Brimpton memories
Here are memories of Brimpton and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Brimpton or a Brimpton photo.
Hyde End House
I was at school (Lindfield) in this fine old Georgian building from 1947-1951 and spent many happy hours playing in the extensive grounds and old outbuildings and stables. One year our dormitory was above the stable block where the principal was raising day old chicks to supplement our austere post-war rations. The awful smell of the chickens remains a vivid memory!
If I recall there was a name carved on the mantlepiece in one of the upper rooms in the older Jacobean/Elizabethan part of the building. Us kids thought the place was haunted by the ghost of Anne Hyde (first wife of James II) who was meant to have an annual visitation on November 25th! Her father was the Earl of Clarendon - Edward Hyde.
I have visited the place twice since and like your correspondent found it in a very dilapidated state on my first visit. When I returned more recently it had been restored and some sort of conservatory built on left side of the house.... Read more
Mullins
This memory relates to the time I was at boarding school in Hyde End House just down the road.
We used to spend our pocket money in this village shop with its characteristic smell of bacon and tea.
Of course first we had to get permission to leave the school grounds to 'go up to Mullins'. Amongst our favourites were lemonade powder, licked from a wet finger and Oxo cubes which I remember were one old penny and had eaten very slowly!
Our First Visit 1961
As far as I was concerned, at the tender age of eleven, I belonged to a Norfolk family having only known Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, my birthplace. The untitled photograph of Hyde End House that hung in my grandfather's hall was an enigma and so intrigued my mother that she had to find out its relevence and where it was. After giving my grandfather a grilling, it transpired that this was our family's old ancestral home until 1917!! The quest was on to find out more and a visit was planned in the summer of 1961. Sadly by then we found it in a dilapidated state covered in ivy and overrun with chickens but we could see how grand it must have been in its prime. We learnt later that my great great great uncle Charles built the Georgian house in 1799 after a disastrous fire destroyed much of the old Elizabethan part although some of this remains as the converted outbuildings. Thankfully the house was renovated, the old rendering being... Read more
The Stair Connection
One of my family lived in the post office, a Mr John Henry Stair, he lived there with his family and a Mrs Stair was the postmistress around that time.
John Henry died in April 1881.
Lindfield School Hyde End House
Lindfield School, Hyde End House, Brimpton. I would love to hear from anyone who has memories of Lindfield School, Hyde End House, Brimpton. I was there from when I was six until I was eight, between 1947 - 1949, and have many recollections of the place - some good: the beautiful grounds, the old kitchen garden, topping & tailing the gooseberries, wonderful summer outings to a local stream, where we swam, paddled, & splashed to our hearts content: some not so good: trying to understand the finer points of long division! And some horrendous: the cane was much in evidence, especially for the boys. Does anyone remember the headmaster, Mr Hart? There was also a Mr Bellamy and a Miss Dunlop, both teachers, and someone called Steve who brought the milk, in churns, from the farm. Some of the pupils I recall are: Andrew Danks, Simon Danks, John Larpent, Shirley Green, Kiros, Adrienne Grenier, Avril Evans and Elizabeth Walker? I loved the Ovaltine tablets sold at Mullins, the village shop - so... Read more
The Old Carved Mantlepiece
The name carved on the old oak mantlepiece is that of my great great great uncle Charles. It reads "C. Hyde Esq. 1799". He must have carved it when a teenager. The beam was offered to my father in 1961 as a momento by the then owner, Mr Pettit but because of its weight and size, we couldn't transport it home! The beam now resides on the top of the fireplace at Hyde End Farm, the residence of Mr. John Pettit, the aforementioned Mr Pettit's son.
Memories of Berkshire
I Live Here
I've lived in the two cottages on the right of the picture since 1994. Two cottages? They were knocked into one in 1973 when the entire row was sold to a developer and refurbished.
I Lived in No 68 From 1983 to 1985
Of course they had been nicely re-furbished and with all mod cons like running water and electricity. It was a nice experience living in a thatched house and, believe me, they aren't full of spiders and not as much of a fire risk as you would think. We had a very big fireplace in a tiny sitting room and I am a pyromaniac. I remember one day a guy knocking on the front door and, with a very worried look on his face, he said that the chimney must be on fire because it was pouring black smoke. I thanked him kindly but told him not to worry and that I was simply burning rubber car mats!
Kennet School
I went to Kennet Secondary School in 1965 and would like to see photos of that time.
The Kennet.
The river is the Kennet and this view shows the junction of the Kennet river (from low level bridge on the right) and the Kennet and Avon Canal (towards the locks straight ahead). The tributary to the left is towards the West Mills flour mill (water powered). The view is upstream (West).
Shops in The Broadway
I believe this picture is of the local post office/deli next door to the clock tower inn pub, affectionately known as the 'Clocky'. I grew up in this pub between 1956 and the early 1970s.
When I lived here the mayor of Newbury was Mr A W Luff and he owned the post office/deli next door. His son David did the weekly grocery deliveries in their van. David's sister moved to Canada ages and ages ago. My younger brother and I would sometimes go with David on some of the deliveries and once we went to the Heinz (soup) mansion where for the first time I ever saw a lift inside a home!
Opposite was Wilcox's fruit and veg shop and a newsagents. On the corner was a flower shop.
The actual clock tower in the middle of the Broadway had bench seats around and a phone box in the centre, where I remember it used to smell of urine. The old tramps and meth drinkers... Read more
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