Marchington memories
Here are memories of Marchington and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Marchington or a Marchington photo.
St Annes
We had several summer holidays in this house as children staying with my great aunt and her spaniels!. I remember lying on the old feather mattresses listening to the pigeons cooing in the mornings. I spent many happy hours in the garden and playing house in the room over the garage until my aunt complained about the dirt falling on her car below. In later years I took my children to visit although my aunt became too elderly to cope with us staying.
The Fosters
My ex-husband's great-grandparents were Thomas Buckley and Mary Cope/Foster, known as Mary Ellen. Mary was the half sister of the Thomas Foster mentioned by the previous member. She was born out of wedlock to Phoebe Cope but they share the same father i.e. John Foster. My mother-in-law, who unfortunately died in May, was always talking about Marchington and the surrounding area.
Marchington Woodlands
My grandfather was born in Marchington Woodlands (Thomas Foster) at Knypersley Hall in 1871 which his father John Foster was renting until about 1905 when following 2 years of cattle foot and mouth (no compensation in those days) he had to give up and move to Uttoxeter and take work as a sawyer. It was said to have broken John's heart. I have visited Knypersley Hall some years ago but the original house was very, very old - some say one of the oldest in the county. Some say it was destroyed by fire others that it was just demolished due to extreme old age. Many of my Foster ancesters buried in the Church there. At one time Foster's owned or rented 3 farms in a short distance. And we were told that one field is still known as Foster's Field after 150 years. Love to see some old photos or memories.
Memories of Staffordshire
Pitts Place Garage
The gap between Woolworth's and the next building was known as Pitts Place where Bert Mellor (my grandfather) ran a garage workshop where he maintained the vans for Devilles, the butchers, and the Uttoxeter racecource ambulance, which was an old WWII canvas sided vehicle.
Uttoxeter, Stone Road
Has anyone got a photograph of Stone Road before the flats were built in the 1970s? My grandmother Mrs Elizabeth Foster lived at 21 Stone Road from about 1910 until they were demolished in the late 1970s and she watched them being demolished from a flat across the road. She was a widow from 1918 when her husband Thomas died as a result of the First Wordl War. I remember Highland cattle at the top of the road (where the swimming pool is now), and the stonemasons and Morin's on the corner (ice cream!).
I remember Mr and Mrs Challinor who lived next door. Lovely terraced houses, no bathrooms, outside toilet, 2 rooms downstairs and 3 bedrooms upstairs. At one time Gran had 4 step-children and 5 children in that house.
A Sharp Reminder of my Schooldays.
Saturday, 20 February 2010 A sharp reminder of my schooldays. I attended Bradley Street, Church of England Primary and Junior school, Uttoxeter. Some teachers, remain in your memory, others disappear. I remember in particular Miss Kingshott, a tall, a dark,angular lady. Her teaching was always forceful, her discipline strong. I remember her telling us of a visit to Oberamagau and the Passion play. I do not think I thought of her again. After the Royal Marines, I became a police constable in the Staffordshire Constabulary, later to be the Staffordshire County Police, I was stationed in Willenhall Division at Tettenhall Station. Bill Ford from Uttoxeter was on my shift. In 1951 I became the second man at Compton sub-section, which comprised the villages and hamlets of Tettenhall Wood, Compton, Finchfield, Trescott and Wightwick. Very little supervision, only means of communication was a Police Pillar at Tettenhall Wood Cross Roads. In 1952, about April time, we changed from flat caps to helmets, and on my helmet's first outing I was in School... Read more
When The Searchlights Came
When the searchlights came... During the Second World War, Uttoxeter hardly knew that the war was on, although our young men and women kept leaving, and rationing was severe. One change to us all, on the park side of the town, was the opening of the bypass in 1939. The war stopped operations, and of the dual carriageway (a source of wonder to me) only one lane was open, the nearside side, facing Stoke, the remaining lane remained in its raw construction state, frequently filled with water, and was not completed for 2 years after the war. We local children noticed the arrival of large army lorries on a field abutting the unused lane of the bypass, about 1940. Nissan huts went up, concrete roads laid, and to our amazement an assault course, with death slide over the River Tean, was constructed. Various rumours circulated. It was to be a anti-aircraft battery, then a barrage balloon site, then a prisoner of war camp, but we finally had the answer, four... Read more
Growing up With All my Relatives Living in Stramshall Parish
I was born in 1928, to John James and Olive Mellor, my grandfather was Percival Jackson Mellor, my grandmother Mary Ellen Mellor. They built with help Park Hill Farm, New Road, Uttoxeter, paying tithes to Stramshall Parish. All the family went to Stramshall Church, all my parents, uncles, and grandparents are buried in Stramshall Church. The first Vicar I remember was the Rev Charlon, an Anglican churchman of the old school. My great uncle, Thomas, lives with his wife Selina at Hill top Farm(Cottages). I spent my youth between the two farms and the surrounding fields. With the River Tean running between, it was an exciting place to grow up.
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