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Biddestone
Biddestone maps
Historic maps of Biddestone and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Biddestone maps
Biddestone area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Biddestone and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Biddestone
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memories of Biddestone.
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Biddestone
I was born in Biddestone in 1953. I went to Biddestone School, Mrs Taylor was the cook and I believe the teacher that I had was Mrs Walker. There was a large field out the back of the playground that we used in the summer for sports and at lunchtimes. There was some large trees along one side that gave us some shade on very hot days. On the 1st May we danced around the maypole on the village green. I also remember Miss Weeks who lived in the thatched cottage next to the school. My father helped when the pond was cleaned out in 1959, I have a photograph of this work being done.. I still go to Biddestone with our grandchildren and feed the ducks, it brings back so many memories. I try to go to the village fete each year .
Wiltshire memories
Ford in 1939
My parents and I lived at Ford for a few months in 1939, having moved there from north London when my father started work for a building contractor on the airfield at Colerne. We had lodgings with a Mr and Mrs Pearce (or Pierce) at Mount Scylla Farm. It's a long time since I passed that way, but I was delighted to be able to recognise the place recently, on the Google maps and street view. The general layout of the yard looks more or less as I remember it, but of course some of the buildings are different.
As far as I remember, Mr Pearce had a herd of about a dozen cows, and every morning the milk was left in large churns in a pool of water, which seemed to be fed by a natural spring, by the farmyard gate, and was picked up by a lorry, I suppose from the Milk Marketing Board.
There were two working horses on the farm, named Captain and Gypsy. They... Read more
Connection
I don't have a memory but I do have a connection. My father's name was Edward and I know little about his relatives in England. But I did find an Edward living in Yatton Keynell in the 1800's at 1 Summer Lane. I have a strange feeling knowing that it was probably my father's great or some great grandfather living in that cottage. His occupation was listed as a Shepherd and had a wife 14 years younger so she might have been his second wife. And a bunch of children. As I say, there is a strange feeling of connection from Canada to Yatton Keystone even though my father was born in Kent and came to Canada when he was 3 with his parents. Perhaps some day I will see the area for myself. I hope so.
Monks Lane Chapel
I don't really have a memory but went to visit due to family research. Monks Lane has a plaque inside referring to my gt grandad Arthur William Humphries that lived at Broad Stone Cottage with his wife and children. His wife's family being Jones lived in Monks Lane, the Vellys, also Lindley so Corsham is quite near my heart.
Glenthope South Street
34 South Street was my home from 1963 to December 2007! My grandparents Ellen and Lewis Edwards lived here along with my mother Anne and myself.
It is the second house on the left with the single window upstairs. (This was my grandparents' room.) I spent many happy years here and can remember playing in the street with all the other children who lived in and close to South Street and being most suprised when a car came down the hill... Mk 1 Cortina!
The street has changed considerably as now it is difficult to park along the pavement. in the distance you can see the building which I believe must be something to do with the station which would be directly behind the house. I have also got copies of the deeds that came with the house stating that this was originally a field and permission was given to build these houses. I believe also, that the ones to the right of the picture were built slightly later?
My Home Town
I left Corsham in 1960 but although I haven't lived there for many decades I still consider it my home. I was born in a prefab in Clutterbuck Road, all my school friends lived in prefabs, even the Library in what was Beech Ave. was Prefab. the roads have all gone now, & when I returned there was a new housing estate where once were fields & allotments, I wonder if others remember, the happy times we children spent on our prefab estate.
The Old Milk Round
When I went to school in the High Street next to the Royal oak I can remember the milk man with his old horse and cart delivering milk all along the houses along the cobbled stone path. You had the cobbler's, it began with K I think, then opposite you had the dry cleaners, further on down you had Johnson's bakery with the fresh rolls just baked. What a treat in the morning for a small boy. I was born in Corsham in 1956 and left in 1977. I live in Bradford on Avon now but Corsham is still my home.
Things have changed a lot. I remember the bus coming up the High Street.
Lord's toy shop, what a place that was, down the back for all the toys. Then you had Smith's for the school uniforms, as I went to Corsham Boys School I had a wide range of friends, some I still see to this day. Well I must go as the thought of fresh baked rolls... Read more
