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Houghton Conquest

Houghton Conquest photos

Displaying the first of 2 old photos of Houghton Conquest.   View all Houghton Conquest photos

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Houghton Conquest maps

Historic maps of Houghton Conquest and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Houghton Conquest maps

Houghton Conquest area books

Displaying 1 of 6 books about Houghton Conquest and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Houghton Conquest

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Bedfordshire memories

Butchers Shop

Market Place c1955
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Browsing Ampthill, for the first time, I came across the above photo.  On the left just above the logo is a shop blind that used to protect the meat in the window display from sunshine (when it appeared).  That blind was the bain of my life in 1952/3/4 when I was a so called "butchers boy".  It never ran correctly on it's tracks, and I caused many a car to swerve my long pole manipulations putting it up and down.  Funny when I think about it.  The bicycle outside (possibly me pictured) was used for deliveries.  The carrier full of orders for Maulden and surrounds was a steering hazard particulary in the snow.  One Saturday morning I came to grief down Maulden hill and spent an hour scraping dirt and stones from meat with my pen knife before going on my way.  The complaints arrived back at Ampthill well before yours truly.  Oh the humiliation and all for 2/6p a week.  Humiliation was for being caught out, not for stony... Read more

Shop Names.

Church Street c1965
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The shop next door to The Ampthill News was and still is Cheesman's the chemist and the shop next door to that was Underwood's an electrical appliance shop.

Grandma

Market Place c1960
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The lady with the white coat and shopping basket on the right hand side of the photo is my grandmother - Clara Billington - and lovely to see her in print!

Ampthill Siren

Market Place c1955
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My abiding memory of Ampthill is when I used to go to the Saturday pictures with my cousins and the fire engine would be called out. The only problem was the siren that called them out was the old wartime air-raid siren. What a noise !!! I lived in Maulden but often visited Ampthill. thanks for the memories. !!!

Vic The Postman

Church Street c1955
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I feel sure the postman shown is Vic, who always whistled as he delivered the mail. He was like a favourite uncle when I was a child - sadly missed.

My First Visit to Marston

The first time I went to Marston my boyfriend was taking me to visit his parents. I was 15 and he was 17. We caught a train from Bedford St John's and got off at Milbrook Halt. His family lived in a Brickyard home in "Jubilee Cottages". It wasn't as modern as my parents' council house as it had no hot water and an outside non-flush toilet. He thought that I was posh because we had two flushing toilets, one inside the house and one outside. His house had no bathroom either.
Back then the Brickyards were still working and I remember all of the chimneys in the skyline.
His family moved to Peterborough a few months later and we have only been back a few times since.

My House

High Street c1955
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This is where I live, it is no longer a village post office. It was built in 1680, and we are returning it to a residential property.

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