Cove memories
Here are memories of Cove and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Cove or a Cove photo.
The Good Old Days
I remember going to Our Lady of Lourdes church behind Cove Green with my older brother and younger sister, we were dropped off by our grandpop only to spend the collection money we were given by our parents at Charlie's sweet shop, returning back to wait outside the church until Grandpop picked us up again. I don't remember much about the church but I still suffer from bad teeth!
Super Photo.
I was not born for another 30 years, but I still recognise this picture. The road surface is interesting to me, it is hard packed earth. I used to play on the old water wagon at the depot in High View Road. This must have been used to wet the road, which was then rolled by a steam roller.
Happy Days
Oh the memories stored away!! Charlie's opposite Cove Green, going there for sweeties on a Sunday, Cove Green (not as good as Tower Hill swings though!), Mundays closing at 1pm on Sundays, Thorntons with its yellow facade, and wool etc, I always fancied their pink woollen gloves with little pearl beads, the Post Office, with toys in the window - I remember my dad buying me a farm set from there... The butchers next to Mundays, and was it Maces grocers the other side? Moving up (or down), the church hall and its jumble sales on a Saturday, the Tradesmans Arms and the Anchor, from which many happy holiday/trip coaches were met, the little hairdressers next to another butchers opposite the garage, then the "twin" shops I used to call them, one sold clothes for children, I think they were interlinked inside and I think the other sold baby apparel. Hancocks photographers, then another grocer, then "the" bread shop of Cove as far as I was concerned, as... Read more
46 Bridge Road, Cove
46 Bridge Road at Cove is very significant to me because I was born in Bridge Road, no 46, on 29th June 1943, in the photo of Bridge Road it is the second house on the left, opposite Cove Supply Stores, so I'm sure my mother would have gone in there. What I can remember is a wooden rocking horse which was behind the front door, my sister Kathleen and myself used to ride the hell out of it, also in the back shed was a flat table and I can remember banging nails in it, my mum and dad said there was no space on it for anything else after I had finished. Also I can remember the strawberrieys in the back garden, my mum always said if I was missing, look out of the back and there would be a small bottom sticking up out of the strawberry patch. The only neighbour I can remember is a Mrs Ellis. My father was in the army then (1939-45), 7th Armoured... Read more
Fond Memories
I now live in Adelaide, South Australia, but lived in Holly Road in the 1950s and I too have fond memories of Christopher's sweet shop. My brother and I played on Cove green a lot and I broke my foot there atthe age of 6. I took a trip back down memory lane in 1984 on a very foggy day, Tower Hill School was very different from the little village school I remember.
Re Cove, Bridge Road (c172009)
The photograph of Bridge Road clearly shows The Cove Supply Stores building on the right. My parents ran that shop from about 1936 to 1945. The Bridge Road end of the shop in the photo was the Off-Licence. Opposite the shop on Cove Road was the Ivy Leaf Club. I have such memories of Cove... I attended the Hawley Road Elementary School, and remember one teacher well, a Mr Harold Crapper, who was a devil with the cane! Later I attended the Farnborough Grammar School.
I wonder whether anyone can remember Mr Thornton's menswear shop? (Opposite Mr Munday's.) He used to place an advert in the local paper, always with a little poem referring to "'hornton's Bib-and-Brace'. Mr Munday's Newsagency was always popular with boys and girls because of the comics he sold. If I remember rightly, there was a battery charging and bicycle shop on the corner of Hazel Avenue run by a Mr Young.
Being 12 years old when we moved to Cove, I cycled... Read more
Busk Crescent
Late in 1945 my parents moved to 25 Busk Crescent, in Cove. The house was on top of a hill and overlooked the Farnborough airfield. From the front bedroom you could see aircraft landing on the runway. The house was one of a string of brand-new red-brick semi’s, built on the crescent and down Fowler Road, bordering an estate which had been constructed in the 1914-18 war. We were one of the earliest tenants on the street and the plaster wasn’t even dry. They said we were not to distemper the walls for at least six months. For some time there were no paths or fences, just mud and a few planks to walk on. Eventually a concrete path was laid to the street. At the back about ten feet of wooden privacy fence was attached to the house wall, and then a series of concrete posts supported three strands of galvanized wire to divide the gardens. Each house was provided with a really solidly built, flat-roofed, shed a few... Read more
The Village
Going ‘down the village’ pretty much referred to the stretch of Cove Road, between Hazel Avenue and Marrowbrooke Lane, where most of the shops were. Once upon a time Cove must have been the typical English village: two houses, three pubs and a church. The ‘Tradesman’s Arms’, the ‘Anchor’ and the ‘Alma’ were all together, right beside the vicarage and St Christopher’s church. The two houses must have fallen down in the interval because the pubs and the vicarage looked older that anything else around. The church was odd because it looked very recent and I always wondered if there had once been an older building on the site.
Along one side of the Tradesmans Arms there was a narrow ally that always smelled strongly of pee. It was very convenient for the drinkers when they lurched out of the bar at closing time. On the other side of the pub, in a grubby little building beside the Methodist Church, was the chip shop, the Elite Fish Café.... Read more
Eddie Arrow.
I knew Eddie Arrow as a boy, he was a real character, also the pig man, Mr Lunn, and Artie Cook, who used to come round the estate with a horse and cart. I remember Mr.Grenham who had The Alma [now a carpark]. I first went in there aged 14 and asked for a pint. There wasn't a bar, or optics, the beer stood outside on a couple of trestles. He just used to go outside and pour the pint straight from the barrel. Can anyone remember my Grandfather Pop,"Pokey" Dyes?
Durinawar.
My first memory was of being taken to the air raid shelter on Tower Hill from Keith Lucas Road. I was held up as a babe in arms to see the "wee aeroplanes" that were bombing the R.A.E. I saw three "Flying Pencils" [it appears there were four]. After they had bombed the R.A.E. they flew away and attacked Deepcut. I would very much like to know the date of this raid. An earlier raid is documented [not well] but not this one.
Cody Road (Prefabs)
I used to live in No 55 Cody Road in the prefabs, from 1948 until 1959. I returned last year (2009), I found the road our prefab was on the corner of Cody Road and Brookhouse Road. I remember we had a large area of grass in front of us with a big green electricity box. The one thing that sticks in my memory was the time we had just come out of school (Tower Hill) and the Air Show was on the following week and the planes were practicing. Next thing a Hawker Hunter came so low over our heads we thought it was going to hit the houses. Next thing we heard a bang and the plane had crashed in the field close to Marrowbrook Lane. So as kids we all ran down there and all we could see was the wreckage all around and a very big whole in the ground. The adults told us to move away. We heard later that the Egyptian... Read more
Addition to Cove in Wartime
The two stores at the bridge across from West Heath Farm run by Jim Blunden (who had a daughter Pam Blunden) were stores we frequented every Friday, namely the one next to the railway track. This was run by Kath Owen. Her husband had been killed during military exercises in Aldershot, but Kath continued to run Owens Sweet Shop. I remember we used to buy bags of sherbert and suck it out with a licorice straw. Does anyone else remember going to Owens Sweet Shop? My name back then was Anne Ainsley, and I lived at The White House, 16 Minley Rd.
Cove, West Heath Picture
The picture of Cove, West Heath Corner, is the bottom of Minley Rd. To the right is what was then called Hawley Rd, to the left is what was then called Fleet Rd. The large house between Minley Rd and Hawley Rd belonged to the Arrow fanily, The house on the left side that has two shops . One of those shops was a sweet shop where we used to spend our ration coupons for sweets. I was born in Cove on Hawley Rd in 1934, then moved to The White House, 16 Minley Rd around 1938. Lived there until 1950. Cove was a small wonderful place to live in. We loved the fish and Chip shop and what we called "The Green". Remember the Rex Cinema?
We rode our bikes all ove the place. I went to Cove Elementary School on Hawley Rd, I went on to Aldershot County High School as did my elder sister. My Brother went on to the Grammar School at Farnborough. Dad... Read more
Cove-Farnborough, Hants
I was born in Farnborough and lived in Pinehurst Cottages until the age of six. My father, Charles Dunbar was an engineer at The Royal Aircraft Establishment. Later we moved to 166 Keith Lucas Road and later to 16 Fowler Road in Cove. I went to Fernhill school. I remember the air show each September and the crashes that happened when the pilots were testing breaking the sound barrier. Once I was the first person on site when a plane crashed on the White Road that ran along the side of the airfield. My mother worked at Christopher's the paper shop and my first job at fifteen was working part-time there. Mr Hill was the butcher in Cove and my father was a regular at the Tradesman's Pub. I attended Miss Tidman's school of dance in North Camp. We used to go on our bicycles to pick bluebells and daffodils each spring. And in the summer we used to ride to the pool in Aldershot for a swim.
In... Read more
Teenage Memories
Cove was a special place, a place where I was born, at 11 Sydney Smith Close...now stands Beverly Crec....
My grandad Matthew Smith lived at 39 Holly Rd, and worked on the railway as a plate layer. Growing up we lived in Hazel Avenue, and I spent all of my childhood on Eelmoor Farm, with Uncle Eddy Arrow. It was a great time for me, he was the local woodman and also kept pigs, we used to do a swill round in RAF Borough. I was also a delivery boy for the local shop, J. E King and Son, also known locally as Cookies because Jim Cook was the father of Joan King.
It was a time when I delivered groceries around RAF Borough, and if the householder wasn't at home I used to let myself into the house and place the groceries on the table, pick my money up from the table where there would be a row of money, for the milkman, tallyman etc. That... Read more
Memories of Hampshire
The Farnborough Puddle
I used to love The Puddle, I used to go there every weekend during term time from when it opened at Easter every year, until in closed in October. I would try to go every day during the summer holidays, but I didn't always have the money to get in, I would plead with my mum to give me the money to go, I used to do odd jobs to earn some money to go. I remember one day I went and it was throwing it down with rain, and that didn't stop me from going, while I was swimming it started thundering and lighting and the owners made everyone get out the water, I did but reluctantly. The changing rooms there were very cold and after finishing swimming it was freezing to get dressed, I used to get dressed as quick as possible, probably didn't dry myself properly as I was so cold. Getting into the water was a challenge as well, as the water wasn't heated. The temperature used to... Read more
My Father's Home
Osborne Road is where my Father was brought up in the 1930s. This street was very close to the Royal Aircraft Establishment and this generated my Dad's great interest in aeroplanes and flight. He was later to join the RAF and served during the Second World War.
Queen's Road
I was born on Queen's Road next to the off licence, past the Baptist Church. My
grandparents lived in Farnborough from 1920 to their deaths in 1970's. In those days the Allied troops were stationed nearby at Aldershot.
Lynchford Rd.
As a young child, I remember feeling so scared as I walked passed the Elephant and Castle pub, as often there would stand an old man in a long black coat and a black hat, and he would very slowly shake his finger at me.Whether it was just me or any child, I never knew, but it used to frighten the life out of me!
Ramalies Park
Hi! Does anybody remember Ramalies Park in North Camp, early 70s and Army property?
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