Priestwood Square 1960s And 70s

A Memory of Bracknell.

I can remember the square not only for its shops but also as a meeting place .
Most of our games back then involved huge amounts of our friends either playing war games or football matches over on the field opposite the Admiral Cunningham pub. Games like "Run Outs" were played with up to 10 to 15 people,one of you would sit on top of the telephone box in the square and count to100 whilst the others would run and hide, the object of the game was to get back to the telephone box without being seen,happy days . I can remember the two little shops in the Binfield road just passed st.Anthony's Children's home and the garage which also housed coopers cars a taxi company run by Richard Cooper. The first little shop was a grousers shop,it was painted in a very dull a green colour almost the same colour as a Heinz baked bean tin,we didn't really go inside that shop as their didn't ever seem to be that much on offer . However,the second and more exiting little shop was the Hovis bakers shop,I swear you could smell the bread from my house at 57 meadow way in Peistwood. mum would often ask me or my brothers and sisters to run up there and buy an uncut loaf, we used to call it "Tommy Bread" as the bakery was run by the Tompkins family back then. Me and my Brothers and sisters all went to Meadowvale school and then Garth hill school . I had two sisters Tina and Samantha and two brothers Terry and Mark I was the youngest of the boys and my name is Lance . I left Bracknell back in 1978-79 when Qualm lane was still used for cross country lessons at school and Jeanses pond was the place to catch some of the biggest tench in Berkshire. Friends that come to mind :- Paul,Steven,Julie and Christopher Slingerland ,Paul Twymon,Garry Cole's,Colin Walker, Christine Wilson and Brother Nigel, Kevin and Paul Atkins,Mrs Cook,Tanya Strike,David and Sheila Patemon and Phillis who worked at V.Gs round the square,Ooh yes and Tony,he was the store manager of R.D.S. you could buy balsa wood guilders or Paraffin from his shop,we used to say that R.D.S. stood for "Rubbish Department Stores" as it was kind of like a 99p store of the 70s. There was also a well used Fag machine on the side of the newsagents, you could buy 10 number 6 for 10p ,I gave up smoking about 15 years ago but even the thought of ten fags costing 10p makes my lungs cry.