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Lydbrook
Lydbrook maps
Historic maps of Lydbrook and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Lydbrook maps
Lydbrook area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Lydbrook and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Lydbrook
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Lydbrook.
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James Cooper And Emma Baldwin
James and Emma were the parents of my maternal grandmother, Lydia Cooper, who was born in Lydbrook. If you have any information in regards to them, or my grandmother, please contact me at pjj4cjs@msn.com. Thank you
Gloucestershire memories
Perigrine Falcon
1985 to 2008,fantastic times for bird watchers,lots of friends made, bill williams,frank,clive, john gerwood, the boys from bristol,all the rspb wardens over the years, anne and all the staff at the log cabin,all the forestry commision men, and all the hundreds of visitors who have looked through my telescope, and several people who are no longer with us,22 years of magic may it long continue
The Book Shop
My family lived at the Book Shop in the middle of the photograph from 1961 to 1981, it was a shop that seemed to me to sell everything, newsagents, sweet shop, chemists, haberdasherers as well as selling books. I was 6 years old in 1965, I can remember looking up at the jars of sweets in awe, mouth watering at the thought of jelly babies and sherbet lemons. Harold and Nora lived in the Post Office next door and there were several more shops in the village that I can remember, two grocers shops, an ironmongers and a dairy, as well as a pub, rugby club, social club and two chapels. It was a busy place, although we opened at 6.30 am and shut at 6, there would often be a knock at the door in the evening so the shop was "open all hours". My father delivered newspapers to all the surrounding villages including English Bicknor, Five Acres, Symonds Yat and Christchurch including the camp... Read more
Living at Wigpool After The War
I lived in Wigpool after the Second World War with my new wife and baby son. There were no proper roads to the village, just mud tracks which became impassable in the winter for vehicles. This meant we had to buy our coal in the summer and store it - if we ran out we had to burn wood. We had no bathroom and no flushing toilet. There was no running water either. We had a well a good couple of hundred yards or so down a track where we filled up our buckets and carried them back to the house. I spent months planting seed potatoes hoping to sell the crop, only for the whole lot to be eaten by sheep. I've written all my memories in a book "Dropped In It" available as a paperback and as an ebook on Amazon.co.uk. It wasn't all bad - the view from the hill was magnificent!
Stepping Back in Time
It started when my mother was dying, when we asked her about the family history, and she gave us names and dates. Her family came from France in late 1500. They were Hugenots and they were Puritans, and were chased out of France because of their beliefs. They went to live in Gloucester, where they helped to rebuild the church in Taynton St Lawrence. We went to visit the church and it was the most exciting thing to experience. All our early ancestors are buried down the aisle of the church. One could not be found - the last one - so when we went and spoke to a man who was writing about our ancestors (she had written a book), and they confirmed we had the right family. His name was Douglas J Parker. He wrote the story of the two churches, the old and the rebuilt one. He told us they were looking for the last to be buried there and how they came to find her.
Let... Read more
Cinderford Square
I was born in Cinderford in 1962 and lived there until the mid 1980s. Through my childhood the town centre around the Square (now called the Triangle!) was busy and prosperous with all sorts of shops, my favourites being Woolies for my huge Airfix collection and James (now Merretts) for comics, toys and Standard fireworks. It's sad to see the town centre run-down now, my mum and sister still live there. However I accept it was partly due to me and many friends from that generation moving away to get jobs that directly contributed towards this, Catch 22 I guess. I moved as my job at Ranks (Xerox) was in doubt, they'd just started running this main local employer down, my friends had to move to get teaching jobs. We all still have family living local though and really enjoy occasional get togethers in our old local, The Miners. The shops in the centre of this pic behind the War Memorial (still there of course) were demolished in perhaps... Read more
Boyhood Memories
I have great memories of Cinderford [Bilson Green areas] from 1953 to 1961 when I was growing up. I remember riding go-carts down the hill. My mother was born in Cinderford [Margaret Hale, married name Hancox and she worked at Rosedales]. My grandfather was Milce Hale. This is a great site that brought back memories now that I live in Lake Wales, Florida, USA. If anyone remembers my parents or myself, it would be great to hear from you. Phil
