Princes Risborough memories
Here are memories of Princes Risborough and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Princes Risborough or a Princes Risborough photo.
St.George Playing Field
I do think this picture could be a lot earlier than 1955.
I think this Aylesbury road, heading down into Risborough. The St.George playing field, being on the right behind the hedge.
The houses in the distant right, are down Longwick road I believe.
OLD AGE
With regards to this photo, I think if my memory serves me right it is Duke Street looking back from what was Benyons garage to the Market Square, I remember there used to be three butchers shops in this street alone!
When I Was A Boy
I was born in Princes Risborough and fondly remember as a young boy going into the shop with the bay window (shown on the right of your picture) to buy sweets and giggle at the young girls. The shop was known locally as 'Blue Kettle Jacks' although it was properly known, I think, as The Old Blue Kettle.
Shops And Shopping.
I remember spending my pocket money in Adcocks and Percivals, at the top of Duke Street. He had a terrific range of toys for a small town shop, from toy soldiers to model railways. He had a working model railway set up upstairs, which when connected I would play with for a while. The Copper Urn Cafe for a bottle of coke. The Green House for my sweets. Tiffanys opposite the primary school for tuck. Robin Bulls, for sweets as well. Can't remember the name of the record shop down Duke Street, but it became Spain In London menswear in the early 1970s. Gillingwaters veggie shop. Wainwrights shoe shop. Granny's Pantry on the Market Square, which then moved up the High Street in later years. Benyons Garage, Jacobs Garage, High Street... I got my bicycle tyres from them. Walters hairdressers, Barnards the builders, along Bell Street. And The Bell pub, with John Smith as landlord....ex navy man I think, and a good bloke. I could go on for ever, but I'd run out... Read more
Parish Church
On Sept 2 1877 William Frederick Beels married Emily Arkell in the Parish Church. William Frederick Beels' son was Frederick John Beels. His son was Frederick James Beels. Frederick James lived in Risboro with his grandparents and he remembers having to go to the next town by train to get groceries. He had to go by himself because his mother looked after his two younger sisters.
Memories of Buckinghamshire
William Russell Wilson Bligh
William Russell Wilson Bligh came to Australia and was living with his Uncle Sir Maurice O'Connell at Tarmons in Sydney in 1845. I have a copy of a letter written that expresses her concerns about her 18year old son and the way he is neglecting his family duty by not paying his uncle his due from his newly earned wages. He joined the Civil Service and was appointed the 1st Clerk of Petty Sessions in Armidale New South Wales in 1847. He was later dismissed by the Cowper Government in March 1859. He then went to live in Sydney and later retired to his cottage Whiteleaf Cross in the Blue Mountains, said to be named after the place where the children were born in Buckinghamshire. His Mother was one of 6 daughters and 3 sons born to Vice Admiral William Bligh. She married her 4th cousin Richard Bligh Barrister House of Lords. William's Mother gave William, the last remaining copy of his Grandfathers voyage which was later deposited in... Read more
Hester Wheelwrights in Askett
My g grandfather William Hester was born and brought up at Askett. Like his father and grandfather, he was a wheelwright. Fortunately for him there was insufficient work for all the family members to be employed as wheelwrights in the village so he set up practice in Princes Risborough. In this way he escaped the typhus epidemic of 1852-3 that killed the entire family remaining in the village. Those who died, together with my ggrandfather, who died in 1875, are buried in the Baptist burial ground in Princes Risborough. The houses the family lived in are across from the pub and are now joined into one known as Shumac. I have the document showing the house was mortgage in 1853 for fifty pounds! My grandfather showed me the spot on the road where mail and other items would be left while the village was in quaranteen. I have not been able to find out anything about the typhus outbreak and wonder if there is any history of it. Contemporary newspapers... Read more
Two Weddings
My parents were married at Great Hampden church in July 1929, they were Neater Ruth Groom of Prestwood, and Harold Aubrey Hall of Beenham in Berkshire. January 4th 1956 Barbara Hall, their only child, was married to Reginald Frank Ridgley, also of Prestwood. My mother died in April 1994, the wild cherry blossom and bluebells were adorning the Glade as we followed her coffin up to the church, we walked that way so often in the years gone by. Dad followed her in Feb 1995, it was cold and grey, but there were a lot of people, sharing the memories of lives spent in this lovely area, and Rev Phillip Hill who conducted our wedding, and the dear old Vicar who was there in my childhood, walking round his Parish, visiting, always happy to talk.
Dunsmore People And Happenings Remembered
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
In 1995, when the first edition of this history was published, it seemed incredibly optimistic to have had three hundred copies printed for a market which was likely to be composed in the main of the residents of about forty properties. Ten years later the stock has run out and the opportunity arises to correct some of the errors which have become very obvious and to carry out a modicum of up-dating.
It came as something of a pleasant surprise to receive reactions from different parts of the world, from relatives of people who featured in the booklet and from others. Some of the photographs used in the original book are no longer available and of those informants who provided contributions to the original a number have died, reinforcing the view that the history of the common man must be collected sooner rather than later if it is not to be lost forever.
July 2009
DUNSMORE
PEOPLE AND HAPPENINGS REMEMBERED
The Chequers
At the age of 16 I remember picking cherries on the trees (still existing in the photo and just shown to the left of the picture) while being too embarrassed/shy to acknowledge the presence of my first "girlfriend", Valery, on her bike below.
The Chequers was my fathers local from the mid twenties until the mid eighties. He hardly missed an evening's visit during the whole of that time, so the Chequers became a rather "looming" object throughout my childhood, rather like a third (naughty) parent. But it did provide the odd Vimto and packet of Smith's crisps in the late forties/early fifties.
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