Nostalgic memories of Royston's local history
Share your own memories of Royston and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Displaying Memories 1 - 10 of 17 in total
I lived at 59 Station Road, Royston. My parents moved there in the very early 1960's and I was born in 1969 and my brother David in 1972.
It was a semi, with what seemed to be a garden that went on forever. I was always at the shop on Station Road run by Gwen Miller and her husband Cyril. So it was us, the Haigh's at 59, then the Jobson's, and at 63 the Pagan's. We all loved going to Abeldy or ...see more
My introduction to the Monckton mining community began on a bitter cold March Monday morning in 1944. The wartime Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin had decreed that I should become one of his boys. So here I was at 5.30am on a Monday morning at the pithead baths arrayed in my work clothes and new boots with their shiney steel toecaps climbing the wooden steps to No One pit top. The activity there was ...see more
Summer time, I had gone fishing on Royston Canal. The local fishing club had replenished the canal with fresh water trout for the anglers. These fish were so tame that all you need do was to hold out your hand with a few maggots and they'd come and feed from you; they were farmed trout. They knew nothing of predators and would calmly swim alongside Pike. Pike were soon to get so fat from feeding off the trout ...see more
I'm Not sure whether that was the actual date but as a child of five I recall my mother standing on the top step of our home where she would watch me go over the brow of the bridge on Midland Road on my way to school: as I got out of the door and began to walk on the causeway I noticed that there was a glinting on the Kerb and when I focused my eyes, I could see a whole line of pennies which were ...see more
I was born in Royston in 1949, some four years after the war. The thing about me I have a very good memory of thing that had occurred within my childhood days, some of which, like everyone else would like to forget. I recall that when I was roughly three years of age, I was to go out of the front door and and amble my way into the fifty acre field, which was some half a mile walk from where I lived on ...see more
Mr Lodge who was blacksmith and farrier to the stable which his daughter Elaine owned would allow me to watch him work at the forge: one day whilst he was fashioning a horseshoe which was white hot, he had placed it on top of the anvil just for a short moment while he stoked up the fire. It was then that a rep. came in order to try and sell some horse nails; anyway this rep. was so occupied in the ...see more
If you look at the photograph of The Wells, on the crossroad that leads up the hill to Midland Road, the first shop on the corner used to be Barclays Bank but before then it was a tobacco shop and sweet shop combined. In the 1920s it was considered an offence for young lads and lasses to stay on the street and even if they were not causing bother if they hung around in groups it was more than likely that some ...see more
My dad, even though married he was one for playing the field. Mother was taking care of my brother's kids (his wife had died, he was a Flight Sargent), Mother was miles away and Dad played about. One afternoon he had picked up a woman and took her home to our house. Passion was running smooth as they were in the kitchen. Suddenly heavy footsteps came up the twenty-odd-feet passageway towards the kitchen door. The ...see more
At Royston Senior school, I was a young lad of 14 and although the lads did not know it, I was quite strong and could do a man's job such as lifting heavy sacks of grain and humping bails of hay. Although I was a quiet lad and never sought out wanting to fight with anyone let alone pick a fight, there was a time when a lad by the name of John Cadman had been trying to interest some of the lads in the school ...see more
My dad once made me what us Royston lads would call a Cadjie! It was a go-cart made from bits of waste wood and two sets of wheels from off an old pram or pushchair. One would control it by its front wheels which were attached to an articulated axle, it was also steered by the feet. Dad had taken five hours to make it up and was quite sturdy to say the least. Most Cadjies were made from big pram wheels but the ...see more