Stone memories
Here are memories of Stone and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Stone or a Stone photo.
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.
Sandstone Site as at 21 August 2006
First time on web page, co-incidently was at site yesterday 20 Aug 2006. I used to play all around the area as a young child 1970+ when the area was allotments, the current site has lost about 10ft in height due to 20 years of erosion, filling in etc. If you look to the left of the centre pillar and to the root overhang, there is about 2ft of sandstone left visible and then you are at root level to all the remaining trees. I will go back and take a photograph of the site, so it is not lost forever.
Pirehill Lane, Walton, Stone
I suppose as I grow older, memories of my youth increase. I remember living in Pirehill Lane when there was just one row of houses. In front of our house there was a row of huge trees, my bedroom in the back looked upon fields, fields and marshland. My friends and I would jump over our garden fences and disappear till meal times. What a childhood. My mother, sister and I would walk into Stone to do the family shopping and as you got closer to the town you could smell the hops from Joules (beer makers), whenever I smell that smell mmmm gorgeous. A treat was to have tea in the hotel in the centre of the town. I left with my family when I was 14 yrs but I have never forgotten how happy I was then.
Memories of Staffordshire
Norton Bridge
I remember Norton Bridge from 1969 when there were two shops. One that was part of the post office, the Railway Inn pub and the railway staion. Sadly all that exists out of all these now, is just the pub. We made our own fun in the 70's, plenty of fields, a river to go swimming, and pools to go fishing. There were no computers, Xbox or Playstations - there was never a boring moment. My dad was born there 1938 and still lives there, those were the days...
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
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.
Good Times
We came down from Scotland to Stoke in 1953 as my dad had got a job in the newly opened Pit Hem Heath. As children we used to stay at the house which is sitting in front of the pit . We used to go across the brook on the pipe what ran from one side to the other so we could buy sweets from the pit canteen and wave to the miners, many of who we knew as dads friends and workmates, then back across the pipe to play in the fields all round the house which is still there. Sadly the pit no longer stands but we had some really good times. In case anybody reads this and worked with my dad, his name was Bill Watson. I would love to know if anyone remembers any thing I have wrote about.
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