Another Slice Of Life In Burghfield And Sulhampstead

A Memory of Burghfield Common.

My Grandfather George Thomas Cooper 1880 to 1957 lived at Hebron a Detached Victorian House ( which is opposite what today is Coopers Place, named after my late Father Phillip George Cooper 1923. to 2004 ) my earliest memory of Granddad Cooper is of him digging in the Huge Garden ( which the width ran almost from the Laurel Hedge by the Footpath from Clayhill Rd right through Burghfield Common coming out on Reading Rd, width wise to Woodlands Avenue, just before the width touched Woodlands Avenue, Grandad had a Huge Creosoted Black Hanger of a Barn, in which he kept all manner of Garden and Blacksmith Tools,
I remember him coming over to see him, as I wobbled over the rough freshly turned over soil, he would knee down next to me and run his tough hardened hands ( after a life time of working in the fields at Harvest Time and Shoe Repairing and Blacksmith work ) through my hair, and then he would return to his digging,

While we waited for Melita Bay to be built and ( the Detached House opposite ) ready for occupancy, which wasn't long, in fact I was born in Hebron ( a Detached Victorian House opposite ) in 1953,
Other old memories I have but only for a short while, I remember Granhdad
and Grandma Cooper and my Father and my eldest sister and I all jwalking down Clayhill Road, there was barely a pavement that you could call a pavement and the road it'self was primitive full of watery potholes and mud,

Each Sunday we would all except for my Mother, would walk down Ash Lane, it was very rough and ready dry and dusty in the Summer, and in the Winter very dangerous to walk up and down, half the problem was the hill was so steep, and very slippery during the 1950's and early 1960's, I dont remember when it was partly Tarmaced but I would say it was in the very late 1960's, or even the early 1970's,

Walking down towards the
little open stream at the bottom (Passing by Mr and Mrs Wellers house the Greengrocers on the left ) over the then Rickety old footbridge and up to Sulhampstead Chapel,
Our family consisting of my Father, my Mother,j Grandma, Grandad Cooper, ( he died in 1957 ) my Eldest Sister, and two other sisters and a brother younger than me, ( my youngest brother was not born until 1963 this made up our little family unit,

In Sulhampstead Chapel ourb family always sat on the second row back on the right hand Side hand side, on the left hand side were Miss Wells, Mrs Richards , and the wonderful Mrs Door whose voice carried us all, Preachers would sometimes drive up in their early cars, or peddle cycle, or walk, a lot of our Preachers came the area around Mortimer, Motimer West End, Theale, and of course from Reading,
I don't remember many of the Preachers but I know a few who I like and people like Mr Laine, he had a commanding voice, frightening to little Children,
Mr. De Jong, the Revend Wheeler gave up a lot his time for us all I valuable time for our Chapel , Dr David Stillman was at the time of these facts, a very young Preacher and his friend kj and Colleague Mr Michael Winch came to preach at our little Chapel, in the early to mid 1960's (, I wrote to Dr David Stillman for many decades before he only recently passed away, ) after the the Chapel started to lose members through illness and death, over the Mid to late 1960's and eventually it's demise as a Chapel, ceased to be a Chapel, in the late 1960's, in the early 1970's it was converted into a modern house, most of the elderly and some younger members as well, the Congregation Chapel passed away, and I can only say for myself, that going to that little Viictorian Chapel on the Hill three times every Sunday in Sulhampstead Enriched my life and I am sure the lives of my brothers and sisters way way beyond anything and everything, those kinds of memories never leave you, and I am ery very proud to have been part of that almost lost today "way of life"
When ever we drive to Burghfield, and now and then to Sulhampstead, my heart skips a beat, we Children left so much of our Shoe and Sandal leather on those lanes in the Mid 50' s that we will be a part of its modern History, those were such important years of early life for our family, and I don't have a solitary regret anywhere in my body, we were the
Lives in Burghfield and Sulhamptead,.

Not forgetting that my Father who was Born in Hebron the Victorian House opposite what to is now Coopers Place, named after my Father who played there as a small child growing up in the Hungry 30ths, later bought that entire patchwork of land and built a lovely Red Brick Detached House on the plot ,

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