Share Your Memories

Reconnecting with our shared local history.

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.

Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.

A couple at a laptop

Add a Memory!

It's easy to add your own memories and reconnect with your shared local history. Search for your favourite places and look for the 'Add Your Memory' buttons to begin

Tips & Ideas

Not sure what to write? It's easy - just think of a place that brings back a memory for you and write about:

  • How the location features in your personal history?
  • The memories this place inspires for you?
  • Stories about the community, its history and people?
  • People who were particularly kind or influenced your time in the community.
  • Has it changed over the years?
  • How does it feel, seeing these places again, as they used to look?

This week's Places

Here are some of the places people are talking about in our Share Your Memories community this week:

...and hundreds more!

Enjoy browsing more recent contributions now.

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Here are a few of our favourites

Visitors to this website have so far contributed 65,877 memories inspired by the Frith photographs. Join in, and take a moment to remember the places that have been important in your life. Where your family comes from, where you were born, went to school and got married; the towns and villages where you've lived and worked since. Recapture and rekindle those precious memories with this special part of our website.

Displaying all 8 Memories

I lived in Medway Road from 1934-1956. I also remember the doodle bugs (as did Gordon Savage, I remember him), the dockyard heavy guns, and school. I was due to start school on the day war started and finally went to Richmond Road Infants two years later. All the teachers were evacuated with the local area evacuees so there was no one to teach us. I went for 1 hour, then 2 hours, an afternoon, and ...see more
I grew up in Southall in the 1940s and 50s. We lived in Gordon Road in a terraced house that backed onto The Tube. We had an outside toilet, no bathroom and, until I was about 6, no electricity. At the age of 5 I could change a gas mantle. My mother continued to live there until she passed on in 1989. Two doors away was Mrs Ridgewell's grocery shop and on the corner there was a greengrocer's. I recall ...see more
Rod Swift remarked (in a previous memory) about falling in the pond - well I was one of these. Rod must be my cousin's son, as my aunt and uncle lived in the house referred to. Around 1953 on an icy cold day in winter, a crowd of us were going home after school. On passing the pond we knew there was thick ice so decided to skate on the ice. We did not take into account that it was beginning to thaw and ...see more
I 'lived' in Clarence Park for years when I was a kid. It became my magic Kingdom! I knew every bush and tree and secret trail through the bushes. I would lurk in the bushes and spy on people walking past. I had a favourite tree - a huge beech next to the bowling green. I would climb high in it and sit quietly watching them bowl, hidden by dense leaves. I'd whistle and call to them and put them off ...see more
It was about 1953 when we discovered pluffers and ca caws. The pluffer was a device we used for a pea-shooter. This was a straight stem from a weed and it was about an inch or so in diameter, hollow through the centre and collected from Millfield tip where they grew in abundance. We would cut a length measuring about a foot and load our mouths up with the ammo, i.e. the ca caws. These were the berries from ...see more
The Cabin in Graham Road was a school boy's (and girl's) dream! At the front of the shop, behind the counter, was an array of jars of sweets, sold by the quarter (lb) and every other piece of confectionary or chocolate you could name: Black Jacks, Fruit Salad, Shrimps, Flying Saucers, Sherbert Fountains, Palm Toffee (banana flavour the best), Flags of the World bubble gum, liquorice sticks, etc. In the summer, the ...see more
Southend-on-Sea in the 50’s At the housing estate in Mitcham where we lived they had a tenants association. Every Friday night, two of the committee would go round to the Elm Court flats in Mitcham, where we lived, to collect one or two shillings. This money was for an outing that the committee organized, mainly in winter, so that people could have an evening out at least once a year. There ...see more
I grew up in East Finchley and one of our family treats during the summer was trips to the 'outdoor pool' with my brother, sister, mother (Dad was usually at work), aunts and cousins from Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire. Usually as little ones we spent our time in the small pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Usually wearing our rubber rings we all learned to swim, and enjoyed our picnics ...see more