You are here:
Brampton
Brampton maps
Historic maps of Brampton and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Brampton maps
Brampton area books
Displaying 1 of 10 books about Brampton and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Brampton
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Brampton.
Add your memory of Brampton
or of a photo of Brampton.
My Great (x3) Grandad Was Olivia Sparrows Footman
This memory relates to the late 1830s and early 1840s. My great x3 grandfather, William Makepeace, was Olivia Bernard Sparrow's Footman. A number of his children, including my great-great-grandmother Louisa Makepeace who became Louisa Hornshaw, were born at Brampton Park, as also was my great x3 Aunt Lucy who died in Bradford, West Yorkshire and used to live in her older years at 7 Athol Road, Manningham, Bradford. They were actually born in the big house, Brampton Park, that burned down in 1907.
The 'Valet' Shop in Brampton in The 1960s
Does anyone remember the 'Valet' shop that used to be near the High Street entrance to the Village Park? It was sort of a haberdashers but the lady also used to take in dry cleaning and shoe mending. It was a portakabin type building and there was one lady who used to run it. I wish we'd taken a photo. We moved to Brampton around 1965 and I remember it being around for a while after that.
Cambridgeshire memories
The Cromwell Museum
Better known today as The Cromwell Museum!!
I Remember...
I remember Huntingdon's High Street in 1965. I was only a little girl then, holding on to my grandmother's hand. My grandparents were Kate and Reginald Wayman and they lived in Hartford Road opposite the River Ouse. Nanna and I would often walk to the town centre and she'd buy me a 'Pixie' comic; there were some lovely shops, I remember 'Fishers' (I think), and 'Steadmans'. I loved Huntingdon where I had many happy times as a child when I went to stay with Nanna and Grandad Wayman. Nanna was from Godmanchester (a Woods) and she'd worked at 'the mill' making lingerie until she was 29 when she married. Once she made a pair of golfing socks to be presented to the future Edward VIII. Grandad came from Offord Cluny and he worked in Brampton for 'Mr Riddiford' as a managing director. They moved to Huntingdon around 1960 and lived at number 128 Hartford Road. Wish I could visit.... perhaps I might... I send love XX XX!
Good Times
I loved Hinchingbrooke School growing up and the house just intrigued me. I remember my first year of sixth form in the house and my friends and I decided to look around the grounds where we came across the graves of Oliver Cromwell's dogs behind the Wendy House. This was an amazing find and the stories we were told about the history of the house was wonderful. I would very much like to see a paranormal team within the house to find out if part of the past is still there within the house as stories of ghosts sightings were heard of quite a lot when I was at school and I would love to learn more about its history and if any spirits still live within the walls and hallways of the great historic Hinchingbrooke house!
A Great Coincidence
The man riding his cycle beside the car looked so familiar, and I firmly believe that it is Mr Timothy (Tim) Towler who was Art and Technical Drawing Master at Huntingdon Grammar School during the 1940s and very early `950s. Tim, as he was called by us irreverent pupils, lived in Godmanchester, and cycled from his home to the Grammar School (now demolished) on Brampton Road daily. He was much loved by all of us, and helped me personally on my career to become an engineering draughtsman both in England and later in Sweden. The coincidence is almost unbelievable, looking at this print in 2011 in Sweden, and seeing Tim from 1955.
Osman's of Huntingdon
A truly old-fashioned type of ironmonger and household ware store seen here on the immediate right of the picture. My mother, Mrs. Ruby Chandler would have been working here in 1965, as she did for many years both before and after '65. If you couldn't get it at Osman's you couldn't get it anywhere else, either. The shop premises were very old, and when it rained, there was panic up in the storage rooms above to place buckets to catch the leaks.
I remember, too Stiles, the Bakers, further up along the High Street. My grandfather and I walked into Huntingdon from Alconbury (the only way to get there) on my 9th birthday in 1941 to collect my birthday cake, supplied during rationing times.
Almost opposite Osman's was Cox the County Clothiers, who supplied my uniform for Huntingdon Grammar School a couple of years later.
Huntingdon once boasted two cinemas, The Grand, accessed through an archway beside Murkett's Garage, opposite the Market Place, and The Hippodrome further along the... Read more
