Nostalgic memories of Bridport's local history

Share your own memories of Bridport and read what others have said

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.

Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.

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Displaying Memories 11 - 20 of 30 in total

My brother Christopher and I first went down to school at Visitation Convent, Bridport in September 1957. We lived in Ascot as our father had been an officer in the Royal Horse Guards and had been based at Windsor. We took a train to Reading and then a GWR express running from Paddington to Newton Abbot. Travelling to boarding school on a steam train was a complete Harry Potter experience. I can still recall ...see more
Several of my younger brothers attended VC Bridport in the mid-1950s to early 1960s, all with mixed memories, before moving on to join me at the Salesian College in Chertsey when reaching 11. Strangely we have no photos of the Convent in our collective and rather extensive collection of school photos. Apart from this one shown on the Francis Frith site, if anyone has other photos of the ...see more
I remember playing at Happy Island with my brothers and sister, and friends, having a picnic, and watching the trains pulling out of the station. Happy days. Now I have eight grandchildren and I want them to see life as I grew up in Bridport.
This is me, pushing my daughter Allison, with my mother Phyllis Carey. I was staying with my parents prior to joining my husband at RAF Muharraq, Bahrain in the summer of 1966. Recessed next to Hoskins the Butchers is the Congregational Church (now the United Reformed) where I was christened, attended Sunday School and Junior Church and was married. Our three children were also christened there.
The lady with the shopping bag and wearing sunglasses in this picture is my mother, Hilda Hounsell. She had either visited the library or her sister who lived at the bottom of Easst Street.
I have no connections with Bridport or the Visitation Convent but found the thread of messages detailing school life highly absorbing; I do know of another individual of note who may qualify as becoming "famous" (message posted 03/10/2009 by Mr Duffy). I think he was sent from the Midlands as a boarder in 1927 at seven years of age, through to 1930; he would have attended the Convent at the same time as the ...see more
Since my blog of 2007 concerning my time as a boarder at the Visitation Convent school 1942-1947, I have noted with interest that other former pupils (though not from the years I was there) have commented on their experiences of the place. Mostly, their memories are sad and bitter ones. It has made me think back again at my years there. Were such things as they have mentioned really going on, and I never ...see more
I was disturbed to read the Memory posted in early September from a contemporary about our common primary school, Bridport Visitation Convent. It was reprinted in the Bridport News of October 1st so needs to be balanced I feel. That gentleman clearly doesn't remember his time there with relish but I wonder why he didn't put his schooldays into the context of the time. My own experience at the Convent was ...see more
I was sent to the Visitation Convent at the age of 6 and was there for four terrible years. Like others who have written their memories of their time at the school, for me it was a very severe, cruel, harsh enviroment, devoid of any love or affection from the nuns. The punishments were frequent, for messing my pants or wetting my bed, as often I was not allowed to go to the toilet. I remember having to hold my ...see more
I was a boarder there for about a year aged about nine or ten in about 1957. It was the unhappiest period of my life before or since. I don’t recall a moment of kindness, sympathy, or humanity from any of the nuns. As a lonely rejected child I received nothing from them but harshness, punishments, and cruelty. And I was not the only one. I vividly remember a little boy of about seven clambering onto the ...see more