Living At The Mill

A Memory of Bordon.

My father got a job in the mill in about 1950 and we moved into Mill House which is actually a part of the mill itself, on the right as you stand facing the building. I don't know what Bordon is like now, but in my day it had its share of the dregs, but so did everywhere. It was all very local and everybody seemed to know everybody else, apart from Army people. We moved to Lindford after a year or so, which was then a nice little place where nothing seemed to happen.

In those days Robert and Peter Ellis ran the mill and it always seemed to be busy, as did Bordon itself. I recall the greengrocers and the chippy on the corner, ad Frisby's shoe shop on the opposite corner. Along the main street was a jewellers, a newsagent a photographer plus sundry others. In the 1940s there was a tea shop which subsequently disappeared, but later I recall listeniong to the juke box in the milk bar. Down Chalet Hill were more shops including an off-licence, a barbers and a cycle shop. I well remember Mr and Mrs Tilbury who ran the local butchers shop. The Palace cinema seemed to have been there forever and was agreat place for the Saturday morning picture show.