You are here:
Simpson
Simpson maps
Historic maps of Simpson and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Simpson maps
Simpson area books
Displaying 1 of 7 books about Simpson and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Simpson
No memories of Simpson have been shared yet - be the first!
Add your memory of Simpson
or of a photo of Simpson.
Buckinghamshire memories
Happy Days
When I was about 4 or 5 I moved from Water Eaton to Fenny. We lived with my gran, Mrs Gibson, in Church Street. We - my two brothers and myself, used to go to the Salvation Army Sunday School, we were only few doors away, and felt grown up walking the few yards away. I used to play the tambourine there (well, I used to rattle it about a bit). It was always nice and clean looking and felt homely. Next door was a 'house' that was used as a Catholic church, then next to that was our local fire brigade, all the kids used to gather round when the siren went off on the council offices, knowing lots of men would be running like mad from wherever they worked - mainly as cooks in the brush factory in Victoria Road. A year later I was old enough to go with my brothers to the County Cinema, just through a walkway opposite the house.
My gran was one... Read more
Born in Fenny Stratford
I was born at number 8 Woodbine Terrace; in attendance was nurse Brinklow the local midwife and Dr Gleeve. My parents were Jim and Vera Cusack.
Just after the begining of the war my mother, sister and grandparents moved to Fenny Stratford to be near my auntie Doris (mother's sister) and to be away from the dangers of London; they came from Dagenham and Hackney in the East End. My grandfather, Captain Walter Bates, had also just been assigned to the security at Bletchley Park. My father was in Burma in the Far East.
Until my mother managed to rent the little cottage in Woodbine Terrace, they all lived with my aunt in Church Street. After the war my grandparents returned to London, they were lucky their substantial house was still intact, however, my parents' Dagenham home had gone so they decided to stay. It took my... Read more
Council Yard
At the end of Staplehall Road, just a couple of houses down from where we lived, there was a council yard where was stored some heavy machinery, mainly a very large steam roller, a snow plow and some other wonderful giants. Sometimes after school when the yard went quiet we would climb through the fence and play on these things pretending to drive them, they had loads of wheels and levers to pull and turn. Great fun. Does anyone remember Leesons shop opposite the cinema on Watling Street? It was the first shop that I ever bought anything in. It was when sweets came off ration and my mother gave my sister and I twopence each and we walked to the shop where Mr Leeson gave us a bag each with a mixture of small goodies in. It was absolute heaven to us who had never had shop-bought sweets. Over the fence at the end of the back garden were two fields where Farmer Howard used to keep cows. There was an... Read more
Old Reminders
My parents moved to Coffee Hall from London in 1977, there was me, my sister Emma and my mum and dad. Recently after 33 years on the estate they moved. I left it a while then went back to see what the old house looked like and it got me thinking back. I remember the first shop on Coffee Hall was a 7-11 then it went to an M+W store. I remember going to the youth club at the rear of the shops, the woman that ran it was called Jean. We would do pottery or carpentry there would be discos or they would show films and there was a tuck shop there too. Another recollection that I have is of the big walnut tree outside the Walnut Tree pub being struck by lightening and a massive branch falling. I went to Cornhill First School, the headmistress was Mrs Creacraft, my teachers were Mrs Scott and Mrs Herbert, and from there I went to Copperfield Middle School, Mr Cchapman was... Read more
Shoulder of Mutton Public House
When I first had a memory of this corner of Newton Road and Buckingham Road, the brick-built extension was no longer standing, only the cottage part of the public house. I used to love standing in front of it because it had a verandah and wooden railings like you would find in westerns. My mum often had to drag me away, the pub by then was no longer in use, the back wall still remains to this day. There were two reasons for being there, first was across in Shenley Road was our doctors surgery in a row of brick-built cottages, the old front room being the waiting room with old wooden chairs, which later became the Shenley House Hotel, which has since been demolished and replaced with apartments. The second reason was that my family could only afford the bus fare one way so we walked to town and bused back.
Approximately in 1950.
During the Second World War my gran owned a grocery shop at 7 Stoke Road, Water Eaton and my grandad used to take a barrow round the streets selling slabs of salt. I remember looking out of my window (at about 3 or 4 years old)and watching the foxhounds meet on the green, it was a bit scary for me being so young. I also used to like walking up Stoke Road to see an old horse called Kit, he was very gentle and seemed to love people. We'll never get those lovely peaceful, trouble-free, friendly days back, it's such a shame. When I was about 5 we moved to Church Street in Fenny, and I started at Bletchley Road School, then to Western Road, I was older then and could go out on my own (safely). I used to like going through the central gardens and seeing all the pretty flowers in little 'gardens' scattered in the lawns and the sunken 'bandstand', then all the tennis courts and pavilion,... Read more
Starstruck!
When I was 15 I left Bletchley Road Secondary Modern, and went to work at MOSSES, in Fenny Stratford, I thought it was great to earn £3. a week, I done a lot with that, I used to go to lots of 'dances' a week, there was the PALACE at Wolverton, twice a week, MURSLEY village on a Friday, WILTON HALL, on Wed and Sat. We had a job deciding where to go, it was mainly WILTON HALL that won, because it was in walking distance from home, and no fares to pay out for. We used to regularly see THE HOLLIES, THE SEARCHERS, GERRY & THE PACEMAKERS, BRIAN POOLE & THE TREMOLOES, ANIMALS, even LULU, done her debut gig there. They were great days, yes, there was a bit of trouble some weeks, but nothing major like today's youths get up to. Loads of 'big-ish' name groups played in Bletchley, people came from miles away to see these bands. It was chaos when THE ROLLING STONES came here, I... Read more
