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Sandyford

Sandyford maps

Historic maps of Sandyford and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Sandyford maps

Sandyford photos

We have no photos of Sandyford, although we do have photos of these nearby places:

Swynnerton| Trentham| Oulton| Stone| Blurton| Shallowford| Longton| Eccleshall| Normacot| Newcastle| Weston Coyney| Caverswall| Madeley

Sandyford area books

Displaying 1 of 4 books about Sandyford and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Sandyford

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Staffordshire memories

Wonderful Times Too

I read John Grehan's contribution with great interest. I too enjoyed the air raid shelters and LMS Station at Cold Meece, though four or five years later than his own expeditions. I too attended St Joseph's and the two boys in the taxi with John were my older brothers. By the time I went to "St Joe's", the taxi service was not available and I was taken in my mother's car the three miles to the nearest bus stop for Stoke on Trent. As a teenager, I attended a party in one of the inhabited houses next to "Meece House", the abandoned stately home. Naturally a deputation of us party goers ventured in to the then stable structure. In the garage was an old Alvis car, completely intact. Incredible, really.

My Dad was something of a local historian and wrote articles of local interest for the "Evening Sentinel" newspaper. Later these were compiled to make a local bestseller "Murders Myths and Monuments of North Staffordshire". One of... Read more

Growing Up

My sister Pat and I lived first in Sutherland Road then Monument Lane. We went to Granville Secondary Modern in Stone. I loved growing up in Tittensor as it was a lovely village, my best mate was Sandra Wagg. My maiden name was Powell. It would be nice to hear from anyone who lived there.

Wonderful Times

My father moved to Cold Meece in 1960 to take up his job as a prison officer at the nearby Drake Hall open prison, and we stayed there for a couple of years before we moved to live at the prison itself.

At the time I was between 9 and 11 years old and, for a child of that age, it was a wonderful place to grow up. It was so rural that there was little risk of being knocked over by cars, and we were free to wander all over the place, only returning home for food and, occasionally, money for the ice cream van.

There were two wonderful structures that we had ready access to which are worthy of special mention :-

- There was an old abandoned stately home, which we kids used to play in. At that time it was in a stable condition so it was relatively safe to play in. I remember that the house had its own... Read more

Trentham Railway

Toy Railway c1955
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In the 1960's I was a ticket conductor on this train. Jack Goldstone was the driver and we took people from the gardens to the pool. Today there's no way I would be allowed to work on the railway because of health and safety concerns. We had to stand on a running board by the side of the carriages hang on with one hand and take money and issue tickets with the other while the train reached speeds of 20 - 30mph. Some times conductors fell off and Jack had to stop while we picked all the money that had been scattered over the tracks and by the lake. Luckilly no one was seriously hurt!

Happy Days

Toy Railway c1955
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Memories of using the miniature railway to get to the open air swimming pool. Summer holidays were spent with either my brothers or my friends, exploring Trentham Gardens and Park, and swimming in the open air swimming pool. Little did we know how lucky we were to live so near to Trentham Gardens that we could use it as our playground. You could only get to the swimming pool either by foot or by this railway, which took you from nearby the lake to the gates of the swimming pool. The railway ran alongside the lake, through woodland. Amazing memories.

Memories of Hot Summer Days

Park Swimming Pool c1955
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My friends and I used to swim in this pool in the summer holidays. My friend's mum used to work for Trentham Gardens and so we used to have free access to the gardens in the summer school holidays. We used to take the miniature train from the lake to the pool and spend all day there. We bought ice creams from the shops above the pool. Looking back I can see that the pool is art deco in style, but when I was young I didn't consider the architecture, I just enjoyed playing in the pool. Oh, happy days!

Stone in The 1950s

I am now 57 years of age, and live in Australia. I was born in Stone, Stafforshire in 1949 and would love to go back and visit.
As a child I remember walking along the canal and standing watching as a blacksmith mended a horse's shoe. I remember hating school but even at that very tender age I was interested in the history of the school that I attended. Every day at home-time I walked on the stone footpath that was once laid by the Romans (is it still there?). The school was very old and I think that it was once used by monks?? It had very tall ceilings, rounded arches and big heavy doors. I remember taking a shortcut through the church cemetery across the road from the school.  I was very frightened as some of the graves were very old and some were partly opened, very scary. My parents, my sister and myself lived at 26 Redhill Road. My maiden name was Bruce.

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