1955 & Prior - The Cricketers Etc

The Cricketers c1955
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

I was born in 1947 (a home birth) in Grove End cottage which was, and still is, located pretty much across the London Road and railway line from the Cricketers pub. Although I've never been inside the pub, I have on occasion as a child, watched cricket with my Dad at the weekends. I notice on the satellite map that the cricket pitches are still there - the photo must have been taken on a day of play as ant-like figures are clearly visible, dotted all around the grounds.
Many things have changed over the years - Grove End was once surrounded by dairy farms run by Arthur Knight and Jack Wooldrige. These farms are now gone - one a golf course, the other an industrial estate. The woods near the railway station which in spring were strewn with blue bells, today play host to a housing development and major roads now criss-cross the old farm landscape.
The Pantiles Tea Rooms which once existed further along the London Road from the Cricketers have long gone together with the attached swimming pool my Mum used to take me to. They were turned into a night club where, in my twenties, I returned with old work colleagues to celebrate a friends wedding.
Next door to the Cricketers is Bagshot Park which of course still remains together with its royal residents. I recall going to a fete either there or Penny Hill Park and winning first prize in the fancy dress - I used the prize money to buy my Mum a set of 3 of those awful flying ducks which she dutifully hung on the wall!
At the age of 8 I moved to Camberley and I've posted childhood and teen memories of my haunts along the London Road between the Blue Pool and Duke of York Hotel. I now live in Australia on North Stradbroke Island off the Queensland coast near Brisbane - we all change and move on! Some things however never change, such as great memories....