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Lower Basildon
Lower Basildon maps
Historic maps of Lower Basildon and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Lower Basildon maps
Lower Basildon photos
We have no photos of Lower Basildon, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Basildon| Goring| Streatley| Pangbourne| Woodcote| South Stoke| Moulsford| Purley On Thames| Bradfield| Yattendon| Englefield| North Stoke| Tilehurst| Mapledurham| Theale| Cholsey| Hampstead Norreys| Frilsham| Compton| Stoke Row| Blewbury| South Moreton| Nettlebed| Cold Ash| West Hagbourne
Lower Basildon area books
Displaying 1 of 11 books about Lower Basildon and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Lower Basildon
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Berkshire memories
The Boat.
The boat in the photograph was completed in 1949 by my father George Watson. We lived in Palmers Green, London N13. I am up forward then aged 11. I think the picture was taken in 1949 as I can remember the occasion well.
Good Times
I went to live in Winteringham Way in Purley when I was 4 years old until I was 8 years old, and twice a twice every year we were flooded out. I remember having to stay elsewhere like the Memorial Hall, and it was very exciting staying at The Priors big house, eating my breakfast at a big long table, with my mum and older brother, we also had to move sometimes, into another house, in Brading Way. The area still looks very much the same. I still think about the times, that we went pea picking, my older sisters would come down from London to earn extra money, I loved it, they were good times, the farmer was MrBucknell.
Halycon Days
As a young child, these were good days, we had very little but so did everybody else, Mum had a few chickens, and we lived in a little house on stilts, brick piers, my Dad was working for the Thames Valley, and when the floods came, he had to row the first few hunred yards to get to the hill, which would carry him over the railway and up to the main road to catch the bus in Reading. Joyous days by the riverbank nearby and fun at the local school where my teaching was a Miss Wallington. We were good friends with Beryl Webb who lived in a converted railway carriage and we all shared what we had together. Great days with happy memouries.
River Gardens.
I have so many happy memories of Purley on Thames. My older sister lived at No 1 River Gardens in the latter part of the 1960s until the middle of the 1970s. As kids, my brother and I spent many, many happy days playing in the large garden there and along the river bank from the stile right up to Mapledurham Lock. I also remember swimming in the Thames there, and the night we swam across to the island almost opposite my sister's house and camped there. I often recall how we used to hire a small wooden boat called 'Ada' from a lady who lived a few houses along from my sisters. It cost one old shilling for an hour to hire and we had many happy hours paddling along the river between the lock and the Roebuck Hotel jetty. I don't remember the name of the lady, I think it sounded like a German name. So many, many happy memories I could go on and on.
Great-Grandad Samuel George Marlow Lived at Bradfield
Great-Grandad Samuel George Marlow's family lived at Bradfield and he was born there in 1858. I think he may have been a twin. Sadly I have been unable to learn anything at all about him but I am looking forward to visitng Bradfield and walking around the same place he must have seen all those years ago.
The Hiding Place
When I was ten years old this old tree was a delight. Ancient and hollow inside, we children were able to crawl inside while mother did her shopping. We watched people pass on their way to and from the blacksmith, the grocer or the butcher, firmly believing they had no idea we were there. If we were lucky we would have been bought an ice lolly or a sweet to eat in the tree. It was often thought by visitors that it was an oak because of the eponymous pub in the Square. It was, I think, an elm.
Now the tree is long gone, replaced by something small but with nice seats around on a paved area where villagers can rest in the shade.
The Well House
This was where everyone waited for the buses that took us east to Pangbourne and Reading or west to Newbury, our main shopping town. Newbury had a thriving market twice a week and buses were frequent, eight per day.
The Well House did indeed have a well beneath it and following a tragedy at the Royal Oak pub in which our next door neighbour was killed, the building was renovated.
Originally it was an open wooden structure supported on a low brick wall but after the deep well had been filled it had the sides bricked in. Whilst this is less drafty when waiting for a bus it meant that we couldn't see it coming nor see who else was in The Square - important for villagers, who always want to know who is about. It has recently (2006) been rebuilt following an accident but happily is basically unchanged.
Just obscured by the Well House is the cottage we first lived in on arrival in the village in... Read more
