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Benham Valence
Benham Valence maps
Historic maps of Benham Valence and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Benham Valence maps
Benham Valence photos
We have no photos of Benham Valence, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Newbury| Kintbury| Cold Ash| Chieveley| Thatcham| Hermitage| Peasemore| Eddington| Hampstead Norreys| Kingsclere
Benham Valence area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Benham Valence and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Benham Valence
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memories of Benham Valence.
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Childhood in Benham Valence
It was in April 1950 that I was born in the Victorian wing of Benham Valence - actually in the flat above the garages - a very primitive dwelling with no bathroom or indoor toilet. Unfortunately the whole wing was found to be in such bad repair that it was demolished completely in the 1980s. The great house of Benham Valence itself lay empty and neglected save for the scant attentions of the then caretakers - either the Mildenhalls or the Husbands. My memory fails me on this.
My father Dick Clark was a forester for Suttons Estates. Whilst my family lived there they made friends with the Pococks - Martha and Ray - who lived in the Mill House in front of the lake. Their house has also been demolished as it began to subside into the mill race which ran beneath the house. The large house presently on this site is the converted mill itself.
In my childhood I always referred to the Pococks as Nan and... Read more
Berkshire memories
Allen Family at Stockcross
What did they put in the water at Stockcross?
I am just wondering as my great-grandad George Allen was born at Stockcross in 1831. He was a gardener but astonishingly he married three times and even more amazing he celebrated his golden wedding with his third wife.
The family story is that he didn't like children yet he fathered an awful lot! This has been told to me by my aunt Doris Lacey who remembers her own childhood in the First World War and being rather frightened of George. He must have been tough to have worked as a gardener, became a widower twice, married three times, fathered three families and lived to the grand age of 94 !!
I visited Stockcross in the 1980's and wondered as I walked in the churchyard whether great-grandad had tended the gardens there. I picked a sprig from an ancient yew tree there and took it back with me to give to my aunt - being... Read more
Stockcross - The Cricketer's Inn
The Cricketer's Inn, Stockcross
There used to be a pub called the Cricketer's Inn at Stockcross. The publicans were good friends of my father Pat Gallagher (who ran the Clock Tower Inn in the broadway in Newbury).
Harry and Trixie Hewitt ran the Cricketer's at this time and they had 2 daughters Sue and Sally.
I used to love going out there with my father when I was very young. Harry and Trixie were a great, colourful couple and I remember the smell and feel of their home and gardern and pub.
Every year there was a Publican's Ball where everyone would get dressed up and have a really good time. I was 16 when I went to my first and last ball and Trixie and Harry sat at our table with a load of other friends including girls and guys from the Clocky.
Contributed on 10 April 2009 , by Lorraine Kopp
Pound Street
My first main job on leaving school (Shaw House) was as a tea boy-dogsbody at H C James timber and builders merchants in Pound Street. For quite a while I cycled daily from Highclere Castle, approx 4 miles, it took me just over half an hour to get there and one hour to return! Some hills! My duties included running a mess room, making tea etc twice a day and touring the town for cakes and pasties, some of the men were particular as to which shop sold the best! One in Barthlomew Street near the Regal cinema, on round to Cheap Street to Austins for pasties and Nelsons squares, then to the Empire Cafe for lardy cakes, returning via Market Street and Barts again for fairy cakes near Black Boys bridge. After using a cycle for a while my father bought me an ex post office BSA bantam motor bike, painted green, it was purchased from someone my dad knew who worked at Bleinhem Palace. I rode that... Read more
The Kennet.
The river is the Kennet and this view shows the junction of the Kennet river (from low level bridge on the right) and the Kennet and Avon Canal (towards the locks straight ahead). The tributary to the left is towards the West Mills flour mill (water powered). The view is upstream (West).
Shops in The Broadway
I believe this picture is of the local post office/deli next door to the clock tower inn pub, affectionately known as the 'Clocky'. I grew up in this pub between 1956 and the early 1970s.
When I lived here the mayor of Newbury was Mr A W Luff and he owned the post office/deli next door. His son David did the weekly grocery deliveries in their van. David's sister moved to Canada ages and ages ago. My younger brother and I would sometimes go with David on some of the deliveries and once we went to the Heinz (soup) mansion where for the first time I ever saw a lift inside a home!
Opposite was Wilcox's fruit and veg shop and a newsagents. On the corner was a flower shop.
The actual clock tower in the middle of the Broadway had bench seats around and a phone box in the centre, where I remember it used to smell of urine. The old tramps and meth drinkers... Read more
Love At First Sight (corny But True)
This is where I first set eyes on my future wife. = I was working for Wimpeys at Greenham Common Air-Base, about 60 to 70 of us were lodging in an old army camp in Hamstead Norris that hade been taken over by Wimpeys as it was hard to get lodgings in Newbury. Every Saturday night my mate and I would come to town for a meal, drink and a dance in the Corn Exchange. One Saturday night we went into the Catherine Wheel pub in the Market PLace. Lo and behold, two pleasant young ladies were playing darts. We got playing with them, and thats how it all started. We were married for 53 years. Every time I go to Newbury I go into that pub, have one pint and think back. I lost the wife 3 years ago but visit Newbury often to see her family and put flowers on her grave in East Garson. By the way, my mate married my wife's friend, name of... Read more
