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Hampstead Norreys
Hampstead Norreys photos
Displaying the first of 10 old photos of Hampstead Norreys. View all Hampstead Norreys photos
Hampstead Norreys maps
Historic maps of Hampstead Norreys and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Hampstead Norreys maps
Hampstead Norreys area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Hampstead Norreys and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Hampstead Norreys
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I Lived in Hampstead Norris From 1945 to 1962
I lived in Hampstead Norris as it was known in those days from 1945 to 1962 when I departed for greener pastures(I thought). I have had this longing for a while now to get in touch with people I went to school with in the village and at Compton. If you know my history you may or may not want to contact me. I would really like to hear from anyone who lived in the village at those times. I remember John Smith, Michael Wheeler, Chris Cannings, Angela Jefferys, Frank Ballard, the Simmons family, the Painter family, John, Reg, Roy and Anne Wheeler, Violet Marshall, I think the list is endless when I think about those days and of course my own family the Streets and Horners. Getting old you tend to look back on all the younger part of your life and wonder what happened. I left school in 1960 at the age of 15. I have lived in Adelaide, South Australia for the past 40 years and would... Read more
Berkshire memories
The Hiding Place
When I was ten years old this old tree was a delight. Ancient and hollow inside, we children were able to crawl inside while mother did her shopping. We watched people pass on their way to and from the blacksmith, the grocer or the butcher, firmly believing they had no idea we were there. If we were lucky we would have been bought an ice lolly or a sweet to eat in the tree. It was often thought by visitors that it was an oak because of the eponymous pub in the Square. It was, I think, an elm.
Now the tree is long gone, replaced by something small but with nice seats around on a paved area where villagers can rest in the shade.
The Well House
This was where everyone waited for the buses that took us east to Pangbourne and Reading or west to Newbury, our main shopping town. Newbury had a thriving market twice a week and buses were frequent, eight per day.
The Well House did indeed have a well beneath it and following a tragedy at the Royal Oak pub in which our next door neighbour was killed, the building was renovated.
Originally it was an open wooden structure supported on a low brick wall but after the deep well had been filled it had the sides bricked in. Whilst this is less drafty when waiting for a bus it meant that we couldn't see it coming nor see who else was in The Square - important for villagers, who always want to know who is about. It has recently (2006) been rebuilt following an accident but happily is basically unchanged.
Just obscured by the Well House is the cottage we first lived in on arrival in the village in... Read more
The Royal Oak
'The Oak' is the only pub and hotel in the village and in the fifties our next door neighbour was the cleaner there. She would cycle to the village from the farm on a heavy green bicycle in a slow and ponderous manner that has stayed with me to this day. I must have been about nine when the awful event happened that haunted me for years. Police came to the village school one day to ask our neighbour's daughter where her mum was going that morning as she was not at work. The doors in the porch of the pub had been sticking for some months and the cleaner had complained and asked for something to be done, to no avail. While cleaning that day, the floor had opened up beneath her and she fell into a well that had been unused for decades and not properly capped. Our friend was not found for several days. She had died more or less instantly, crushed by falling cookers, fridges, masonry... Read more
Fear of Wells
The well incident at yattendon scared my father. We had heard about it through relatives and we lived in east tytherley at the time. I remember my father spending a weekend tapping floors and trying to lift flag stones in our kitchen because he was convinced that there was a well under our home- there wasnt.
My Uncle Aunt And Cousins Lived Here
My uncle and aunt lived here from roughly 1948 to 1958. We lived on Oare Common and visited them at the Castle regularly.
In the living room was a large hook and apparently someone in the past was hung from the hook and has haunted the castle ever since. Another aunt lived at the top of the Castle, she was deaf and dumb. I remember lots of adders around the grounds.
A Visit to my Birthplace
Delighted to find this photo. I was born in Grimsbury Castle in 1946. I came to America at age three and know very little about the history of the Castle and surrounding area. I did visit the Castle in 1971. The appearance was much the same as it is in your 1955 photo. There were in fact adders close by even then. At the time I thought it would be lovely to see the inside of the structure. So I knocked on a thick wooden door. As I stood there I noticed that the door was heavily laced in cobwebs. But, a bottle of milk was next to the threshold. So, I knocked again. Just as I was convinced that no one would answer, a toothless cleaning lady with soot on her face pulled opened the door and said "Wa du ya want?" in an incredibly gruff voice. I asked if I might have a word with the owmer. She said "Not here" and closed the door. I couldn't leave... Read more
