Kilby, Leicestershire

Countesthorpe

My name is Marlis Franz. I am German. In 1952,  I was 15 years old, I visited my English penfriend in Countesthorpe together with my mother. We spent a wonderful time there. Going on holiday was not normal at this time and something special - particularly going to England.
My English girl-friend lived together with her parents in Countesthorpe, Station Road. When we visited her there was a post office in this house and a little shop. What a surprise when I saw the Countesthorpe photos and there was a photo "Countesthorpe, Station Road". I think it must be the house where the Fletcher family lived in when we visited them. I cannot forget the wonderful weeks we spent there and since then I like England and its people.
Best wishes
Marlis Franz

Bell Street

I remember going to Bell Street around 1967/8 to see Michael Aspel open "Key Markets" which was a supermarket of sorts, and would be on the left-hand-side of this picture (I think either next door to the Co-op, or may have occupied the same space for a while until it closed down.
Also Foryan's (not sure of the spelling) bicycle and toy shop on the other side of the road (now the cancer charity shop). The old chap who owned it, sold bikes (Raleighs) but knew absolutely nothing about them, so a popular school-boy prank, which was a great source of amusement to me and my friends, was to go into the shop and ask for something like a pair of cotter-pins, or a cone-spanner. We were always highly amused by his totally blank-look, and standard answer that they weren't in stock.

happy days

The corner shop was Tyler's, a sweet and grocers shop. They sold 1d iced lollies made from a juice drink similar to Ribena. You were allowed out to play all day except Sundays, and we would very often go around in a little gang. We especially enjoyed going over the fields (the hills and hollows) behind Church Nook, to two little ponds to fish for tadpoles and further along to Rally Bridge, which was a footbridge across the railway line. Memories come back of running through the steam of the trains across the bridge for a dare.

Basset Street School

I remember this school so well, my first born went to this school in 1983 and so did my daughter, it's a shame they pulled part of it down. I remember walking the children over to what is now the infant school to use their swimming pool, later when they pulled some of the old school down the children were moved to the infant school in South Wigston, on the Countesthorpe Road, where all three of my children went, they then moved on to South Wigston High School where they had a real good head master, Mr  Bothamy (sorry about the spelling).