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Awre
Awre maps
Historic maps of Awre and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Awre maps
Awre photos
We have no photos of Awre, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Blakeney| Newnham| Soudley| Frampton On Severn| Sharpness| Littledean| Flaxley| Cinderford| Pillowell| Forest Of Dean| Lydney| Parkend| Berkeley| Cam| Lower Cam| Frocester| Ham Green| Coaley| Upper Cam| Dursley| Lydbrook| Uley
Awre area books
Displaying 1 of 10 books about Awre and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Awre
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Gloucestershire memories
Growing up
In the 1950s Lensbrook Tea Gardens became the site of Billy Thomas's scrap yard. I was born and brought up at Lensbrook and my mother used to work at the tea gardens. I was born in 1942 and I can never remember it being tea gardens. I used to play in the scrap yard with Billy Thomas's daughter Diane.
GROWING UP.
Lensbrook house and Lensbrook Tea Gardens are the same house. I lived in Lensbrook Cottage which was farther down the lane, from the time I was born until my marriage at 20 years old.
Family Evenings Out.
I cannot remember the exact years, about 1950, when my Mother and Father used to take me and my cousin for a walk from our house at Lensbrook Cottage through six fields (which is a public footpath), and arrive at Severn Bridge Hotel. We used to go into the clubroom and Mrs Gertie Harris, the Landlady would play the piano. This was a monthly event on a Sunday when the Coach parties used to come up from Wales because there weren't any Public houses open in Wales on a Sunday. We used to sit there listening to the music, with a glass of lemonade and a bag of crisps. Then when it closed walk the six fields back home. If I was lucky my Dad would give me a ride on his shoulders. I think this is what inspired my love of music. They were the good old days.
Holidays
It's just great to look at the old pictures of Blakeney's High Street, it seems almost like yesterday when I used to walk from my gran's house in the row of cottages where the railway bridge used to be. We used to go on holiday every year from our house in Haverhill, Suffolk. I remember it used to take nearly all day to travel by train to Gloucester, catching the early morning milk train. My cousins still live in the Forest of Dean and Lydney. I still remember sitting on the edge of the brook trying to catch fish and always being scared of the dark tunnel that led to the mill, I did not catch any fish but I suppose it kept me quite. My mum and dad were married in the church that is in the photo. I remember when we needed water we used to have a pump outside the back door which had to be primed before it would pump. The toilet was at the top... Read more
Unlawater Hotel
This hotel was owned by my mother Patricia Woods till around 1959. Newnham was a busy place then. H G Zeal had a themometer factory in the High Street.
Above the hotel was a dairy farm run by A.Jones (Dean Forest farm).
As a matter of interest, the name Unlawater translates to River of Sorrows and was from a time back in history when Lady Padget lived there and a member of the family drowned in the river.
Best wishes,
Rai Woods. (Captain)
My First Home
My parents owned Unlawater House from 1963 until the 1970s. It was their first house when they were in their twenties and they ran it as a private children's home. I spent the first eight years of my life there and have great memories of lunches in the garden.
They re-roofed it within the first five years of purchase. The council bought some of the land along the road to widen the road as it kept flooding as a result of the Severn tidal wave; they did eventually rebuild the pretty red brick wall which runs along the perimeter.
There were some beautiful trees in the garden (many of which have since been taken down), and a superb monkey tree which we used to decorate with coloured lights at Christmas.
School Days
I never knew the Prankherds owned it as they were the head and headmaster at St Hilliards in Mickleton, dark secrets.
