Minehead memories
Here are memories of Minehead and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Minehead or a Minehead photo.
Timberscombe, Somerset
I was evacuated to Timberscombe with my sister on 1st September 1939, I was 7 years old and was billeted at I think it was called "Sunnyside". The evacuees used to go to school for half a day while the locals went for the other half. I returned home to West Ham in London just before the Doodlebugs started.
Help Please
Hello can any one help me please? This is not specifically to Minehead but in April 1960 I stayed at a wooden chaleted holiday camp on the north Somerset coast to the east of Minehead, I think. All I can remember is that I stayed at this camp as part of a school journey holiday from my school in S E London. It was on a cliff top overlooking a beautiful sandy beach that had a waterfall coming down onto it. Also that it was situated at the end of a country lane. I had such a wonderful time there visiting Wookey Hole, Dunster, Bridgewater cattle market, the Mendip hills, Cheddar Gorge and much more. Please help "An Old Dear" remember when she was 10. Thank you all. Pat x
Church Town
In 1960 my home was just out of shot: next door to the house that is partly visible on the far right of the picture. I lived at number 18 Church Street, Church Street being the road that is accessed by turning right in the middle distance of the photo, at the bottom of Church Steps. The tree that can be seen towering above our neighbour’s house was a magnificent walnut tree, which is – sadly - no more. The cottage in the foreground (second from left) was our “corner" shop. It was my Saturday afternoon habit around that time to call in at the shop for a bar of chocolate, and also to post letters in the box that was set into the wall outside the shop. More often than not the chocolate I bought was either Cadbury’s Turkish Delight (the bars were rather smaller than they are today!) or mint flavoured Aero, then a new innovation. And the “letters” always included competition... Read more
Wbardry@hotmail.com
P Aden :
I was at Butlins as well. (1962 - 1964)
I remember the big dipper thing; we used to call it The Mouse. I often went up on it.
I wonder what the camp is like now. Horrible dump, blasting out rap music probably.
My Time at The Camp.
I was born in Minehead, and have also lived in Kitswell, Dunster, Williton, Timberscombe and Rodhuish, and attended all the schools. My first job after leaving Minehead School in December 1958, was at the fruit and salad farm by Dunster station (which has now gone.) I worked in Butlins Holiday Camp at Minehead from 1962-1963.This was the first full year that the Camp was opened. Most of the time, I was working the rides in the amusement park. I helped build the Big Dipper, which was 70ft high, but is gone now. Some nights, I sang on the stage under the name of Elvis the 2nd, singing mostly his and Cliff Richard songs. When I was at the camp there were three dance floors, one for rock ansd roll, another for ballroom dancing - which once held the Come Dancing competition for the BBC. The third was for general activities. I danced every night in the ballroom, I was disappointed when I went back to the camp last year... Read more
NAN'S CHRISTENING
MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS THOMAS AND LOUISA SPARKES AND THEIR CHILDREN MOVED FROM MINEHEAD TO CARDIFF.
THEIR YOUNGEST CHILD HILDA WHO WAS MY GRANDMOTHER TOLD STORIES TO MY MOTHER AND ONE OF THEM BEING THAT SHE COULD REMEMBER RUNNING UP THE CHURCH STEPS TO HER CHRISTENING IN 1900 WHEN SHE WAS 4 YEARS OLD.
Pony Rides
We used to call this 'the donkey slip'. It was where the Webber family started their donkey and later pony rides.
My friend and I used to be in charge of the pony rides during the summer season sometime in the 50's.
We weren't paid but had the joy of riding the ponies bareback to their field on North Hill at the end of the day, after cleaning the tackle and putting it in the stables.
School Carol Concert
This was where my mother and father were married in 1937.
I used to walk up to the Church with the whole of Minehead Grammar School for our annual Christmas Carol Service. Our lovely music teacher, Mr Langdon, used to play the organ and I can still hear the bass notes reverberating around the Church while we sang 'God is Love' in Latin.
My Childhood in Minehead
My auntie Mary used to run the donkeys on the beach. I spent each school holiday in Minehead Swimming Pool and remember the Juke Box in the cafeteria area very well. When I first moved to Minehead in 1953 I lived in the old Gasworks Cottage right on the front down past the harbour. I would be very interested if anyone has a photo of the Old Gasworks before it was demolished in the late fifties early sixties ? I had 10 aunts and uncles in the Webber family , most of whom have passed on now, and several uncles worked voluntarily on the Minehead Lifeboat, with Uncle Alf being coxswain for a number of years and uncles Jack and Lionel plus Bill and Reg all helping out when necessary.
MY e mail address is : mickjohns22@aol.com if you have memories also from that era :O)
Memories of Somerset
Alcombe School
This is a very exciting discovery for me because it is one of the oldest photographs I have seen of a part of old Alcombe that I can recognise, even at my great distance from the UK.
My Great-Grandfather George Mildon had a school at Alcombe from the year of his marriage to Alice Frankpitt in 1874. He evidently bought the school from a Francis Ransome who had lived there with his wife Ann, their 4 children, his Assistant Thomas Kemm, 2 servants and a number of boarding pupils.
After 20 years teaching in Alcombe, in 1894 George Mildon sold the school, and with their 6 children, they emigrated to New Zealand.
The following details are as we can reconstruct from recent research, which has placed the school down the modern Manor Road off to the photographers right, which was once an extension of Combeland Road seen here to the photographers front. The school master's family and the boarders' accommodation probably occupied the two residential buildings to... Read more
Growing up in Alcombe
I was living with my grandparents at that time, Amy & Sid Berry, their son Stanley (uncle to me) was the local hairdresser and he went around on a pushbike, later a moterbike & side car, to cut local men's hair. Everybody knew Stan, he later opened a shop in Alcombe next door to the fish & chip shop & later a shop by Legs sweet shop in Alcombe. I have lovely memories of those years, and my aunt, Stan's sister, still lives in the same house in Hayfield Road where I was born (a sister & brother of mine were also born there). Times must have been hard in those years but for me they were happy times, always people coming in to see my Gran who also had people staying at different times that had been billeted out because of the war so Gran was kept busy with cooking and washing, there were no wash machines, fridges, microwaves etc like today's modcoms, still she kept happy. I... Read more
Lily Meade
I grew up in the house opposite the Brittania Inn from early 1940 until about 1960. The shop next door, in the right of the picture, was a grocers shop, Stovolds. I remember spending the day with them watching the Coronation, as not many people had television in those days.
My Grampy
My Grandad, Cyril Albert Dibble was born here on 9th October 1920.
Nan And Grandad's House
My Nan and grandad lived in the house on the left hand side of the street where the grey car is parked outside. It was a great place to play when I was a child. I loved this place. It was beautifully old fashioned both inside and out. Lots of happy memories spent here. Rachael Mead
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