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Newbury
Newbury maps
Historic maps of Newbury and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Newbury maps
Newbury area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Newbury and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Newbury
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Newbury.
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Pound Street
My first main job on leaving school (Shaw House) was as a tea boy-dogsbody at H C James timber and builders merchants in Pound Street. For quite a while I cycled daily from Highclere Castle, approx 4 miles, it took me just over half an hour to get there and one hour to return! Some hills! My duties included running a mess room, making tea etc twice a day and touring the town for cakes and pasties, some of the men were particular as to which shop sold the best! One in Barthlomew Street near the Regal cinema, on round to Cheap Street to Austins for pasties and Nelsons squares, then to the Empire Cafe for lardy cakes, returning via Market Street and Barts again for fairy cakes near Black Boys bridge. After using a cycle for a while my father bought me an ex post office BSA bantam motor bike, painted green, it was purchased from someone my dad knew who worked at Bleinhem Palace. I rode that... Read more
Boots Chemist
Does anyone recall the curious window on Boots the Chemist? The glass was curved and one could not touch it, always a highlight after crossing the barrel bridge passing Lidiard the butchers.
My Bedroom Window
I used to live above our shop, "Luff's" the grocers. My bedroom window looked out onto the clock tower. I spent many hours looking out of that window watching people going by and watching the activities around the clock tower. I believe we lived there from about 1948, I left in 1959, but the shop is still owned by my brother.
Love At First Sight (corny But True)
This is where I first set eyes on my future wife. = I was working for Wimpeys at Greenham Common Air-Base, about 60 to 70 of us were lodging in an old army camp in Hamstead Norris that hade been taken over by Wimpeys as it was hard to get lodgings in Newbury. Every Saturday night my mate and I would come to town for a meal, drink and a dance in the Corn Exchange. One Saturday night we went into the Catherine Wheel pub in the Market PLace. Lo and behold, two pleasant young ladies were playing darts. We got playing with them, and thats how it all started. We were married for 53 years. Every time I go to Newbury I go into that pub, have one pint and think back. I lost the wife 3 years ago but visit Newbury often to see her family and put flowers on her grave in East Garson. By the way, my mate married my wife's friend, name of... Read more
Shops in The Broadway
I believe this picture is of the local post office/deli next door to the clock tower inn pub, affectionately known as the 'Clocky'. I grew up in this pub between 1956 and the early 1970s.
When I lived here the mayor of Newbury was Mr A W Luff and he owned the post office/deli next door. His son David did the weekly grocery deliveries in their van. David's sister moved to Canada ages and ages ago. My younger brother and I would sometimes go with David on some of the deliveries and once we went to the Heinz (soup) mansion where for the first time I ever saw a lift inside a home!
Opposite was Wilcox's fruit and veg shop and a newsagents. On the corner was a flower shop.
The actual clock tower in the middle of the Broadway had bench seats around and a phone box in the centre, where I remember it used to smell of urine. The old tramps and meth drinkers... Read more
The Kennet.
The river is the Kennet and this view shows the junction of the Kennet river (from low level bridge on the right) and the Kennet and Avon Canal (towards the locks straight ahead). The tributary to the left is towards the West Mills flour mill (water powered). The view is upstream (West).
Berkshire memories
Childhood in Benham Valence
It was in April 1950 that I was born in the Victorian wing of Benham Valence - actually in the flat above the garages - a very primitive dwelling with no bathroom or indoor toilet. Unfortunately the whole wing was found to be in such bad repair that it was demolished completely in the 1980s. The great house of Benham Valence itself lay empty and neglected save for the scant attentions of the then caretakers - either the Mildenhalls or the Husbands. My memory fails me on this.
My father Dick Clark was a forester for Suttons Estates. Whilst my family lived there they made friends with the Pococks - Martha and Ray - who lived in the Mill House in front of the lake. Their house has also been demolished as it began to subside into the mill race which ran beneath the house. The large house presently on this site is the converted mill itself.
In my childhood I always referred to the Pococks as Nan and... Read more
