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Castle Combe
Castle Combe photos
Displaying the first of 113 old photos of Castle Combe. View all Castle Combe photos
Castle Combe maps
Historic maps of Castle Combe and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Castle Combe maps
Castle Combe area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Castle Combe and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Castle Combe
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memories of Castle Combe.
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May 2006
I visited this beautiful town while on vacation. The day before they were still filming 'Stardust'. There was a sale happening in a hall. I met a wonderful woman who was selling watercolor and needlework pictures. She was helping to support her sick husband. She signed my picture, it's at home but I think her name was Ann. I also had a wonderfull dinner at the pub. Can't wait to come back some day soon. Love the town, love the people.
Thanks for the memories..... Kevin Gato, Maine, United States
Wiltshire memories
Connection
I don't have a memory but I do have a connection. My father's name was Edward and I know little about his relatives in England. But I did find an Edward living in Yatton Keynell in the 1800's at 1 Summer Lane. I have a strange feeling knowing that it was probably my father's great or some great grandfather living in that cottage. His occupation was listed as a Shepherd and had a wife 14 years younger so she might have been his second wife. And a bunch of children. As I say, there is a strange feeling of connection from Canada to Yatton Keystone even though my father was born in Kent and came to Canada when he was 3 with his parents. Perhaps some day I will see the area for myself. I hope so.
Ford in 1939
My parents and I lived at Ford for a few months in 1939, having moved there from north London when my father started work for a building contractor on the airfield at Colerne. We had lodgings with a Mr and Mrs Pearce (or Pierce) at Mount Scylla Farm. It's a long time since I passed that way, but I was delighted to be able to recognise the place recently, on the Google maps and street view. The general layout of the yard looks more or less as I remember it, but of course some of the buildings are different.
As far as I remember, Mr Pearce had a herd of about a dozen cows, and every morning the milk was left in large churns in a pool of water, which seemed to be fed by a natural spring, by the farmyard gate, and was picked up by a lorry, I suppose from the Milk Marketing Board.
There were two working horses on the farm, named Captain and Gypsy. They... Read more
Biddestone
I was born in Biddestone in 1953. I went to Biddestone School, Mrs Taylor was the cook and I believe the teacher that I had was Mrs Walker. There was a large field out the back of the playground that we used in the summer for sports and at lunchtimes. There was some large trees along one side that gave us some shade on very hot days. On the 1st May we danced around the maypole on the village green. I also remember Miss Weeks who lived in the thatched cottage next to the school. My father helped when the pond was cleaned out in 1959, I have a photograph of this work being done.. I still go to Biddestone with our grandchildren and feed the ducks, it brings back so many memories. I try to go to the village fete each year .
Colerne in The Second World War
My parents and I came to Colerne in late 1939, having left London shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, and lived at Ford, a few miles from Colerne, for a few months. That winter, of 1939-40, was a hard one, as I remember. My father worked for a building contractor on the airfield at Colerne, and I remember him coming home one day with a piece of telephone wire coated about an inch thick with ice.
Our rented house at Colerne was in Watergates, just across the road from the school playground. After a few months there, we moved to lodgings in a large house called 'Elmsleigh', owned by an elderly lady, Mrs Froude, and her daughter, just off the market place. Near the house gate was an old elm tree, known as the 'cross tree', surrounded by large stone slabs and blocks. No doubt the tree is long gone, probably replaced by another, but I imagine the stones are still there.
I remember one... Read more
Bank House
My memories are of my Aunt and Uncle's house. They lived in Bank House from the 1930's until 1992 when my Uncle died. We had some great times there. He kept a pig and chickens and had a great vegetable plot. We would sometimes go to the Liberal Club for a game of skittles. My Uncle was a member of the local parish council. His name was Commander Cheetham. They were both well respected members of the village.
Colerne From 1916
My grandparents lived in Colerne, my mother Minnie Louise Rowe was born there around the 1880s and my father William Simpkins lived in Colerne with the Aust family from when he was a baby. I was born in Bath in Kingsmead Road in a nursing home, we used to visit my grandmother Rowe in Colerne, she lived in Rose Cottage. In Colerne's High street on the Bath end was a very small shop and on the right side of it was an alleyway which led to my grandmother's garden. The cottage was on the left, and the toilet which was a bucket-style toilet was on the right. This was used for fertilising the garden, and helped grow a wonderful patch of rhubarb which we ate stewed or in pies when we went to visit. She also had several apple trees which we used to harvest. The next cottage down from my grandmother was lived in by a little old man about 5' 4" called Ike Tanner who was considerably older than... Read more
