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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 65,824 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

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

So Many People!
I was five years old in 1953 and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was the first vivid memory I have of my childhood. We lived at Midway, Cold Ash Hill, the major road through the village. Dressed as a pirate with silver buckles on my shoes, an eye patch and a wooden cutlass painted silver, with my childhood friend, Keith Stroud, we joined the throng of people making their way up the hill to the recreation ground. ...see more
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Added 05 May 2023

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

The Blitz In Rosemary Avenue
We moved in to our new house in Rosemary Avenue in 1938. We had a Triumph car and my father built a garage of timber and asbestos sheets and laid concrete runways for it (they're still there). I started school in 1939 at the infant school in Down Street. One of our neighbours had a daughter Shirley, the same age as me and we went to school together. When the Blitz first started in 1940 we couldn't get ...see more
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Added 27 September 2020

Marshall's Airport
I lived at 14 The Homing, Meadowlands, Cambridge which was close to the airport. I was 8 years old in 1955. Often on sunny weekends, my Mum would takes us on a walk over to the airport. It was a quiet relaxed place in those days. There was no kind of airport security, and you could stroll through the gate and sit down on benches to watch the odd Tiger Moth taxi over to the runway and take off. The pilots would ...see more
Cambridge, the Airport 1938
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Added 12 January 2008

The Police Station
My earliest memories are of Aldringham. I was born in the Police Station on Mill Hill in 1937, the youngest of three children. My father was the local policeman, P.C. James McGuire. I often wonder now how my mother managed, with three children under five. There was no water electricity, gas or sewage. Water had to be carried from a well 100 yards down the road. When my father had the audacity to request that water ...see more
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Added 30 April 2020

Digging Deep Now
A pleasant comment on my last memory, made by Mr Steve Flora, whom I’ve never met, has prompted me to tell some more stories about Upper Boddington. On November 25th, 1944, a Wellington Bomber; no. LN242, took off from Chipping Warden airfield. Unfortunately it developed engine problems. I am sure that the pilot did all he could to control the aircraft but, with fields all around, the plane hit the Manor ...see more
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Added 28 January 2021

I Join The Railway.
I Join the Railway In the summer of 1953, my Aunt and Uncle were staying with us for their holiday. It must have been my Uncle who first spotted the advertisement in the Dartmouth Chronicle for a Junior Booking Clerk at Kingswear Station. Everyone knew I was not fond of school, so it seemed natural that I should apply for the job. With some help from my Uncle, I sent off ...see more
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Added 25 October 2016