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Blunham
Blunham maps
Historic maps of Blunham and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Blunham maps
Blunham area books
Displaying 1 of 6 books about Blunham and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Blunham
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Bedfordshire memories
The RAF And Cardington
As RAF children, all three of us were christened in the picturesque church in Cardington, which is the unofficial 'favourite' church for RAF personnel! I obviously don't remember my own christening and wasn't about when my older brother was held over the font, but I do remember my sister's christening because she's nine years younger than I, so the memory is quite vivid. I also remember making much earlier visits to the charming old pub - as far back as when I was only two years old, in fact! - before we were posted to Cyprus. Not allowed into the pub itself, the kids would play outside, rain or shine, but I was awaiting heart surgery and so could only sit and watch, unfortunately! I enjoyed the lemonade and packets of crisps with the ltitle twist of salt in blue paper, but I never ate the pickled cockles that the grown-ups would bring out to us on the jar's lid. Yugh! I've no idea if the area has changed -... Read more
Land Resettlement
My parents moved to Pottonin 1937 on the Land Resettlement Scheme from Sunderland. As I was only 18 months old at the time and we were not there long, my memories consist of photographs only and these are of members of my family working the land. Shortly before the Second World War broke out we moved to Bygrave in Hertfordshire. During our time there we had avacuees staying with us and Canadian forces were billeted in the village. My father was sent to work at Cammel Lairds in Birkenhead and we moved to Wallasey in 1942. I now live in north Wales.
Henry Tingey - Ancester
My great grandfather Henry Tingey, was born November 18, 1819, in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. He was the son of James Tingey and Elizabeth Boniss. James and Elizabeth, and family later moved from Bigglewade, Bedfordshire, and moved Lower Caldecut near the 46th milestone from London in the perish of Northhill. The family of father and mother and two boys and four sisters were in the business of raising wholesale vegatable and garden seeds and were very successful.
In 1849 the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (Mormons) told their gospel message to Henry and his wife Ann Young, (daughter of James and Lucy Young). Henry and Ann joined the Latter-Day-Saint church and migrated to America in 1849. They spent three years in St Louis, Missouri and then traveled by oxen and wagon train to Salt Lake City, Utah arriving in September 1853. Henry became a very devote follower of the Mormon Church. He settled in Sessions Settlement (now Bountiful, Utah), and later moved to Brigham City Utah,... Read more
Woolies
Does anyone remember or did you work with Madge Chessum, at Woolies, in the 50's / 60's ?
Biggleswade
From the age of 1 year to presently 62 years I have lived in the town. I remember the thriving market, the Regal and Empire cinemas, sadly now gone (see article in the Biggleswade Chronicle Jan 6th 2009 pages 22 & 23). This town has changed from a small market town where employment was as my late father working on the land for Mr Capon of Southill and other landowners to large engineering companies like Cincinatti, now gone also. Back doors left open for neighbours to call, bikes left on kerbs whilst shopping. Steam trains to admire and church schools to attend, yes very fond memories.
Children's Home on London Road.
I was in a children's home on London Road from about 1964 for about 3 years. I forget the name of the home, but I went to Shortmead Street School for a while, then Rose Lane, before ending up at Holmead. I used to go to the Catholic church near the Regal cinema, on a Sunday morning, and the Regal on a Saturday morning. I would love to know the name of the children's home, I think it was Holmways or something similar, and if anyone remembers me. My memories of Biggleswade are lovely ones, and the people were always friendly.
Working Memories.
I was the main weekday driver of the launch photographed during the student holiday periods of 1955-1958. When I drove it, the name was 'Silver Stream'. It was the largest of a set of three electric launches which carried paying passengers for trips of about 40 minutes duration from the steps on the downstream, north side of the town bridge. Typically this launch would carry about 40 passengers maximum. Silver Stream was a magnificent launch to drive, giving a silent drive, almost no water disturbance up to the 6 knots maximum for the river, and had a tubular rudder form which surrounded the propeller. This permitted a very tight turning such that most of us could turn round in places where the river was reduced in width to one and a half times the launches length. The two sister launches were smaller. Silver Spray was a shorter less sleek version of Silver Stream and had a single section canopy (possibly in the background of this photo coming downstream). It would... Read more
