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Harwell memories

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

 

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Memories of Oxfordshire

Matthew Kimbers Cross

As a child I remember a cross made of iron painted green at the roadside between the two turnings into East Hendred. It bore the name "Matthew Kimber". Daffodils would appear there in the spring. Can anyone tell me what it was about?

Broadway Has Not Changed ! Though Woollies Has Gone.

My Family lived here in 1955.- Dad worked in Army Police, Mum was a Housewife. I remember riding on the back of my Mum"s bike - playing near the woods with my sister (prohibited!) - travelling on the last steam train to Wallingford, and having to walk 1/2 mile to school every day along Park Road (past the famous Tin Peas Factory). But the Best memory was buying my 1st 7 inch record for 1 shilling and 2 pence called "Portrait of my Love" sang by Mat Munroe at-- where you ask? Woolworths of course ! Agh the good old 50"s.

Kiln Cottage

Not so much a memory more a request. Does anyone remember a place called Kiln Cottage which I understand was an orchard/?farm? I had a postcard from my grandfather to my grandmother when he was in the forces address to 1 Kiln Cottage, Didcot. Very old members of the family (even older than me) remember visiting the farm as children. My grandparents were William Thomas and Elsie (or Alice) Dollimore. I would love to know if anyone had any memories as I am attempting my family tree. My email address is pw007g3283@blueyonder.co.uk

Sheila Carrington

12a The Camp, Hanney Road, Steventon.

War Memorial And Abingdon Road c1955
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My memory of Steventon started in 1947. For those who don't know about Steventon Camp, it was a disused army camp about 1 to 2 miles from Steventon village, on the Hanney road. (I see the storage depot is still there, which when I was a lad was full of army lorries.) My family (Victor and Kathleen Davis, my sister Kathleen and myself) lived at no 12a, it was at the far side, away from the road, second one in from the corner of the camp facing open fields and Steventon. To be honest, itwas a bit basic, but clean, for us children it was a great place to live. The reason we came to live there was because of overcrowding at my gran's in Marcham and her ill health. We moved out, and with nowhere to go, squatted on the camp like so many people in our situation. 12a consisted of half an old barrack block (all made of wood) with two bedrooms and one big room for... Read more

The Prior Family of Steventon

The Causeway c1955
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My grandmother lived in Steventon with her own grandmother around 1880. She was Florence Prior and her own gran was Eliza Prior who by then was a widow and a laundress living in Timsbury Cottage. I have tried to find the cottage but the only place I have seen with a similar name is Timsbury Villa. I sometimes wonder if it is the same place. My own visit to Steventon was around 1986. I remember visiting St Michael's Church and having a picnic in the next field among all the cowslips and other wild flowers. It was beautiful. I walked around the churchyard and found many tombstones for the Prior family including one who was in the Grenadier Guards and was killed in the First World War. Intriguingly, I found a stone with an inscription remembering Stephen Prior who died 30 May 1864 aged 46. I am tempted to guess that this is my own great-great-grandfather who married Eliza the laundress. Who knows?

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