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Presteigne
Presteigne maps
Historic maps of Presteigne and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Presteigne maps
Presteigne area books
Displaying 1 of 0 books about Presteigne and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Presteigne
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memories of Presteigne.
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Lugg Bridge on England /Wales Border
I remember being a member of the Youth Club and being able to launch our canoes from the riverbank on the Welsh side of the bridge. If you visit now you will find that someone has added the site to their garden!
Powys memories
Bill Brown
I remember Bill Brown from the days when he ran the local cinema in the Norton Arms ballroom and later at the cinema he built just off the carpark. He also captured many scenes in Knighton with his cameras. I don't know if he is still around, but what a wealth of memories he must have stored away.
I also remember Knighton when I worked after school and on Saturdays as a delivery boy for J. L. Allcock in the days when there were hundreds of people in the street on a market day (Thursday) and halfday closing was a Friday. How it has changed. I guess that's progress.
War Years
I remember the Taylor family, Mum, John and Marian (no longer with us) coming to stay with us in Liverpool. My mum was from Lloyney and knew them well. Harold Taylor was on a ship docked in Liverpool so they stayed with us so they could see him, I was quite young but remember it well. I spent the Second World War years with Mona Cadwallader in Knighton, my brothers stayed in Lloyney.
Bootle Evacuee
I was evacuated to Llangunllo after the Liverpool Blitz in 1941 and stayed with Mr and Mr's George Lloyd in a house named "Larch Grove". I have very fond memories of those folk. I live in Canada now, since 1957.
The Crossgates Gang
I have many memories of growing up in Crossgates between the years of 1964 through to the late 1970s. We were the original Railway Children. I am interested in the previous posting ref Ernie Lewis at Builth Road station as my grandfather was Ernest Lewis and was at the Station Cottage at the crossing at Llandrindod. Ian Collins
Early Memories of Hay During The Second World War, Part 1.
Memories of Hay during the Second World War. When I was still quite young, I recall that there were three phrases used by my father over and over again in conversation. The first, tellingly, were those remarks, usually making contrasts of some kind, beginning "Of course, before the war". And then post-1945 there was the obvious "During the war". And finally there was, with contrasts doubtless still in mind, "After the war". What is obvious is that for people of his generation the Second World War was the great watershed of the century, bringing cataclysmic changes that even impinged on small towns like Hay. And I suppose it is fair to say that two of those phrases were used to contrast the present (usually unfavourably!) with distinct former periods of personal history, years when the speaker was younger and when local society was supposedly more cohesive (the 'war-effort' etc.). Little wonder that social historians of the twentieth century may now describe the revolutionary effect that the Second World War had... Read more
Wartime Memories of Hay: Part Two
Memories of Hay during the Second World War: Part Two. (Continued from Part One) Thoughts of 'Dad's Army' remind me that the local Home Guard occasionally used Forest Road for some kind of exercise. I've dim recollections of one or two coming into the garden of 'Wayside' with their rifles and taking up whatever position was thought advantageous. Soldiers marching through the town was not an uncommon sight. I have quite a vivid memory of a large column of soldiers with pack-mules proceeding westwards up Belmont Road past the Wye Cafe, probably on their way to Brecon. Likewise, a small boy was always likely to be attracted by processions of army vehicles, Bren-gun carriers, tracked vehicles in camouflage khaki livery. There was a petrol station opposite the Swan Hotel (J.V. Like's garage in peace-time) manned by American soldiers who not only responded favourably to requests of "Any gum, chum?" but also were known to give away tiny pairs of (?army-issue) light-weight dice. Each small, top-like, die (less than an inch long when... Read more
