Share your Memories

Town Hall c1955
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

During the Second World War my mother lived in a flat opposite the Town Hall, above Partington's. She had been suffering with a very bad cold and had been recommended a cure that involved consuming rather more alcohol than she was accustomed to. Apparently she used to look out of the window each morning at the Town Hall clock, to check the time. The morning after the night before, she attempted her usual ploy, only to find that the clock tower had disappeared during the night. The Germans had bombed the Town Hall and my mother had slept right through the entire episode.

Hafodlwyfog Farm, Historic 11th Century Manor House c1930
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

I was born in Nant Gwynant in 1925 and lived there for the first 20 years of my life. In 1944 I was drafted into the army and served in German and Italy. Upon release in 1947, I decided to try and make a career in agriculture and before undertaking a college course Brooksby Hall, Melton Mowbray, I had to gain experience of farming for 12 months, and this was done at Hafodlwyfog Farm. It was then owned and run by William and Myfi Jones, both of good old Welsh stock. I had to undertake all aspects of farm work. There was a small milking herd of about 12 cattle I think. These would be hand milked twice a day at about 7:30 in the morning and 4:30 in the afternoon. The farm building were quite a long downhill walk from the house, but I was lucky, because by then, the 10 gallon churns of milk were picked up by a milk lorry at the main road, where as before, the milk had to be carried in pails hooked to a yoke up the the dairy at the farm house. There was no water laid on in the shippons so the cattle, and followers, had to find their way down the stony path to Gwynant lake for their drink. I had read an old poem which describes how the Hafoflwyfog herd were once seen to be crossing the lake when it became frozen over. All the sheds had to be cleaned... Read more

Blair Castle 1951
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

From 1975-1985 approx, when we were kids from Dalry we lived in the estate below Blair House about 1 mile from main entrance,The Blair Scheme. Myself and a few lads and girls from there used to go up there walking at evenings and weekends, as you turned into the main drive through those large black gates with stone pillars and walls to match there was a gate house, in all my years up there I never saw anyone in or around, but you knew there were eyes watching you. We walked towards the forester's lodge, we would pass through the high archway of trees bowed over like a protective tunnel of golden leaves and branches high above us. As we neared the forester's lodge we would cross over a bridge with wrought-iron railings, half of which had fallen down into water passing underneath, to the left is the lodge, to the right on the bend is what, if I can remember, was a willow tree whose branches touched the ground and gave us a good place to hide and carve our names on the tree bark, if you look you might see some still there today, but most are unrecognisable now. Then we would walk up round the red road towards the Blair Castle, then the residents were Colonel Borwick and Mrs Borwick. The Colonel was to us a fearsome man, as was his game keeper, Mr A Wylie, a crack shot with a rifle. We would then pass by... Read more

The Ferry 1964
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

There has been a ferry at Woolwich for many centuries but the people of Woolwich complained in the 1880s that West London had free access across the River Thames by bridges so why couldn't they have free travel? The river was too busy to put a bridge over and there was not room to put in a tunnel so the newly formed London County Council decided to provide a free ferry service with boats large enough to accomodate vehicles. It was opened on 23rd March 1889 and there were three ferries Gordon, Duncun and Hutton. The second generation of paddle steamers were Squires and Gordon (again!) built in 1922 and Will Crooks and John Benn built in 1930. By the 1960s the ferry traffic was clogging up Woolwich where the traffic waiting to board the ferry often streached back into the main shopping streets. So three new bigger boats were built in 1963, John Burns, James Newman and (pictured here) Ernist Bevin. They were 'Roll on, Roll off' type boats but the new approaches which included lifting drawbridges and a dual carriage way road by-passing the centre of Woolwich did not come into use until 1966. Although they could cope with much heavier traffic the new diesel ferries did not have the charm of the old paddle steamers. The chance to see the big pistons flashing round, the men shoveling coke into the boilers, the paddles stiring up muck from the river and all the shouting of instructions and throwing of... Read more

The Quay 1929
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

How well I remember arriving at Wells-next-the-Sea from Leicester as a new bride. My husband was a former high school pen-friend who was now in England serving in the U.S Air Force, having been in the country from his home in Wisconsin for a year. Now stationed at Sculthorpe. We spent our first week in Norfolk in the village of Sydestone until we could find rental accomodations in Wells. Our home there was shared with the owners of the property, a couple named Mr & Mrs Rtiches. The name of the house was St Heliers. It was a large brick house surrounded by a high brick wall, situated on Station Road across from the Library and The Post Office. There had been a section of the brick wall cut away by the gates and from there Mrs Riches sold flowers and vegetables from her garden. My husband and I occupied a bedroom upstairs and a bathroom with other family members. Downstairs we had our own living room and kitchen. How fortunate I felt to be actually living at the seaside. That was always my dream when, as a girl going on holiday at Skegness or Mablethorpe. To live at the seaside would be a dream come true. I loved to walk through Buttlands, sometimes sitting down to rest and wondering about who lived in all the houses around me, especially that little house which looked like a castle squeezed between two other houses. I know that I have pictures... Read more