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East Challow memories

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

St Nicholas Place

I used to live at 1st Nicholas Place and use the shop in the photo when I was a child growing up in the village. The memories I have of the village were of good times.

To Meet my Uncle For The First Time

I'm glad I came across this website as I have been looking for my family's relatives from this area. I remember the first time I came to East Challow to visit my late uncle's family for the first time. I have in my possession a personal photo of him outside his home in Hills Close beside the old red telephone box. His name was Pat Downes (deceased), he was living at No 1 Hills Close. I would love to hear from anybody that knew him or indeed any member of his family around the area. Please get in touch with any info to: ptrckdownes@yahoo.co.uk . My own father's names was William (Bill) from near Carlow, Ireland.

Memories of Oxfordshire

Orchard Gardens

In about 1972 we as a family moved into West Challow, although with being at a young age I hated it, since moving from Wantage and my friends this it seemed was in the middle of nowhere. I used to cycle most days to Icknield, if not then at least a lift was offered by one of my parents, although quite often I was having to walk home. We owned a Great Dane who I often walked either up the large hill leading out towards Letcombe and Childrey, otherwise I would walk him towards Mellors Garage where there was a small outlet and I would always purchase my ten cigarettes, as we made our way back towards the village along the winding road a patch of grass is where our dog should always stop, he was waiting for me to light a cigarette, on hearing the match strike the box he always knew this was the signal for our moving on. In those years I became the local paper boy,... Read more

Dance Family

For many centuries my ancestors came from this area, the latest person was my grandmother Daisy Dance who sadly passed away very young in 1938. If anyone has any information on her or my ancestors could you please let me know? My ancestors currently stretch back to the1600s. My mother Kathleen Edwards was born in West Hanney, not far away from this village, her father was William Thomas Edwards, he died in 1966, he was married to Daisy Dance in 1929 in Wantage.

TIRROLD WAY

Atomic Estate c1955
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My parents lived in the house on the right, the end semi-detached house, I can just be seen in the photograph as the light coloured blob in the front garden. Normally I would have been at Garston Lane School, but in the late spring of 1955 I had to have my tonsils removed at Wantage Cottage Hospital, so I had extra time off school. My parents were the first occupants of the house in 1949, we moved to a bigger house on Foliat Drive in 1956. My maiden name is Robinson, and my father worked at Harwell moving to Winfrith in 1958.

Tirrold Way

Atomic Estate c1955
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We lived at 5 Tirrold Way on the Charlton Estate at Wantage just after I was born in 1949. My father George Nicholas worked at the Atomic Energy at Harwell and my parents were also the first occupants of these houses. My mother who is 83 years old feels sure that the Robinson family lived next door and that Susan and I played together and that she went on to become a nurse. If this is fact would love to hear from you!

All Grown Up

Market Place c1965
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Being of a young age by this time, twelve years old, I remember the market square being filled with motorbikes, with each the bike riders wearing leather jackets topped with a cut-off denim with this being decorated with many a metal stud, either coloured brass or silver, and sometimes framing what was a stencilled picture of perhaps an evil looking face or else something of another bizarre description. This congregation of these bikers held a friend and myself in so much fascination that even with our both being at this early age, every evening my friend and myself would be found sitting at the foot of King Alfred's statue joining this party, he wearing his leather-looking jacket and I in my denim jacket covered with a variety of studs purchased from one the local shops and chains used for plugs, either bought or else retrieved by some other means. On the back of my jacket was painted a scull with lightning drawn through its entirety, so making the complete diagram... Read more

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