Bletchley memories
Here are memories of Bletchley and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Bletchley or a Bletchley photo.
Was it or Wasn't it
There seems to be a lot of controversy about the Shoulder of Mutton, have I got this right? Way way back, the Shoulder of Mutton was built, eventually it was demolished and the old brick house on the other side of the road was converted into a pub. When it first opened, was it called The Three Trees from day one, or was it The Shoulder Of Mutton for a while before they re named It?
Shoulder of Mutton Public House
When I first had a memory of this corner of Newton Road and Buckingham Road, the brick-built extension was no longer standing, only the cottage part of the public house. I used to love standing in front of it because it had a verandah and wooden railings like you would find in westerns. My mum often had to drag me away, the pub by then was no longer in use, the back wall still remains to this day. There were two reasons for being there, first was across in Shenley Road was our doctors surgery in a row of brick-built cottages, the old front room being the waiting room with old wooden chairs, which later became the Shenley House Hotel, which has since been demolished and replaced with apartments. The second reason was that my family could only afford the bus fare one way so we walked to town and bused back.
Mum And Dad
My mum and dad met walking down this road
My Bletchley Memories
1964 was the year I moved from Barking to Bletchley because my aunt and uncle Jay lived there since 1954, we used to go to there's for Christmas, it was boring, nowt to do loads of snow and woods and cows. When I first got of the train at Bletchley I thought I'd stepped into a time warp, everything was closed, even the ticket collector had gone home. There was 1 taxi, Purcells, I wanted Kennt Drive and walked to it, never one to spend me hard ernt. Anyway when I saw me mum's house it was great, it had hot water and a bath upstairs, our old bath was hanging on a nail in the garden and our loo was at the end of the garden so I was happy. 8 o'clock came and I was out on the razz to meet people, I went down high road, nothing open except a cafe, Greenway's, where I met Dave Tissington and Frank Purcell, RIP Frank.
An Old House.
Alan, can you jog my memory please? As you came down the hill, on the left just before the little Tesco's, there was a small derelict cottage. I can remember creeping in there one day and finding an ornate cast iron fireplace. I went home and got a little tin of gold paint and a small paintbrush, went back and painted all the ornate parts on it, I must have spent hours and it looked very pretty. I wish there was a picture of that area showing the cotttage, it would be lovely to see it again.
Lathems Timber Yard
I worked for Latherm Brothers timber yard in Simpson Road in 1952 then went on to work for M.A Cooks & Sons making paint brushes etc. I now live in Norwich.
RAF WEDDING 12 JUNE 1953
RAF wedding, 12 June 1953, at St. Mary's Church, with the reception at the Park Hotel. Anne (nee Ross) and I were both members of the RAF, living at RAF Bletchley and working at Stansbury, where we met. The wedding was reported in the Bletchley paper with group photo headlined 'Service Wedding' showing family and the servicemen and women in attendance. Within weeks I was back in Hong Kong and Anne joined me there in time for Christmas. A big Hello to any of our old friends from those happy days in and around Bletchley, especially remembering the cosy village pubs and their friendly owners and staff.
R.A.F. BLETCHLEY
Was stationed at R.A.F. Stanbridge as my first posting out of RAF Cosford (Boy Entrant 20th) in May 1955. Lived at RAF Bletchley and travelled to and fro by gary to Stanbridge. Moved up to Stanbridge the following January and lived in the RAF block, one for the men and one for the WRAFs. Have a lot of happy memories of that time both of Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard. Went back to visit Stanbridge about 5 years ago and of course didnt recognise it!! Wanted to take in Bletchley but time didnt allow that. Want to pay a visit to the Park within the next year. Was close with one family in LB, the Ryans, they lived on Nelson Road I believe. Daughters name was Marie. Lovely girl. If anyone knows the family or what happened to them, would love to hear.
Growing up in Bletchley From 1953 Onwards
My parents moved to Bletchley from London early 1953, they first lived in St George's Road before moving to 35 St John's Road when I made my appearance shortly after Christmas. So much has changed since then, but the estate is much like it was in the early years. I have such happy memories of my childhood. I used to love watching the men busy at the brickworks. I think I am the only person that actually liked the smell from the chimneys. What was so good was that everyone was friends with each other and looked out and cared each other, nothing was any trouble. I remember going to the local shops in St Marys, having my hair cut at Vic Shaw's barbers, and getting some sweets after all behind glass and tormenting, getting shopping from David Smiths grocers store and I remember them getting a BEDFORD CF van for their deliveries, what an advance I thought. Moving on to getting my first paper round at Bill Price's news... Read more
Theatre
I worked in the orderly room. I joined the Dramatic Society and took part in the Noel Coward play 'Blithe Spirit', as the principals's brother. We all had great fun at the rehearsals. I remember on one occasion, one of the props was a bugle which appeared from the flies. Of course we all tried to blow it, when someone managed to blow a blast, it caused the Duty Oficer to appear to find what was going on. Since she was the W.A.A.F. welfare officer, we got a severe telling off.
Bletchley Park.
My father worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. His name was Ronald Clarke. He then worked for the post office engineering after the war as did my uncle. Jack Sundewall. My grandfather worked at the repeater station in Bletchley also. His name was John Sundewall.
RAF Bletchley 1950-51
Hello Former RAF Bletchley 'inmates,' I spent a couple of happy years at RAF Bletchley which I would describe as just a dormitory station where we ate, slept and relaxed during off-duty hours from our work at RAF Stanbridge, just outside Leighton Buzzard -- 24 hour shifts round the clock at this very busy station.
My time there was made very enjoyable by the fact that I met my wife there, she worked in Leighton Buzzard and I would see her on the way to work at about 8.30 each morning as we were just coming off night shift. (I subsequently met her at a dance in Bletchley and of course I recognised her and the rest, as they say, is history, we celebrate our 57th year of marriage this year, 2010.)
We signals personnel travelled between Bletchley and Stanbridge by RAF ('garry' as they were know by us RAF bods,) small bus to civilians I guess. They were coloured in RAF blue and had the roundels painted on... Read more
The Beach - we Were First.
My uncle John Cooke owned the gravel pit mentioned along with the brush factory. We lived in Staplehall Road and used to go across Farmer Howard's field to the pits and go on the very same beach. In the winter my brother Colin used to take me, a five year old, across to ice skate on the frozen lake, it was great fun too. In the summer we used to play in the piles of old pipes and the wigwams made of wood, probably put there to dry out. Bletchley was a wonderful place to live until we moved away in 1953. John Cooke was a very kind man and allowed access to the pit for swimming and fishing and some people even sailed their dinghies on the lake.
RAF Bletchley, Bucks. in The 1950s
I was stationed at Raf Bletchley 1950-1953 and wonder if anyone out there had a similar exdperience. At that time Bletchley was a signals station with most of the occupants working at RAF Stanbridge but having quarters at Bletchley. It was rather a small outfit - I worked at the Education Centre and for a short time at RAF Stanbridge. We often went into Oxford on Saturdays, and occasionally we gathered to celebrate a birthday or 'demob' at the Park Hotel. Bletchley also had its own radio station - the disc jockey was called Dixie and was 'on the air' most evenings. Just wonder if there's anyone out there who was stationed there during those years? Jean Ryder/Berry
WE WERE FIRST!!
I can't see what all the fuss is about, about having an 'inland seaside', its a bit 'old hat'! US LOCALS had a real one, well over 50 years ago, it was great, wherever you dug there was almost pure white sand, where was it? BEACON LAKE, we used to swim or just walk across to a lovely clean 'beach'. You outsiders probably think I'm 'a mad liar' but if our calm little town wasn't ruined it would still be our 'getaway'. The only thing that wasn't very nice was that we had to get changed in bushes, but most of them were gorse bushes, very prickly. We couldn't go to the end part (where ARGOS is now) because it was thick clay underfoot, and was overgrown with bulrushes and it was really cold water. Down the main big part of the lake was also dangerous because it was really deep, some older people used to swim right out, but only if they were strong swimmers, because they used to... Read more
Starstruck!
When I was 15 I left Bletchley Road Secondary Modern, and went to work at MOSSES, in Fenny Stratford, I thought it was great to earn £3. a week, I done a lot with that, I used to go to lots of 'dances' a week, there was the PALACE at Wolverton, twice a week, MURSLEY village on a Friday, WILTON HALL, on Wed and Sat. We had a job deciding where to go, it was mainly WILTON HALL that won, because it was in walking distance from home, and no fares to pay out for. We used to regularly see THE HOLLIES, THE SEARCHERS, GERRY & THE PACEMAKERS, BRIAN POOLE & THE TREMOLOES, ANIMALS, even LULU, done her debut gig there. They were great days, yes, there was a bit of trouble some weeks, but nothing major like today's youths get up to. Loads of 'big-ish' name groups played in Bletchley, people came from miles away to see these bands. It was chaos when THE ROLLING STONES came here, I... Read more
Approximately in 1950.
During the Second World War my gran owned a grocery shop at 7 Stoke Road, Water Eaton and my grandad used to take a barrow round the streets selling slabs of salt. I remember looking out of my window (at about 3 or 4 years old)and watching the foxhounds meet on the green, it was a bit scary for me being so young. I also used to like walking up Stoke Road to see an old horse called Kit, he was very gentle and seemed to love people. We'll never get those lovely peaceful, trouble-free, friendly days back, it's such a shame. When I was about 5 we moved to Church Street in Fenny, and I started at Bletchley Road School, then to Western Road, I was older then and could go out on my own (safely). I used to like going through the central gardens and seeing all the pretty flowers in little 'gardens' scattered in the lawns and the sunken 'bandstand', then all the tennis courts and pavilion,... Read more
Memories of Buckinghamshire
Happy Days
When I was about 4 or 5 I moved from Water Eaton to Fenny. We lived with my gran, Mrs Gibson, in Church Street. We - my two brothers and myself, used to go to the Salvation Army Sunday School, we were only few doors away, and felt grown up walking the few yards away. I used to play the tambourine there (well, I used to rattle it about a bit). It was always nice and clean looking and felt homely. Next door was a 'house' that was used as a Catholic church, then next to that was our local fire brigade, all the kids used to gather round when the siren went off on the council offices, knowing lots of men would be running like mad from wherever they worked - mainly as cooks in the brush factory in Victoria Road. A year later I was old enough to go with my brothers to the County Cinema, just through a walkway opposite the house.
My gran was one... Read more
Born in Fenny Stratford
I was born at number 8 Woodbine Terrace; in attendance was nurse Brinklow the local midwife and Dr Gleeve. My parents were Jim and Vera Cusack.
Just after the begining of the war my mother, sister and grandparents moved to Fenny Stratford to be near my auntie Doris (mother's sister) and to be away from the dangers of London; they came from Dagenham and Hackney in the East End. My grandfather, Captain Walter Bates, had also just been assigned to the security at Bletchley Park. My father was in Burma in the Far East.
Until my mother managed to rent the little cottage in Woodbine Terrace, they all lived with my aunt in Church Street. After the war my grandparents returned to London, they were lucky their substantial house was still intact, however, my parents' Dagenham home had gone so they decided to stay. It took my... Read more
Council Yard
At the end of Staplehall Road, just a couple of houses down from where we lived, there was a council yard where was stored some heavy machinery, mainly a very large steam roller, a snow plow and some other wonderful giants. Sometimes after school when the yard went quiet we would climb through the fence and play on these things pretending to drive them, they had loads of wheels and levers to pull and turn. Great fun. Does anyone remember Leesons shop opposite the cinema on Watling Street? It was the first shop that I ever bought anything in. It was when sweets came off ration and my mother gave my sister and I twopence each and we walked to the shop where Mr Leeson gave us a bag each with a mixture of small goodies in. It was absolute heaven to us who had never had shop-bought sweets. Over the fence at the end of the back garden were two fields where Farmer Howard used to keep cows. There was an... Read more
Furzton Lake
I am greatly surprised that there are no photos of Furzton Lake in the Frith archive. Our son David lived in a modern terraced house in Winsford Hill, Furzton until 2005. I remember there was a gap in the hedge with a gate we installed between his garden and Coldharbour Spinney. Many times we strolled through the Spinney to reach Furzton Lake - if you walked really briskly you could make a complete lap of the lake in less than an hour. However, on the furthest side of the lake there was the Furzton Lake Inn which frequently tempted us to take a breather and a pint! In winter it was a welcome opportunity to get warm again after braving the biting winds which blew across Furzton Lake - sometimes the wind even created waves!
Old Reminders
My parents moved to Coffee Hall from London in 1977, there was me, my sister Emma and my mum and dad. Recently after 33 years on the estate they moved. I left it a while then went back to see what the old house looked like and it got me thinking back. I remember the first shop on Coffee Hall was a 7-11 then it went to an M+W store. I remember going to the youth club at the rear of the shops, the woman that ran it was called Jean. We would do pottery or carpentry there would be discos or they would show films and there was a tuck shop there too. Another recollection that I have is of the big walnut tree outside the Walnut Tree pub being struck by lightening and a massive branch falling. I went to Cornhill First School, the headmistress was Mrs Creacraft, my teachers were Mrs Scott and Mrs Herbert, and from there I went to Copperfield Middle School, Mr Cchapman was... Read more
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