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St Sepulchre Gate c1960, Doncaster
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I can recall many happy times as a trolley bus driver in Doncaster , I started work with DCT as a conductor in the mid 1950s and passed a trolley bus driving test on the Wheatley Hills route by the late 1950s; in those days the bus service was the main form of transport. The first trolley bus left the depot at Grayfriars just after 4:35am to start service at 4:45am on the Balby route, others came onto the service. At peak rush hour the service ran three and four minutes, with full capacity the norm. I made many good friends at work and remember our boss as a Superintendent Scholey a tall chap and very much a no nonsense man. Some of the buses where very old but fantasic to drive, the six wheelers quite a handful when full. But late at night on the last trip from Balby, the sides would shake up and down, the floor back and forward, and the conductors platform side to side, you had to see it to believe it! The DCT bought a number of secondhand buses from Darlington, a wonderful bus to drive very sooth and quiet as all trolley buses are. Passing through Baxter Gate in the build up to Xmas you almost had push your way through, with a hand on the horn beep beeping all the way, but as far as I recall no one was knocked over or injured... great days, wonderful memories.

Welsh School For Girls 1962, Ashford
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I was a boarder at WGS from 1957 to 1964 and it doesn't live in my mind as the happiest place in the world - but there were plenty of girls who did love it, I remember. I was only thinking of it yesterday, Remembrance Sunday, because that was the one Sunday of the year we were arranged around the War Memorial in the centre of the town to sing "Oh God our Help in Ages Past"... same thing every year. The War Memorial bears a large stone angel, clutching at her voluminous gown with one hand and was known by us as 'the angel with the broken suspender'. We walked in a 'crocodile' to the Parish church three Sundays a month and the fourth to St Hilda's Church - where we were handed a little paper book entitled "Our Bounden Duty", (I've still got one somewhere!) Morning and evening every other day we had a fifteen minute service in our own chapel - which was my favourite place in the school . The dormitories were long and draughty with very high ceilings. We were allowed two baths a week - and not after games - and I think we all probably smelled pretty frowsty. One clean pair of knickers a week, but two vests ... why?!!! The headmistress in my day was Miss Alderson, whom we called Lucy - she was emotionless and without imagination; most of the staff were elderly females with large breasts and face whiskers, but the school... Read more

The Marine Colliery c1960, Cwm
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Hello there David. "Old" Stonejar Morgan from Woodville road was a mining instructor in No. 2 Pit in the Blackvein seam at the Marine Colliery. Between them the team of 8 instructors taught all aspects of coalmining, albeit very old fashioned methods. For instance, one of the instructors was Dai " Ponty" Davies who favoured a cloth cap whilst working, but when he was actually hewing coal he hung his cap complete with electric cap lamp on a mandril standing against the "gob" and worked in the circumference of its beam. Old Stonejar earned his nickname in an earlier life and throughout the time he was training me I never saw him use one, he had a two pint tin jack like the rest of us. He was a very devout man as I remember, never a swear word passed his lips. He was conscientious to a fault. " Grub time was twenty minutes from twenty to eleven to eleven o-clock and not once did he deviate from this duration by as much as a second. He was a well respected man for his skill at erecting wooden roadway supports or " pairs of timbers" as they were known. Him and a mate Thos Bromley used to enter competitions during festivities in the valley which they invariably won. He trained me not only in the arts of coal-mining but also in the art of honest toil. Maybe he would have been gratified to know that he had trained... Read more

c1965, Tongham
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My family moved from Woking to Tongham in 1942 into Springpond Cottage in Grange Road - a farm worker’s cottage belonging to Ben Ceasar. Dad was a lorry driver delivering the farm’s vegetables. There was only cold running water and I remember Mum boiling kettles to fill the tin bath where we had to take turns in the same water! The toilet was a bucket in the outhouse and my job was to cut up squares of newspaper to hang on the hook. The house down the lane opposite near the railway line had their water delivered by horse and cart every two weeks. There were seven in the family, Mum (Dorothy), Dad (Ronald), children - Ray, Jim, Maureen, John and Michael. We kids all went to Tongham School (next to the Church) and then Ray went to Badshot Lea school before spending one term in the temporary huts at Yeomans Bridge. New school was in the process of being built. Jim also spent some time in the huts but the rest of us went to the newly built school (now Ash Manor). Dad left the farm and we moved into The Institute in Poyle Road. Dad became the caretaker for school room (side of the house). Once again, there was only a cold water tap in the house, no bath and the toilet was outside; at least this one flushed but the downside was that it froze up in winter and I remember Dad trying to thaw it... Read more

The High Street c1955, Grays
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I lived in Sherfield Rd from 1950-1960. I lived a few doors down from the Bridgers, the local haulage contractor, his daughter Beryl use to ride her horse at the head of the carnival procession each year, during the procession. Pigg's Bakery use to throw tiny loaves of bread into the crowd, (no health and safety in those days). I remember Mumfords fish shop, wet and fried, my brother and I would stand and watch the live eels squirming in their metal tray. Every Saturday we would be packed off to the Regal Cinema in New Rd I think it cost sixpence each, the manager would walk up and down the aisles bang a large stick on the side of the seats if the children got too rowdy. I went to Arthur Street Primary and Junior school. The coke for the school boilers was kept in a large open shed in the play ground, and at playtimes we would play on the coke heap!!! Congress House was a meeting place for most people - I met my husband outside there, we have been married for 45 years. I had my first alcoholic drink in the Queens Hotel, and bought my first newspaper from the man who stood outside who shouted something but god knows what to sell his newspapers. We were the first to have a television in Sherfield Rd, bought or rented I'm not sure, from Sidney Greys in the High Street - most of the road came in and watched... Read more