, just as a reminder that it once was a neighbour to Green Hedges.

Julie’s jigsaw nearly complete, with the specially shaped pieces around the edges.

Green Hedges may not be around any more, but I see it every day as it hangs on my wall, a reminder of one of the most famous houses in the literary world.