Egham memories
Here are memories of Egham and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Egham or a Egham photo.
First Day of School
First Day of School Arriving at Egham Hythe Infants School, aged 5, and being placed in the care of Mrs. Spenser. There I remained for one entire term. Most of the faces in the classroom were new. Some of the names heard for the first time. Rex Aldwinkle, Richard Howard, Christine Addison, Jennifer Shore, Christine Vass. I am amazed that I remember these names as we were only in the same class one term. Mrs. Britton was the Headmistress. Wherever I went she seemed to be there. Was the school really that small? At break I learned about cigarette cards. I am now in my fifty third year of collecting them. I own over one million of them. Brooke Bond had just started issuing cards in tea packets - Frances Pitt's British Birds. And then it was Wild Flowers, Out into Space, Bird Portraits, British Wild Life and so on. Well I have them all, every variation ever issued, different papers, different backs, error cards. And I have all the foreign... Read more
Egham
I can remember Mullen's the Chemist, sawdust on the floor in the butchers which I would scoop up in a pile with my feet, the map where you could press a button and it would light up, the steam trains passing as I swung on the swings, Auntie Winnie at the sweet shop, buying second-hand scooters and peddling them home into The Crescent, going to the phone boxes outside the post office, Dr Sam Taylor and his Ford Zephyr - with the blue painted waiting room with just a bench I think (my memory may be playing tricks on me), being lifted to post mail in the letterbox down Grange Road, a plane on fire as I walked home from St Cuthbert's at Englefield Green . . .
Magna Carta
The text to the Egham photographs calls Egham uninspiring. What it may lack in architectural merit (although there are gems if you look closely, perhaps an architect would care to enlighten the readers) is more than made up for by its place in history as the location for the signing of the Magna Carta by King John in 1215. This took place at Runnymede. There was a major celebration in 1965. This took place on the field just below the American Bar Association Memorial, one of three to be found in Runnymede, the others being the RAF Memorial and the John F Kennedy Memorial. The JFK Memorial was once damaged by the IRA who tried to blow it up. Appropriately the Magna Carta celebrations largely took place on Runnymede itself. There were jousting displays and various activities. I still have my replica Magna Carta written on fake parchment. Freddie Mills the boxer was supposed to attend. However, he died in mysterious circumstances which made headlines for days.
The Old Cinema
We moved to Egham in about 1955. My father had been born in Medlake Road in 1920. We lived in Oak Avenue, Egham Hythe in a house built in the 1930s. I attended Egham Hythe Infants and Primary and later Magna Carta (on both its sites - Egham Hythe and Manorcrofts - it is now just in the Hythe). In those pre-M25 and M3 days Egham was a much quieter place. The High Street was much as it had been in the early 1900s. There were still some gas lamps which were lit by hand. Green double decker buses ran through Egham linking Staines to High Wycombe (route 441). One red bus service (117) terminated at Egham Station. One major change was that we used to walk to school or sometimes use our bicycles. Very rare now in these car dominated times.
I recall the old cinema in the High Street. It was on the south side. My neighbour had once been a projectionist there. It had... Read more
Growing up in Englefield Green
I moved to Alexandra Road with my family when I was about 2 years old and then went on to attend St Jude's infants school, actually in my road when I was 5. Friends at the time were Sarah Miller and Yoland Cawley. I loved school and would get 3d from my nan to go to Jarmans the sweet shop on St Jude's Road. The butchers was on the corner of Alexandra Road and St Jude's Road, gone now I think. At the top of my road adjoining Harvest Road was a big horse kept in a small field which has since been built on and I used to visit the horse daily to stroke it. Halfway down my road was a little lane leading to the blacksmith's and sometimes me and my brother would go and watch him work. The rag and bone man used to come up our road regularly as did the coalman. My brother helped the milkman on his float, and I got bottles of orange... Read more
Egham Reminisces 1945-2011
I was born at home, like most babies those days, in Sept 1945 at 8 Hummer Road next door to Mr Heather's wood sawing yard with all the rats that it contained in the stored wood. My grandfather/mother lived in Park Road and he was a blacksmith who was supposed to have made the main gates at Royal Holloway University in the 1890s. My aunt was the till lady at the Savoy Cinema in High Street where used to go to Saturday morning cinema club with Roy Roger's films and fake cowboys there. My other grandmother who lived in Egham Hythe was piano player for silent movies at Majestic cinema in Staines. Remember Drake and Mounts stock yard where we used to play in the hay and got told off for doing so! Remember tuck shop opposite St. John's church open 7-10 every day. I went to Egham Primary Junior School at 4-5 years old and at 7 going to Junior School next door where I was taught by Mrs... Read more
Memories of Surrey
Magna Carta Island
I have several photographs of the house on Magna Carta Island taken during the 1910s and early 1920s. The house was owned by my grandfather during this period, John Francis Mc Gregor (a stockbroker) who was married to my grandmother, Maidie Scott (her 'stage name', she was a music hall performer).
The photos are of my grandmother and my mother with her twin brother playing in the garden. They were born whilst my grandparents owned the house. My grandparents divorced in 1924 and my grandfather sold the house in 1927. My grandmother emigrated to South Africa and I and my siblings were all born here. I have visited the house once in 1996.
Chris Robinson
My Early Life.
I was born in 6 Milton Road, Egham on 13-05-1947 and we shortly moved to 9 Almond Close, Englefield Green. I first attended school at St Jude's infants in 1952, Mrs Searl was head, one of my earliest memories is of my Dad collecting me at the gate and taking me to see 'Gunfight at the OK Corral'. My next school was St Jude's junior (next door) where Mr Frome was head, other teachers I remember from there are Mr Pike, Mr Leigh, Mr Smith, Miss Robinson (she got married while I was in her class). My friends in those days where Paul Wagg, John Brian, Derek Keith, Desmond Jenner (he unfortunately drowned in the Thames at old Windsor), Mick Bunyan and Colin Payne, to name some of several. I fluncked the 11 plus (probably on purpose to stay with my friends!). Next was Egham County Secondary School in Manorcroft Road, Egham, Mr Glyn Price was head. I especially remember David Coleman as an inspirational teacher. I left school in... Read more
Near ''The Lammas
1954-1959, say?? Perhaps earlier too. This section of the River looks v. close to the area off the top of Thames or Bridge Street (?) known as The Staines "Lammas". A number of pools and play areas, with a swimming pool set into the River itself. Such a trek by 'bus to get there. I don't think anyone would do it today. But we did and we thought it a wonderful treat. Although there were many hardships for most families, at least Mother wasn't a slave to technology or guilt. Part of her 'work' was to take us out and about. To enjoy life with us wherever possible. A 'takeaway' was occasional Fish and Chips or a 'bag' of hot chips. More likely an ice lolly! String bags with refreshments, swim tyres ready inflated around our waists! Mother quite resigned, even cheerful about our 'big day out'. Planning where would be best to 'bags' a spot for the day. Excited to get there in the cool morning... Read more
The Weir
See my comments under photo S175052 - Penton Hook Lock - about the wooden weir you can just see in the middle of this image.
Picnics at Knowle Green
We had some very happy family picnics on Knowle Green. There was a small stream in which we used to play with our fishing nets and catch small fish and other water creatures. There were also plenty of wild flowers on the edge of the stream and dragon flies. There was also on the Green a herd of dairy cows brought down from their farm daily to graze, Knowle Green was then common land, and in the early evening they were rounded up to take back to their farm to be milked. I have no idea where the farm was.
There was also on Knowle Green a blacksmith's forge and we children used to stand and watch the furnace and the horses being shoed. This was situated by the other stream on Knowle Green on the other side of the linoleum factory.
There were also about six mature, beautiful horse chestnut trees at the entrance to Knowle Green by Kingston Road, wonderfully bountiful for the conker season and to play... Read more
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