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Cold Meece memories

Here are memories of Cold Meece and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Cold Meece or a Cold Meece photo.

Wonderful Times

My father moved to Cold Meece in 1960 to take up his job as a prison officer at the nearby Drake Hall open prison, and we stayed there for a couple of years before we moved to live at the prison itself.

At the time I was between 9 and 11 years old and, for a child of that age, it was a wonderful place to grow up. It was so rural that there was little risk of being knocked over by cars, and we were free to wander all over the place, only returning home for food and, occasionally, money for the ice cream van.

There were two wonderful structures that we had ready access to which are worthy of special mention :-

- There was an old abandoned stately home, which we kids used to play in. At that time it was in a stable condition so it was relatively safe to play in. I remember that the house had its own... Read more

Memories of Staffordshire

Wonderful Times Too

I read John Grehan's contribution with great interest. I too enjoyed the air raid shelters and LMS Station at Cold Meece, though four or five years later than his own expeditions. I too attended St Joseph's and the two boys in the taxi with John were my older brothers. By the time I went to "St Joe's", the taxi service was not available and I was taken in my mother's car the three miles to the nearest bus stop for Stoke on Trent. As a teenager, I attended a party in one of the inhabited houses next to "Meece House", the abandoned stately home. Naturally a deputation of us party goers ventured in to the then stable structure. In the garage was an old Alvis car, completely intact. Incredible, really.

My Dad was something of a local historian and wrote articles of local interest for the "Evening Sentinel" newspaper. Later these were compiled to make a local bestseller "Murders Myths and Monuments of North Staffordshire". One of... Read more

Norton Bridge

I remember Norton Bridge from 1969 when there were two shops. One that was part of the post office, the Railway Inn pub and the railway staion. Sadly all that exists out of all these now, is just the pub. We made our own fun in the 70's, plenty of fields, a river to go swimming, and pools to go fishing. There were no computers, Xbox or Playstations - there was never a boring moment. My dad was born there 1938 and still lives there, those were the days...

My Life There

I remember the days when I lived on a farm that was owned by Mark Carter from Eccleshall Castle. I had so much fun living in Eccleshall that I didn't want to move when the farm was sold. I had loads of friends and good memories, I remember when all the children were given a Silver Jubilee coin at school, the walks to the church from Lonsdale School, and to the common at the top of the junction of Kerry Lane and we had to pass by the Jacksons' place, I was friends with their son Carl. I also remember the Royal Oak pub because my mum and Joyce Robinson worked there for Geoff Hurst the footballer who owned it at that time. The chip shop down the side of the Oak when they used newspaper to wrap your chips, they sold a Ford Anglia to my dad. The Badger that was then called the Railway Inn and owned by Ron and Connie. I had a best mate like all... Read more

Stone in The 1950s

I am now 57 years of age, and live in Australia. I was born in Stone, Stafforshire in 1949 and would love to go back and visit.
As a child I remember walking along the canal and standing watching as a blacksmith mended a horse's shoe. I remember hating school but even at that very tender age I was interested in the history of the school that I attended. Every day at home-time I walked on the stone footpath that was once laid by the Romans (is it still there?). The school was very old and I think that it was once used by monks?? It had very tall ceilings, rounded arches and big heavy doors. I remember taking a shortcut through the church cemetery across the road from the school.  I was very frightened as some of the graves were very old and some were partly opened, very scary. My parents, my sister and myself lived at 26 Redhill Road. My maiden name was Bruce.

Sandstone Site as at 21 August 2006

First time on web page, co-incidently was at site yesterday 20 Aug 2006. I used to play all around the area as a young child 1970+ when the area was allotments, the current site has lost about 10ft in height due to 20 years of erosion, filling in etc. If you look to the left of the centre pillar and to the root overhang, there is about 2ft of sandstone left visible and then you are at root level to all the remaining trees. I will go back and take a photograph of the site, so it is not lost forever.

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