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An Historical Photographic Archive of National Importance

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  2. Share Your Memories

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.

Search for Local Memories

Search for your favourite UK places and read memories of the local area in days gone by.

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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

You can also Browse By County

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 65,945 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

War Time In The Heights Northolt
We moved from New Cross, Deptford just before the war to The Heights Northolt. As a child then, memories are now somewhat fragmented but that reflects the conditions that parents faced. As a child there seemed much freedom, school was intermittent, lots of time, putting pennies onto the rails of the trains (I still go over those rails on way to Bucks), building a camp near the arch way into the Pony ...see more
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Added 26 April 2013

Wannock Tea Gardens
I worked at Wannock Tea Gardens during the school holidays. I remember all the slices of Bread we had to butter and I still make sure that it reaches out to each corner. We really had to work hard carrying heavy crockery to the many out-building where the parties were fed. I remember that all the workers would sit down after the gardens closed and clear up the food - and how much us youngest looked forward to a ...see more
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Added 06 March 2015

Growing Up In Southall
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 being ...see more
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Added 24 November 2009

Science Lessons
I remember Mr. Beecham, a lovely teacher who took us for science - but look out if you misbehaved. I would watch fearfully as he dished out punishment. He would take you into a little side room he called his 'cupboard' and tan your behind with a big white plimsole. One day I was caught messing around and it was my turn for the big white plimsole, I was mortified. I was marched into the cupboard with the sound of the class ...see more
Romsey, School days 1965-1969
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Added 24 January 2020

Four Elms From 1939 To 1959.
Born on the 4th January 1939 in 14 Council Cottages, son of Jack and Francis Cole and cared for by my Gran and Granddad who lived opposite, I had super baby years, although Dad was away fighting. I can vaguely remember sleeping in the Anderson shelter in a house in Bough Beech where Mum used to work. Better are my memories of the school in Four Elms, where we were all in the same class room, except ...see more
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Added 01 August 2020

Life On Kingwood Common
I think it must have been 1952 or 3 when I went to live on Kingwood Common with my parents in the old nissen huts left by the German POWs, and afterwards by Polish refugees. We knew the place as Kingdom Camp, or just 'The Camp'. There were a good few families living there that I remember and they formed a friendly community of people that were waiting for council houses in some of the nearby villages. My ...see more
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Added 06 July 2020

Some Memories From 1916 To The 1950s
My father believes the man in the carpenter's apron in photographs 60995 and 60995x may be Francis New. The carpentry business he is standing in front of was eventually taken over my grandfather, John Bray, and his brother William. In the directories they were listed as wheelwrights but they undertook a much larger range of buiding work some of which is still on view today, e.g. the lych ...see more
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Added 17 November 2009

Coronation Year At Cresswell
The actual day of the Coronation it rained, not only in London but also at the village of Cresswell, home of my mother's family for several Centuries. The rain didn't bother us as we spent most of the day in the house of my Great Aunt watching the ceremony on her 9in TV, the only set in the row of fishermen's cottages once known as Fisher Row but now gentrified into South Side.The fact that every house ...see more
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Added 02 July 2014