Orton Waterville, Cambridgeshire

Peterborough Grammar School for Girls

Does anyone have photographs of the Grammar School on Cobden Avenue? I was there for a couple of years before I moved away with my family and have vivid memories of the main school buildings and the three storey house on the corner where we also studied. On the way up the hill to school there was a coalyard wher they kept the massive black horses used to pull the coal carts - am I really old enough to recall horse-drawn coal deliveries? Actually, our milk was also delivered using a horse and cart. I remember too the shop where we had to go to buy the school uniform - it had a complicated pulley system to send the money to the accounts department. And what a uniform! Dark brown winter coats, yellow over-macs, striped summer dresses and straw boaters - those were the days!

My Mums Home

My mum moved here when she was about 7 years old in 1959. Her mum and dad Mr and Mrs Claus owned the fish shop third closest to the camera. Her neighbour Mrs Sansby lived in the middle house. The house nearest to the camera is where my mum lived. She lived here until 1963 she was eleven when she moved. She had to move as the houses were about to be pulled down. So she moved up to Church Close where she lived until she got married.  Her father Lothar Hans Claus is buried in Stilton Cemetary. He died in 1973. Her mother Betty is currently living in Orton and she is alive and well. I'm currently happily living with my mum in Fletton.

Stilton, Fen Street c1959

Looking at the photo of the row of houses from the top of Fen Street, the house nearest the camera was owned by my grandparents, Betty and Hans Claus and my mother Ann who at that time was about 8 years old (1959). The 3rd house along was also theirs which they had as the fish and chip shop. The house at the bottom of the road was the doctor's. They soon moved from here as the houses were to be demolished and they moved the the newly built houses on Church Street. I remember as a little girl (1970s) walking from Church Street to Mr Smith's store and hearing the bell ring when you walked in on to wooden floors, and all the shelves behind the counter with a ladder to reach all the things they sold.......happy days.

North Road looking North from Church Street, Fen Street Junction

Previous memories talk about The Talbot Inn and on the left hand corner (Church Street Corner) Marshall's the newsagents .
Before the village was bypassed around 1956 the Newsagents had previously been a Fish and Chip shop.  This was one of two Fish and Chip shops in the village at that time, the second one being down the road to the right at the keep left sign in Fen Street.  I remember the Fen Street shop as being owned by a family called 'Sansby'.
At this time the village also sported TWO bakeries one about 80 yards past the Talbot on the left and the second about 300 yards past the Talbot on the left.
The bakeries belonged to two families called Chapman.  I presume they were related but I don't really know.
I do recall fetching freshly baked and still warm crusty loaves from 'bottom Chapmans', and on Thursdays newly baked jam doughnuts from 'top Chapmans'.
The village population of this time was less than 1000.
The bypass of the A1 road killed so much of the village at the time, although being able to cross the main road (The North Road) was greatly facilitated.