Share your Memories

Blair Castle 1951
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

From 1975-1985 approx, when we were kids from Dalry we lived in the estate below Blair House about 1 mile from main entrance,The Blair Scheme. Myself and a few lads and girls from there used to go up there walking at evenings and weekends, as you turned into the main drive through those large black gates with stone pillars and walls to match there was a gate house, in all my years up there I never saw anyone in or around, but you knew there were eyes watching you. We walked towards the forester's lodge, we would pass through the high archway of trees bowed over like a protective tunnel of golden leaves and branches high above us. As we neared the forester's lodge we would cross over a bridge with wrought-iron railings, half of which had fallen down into water passing underneath, to the left is the lodge, to the right on the bend is what, if I can remember, was a willow tree whose branches touched the ground and gave us a good place to hide and carve our names on the tree bark, if you look you might see some still there today, but most are unrecognisable now. Then we would walk up round the red road towards the Blair Castle, then the residents were Colonel Borwick and Mrs Borwick. The Colonel was to us a fearsome man, as was his game keeper, Mr A Wylie, a crack shot with a rifle. We would then pass by... Read more

The Ferry 1964
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

There has been a ferry at Woolwich for many centuries but the people of Woolwich complained in the 1880s that West London had free access across the River Thames by bridges so why couldn't they have free travel? The river was too busy to put a bridge over and there was not room to put in a tunnel so the newly formed London County Council decided to provide a free ferry service with boats large enough to accomodate vehicles. It was opened on 23rd March 1889 and there were three ferries Gordon, Duncun and Hutton. The second generation of paddle steamers were Squires and Gordon (again!) built in 1922 and Will Crooks and John Benn built in 1930. By the 1960s the ferry traffic was clogging up Woolwich where the traffic waiting to board the ferry often streached back into the main shopping streets. So three new bigger boats were built in 1963, John Burns, James Newman and (pictured here) Ernist Bevin. They were 'Roll on, Roll off' type boats but the new approaches which included lifting drawbridges and a dual carriage way road by-passing the centre of Woolwich did not come into use until 1966. Although they could cope with much heavier traffic the new diesel ferries did not have the charm of the old paddle steamers. The chance to see the big pistons flashing round, the men shoveling coke into the boilers, the paddles stiring up muck from the river and all the shouting of instructions and throwing of... Read more

The Quay 1929
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

How well I remember arriving at Wells-next-the-Sea from Leicester as a new bride. My husband was a former high school pen-friend who was now in England serving in the U.S Air Force, having been in the country from his home in Wisconsin for a year. Now stationed at Sculthorpe. We spent our first week in Norfolk in the village of Sydestone until we could find rental accomodations in Wells. Our home there was shared with the owners of the property, a couple named Mr & Mrs Rtiches. The name of the house was St Heliers. It was a large brick house surrounded by a high brick wall, situated on Station Road across from the Library and The Post Office. There had been a section of the brick wall cut away by the gates and from there Mrs Riches sold flowers and vegetables from her garden. My husband and I occupied a bedroom upstairs and a bathroom with other family members. Downstairs we had our own living room and kitchen. How fortunate I felt to be actually living at the seaside. That was always my dream when, as a girl going on holiday at Skegness or Mablethorpe. To live at the seaside would be a dream come true. I loved to walk through Buttlands, sometimes sitting down to rest and wondering about who lived in all the houses around me, especially that little house which looked like a castle squeezed between two other houses. I know that I have pictures... Read more

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church Interior 1899
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

I have many memories about the old St Mary's Church. Until I started thinking of them I realised that I have not got one involving a rainy day apart from when my Grandad was buried in the churchyard. He was laid to rest with his younger brother who died in the First World War and my late Grandmother. I still visit the grave from time to time.

Both I and my brother were baptised at the old St Mary's. I still have the photographs. They look like a snapshot from another world now.

I remember walking down a sunny Burnley Road from Enfield with Daddy dressed in his best camel coloured and belted gaberdine coat, as we made our way to the later morning Mass. I can still smell those warm and dry dusty summer days. My hat always seemed to be blowing off and he had to chase after it. "Carry it until we get to church" he'd say. Mum stayed at home with my baby brother to sort out Sunday dinner. (I think everything went on a low light about 9.30am!)

I can remember the birdsong and the hawthorn bushes full of blossom as we walked along the main road. We always stopped and looked over the canal bridge to "See what we can see". We always went in the back gate to church.There were wild roses and cow parsley growing along the shady hedgerow.

I once asked my Daddy why a lot of the... Read more

Airport c1955
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

That plane was bright blue! As far as I can remember, the pilot was Polish - left over from the war. He used to keep the plane at the airport, and give stunning free acrobatic displays on bright sunny days. For special events, like the village fete, he would give short flights. My mum paid for me and my brother to have one once - first time I'd ever flown. When we first moved to Lympne (very near the airfield) in 1952, the planes were Silver City Bristol Freighters, with huge front opening doors that swallowed cars whole. Silver City moved to Lydd, and they were replaced by Skyways, with a fleet of Dakotas. The runway was grass, and when Skyways wanted to replace their ageing Daks with HS748 turbo-props, they had to lay a concrete strip because the new planes couldn't land on grass. There was a lady (can't remember her name) who used to excercise her racehorses on the periphery of the field. One of her horses triggered a forgotten pipe mine, and the explosion cracked two of our windows.