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Aspley Guise
Aspley Guise photos
Displaying the first of 8 old photos of Aspley Guise. View all Aspley Guise photos
Aspley Guise maps
Historic maps of Aspley Guise and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Aspley Guise maps
Aspley Guise area books
Displaying 1 of 6 books about Aspley Guise and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Aspley Guise
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The Square at Christmas
The Square was lit up throughout Chrismas 2006. A Christmas Tree was installed in the centre and the surrounding buildings were adorned with gentle Chritmas lights. The day of 'lighting up' was attended by a large part of the community from the youngest to the most senior, and it was two of the latter who performed the grand switch on.
Bedfordshire memories
Buildings.
The buildings featured from left to right - (I do not know the history of the white house), then there are the pillars which are the entrance to the churchyard and mortuary chapel. The church, built in 1865, was used until 1980 for funerals only. It was then declared redundant and turned into a Heritage Centre. In the churchyard which is still used are the graves of several Second World War Canadian, Polish and English soldiers. Woburn Primary School is just around the curve in this photo. The entrance door is set in a wall and can be missed unless you know it is the school. Woburn School has a very long history having been built in 1582 by Francis, Earl of Bedford. Thirty five boys were to be taught reading, writing and accounts. In 1825 a school was started for girls and they were taught needlework and lacemaking. The school is still flourishing. The white house on the right... Read more
Shop Names And Trades.
The buildings from left to right are an antique shop, then a sweet shop that was full of the most delightful assortment of sweets all in glass jars and weighed out on brass scales into white paper bags. Then Dudeney and Johnston the grocers - they had man who went around the villages on his bicycle one day a week taking grocery orders which were then delivered by van to your door. The door with a canopy and small windows either side is a Bank, then Mr Jones's shoe shop. I think the two buildings leading to the corner were private houses. The double fronted building on the far right was a cafe.
Shop Names And Trades.
The buildings from left to right are the Post Office with Drakelow Press printing and bookbinding firm in buildings above and behind it. Established prior to 1827 by a Stephen Dodd, in 1951 it became known as Drakelow Press. The there is the Black Horse pub, a wool/haberdashery shop, a grocery shop, Gibbs and Dandy Ironmongers which was a treasure trove of nails, screws, string, buckets, mops etc. Then on the corner a cafe.
Ewe And Lamb, 17 Bridge Street, Leighton Buzzard
I was 10 years old in 1944, and my great-uncle Mr Arthur E. Sims was the occupier of the Ewe and Lamb Inn. I have found on this website that it is now home of the The Leighton Buzzard Observer! My uncle is listed in the Kelly's Directory of 1936. We had just come back from a brief stay with relatives in Edinburgh as a brief rest from the war. I remember seeing the canal, and on market days the people coming into the courtyard with carriages, or carts perhaps they were called. We stayd there for about three months before returnig to our home in Elm Park, Hornchurch. I remember washing up beer glasses! I went to school in Leighton Buzzard, I barely remember that. Although I remember twisting my ankle on cobblestones in courtyard. Actually quite magical altogether! My family all came to Canada in 1946.
My First Visit to Marston
The first time I went to Marston my boyfriend was taking me to visit his parents. I was 15 and he was 17. We caught a train from Bedford St John's and got off at Milbrook Halt. His family lived in a Brickyard home in "Jubilee Cottages". It wasn't as modern as my parents' council house as it had no hot water and an outside non-flush toilet. He thought that I was posh because we had two flushing toilets, one inside the house and one outside. His house had no bathroom either.
Back then the Brickyards were still working and I remember all of the chimneys in the skyline.
His family moved to Peterborough a few months later and we have only been back a few times since.
Hitler Gives us Another Week's Holiday
We'd had our usual five weeks school holidays when Hitler's Luffwaffe gave us another few days off. His bombers scampering back to the continent, after presumably bombing Midlands cities, jettisoned another, on Glebe land behind the school. The school was not directly hit, but the explosion shattered a few windows. 'HOORAY', another week off school. As far as we kids were concerned, the repairs could take forever, but in reality, it took just a week. Another abiding memory of Flitwick is of the old pond and the smithy next to the school. Neither exists any more, but when horse and cart moved goods around Flitwick, the smithy was kept busy shoeing those horses and I enjoyed leaning over the half door and watching him at the anvil. There was always something to linger over and watch around the pond, and when I eventually got home, Mum would give me a walloping on my backside for being so late. In those days, the school in Dunstable Road had two playgrounds, split by... Read more
