Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire

ampthill siren

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. ... [more]

Butchers shop

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... [more]

Grandma

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!

Shop names.

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.

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... [more]

39 Mill Lane

The gable end of the house on the left is 39 Mill Lane and Back St starts at the junction over the hill and not visible here. My father built the house about 1935 when he was  21 years old. I grew up there until 1955 when it was sold and we moved from Clophill for a short time. We returned... [more]

My House

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.

Swimming in the river at Kempston

Great times were had at the river at the bend as we children called it, we would make mud slides down the banks.  What fun we had.  There was always a good crowd there on a Sunday afternoon, but now its all quiet, no swimmers, the bend has long since gone.