Oswestry memories
Here are memories of Oswestry and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Oswestry or a Oswestry photo.
Army Junior Soldiers
I was at Park Hall camp. Our Sergeant was called Mathews and the Corporal called Ennis. Sgt Mathews was an unfit [fat] bully but Cpl Ennis was great. As a young 16 years old lad it was a bit of a shock to the system but not all bad, in fact some great times were had there and I also met some great lads. I often wonder if things had been differentIi could have made a career of the army ??
"Gobowen" Orthopaedic Hospital
I remember this hospital with mixed emotions. As a child of 5/6 in 1953/4 I was taken by my Dad weekly to visit my mother who had spinal fusion surgery - I think Mr Rose was the name of the surgeon. Spinal fusion surgery was still new - and risky - and Mum was a patient there for at least 12 months. I don't remember which ward she was on but it could easily have been one of the two in the photo.
The sides of the ward were glass and could be folded back so patients were able to be wheeled out into the sunshine and fresh air. If you look closely at this photo, on the right hand side you can see just such a bed. Brings back some difficult memories but vital just the same.
Back then a plaster cast was put on after surgery from the neck right down the body including the leg from which the graft bone was harvested.... Read more
Park Hall
I was at Park Hall Camp from March until May 1962 with 17 Training Reg R.A. I remember standing to attention on the drill square as a seventeen and a half year old boy wondering what had hit me, and the Crewe-bound train passing and the fireman or driver mocking us on parade, and Sergeant Johnson shaking his fist in return. I had some happy days at Park Hall except for when one of our number was seriously injured (I think he died) by an over eager sentry.
Inspections
Ref to the pay day. I remember a full room and locker inspection in the morning before Wednesday pay.
IJLB
I was at Parkhall Camp from Aug 1970 - Aug 1972. I remember that pay day was on a Wednesday, after which the Post Office was the first port of call to get sweets and soft drinks. Every boy had a POSBIE account which 7 shillings per week was transfered into, to be spent on leave. Some of the best years of my early military career were spent at Oswestry.
SAD!
My aunt Dylis used to have a fruit and veg shop on this street and I can remember going with my gran to the shop and helping to make wreathes for funerals.
My gran used to live in Beatrice Street, opposite the train station. I seem to remember that the access to this was via a footbridge on which I used to stand to wait for the steam trains to pass underneath. At the back of the station was the beginning of a walk which I used to do with my father. It took you to a place called Shell Bank where the land had slid away revealing a layer of shells from thousands of years ago. None of these remain anymore, how sad!
Memories of Shropshire
Safe Fun in Childhood
I was born in 1962 in my family home, number 36 (now 116) Hammonds Place. It's not so common these days to be born at home. There was a community spirit on the estate, all the kids addressed adults as auntie or uncle or Mr/Mrs, there was lip but respect. My best memories of Gobowen were the woods with bluebells and dumped Ford Zephyr cars etc complete with front bench seat, the fields prior to them becoming a housing estate and playing fields, the meadows by Perry's garage, the Rhewl bank and the walks that were fun and safe for all us kids due to more freedom, less traffic etc, this has now changed, the Gobowen of today is full of houses, no safe hideaways for kids, you can't even sit on the wall by the chippy and ask for batter bits. I can't say who ran the chippy but Idris Roberts had his finger in every other business "scam" - a rough diamond!! There were also good times spent... Read more
Gobowen Junior School
I went to Gobowen School from about 1964-1970. I lived in Hengoed, and when I first started school in Gobowen, my mum used to take me and collect me on the back of her bike. As I got older, I walked down Trewern Lane and cut across the field by Wats Dyke, then across the railway by the Hart & Trumpet, through the Back Alley and down Old Chirk Road. If the fields weren't too muddy, sometimes I'd walk home across the fields to Hengoed and would cross the railway at the Black Bridge - maybe lingering long enough to see a steam loco pulling a goods train (I think all the passenger trains had already changed over to diesel). I'd get home and mum would say "I've told you not to hang around on the bridge". I would swear I hadn't been there, but I guess the flecks of soot probably gave the game away! I remember the Headmaster at Gobowen was a man called Edwin Jones;... Read more
Embarkation Leave
Mrs Barrett, the Post Mistress at that time, gave me a 1947 farthing for luck when I joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in June 1952. She said she had given one to village lads in WW2 and most of them came back, so look after it.
I went to Suez and came back and it is still on my key ring.
Happy Holiday Memories
I now live in Lincolnshire but my father and family are native to Weston Rhyn and many family members still live in the area. I spent many happy holidays in Weston Rhyn as a schoolboy, I stayed at my aunt's house in Rhoswiel just by the canal and would pop across to the local shop run by Mrs Slaughter for sweets etc, or sometimes I stayed at my gran's house (Mrs Williams) at Station Cottages ( They used to run the local newspaper business). But my one love in Weston Rhyn was trainspotting on the then open station. Many happy memories.
Coopers Lane
I lived at Coopers Lane with my mother and grandparents - grandfather Bill Lewis was the lime burner for the quarry. I went to Porthywaen chapel and attended the school. Families from there were moved to Brynmelin when they were retired from the quarry. Grandad was always known as Bill the lime burner.
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Places this week
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- High Halden, Kent
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- Dartford, Kent
- Oban, Argyll
- Chedworth, Gloucestershire
- Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire
- Irby, Merseyside
- Almondsbury, Avon
- Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
- Parkgate, Merseyside
- Dan Y Parc, Powys
- Llansamlet, West Glamorgan
- Ryhill, West Yorkshire
- Knaphill, Surrey
- Fleetwood, Lancashire
- Oadby, Leicestershire
- Severn Stoke, Worcestershire
- Duloe, Cornwall
- Oswestry, Shropshire
- Winchmore Hill, Greater London
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