Christ Church c1965, Stafford
Christ Church c1965, Stafford Ref: S411106x
Memories of Christ Church c1965, Stafford
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Stafford & local memories
Read and share memories of Stafford and Staffordshire inspired by Frith photos.
Living in Stafford
I was born in Wales but moved to Stafford with my parents and brother when I was 3. We lived on Sabine Street and I went to St. Paul's school and then to Riverway. We moved to Exeter Street when I was about 11. I got married in 1978 and moved to Canada in 1981. Looking at these pictures, I feel very homesick. I remember swimming at the baths with my school but did not remember about the very cold smaller pool until reading it on this site! Now I remember! I remember the cake shops in the town also! And the Southend Club and Top of the World where I met my husband (we are sadly divorced now). I remember waiting for the bus in the market square to go back to our house on Wildwood after I got married. And Dolcis shoe shop (I think) and the market stalls where my Mom once worked at the cheese store!... Read more
Summer Holidays.
My memories of Stafford relate to my younger childhood. My grandparents lived in Bedford Avenue and as youngsters my sister and I would go and stay with my nana and grandad in the school holidays. We used to go shopping and visted the market over the years where we would spend our pennies. After trawling round the various stalls my nana would stop at the cake shop next door, before heading home. I can also remember waiting for the bus opposite the market when we lived at Farmdown Road and went to Stafford with my mother.
Learning to Swim
I remember visiting the Brine Baths from our Junior School - there was a small pool (quite chilly) where we were all taught to swim. We then graduated to the large pool, where we still used to go from the High School.
My brother learnt to swim when he was thrown in at the deep end of the large pool (not so much Health and Safety around in those days). It was literally a case of sink or swim.
It was a lovely building, which we probably didn't appreciate at the time, but obviously in need of updating internally. Has it now been demolished on the altar of modernity?
Happy Memories
I was born in Foregate Street, the home of my grandparents, in 1951. I left Stafford in 1953 and returned in 1960 to live in the north end of the town. I well remember playing on the 'Witches hat' with my friends, paddling in the childrens pool, I spent some very happy times in Victoria Park. Mum used to take us down to the park on a fine sunny day, jam sandwiches and a bottle of pop, Happy Memories. I now live in the Lake District and love it but Stafford will always hold some very special memories for me. Does anyone have a picture of old Foregate Street?
Brine Baths
I remember as a child and teenager going to the Brine Baths with my brother and friends, what a wonderful building it was, swimming was never the same after the new baths were built, another fine old building was lost.
The Music Library - Pride of Stafford!
The music library was in Friars Terrace until 1994, when it moved to the top floor of the library at the Green, which had been the Art Gallery before that moved to the Shire Hall.
By 1994 the LP collection was little used - it had been the biggest in any library in the UK. By 1994 we had the biggest CD collection in the UK, covering every possible kind of music. Stafford was the first library to lend CDs in the country, starting in 1983.
The Music Library moved to the Shire Hall in 1999 and is still one of the best CD collections in the UK (or world some say), priding itself on getting pretty well anything for anybody. It is one of the only county council services which is at the top of the government charts.
LPs were sold off in library sales because they were not wanted and were no longer being manufactured. We had no complaints.
Swimming Saturdays
I received a half-crown (2/6d) pocket money per week. This enabled me to travel from Gnosall by train every Saturday (8d return), pay for entrance to the brine swimming baths for the afternoon, (wonderful memories) and have enough for either a cup of hot chocolate, or use of the dryer for my (long) hair, afterwards. The hot chocolate usually won!
Public Disaster!!!!
This photograph is taken from the Lichfield Road. Veering off to the right in the distance is Greengate Street, and to the left, round the far corner of the library, the Newport Road. I used the library often. It had an annexe a little further up and 'off' the Newport road, past the Odeon Cinema, containing the library's music collection. I spent an even greater amount of time there. It was wonderful. Everything from Scarlatti to Lead Belly. What an education! (This was in my mid-teens.) You could actually borrow these records, take them home and play them on your Dansette if you wanted to, and/or listen to them in cubicles, rather like a 'language laboratory' as we used to call them. Then guess what? They moved the public library to the Shire Hall area, and when I asked where the records were, was told (somewhat disparagingly) that the collection had been AUCTIONED OFF!
Growing up in Stafford Until 1975
I grew up on the Weston Park Estate and my close friends were Ann Parker and Linda Jay, as we all lived a few doors away. We used to go to Riverside disco approximate 1970 and the Young Farmers disco on Friday nights at the County Showground. Also the Yeoman, the rugby club on the Newport Rd I think, the Top of the World, The Place and The Placemate in Stoke and do you remember the Alpine Lodge pub at Rickerscote. When we were younger we went to the Saturday club at the Odeon cinema. We used to go for lunch at Jenks cafe in town and felt very grown up! There was a Debenhams too then. We frequented the park in our early teens and the station cafe before we graduated to the Swan bar when we were at stafford college. I haven't lived there since I got married but often go on a nostalgic shopping trip with my friend Ann. It would be lovely to hear if anyone... Read more
Old House
Hi, I was born in Stafford and emigrated to Australia in 1975 and I have not revisited England since. Me and my older sister remember vividly exploring 2 old houses (Im unsure of how old they were) which were demolished in the early to mid 1970s. One was a white brick what seemed like a mansion to us at the time and the other was a dark old house which was right next to now Barnfields Primary School.(the white house was also in same vicinity). We used to visit Fourboys shop regularly with friends 'The Dodds' - Mark, Steven and Jackie, also a Jane Miller (only child). I am almost obsessed with finding out re: these houses and their history / photos. Can anyone shine a light? It's pretty hard when you are on the other side of the world. Regards, Lisa Upton Victoria, Australia
Castle Tavern, Doxey Road
I was born in Doxey, about one mile from Stafford town centre. My forebears lived in and around what was then called Castletown, that is the area on the left of Doxey Road. My maternal grandmother Alice Parsons was the keeper, with her husband Harry, of the Castle Tavern which has a prominent position on the corner of Castle Street. They took the inn in about 1902 and continued until Harry's death in 1910. Alice kept the inn going by herself for a few years. The inn is a very different place now from what it must have been in Alice's time. It was then an inn which served mainly the needs of the workforce of the railway. Castle Street led at that time to Bagnall's railway engine works. Whilst at the inn Alice fell down the cellar steps and broke both her wrists. On a recent visit I was taken down into the cellar by the landlord and one can easily see how tha accident happened. She was a... Read more
