Little Abington, Cambridgeshire

Is this correct?

I was a pupil at the local primary school in Great Abington. This picture shows the Old School House that the headmasters of the school lived in during my time there. The Village Shop and Post Office is the white building making up the corner of the road as it leads round to the right. The road that leads round the corner to the right was the main A604 towards Cambridge. This photograph must have been taken after the village bypass was built, since the triangle on the road was painted after the rights of way were altered to allow the High Street traffic to take priority. The High Street actually crosses the picture and is taken on the Hildersham Road into Great Abington High Street.  Also, I remember a lorry toppling over into the front grounds of the school itself just visible to the right of the house. You can see the black and white Armco barrier which was subsequently erected after this particular accident, again just visible where the road disappears round the corner. This was most definitely a feature added in the mid-late 1960's. I cannot remember when the bypass was completed - I suspect it is circa 1970.

Post Office memories

I was 6 mths old when my parents moved into Magna Close, my maiden name being Stenson. 1955 I was born. Well, I have many warming memories of my childhood in Great Abington, some of which relate to the post office. Harry and Hilda Jaggard owned and ran it then, Harry seeing to the post office side of things and Hilda looking after the shop. To this day I still remember the penny arrows, the 2d bars of Cadbury's chocolate, the toffee cushions, winter mixtures, fruit salad and black jacks (I'd love to be able to get 4 for a penny nowadays wouldn't you?), liquourice (comforts, bootlaces, pipes and catherine wheels), all manner of spellbinding goodies and Hilda, bless her heart, she had the patience of a saint as the village children would take what seemed like forever to try and get as many sweets as possible for our 3d or 6d. Treasured memories indeed. The vegetables got tumbled into the vast brass dish of the weighing scales and Hilda would pick up the weights and place on the other end to see if an extra potato was needed to accuire the requested weight. I also remember that if you couldn't find an item that was on the list, Hilda would go down to the cellar to obtain what was required, nothing was too much trouble. Harry Jaggard was equally as nice, he would stand behind his glass window, usually with a cigar for company, attending to the post office needs of the village folk. He would always show unlimited patience with us children as we would offer a small hand under the bottom of the glass so that we could get stamped! We'd be thrilled to bits with our very own post mark, that was of course until he would tell us that we were being sent to London! Harry and Hilda had two daughters, Helen and Jackie, and a huge Airedale called Trigger, he was rather frightening. The photo of the post office is as I remember it (until it was re-arranged some time later) as a child. I remember very well the amount of times that huge lorries would mount the pavement and knock the corner of the building above the door, resulting in repairs quite freqently. In those days the A604 was the main road and was incredibly busy and I'm sure there are many former pupils of the school that will remember the incident of the Turners refrigerated lorry that ended up in the front playground, we, as children of course thought this was exciting! As a result, crash barriers were placed outside of the school. However, with regard to another memory of the post office, there used to be a machine on the outer wall which one could purchase either cigarettes or chocolate outside of opening hours, well, the cigarettes had the relevant change inside the outer wrapping, of course we didn't want the cigarettes, but we would push our small hands up inside the machine and obtain the boxes to get the money (little devils). The chocolate was just a bonus. Well, I've really enjoyed my trip down memory lane, I've shared them with you because they are such treasured memories and I do hope you enjoy just one or two of my memories as much as I have in sharing them with you. Maybe I'll be in touch again to share some more but for now, goodbye. Chris Cooper

The Grip

I moved into this cottage in 1953 with my parents and older sister. I remember very clearly looking out of the large window in the centre of the cottage wishing I was old enough to go to school with my sister. I was also very envious as she came home from school with a Coronation mug of the Queen and Prince Philip. When we first moved in, there was no inside bathroom or toilet and we got our water from a pump in the garden.  I always loved that house even though I am convinced I saw a ghost there when I was about 8 years old ! The house number was 28, our phone number was Linton 558 and my father's car reg no. was BLP 911. Isn't it strange what we remember!

Building history.

The photograph shows a shop and house which my grandmother ran between 1931 and 1952. It was then run by my uncle until it was sold as a house in 1979. My grandmother's name was Colville and she ran the shop as a general stores. Before the building was a shop it was a public house called the Axe and Compass and part of the building was a cobblers shop. The building itself goes back to 1599.