Favourite 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.
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Search for your favourite UK places and read memories of the local area in days gone by.
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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:
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How the location features in your personal history?
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The memories this place inspires for you?
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Stories about the community, its history and people?
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People who were particularly kind or influenced your time in the community.
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Has it changed over the years?
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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!
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Displaying Memories 101 - 150 of 2029 in total
My family was bombed out of their home in Sholing, Southampton, and we were evacuated to Calmore Road which was then 'out in the country'. We were offered a corrugated hut to live in by Mr Harrison who owned the Nursery, and there we lived until 1946. All my memories as a child are happy ones, but I suspect it was difficult for my parents who had lost everything. The hut was never meant for habitation, ...see more
One of my first memories was hiding underneath the sideboard in the dining room with silver ornaments on our heads; my sisters Judy, baby Michele and myself, Deirdre, listening to the bombs falling quite close to us. We wanted to go and see the 'fireworks', my Mother must have been petrified for our safety. Luckily they fell on the golf course across the road. ...see more
My family lived in Dulverton in the 1950s. Both parents were hairdressers and we sold sweets and tobacco as well as drapery and ice cream from our shop on the High Street. We had the first chewing gum machine and you used an old penny to get chewing gum and every fourth coin got a double pack. My sister Pam and I went to the school up on the hill and my brother Barrie went to Minehead Grammar School. I used to ...see more
I grew up in and around London as a young girl. When my parents divorced it was the hardest thing for me to get over. But I had the best nan in the world who lived in 6 Acre Cottages. This house and the surrounding area was a haven for any child. She worked in the school and used to work at the big house on the hill, when I stayed with my gran, it was lovely to go the big house to see Mrs Lemet. She was so ...see more
Salisbury in the 1960's was a good place to be if you wanted to meet interesting people.The place to go was the Cadena Cafe - sandwiched between Style and Gerrish, and the Chough. One now (sort of) famous person who frequented the dark reaches of that cafe is the writer and food critic Jonathan Meades. The Bus Station was the match.com of its day and between 3.45 and 4.45 pm girls and boys from the local schools ...see more
I have many fond memories of Bodiam and the Castle, from when I was 1 year old in 1943, until I was 15. Along with dear Mum and my two sisters, our whole extended family on my mum's side consisting of several families would move to Bodiam, to our tin huts to go hop picking.
We used to pile into a number of open backed lorries for the journey which used to go through the Blackwall tunnel and along the A21 to East Sussex ...see more
My family moved from Cwmfelinfach to 20 Millbrook Road, Pontllanfraith in 1948, a brand new house, with an indoor and outdoor toilet. Our next door neighbour was Mr and Mrs Tiley, who had two sons, Terry and Robert. My early schooling was spent in Pontllanfraith Infants, then the Juniors and Primary. Our play areas were down the mill, the field by the vicarage and Lovells, the stables. Across the common to Williams ...see more
I was born in Coedybrain Rd in 1948 and my family moved to School St. I remember going to the school until I was 6, when we moved away to a new housing estate. The school had a stuffed squirrel in a glass case. I was in the nursery class where we had a nap every afternoon wrapped in blankets. School milk was lined up on the hot pipes in winter, and I hated it! I always missed my grandparents and was never happier than ...see more
I was born in Merthyr Tydfil but my grandparents lived in Rees Terrace. My grandfather, Hugh Price Watkins, was the St John Ambulance driver for the pits. I lived and went to school in Llanbradach for about three months while my mother was in hospital. Whenever there was an accident in the mines, the phone would ring in grandad's house and I would be told the location of the accident and would run as fast ...see more
During the Second World War the Buckle family lived in Embankment Road with Aunt Laura Ellicot when the bombing got too dangerous for us to stay in the city of Plymouth. So we went with Aunt Laura and her grandchildren and 2 of her daughters to Lucan Villa. We lived in the lovely house, that had an amazing staircase at the front, and a concrete staircase at the back from the pantry. My sister Mary, ...see more
I have vivid memories of the shops shown in the photograph. The shop on its own, on the right of the picture was Galley's Newsagents run by brothers Roy and Dennis Galley. Having said that Dennis' wife used to serve in the shop and was my favourite person as (I was 9 in 1960) if you smiled at her and ordered 2oz of sweets you could guarantee she would give you 4oz at no extra charge! ...see more
For two-and-a-half dreadful years, from July 1942 to October 1944, my parents and I survived in three rooms at the top of number 40, Victoria Road, rented from a Mrs Pither. Only the front two rooms, overlooking the street, were habitable and the back room my father used as a sort of workshop. Water was from a tap, a few inches off the floor beside the loo, in a small closet at the top of the stairs. Hot water was boiled ...see more
I was brought up in the white cottage mid-left, by the roadside, by my grandparents.
The Crown Inn at the middle of the picture in the distance was run by Jim and Winnie Tuer, and I was friends with their daughter Ruth. The white cottage on the right was the shop, and later also became the post office. The original one was in the white cottage to the left and was run by Mrs Rowlands until her death.
I ...see more
My grandfather bought one of these ex-RAF officers bungalows after the Second World War so that the family could have a holiday base. In the B850004 photo, our bungalow is roughly alongside the white car you can see parked in the road - it was more or less halfway along the road. We all lived in Sheffield - in those days, a 3 hour drive away. I must have holidayed there from the age of 18 months to about ...see more
I moved to Windsor Road in Ealing in 1962 when I was 11. I remember the Grove with fond memories. All the shops! The tailor's shop and the barbers. The sweet shop which always had a bowl of water for the dogs outside in the summer, the butchers (Mum used to send me there on a Saturday for a piece of beef costing about 3s or 3/6d (15 or 17 1/2p) The man that ran the butchers along with his 2 sons also had a cafe a ...see more
I did not know many of the people of the village or much of the history of the village. However there were some who stay in my memory and to this day I often think about them. All too often I cannot remember their names. I know nothing of their lives. Their trials and tribulations or indeed if they were born in the village. One such person was a Mrs Baker (at least that's what I think her name was), a very ...see more
The road in the picture, St Mildred's, is where I grew up, opposite the "rec". As a young lad growing up, Minster offered all sorts of adventures; the marshes, the river Stour, Watchester Lane, the woods, fishing, catching newts & tadpoles in the local dykes and the annual flower show, is that still going? Playing in the woods around the vicarage and evading the vicar, the reverend Wagstaff! Mum ...see more
Year is approx. My uncle John and Auntie Marjorie lived at New Cross Farm with their three daughters Sally, Mary and Kathleen. Every summer holiday I would go to the farm for a few weeks and help or hinder my uncle. I used to be so excited as I loved the farm and was up at the crack of dawn getting the cows in with my Uncle. There were two dairy staff, Michael Parks and Roger ? and sometimes Michael Hawkins. ...see more
All through the lower forms at the Roan School in Blackheath, London SE3, I was aware of the existence of Braithwaite Camp. It had been started in 1930 by a former headmaster of the school, Mr Arthur Hope, on land which he had bought with his own money. But I was not keen on camping; during my time in the Cubs and Scouts I had successfully avoided spending a single night under canvas. ...see more
My mother, grandmother, great grandmother and g.g.grandfather, and so on were born in Rippingale. As a child in the 1950's we spent every holiday there. We had lots of relatives living there and still do have one or two. I remember going to the midnight service on Christmas Eve with my aunt. No street lights, pitch dark.. you always took a torch with you, magical but a bit scary. Earlier in the ...see more
My name is Nan Martin, I was born in the Blocks at Fallin in 1943 and lived there until I was about six or seven years old before moving to King Street. The Blocks is a place that is locked in my memory and can never be revisited as it doesn't exist anymore.
Of all the places I have lived in throughout my lifetime, the Blocks hold my strongest memory. It was like a childs adventure playground, with ...see more
Ernie Styles and I started work on my stepfather and mother's farm (Patrick and Annette Lawford) when we were both 17 (1957). There was also Reg Whittear (mechanic/tractor driver, John Spreadbury and George Langridge. Bert Tyrell did the pigs. Shep Frampton, who had known Patrick at Lichfield Farm, near Sutton Scotney, must have been in his 80s. He walked up from the village daily and was known to ...see more
I was born in Perivale Maternity Hospital in 1943. Like so many of your writers growing up then was a magical time; the freedom we had to wander the fields, play and fish in the canal (in homemade boats that always sank, and with rods that always broke), can no longer be enjoyed by any children. I lived in Wadham Gardens, went to school in Wood End Infants and Junior boys, then to finish off ...see more
I lived in Cripplegate Lane (formerly known as Bottings Hill) for about 16 years. I went to Southwater County Primary School from 1957 till 1963 when I went off to The Forest Boys School in Horsham till 1967. My father worked (as many did in those days) at the Brickworks. Before 1961 the houses down our part of the lane backed onto Wiltshers Farm. Many a morning the cows had broken through the fence and were ...see more
I was to live in Blackpool for a short while and would work on a farm; I lived with my sister and brother in law in Delphine Avenue. Lawrence my brother in law leant me his Honda fifty motorbike, I pulled into a petrol station some 15 miles away and proceeded to ask the pump attendant for a gallon of two stroke petrol. He informed me that as far as he was aware this type of bike was a four stroke engine and that ...see more
Wow. The pictures bring back so many memories. I was born and bred in Woking and my family owned The Shoe Box in Knaphill. Originally my grandfather Albert Cook gifted the shop to his friend Phyl (my siblings and I affectionately called her auntie Phyl). I have memories of getting all our shoes there, although it was very old fashioned. It also serviced Brookwood Hospital until Tesco arrived! In the late 80's and early ...see more
In many parts of the world the countryside is largely unclaimed, untamed, even uninhabited; consider, say, the large swathes of Australia’s Kimberley region, Indonesia’s Kalimantan, or the interior of Baffin Island. However, farms and villages, their local characters as well as their local landscapes and histories, are very much part of the English countryside. The rural area around the hamlet of ...see more
If I remember correctly, a white climbing rose grew up one side of the arch and a red on the other. The path continued straight through the archway, and led up the garden to the two wooden sheds at the top of the garden. To the right immediately after the archway, another path led behind the rose-covered trellis, which then turned left and led up alongside a hedge, which divided my parents' property ...see more
Not long into married life we both walked into a miners strike that lasted until 1985. This was very hard having to adjust to married life and without no money because of the strike we both lost our first home. Soon after the strike started i became pregnant with my first son Graham I became pregnant with him in the strike and gave birth in the strike we struggled to buy prams and cots and other ...see more
My name is Russell Ham. I was born on May the 10th, 1962. I was adopted at about the age of six weeks, I think. The best thing that ever happened to me. I arrived at number 5, Thomas Street, in the summer of 1962, to the home of Gerald and Barbara Ham. Neither of my parents is alive now. I have the most wonderful memories of the first five years of my life, at 5, Thomas Street, Gilfach Goch. My father's father ...see more
I lived at 1 St. George's Close, off Chalk Pit Avenue from 1946 to 1954. At first, the Chalk Pit was still there, as was the Oast House, where the shops are now on the corner of Chalk Pit Avenue and Main Road. I first went to St. Paulinus Infant School, next to what was then St. Paulinus Church in Main Road and then to St. Paul's Cray Rectory Paddock Junior school, which, at the time, was old Nissan Huts. ...see more
I was born at home in Coleford Bridge Road in 1935 and grew up there, went to school in Frimley and lived in Mytchett until emigrating to Australia in 1964. In those early days life seemed very simple, only a handful of cars, making street cricket safe. Every body walked, our nearest shops were through the bridle path to the main Mytchett road, there we found Days Store, Dawes the butcher and on the other side of the ...see more
In 1938 my mother walked this street with me and my brothers and sisters every week, to and from Cowgrove to visit my Grandmother, who lived in a row of cottages around the corner (coming from the Minster) which I believe was Poole Road. If my memory serves me, there were cottages running at right angles to the road, with a path between the cottages and the toilet, which consisted of a door, ...see more
In the summer of 1952 I learnt that my parents had decided to move from our home in the Midlands to the West Country as my father wished to return to where his relatives lived. It came as no surprise therefore, when one day they announced they had purchased a shop in a place called Kingswear in South Devon. I was 14 years of age and received this news with mixed emotions as I had lived in my present home since birth. ...see more
I am amazed there is no mention here of Morecambe Illuminations. Dose no one remember them? In the 50's I lived in Ecclesfield which then was West Riding of Yorkshire. We had little money and no transport but a neighbour would collect money weekly from my parents and a couple of times a year he would organise a “charabanc” trip. Morecambe was a popular destination and I remember going in ...see more
My family lived in Waltham Abbey from 1955 to 1961 and living there left a lasting impression on me. I attended Waltham Holy Cross County Primary School during this time and at the ripe old age of 8 auditioned there to become a chorister. The teacher was one Mr. Goodger whom I remember as a kindly old man. (I guess all adults seemed old in those days). Anyway I passed the audition and ...see more
Hi my name is Dave Brock and I was born in 1942 in Dartmouth! Having done my schooling I joined the Army Cadets in my early teens and found music in the cadet band! We played at most of the carnivals in the area including the Dartmouth carnival, which in those days had a big procession with lots of floats and us playing 'happy wanderer' over and over as it was our best and only tune! Our band leader was ...see more
My father was demobbed in 1946 and soon we moved from Grandma's house in Elstree to a brand new prefab in Eldon Avenue. It was the spring of 1947, one of the coldest on record with deep snow into March. Borehamwwod was still just a village but building sites were starting up everywhere. The only infants school was in Furzehill so every morning and evening my mother and I trudged the mile or so whatever the ...see more
My dad, PC Leslie Ypres Wetherall, was the first policeman to move into the new Police House on New Road. My dad, mum, sister and I moved there from Grindleford. It was a beautiful new house with kitchen, dining room, living room, upstairs and downstairs loos with a separate room to do the laundry (now called a utility room), and of course the Police office with a heavy black telephone. Upstairs ...see more
Hi, my name is Roy Mozley & I was born in 1948 in a prefab in Rydal Avenue, Winton. We then moved to Lambton St, Winton. This was our football pitch then, main problem was this guy who, lets say, used to visit a lady quite often in his bubble car and park it right in the middle of our street / football pitch and when we asked him could he not park it further up the road, all we got was a great ...see more
My uncle, Reginald, always called Dartmouth, "The Town That Time Forgot". And he meant that in a good way because Dartmouth was largely unchanged over the years and of course, as a result, is now quite the tourist attraction. My Grandmother, Mary Georgina Tillyard, and my Granddad, George Tillyard, lived at "Sunnyside" 8, Above Town in Dartmouth from just after WWII until their passing. ...see more
The journey from our home in North Essex to my grandparents’ home in North Derbyshire took almost a full day back in the 1950s, allowing of course for periodic stops along the way. The first, usually at Melton Mowbray was to purchase the famous pork pies, which were not at that time readily available nation-wide. We would always include a couple for my grandparents who also appreciated this ...see more
The Grosvenor was used as a fire (station 8 then became station B10) and ambulance station until the lease ran out in the late 1970s. The ambulance station was the first to move out, followed 12 months later by the fire service, the new station has been at its current site in west street since 1980 (then called Dyfed County Fire Brigade.). The main building was converted into 4 or so flats for fire brigade ...see more
My mother came from Dormanstown and my grandparents, Ellen and James Mitchell, lived at 67, Broadway West. This was a Dorman-Long house as my grandfather and an uncle worked for the Dorman-Long Steel Works. I spent many a school holiday there and remember walking to the steel works with my granddad's lunch and watching the molten steel pour out and the furnaces rage. Health and safety would not allow ...see more
Half way down Garfield Road was the Recreation Ground; better know to all as simply the Rec. It was quiet a large area bounded on one side by Garfield Road and the other by the River Wandle, about which more another time.
Along the top end was the railway line and the bottom the fence dividing the Primary School from the Rec. You could see the kids clinging to the fence fingers and noses poking through the ...see more
My grandfather's family, the Barbers, who were farmers, lived in Alton House at one end of the village until my grandmother died. My mother remembered the tension on butter-churning days when the milk wouldn't 'turn.' I believe my maternal grandmother, Ethel Kitchener, was born in Soham but I am not sure where. Her sister, when married, lived at the other end from Alton House in a small semi-detached ...see more
I was born and brought up in 3 Gwendoline St Nantymoel. I went to school there, first the infants then the Secondary Modern. My childhood was wonderful with plenty of friends living in the Wauns or 'the field', as our area was called. We also played in the forestry where we dammed up the streams to paddle in. We lived in a community, everyone knew each other and if you did anything wrong by the time you got ...see more
I have an old family photo posed in front of Pangbourne Mill on 4/9/1899. It includes the entire Stone family including my great grandfather and my grandfather (as a young boy). My grandfather, Edmund Stone, was a Master Mariner and captained 4-masted square rigged sailing vessels around the Horn to India and back; later serving as a Captain for the Cunard line and later piloted big ...see more
I was born on 29th November 1928, and lived in Southsea in 1939, and during August my parents, little sister, and I went for a short holiday by coach to stay with an Aunt and Uncle at Overton in Hampshire. The threat of war was very imminent, and as we lived near a big Naval port, my parents decided to arrange for me to be privately evacuated with the ...see more
I was 19 years old when I was to move over to Newbury but at first I was roughing it until I could find cheap enough accommodation. At times, due to me being not able to get a good old scrub down and also a clean change of clothes; wearing a black double breasted Jacket and a French style beret all I needed was the string of onions around my neck and I would have passed for a Frenchman. I was something of a pitiful ...see more