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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 65,947 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 Was An Evacuee
Towards the end of WW2, I was evacuated to Bodmin. On arrival, we were taken by coach to a large hall. I suppose there must have been more than a hundred of us. At first, we noisily filled the hall, each with a single suitcase. At the far end, a number of posh looking ladies sat at a long trestle table. Then the locals came in through a side door and surveyed us before picking out someone to take home with them. My two ...see more
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Added 24 August 2020

All My Yesterdays.
As you look at this picture, the hedgerow and trees on the right hid an old spring water bottling plant. It was all very basic. We discovered it one day on a trip to One Tree Hill. As a 'gang' of boys from Goldsmiths Avenue, we used to wander all over the place exploring and tree climbing. We had a tree along the Corringham Road, before The Manorway was built, that had the top cut off leaving a large flat area that ...see more
Corringham, One Tree Hill c1950
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Added 19 June 2020

Gaslight 1954
In the early 50's many streets in Uxbridge were still lit by gas. So "lighting up time" had a whole different meaning. The iron lampposts were much lower than the lighting masts of today and were more widely placed along the streets. Street lighting then had a different function because the lights were to illuminate the pavement, not so much the roadway. I lived in Frays Waye which was entirely lit by gas and there ...see more
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Added 31 October 2012

The Old Lamp Lighter Sanny Dillon.
The gas lamps in Station Road, Kilbirnie, were the responsibility of staff on duty at the High Station. This line went right through to Glasgow Central Station and of course it was the age of steam. Sanny Dillon was the lamp lighter and being small he carried with him a large pole with a hook on it. The idea was to hook onto a chain and pull it down, thus lighting the gas lamps that were on either ...see more
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Added 25 January 2013

Brushing Off Even More Cobwebs.
In a previous memory of mine I mentioned that the village of Upper Boddington was without mains water in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s . I lived in the School House with my parents, Pat and George Bishop. My mother became Headmistress in November 1949 and the lack of water on tap was just one of several problems that we had to adjust to. I was 14 years old at the time, fit and strong and the ...see more
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Added 28 November 2020

Sharpenhoe Clappers & Sundon Hills Bedfordshire
In the post war years, as families rebuilt their lives again, Sundays really were special leisure days and those who were able, bought a small car and enjoyed their afternoon going for rides on quiet country roads. My father was a self employed carpenter and joiner and needed transport but, as having two vehicles was out of the question, he used his skills to re-construct a farm wagon, using ...see more
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Added 14 June 2016

Wood End
I lived in Wood End Lane (no. 9), from 1941 from the age of six months, until 1948 when I moved to the new council houses at Newnham Close, locally known as Tintown, because it had steel framed walls on the upper storey. No. 9 was a ground- floor flat with two bedrooms and my sister Joyce and I shared the back bedroom. After the war we used to play in the Wireless Field, as it was called by the locals. We went blackberrying ...see more
Wood End
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Added 17 December 2020

Pea Shooter And Buses
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 the ...see more
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Added 14 November 2009