Favourite Memories
Reconnecting with our shared local history.
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Tips & Ideas
Not sure what to write? It's easy - just think of a place that brings back a memory for you and write about:
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How the location features in your personal history?
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The memories this place inspires for you?
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Stories about the community, its history and people?
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People who were particularly kind or influenced your time in the community.
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Has it changed over the years?
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How does it feel, seeing these places again, as they used to look?
This week's Places
Here are some of the places people are talking about in our Share Your Memories community this week:
...and hundreds more!
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Displaying Memories 1051 - 1100 of 2029 in total
My earliest memories of Shutford date back to around 1944, when as an eleven year old schoolboy I spent summer holidays with my grandfather Fred Turner (son of plush weaver Amos Turner), who at that time lived in Weald Cottage. Grandfather Fred was my mother's father, and my mother would bring myself and my two sisters, Shirley and Pamela, to spend part of the summer ...see more
Stretching over about a mile on the A68 road to Edinburgh from Darlington, lies the small mining town of Tow Law. Approaching it from Elm Park Road Ends, on a clear day, as you pass the various openings in the terraces of the sandstone houses and cottages, at regular intervals like colour slides, you catch glimpses of the rounded moorlands and hills over and around the Wear ...see more
I was born at 27 Langdale Terrace in 1963 at my lovely grandma and granda's house, Vera and Harry Kirtley. Granda worked at Westwood pit then Hamstley colliery and when that shut he worked at Eden. I remember standing near the old post office on the main road when the pit ponies came by, I was only small then but all the village turned out to see them pass. I don't know what year it was ...see more
My brother and I went to a camp organised by The Childrens Country Holiday Fund for boy's living in South East London from poor backgrounds in the 1950's. The camp was run by a priest and volunteers who organised outings and games. The boys had to do chores in the morning, it was all very basic in a local farmer's field, where the Caravan Club is now.
During my childhood we went to Linshader every summer holiday and stayed at my auntie's house (No 7). It was great ... we enjoyed collecting eggs, putting the cow out to pasture, helping to make haystacks with my uncle, feeding the calves with my auntie, visiting people through the village, waiting for the Co-op van to come round so we would get a lollipop, rowing over to Callanish with my uncle, ...see more
After the Second World War had finished, and the people were already used to rationing, the Committee members of the Intake Club decided to relieve the hardships on the residents of Intake a little by organising outings for their members. These took the form of trips to the seaside and Chirstmas pantomines and was paid for by asking its members to save a few shillings a week with ...see more
My whole childhood, teenage years and early adulthood was spent in Brotton. I lived at the 'top end' between the Green Tree and Chemist Corner. I have many happy memories of life in Brotton - attending the infant/junior school and forging many friendships along the way. The boys used to do sword dancing and the girls used to dance around the may pole. St. Margaret's church was attended by most of my school ...see more
The shop that was operated by my grandmother at New Mill Bridge was home to me and my family during the Second World War. It was a haven where the madness of the war seemed to be so very remote and in a way, inconsequential, particularly to us children. The warm glow of Birmingham burning could be seen in the night sky from time to time when they were being bombed, but that was 30 miles away ...see more
My brother, was in the army and was wounded and sent to a hospital near Banbury, where he met and married a nurse, who was living with her parents in Kings Sutton. I went to live with her parents, and attended the local school. Her father had a farm, and each day he would walk from the farm, with milk in buckets hanging from a yoke on his ...see more
Hello Connie.
What a blast from the past - you were my little brother, Eddie's, girl friend. We lived 3 doors up from you - can you remember? Eddie was in hospital and they let him home for the night, so the kids moved the bonfire in front of our window & then the ambulance came to take him back and they let the tyres down so that he could stay and watch the fireworks. Our Eddie is in Mansfield, so is ...see more
I attended Bersham School until 1950 and well remember the daily walk (or run) from 30 Wynnstay Crescent up West Grove to the school. I believe 1947 was the year that the winter flood happened and Gwylim Williams drowned near the footbridge. I remember all the teachers at Bersham - Mr Hughes, Mr King, Mr Gilla and Ms Mitchel. She had a great influence on me and was instrumental in getting me to Grove Park. I saw ...see more
My mother is Olwen Jones (nee Haigh) of the old post office in Bodorgan from 1937 to 1953 when she got married to Vivian Madoc Jones of Newborough. Her parents Randolph and Janet Haigh ran the post office from 1937 to early 1960's. My mother has fond memories of WashiBach, and the band of Hope and GFS (girls friendly society) ran by Mrs Orwig Evans, of Trefdraeth church. She attended the primary ...see more
I worked in the old CAD room at Tooting Police Station in 2006, it was an amazing place with bomb proof windows. We worked through the night; on my first night there was a gang fight and a youth got killed. The building itself is fascinating, and very mysterious - some say...haunted. All the staff there were very hard working, dedicated people. A shame it is closing to the public, it provided a great service.
I was born in Skellow, 1 George Street. My dad, grandad and uncle worked at the pit; my dad and grandad in the power house. I spent many happy days there sitting behind the big table with me dad, grandad and uncle. I blew the pit whistle a few times. I remember all the cats; we used to take one home. My mates swimming in the res., close to pit. I had my hair cut many times there, with the old cutters. I used to take me ...see more
Going to my nan and grandad's every week; Frank and Ellen Cracknell. Meeting all the family there, going strawberry picking, swimming in the ford, cutting across to the Wellington Country Park through the back way, going to Sunday school with two sisters, I think called Mertal and Shiela, and ice skating on the pond opposite the Wheatleys house. We had cousins living next door to my nan and grandad, so always had so much to do when there, loved stayin for a week and never getting bored.
In 1956 I came to work in Scotland having been transferred from Yorkshire by the NCB. I needed a house and the semi derelict house known as Roanshead House was available, but boarded up and was not on mains electricity. My wife and I liked the look of the house and was told electricity would be provided in 3-4 months, so we agreed to move there when the house was renovated. We eventually moved in about May 1957 ...see more
My parents were born in India. My grandfather settled in Africa and had a good job. When my father got married he stayed Africa where all my brothers and sisters were born. My dad was a carpenter by trade; he arrived in Britain on his own with close relatives in 1962 for work as a carpenter to build new houses. He worked very hard in the snow, often travelling to London. They lived in rented ...see more
I was born in Rothwell in 1949 and have lived there all my life and remember when it was a picturesque village where everyone knew each other. What changes have taken place over the years. I remember going to the Corn Mill with my dad on a Saturday morning to get corn for dad's pigeons. We had to go over a foot bridge, across the mill pond, past the big water wheel and into the storage ...see more
With dawn breaking on a chilly early October morning we gathered at the bottom of King Street, we were going to spend the weekend picking " spuds" on Lou Issacs farm in Manmoel. There were three grades of pickers. The men....my father, Bernie Town, Bryn Pritchard and Phil Leonard. Then there were the adolescents...John Tovey, my brother Val, Billy Pritchard, Jimmy Pritchard, Ken Fry, and Wilfy ...see more
Does anyone else remember going to see Chapletown Park Illuminations? It was quite a spectacle. I remember at the entrance in a small stream there was an illuminated steamboat with its paddles going round. As you wound up the footpath into the park there were characters hiding in the flower beds and trees. One year the theme was Alice in Wonderland and I remember the Cheshire cat ...see more
We moved to Selsdon in 1952 from Blackheath and I started primary school which was on the ground floor of the building in the picture. We lived at 4 Foxearth Road up until 1972 when my mother, who was widowed in 1962, moved to South Croydon. I left in 1970 for Italy where I have been ever since. I loved going to Littleheath Woods as a child to play, or to the library on a Saturday morning, which was ...see more
Felkirk Church was about five miles from Ryhill and was built long before the birth of Oliver Cromwell. There he used one of the stable yards which was adjacent to the church. Anyway in the year 1959 I was become a bell-ringer at that church, Mr Stan Chant was one of the teachers whereupon he set me out a riddle which I had to solve. He said to me that when the clock upon the church struck 12 midnight all the ghosts ...see more
I have many memories of the village school which I visited regularly during my childhood. I was named after Lynda Brown, a very close friend of my parents, who ran the school. She had been headteacher of the school for some time when I first started visiting her round about l956. I stayed with her in the school house attached to the school. At that time the school had a very good reputation and a very ...see more
This is the view looking down to the end of London Road where it meets the village. The road does a sharp turn to the left into the Market Place and behind the large tree is 'Top Bayles' grocers shop. Mr Bayles had served in 'Top Bayles' since he was a boy. He was a lovely old gentleman and very kind to the children. Tins of biscuits fronted the counter and there was a bacon slicer ...see more
I have loads of memories of village life as a kid. I was born in 1961 and still live on the Bonk. I will probably die here as well. There were many old characters back then. Iron Bates the vegetable cart man (did some boxing apparently), he would come on his round down the Mitre RToad on Saturday. I remember his deep growling voice, as he shoved a brown paper bag with a few spuds in, saying "Gi' them to yer ...see more
Wherever I am I always say my home is Bedlinog - very proud to have been born there. Such happy memories, family, friends and places. I lived on the square and although no longer, I still pop to sit outside my parents home (which incidentally was built by my great father). I attended Salem Chapel which was next door. Memories of the Gymanfas held there - the singing wonderful. The Hywl from the Welsh ...see more
We lived on Park View facing the library and Queens Park which had its own museum and everything a victorian park could offer two young brothers yearning for adventures. We would ride our guiders all over that park, and enjoy the corporation pop fountain near the front gate on Queens Road. We would lark about in the abandoned Sydney Smith's gramophone shop near to the hippodrome, we would pelt over to ...see more
Aged 8-11ish my friends and I would catch the 85 bus from Chorlton- cum-hardy bus station or walk if we were skint to Platt Fields Park with a plastic bag with brown sauce or salad cream butties in and a huge bottle of orange or corporation pop (water!). With no one to tell us what to do, we had a whale of a time. Now and then we would get a chase off the parkie for tormenting him and ...see more
I was born in Armour Street in Kilmarnock in 1959. Around 1963 we moved to Onthank. I went to Onthank School. My friend Bryce Herbert and I from about the age of 10 onwards used to go to Craufurdland Lake to fish for Perch and Pike. On Saturday mornings we would knock on the door of the castle in the picture. An upstairs window would open and we would shout up asking for permission to fish in the ...see more
I visited Nutfield when I was 4 or 5 with my granny Lillian Curry - who was headmistress (a grand term for the head teacher of a 2 room school) of Nutfield C of E. She must have been appointed in the late 1930s and worked there for 20 years - through the war - and retired in the mid 1950s. She recalled the terrible smell of the trains she caught from Carshalton Beeches in 1940 after Dunkirk ...see more
I grew up in Park Hill Court, Beeches Road in the sixties and seventies; my father was the caretaker. He used to be in charge of the bonfire on firework night, up on one of the drying grounds. The girls stood one side and the boys stood the other. My dad used to set off all the fireworks and the boys used to set those wiggly fireworks that seem to chase you! They don`t have them anymore. I went to Fircroft Infants ...see more
My memories of Taxal were all good and I really looked forward to going back there. The staff were very kind, we had the best food, and rambling through those beatiful peaks was just one big adventure, we were very sick children, mostly chest and heart complaints. I remember they had a gardener, and one day we were having a game of football and one of the boys took off his watch, and put it on some ...see more
Sometime around 1956, for about two years, two of us shared a cottage in Iford village (one of the first two as you came off the main road from Lewes). We worked for Mr Robinson milking his Guernsey herd and doing the dairy work for one of the Shorthorn herds, in those days there was a bottling plant at the other end of the village and the milk was taken to Hove each day to be sold. I can remember ...see more
Hi, I was born in LLay north Wales in June 1939, three weeks later we moved to Walkden. The family joke was, I was the cause of the WW2. We lived at 67 Westminster Road, just down from where the monument was originaly located. Whilst I will concede there was a war going on my early recollections were of hiding under the table and under the stairs when 'gerry' was bombing. I also remember quite vividly telling the ...see more
I moved in with my parents (Mr and Mrs Saffin), towards the end of the war. The Canadians were stationed in the huge houses dotted around the village - I was only 10 at the time but I remember the Canadian band playing on the Green on a Sunday morning. When the war ended the village started returning to normal - although I wouldn't say Woldingham was a normal type of village! The ...see more
This is a memory of about 1960. I had left the pit and started work on Lowrisons farm in Westerhope, there were two houses, one was at the bottom of West Avenue next to the park. This is where John Lowrison lived with his sister Betty, she was a Personel Officer with Clark Chapman. Betty never married, nor did John. He ran the farm with his other sister Sylvia who was married to Roger Contel who owned Contels fruit ...see more
My paternal great great grandfather came from Bream, Gloucestershire on July 31st 1831. He was the 10th of 14 children and was born at Oakwood Mill. He started work when he was 9 years of age, minding doors at Brunswick Coal Pit, Mosley Green, 3 miles away from home for 6 old pence a day. By 1872 he had married Sarah and had 6 children; two daughters & 4 sons. ...see more
I was born in 1952, and went to Bragar School. The headmaster was Mr McIver and teachers I remember were Mrs MacDonald (Carloway) and Mrs Mitchell (Shawbost). I used to cross the road to the shop up the hill, and also the one further down the road. I don't come back often enough, and when I do, I wish I had never left. The days of the Fillums (movies) with the Highland and Islands Film Guild were ...see more
Thay say that everyone remembers where they were when the news came out that President Keneddy had been shot. Well this is where I was; Friday night was dance night at the youth club and I remember the only topic of conversation was about the shooting of JFK and how it was obviously the Russians and that it would lead to a war, such was the knowledge of us 15 year olds!
Once a year ...see more
I was born in Abridge in 1964, the last of 9 kids. We lived in The Mead which is no longer there. Abridge was a great place to grow up, we would play outside in the woods or over the shallows all day and only come home when we were hungry. In the summer we would walk to Grange Farm open air swimming pool and then after walk onto Loughton to the Chariot for fish and chips. Lots of the old time Abridge ...see more
I lived in the Red Bull from age 6 to 23. I have so many good memories, from playing in the surrounding countryside - the chalk pits, the clayhole reservoir, the woods, the ruined cement works etc. The village infants school down Eccles Row ('Ticklebelly road' - there's a story to that), and I think it was called Sears, a shop on the corner of Eccles Row. The pub used to have a small third ...see more
My name is Denise, I lived at 14 Churnet St (bottom end) near Collyhurst Rd from 1955 until 1967 when we had to move in the clearance. We were 4 doors down from Woolams clog works, Mr Woolam used to let us in and let us watch him make the clogs, it was great kept us quiet for a while. I went to the Tin school, then on to Albert Memorial, does Anyone remember the club on Friday nights in the cellar at ...see more
I lived in one of the cottages at Woodhorn, my dad worked on the farm. I remember a big windmill behind the houses. We had no indoor toilet, had to go cross the back lane, and no bathroom, had a tin tub, we had hot water from the boiler behind the fireplace, it was only a one bedroom cottage, I had to sleep in the same room as mam and dad. I remember the blacksmiths shop in the village and used to go there and ...see more
I lived in Spindle Cottage (now, I see, simply 'Spindles') with my mother from mid-1940 till the end of the Second World War, from the age of five till ten; my father, who was a codes and ciphers officer in the RAF, was captured in Crete in 1941 and spent most of his time in Stalag Luft 3, where he forged documents for various escapes, as he was a commercial artist in civilan life. We rented ...see more
Coincidentally Colin (Hayes) I lived near by you in St. George's Avenue! And around the same time I used to regularly cycle over to Southend Airport with a friend. Here we used to plane spot - do you remember the 'sea' of Auster planes parked up in the middle of the field? Also like you we used to sneak in under the fence at the far side of the field and crawl Indian style along to the ...see more
We originally lived in Camberwell and were bombed out in the blitz of 1940. After sleeping on the platform of the Elephant & Castle underground train station for a few weeks, my dad found us a house to rent on Toorack Road, which was the border of Wealdstone and Harrow Weald. We were on the Harrow Weald side. I went to Whitefriars Elementary School, which was across the street from Windsor ...see more
Hello, my name is John Ryan and I was resident at Grays during the fifties - I was in partnership with a long-standing schoolfriend of mine (Billy Watts). We ran the Reliance Taxis for a few years, which was situated in a lane just off Orsett Road near the War Memorium and Police Station. I remember there was a photographer who had the corner shop where we used to park the cars for fares - his name Was Jack? Does ...see more
I have mainly unhappy memories of Marsh Court. During the Second World War it was used as a convalescent home for children and in 1944 I was sent there after being knocked down by a car in Tettenhall where I was housed as an evacuee from London. I was also suffering war trauma and I was just four. I remember a long tree-lined drive leading up to a big house with a wooden door ...see more
I was born at Low Westwood, a small mining village in the North East of England in 1955 – well, when I say I was born there, that’s not entirely true. Unlike today, children were born at home not in hospital and I was actually born in my Gran’s spare bedroom in the nearby market town of Consett at 2.00 one October Wednesday afternoon. The only “medical” intervention was ...see more
I was born in a small maisonette off Alandale Drive and my mum still lived there until she passed away aged 95 in 2014. The border between Hillingdon/Harrow runs across the back garden. I attended Pinner Wood Primary, although it was/is in Harrow, but went to Northwood Secondary Modern as it was then. Northwood Hills through my school time was a flourishing shopping centre, with a ...see more