Wendover memories
Here are memories of Wendover and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Wendover or a Wendover photo.
Anne Boleyn's Cottages
My late Sister Daphne Hemmings owned No 3 Coldharbour Cottage. She passed it on to her son Jimmy Hemmings. I have fond memories of visiting her and staying awhile in these fascinating dwellings. You wouln't want to be six-foot plus with the low doorways plus the low beams, you would crack your head on the oak beams. If anyone passed away upstairs you would have to be lowered through a trapdoor located in the front bedroom in line with the front door. As a school boy in the Second World War years I used to walk from Aylesbury to Wendover up Coombe Hill to the Monument and in the war years (if my memory serves me correct) there were dummy anti-aircraft guns all around the hills. In 1965 my wife, children and myself emigrated to Australia. In 1993 we decided to have a trip back to the UK, staying with my sister for a short time, and we decided to have a walk up Coombe Hill which I hadn't done... Read more
Wenover C of E School
I used to go to Wendover Primary School when it was situated beside the clock tower. The head master was then H. J. Figg Edgington. I began in Mrs Tott's class, then Mrs Connolly's, then Mr Spencer's, then Gertrude Agatha Jones's. It was the best time there. We would walk the Heron Path on nature walks, down through the 'rec towards the church and pond, then back past the stream which had sticklebacks and red throats in. We used to believe that a grey lady haunted the church tower and would pretend that we had seen her and run for our lives. Mr Edginton wore his cap and gown always and was a vicar with a dog collar. He used to spank us if we were naughty but he didn't really. He would lay us over his knee then clap his hands and pretend to. Just to let us know we had been naughty for forgetting our gym kit or whatever. I was in the school netball team and was the... Read more
Spitfire
I recall a huge thermometer erected on the clock tower, it was graduated in pounds sterling with a picture of a Spitfie at the top> We children, and of course the rest of the Wendover community subscribed as much as we could as often as we could in order to puchase our very own Spitfire, as Wendover's contribution to the war effort. I was an evacuee from the bombing of London at the time, I also recall seeing an army tank sliding into a sweet shop on the corner opposite the clock tower. I wonder if any of these wonderful people who made my stay in their village so memorable are still with us today :- Mr Mathews of Mathews Bakery, Willy Swilly, Pig Farmer and Humanist. Mrs Goodson Railway Man whom I was billeted with first. And Mr and Mrs Wright, Policeman 2nd. Avril Brackly, close friend. 'Buck' Alcott, friend. Lady Garner and 'Pinky', and Bruce Hamilton, beautiful people. Mr Pentelope, teacher, and last but not least Father Masters,... Read more
Memories of Buckinghamshire
HALTON 1978-1983: PLAYING IN THE CANAL & SCHOOL
My name is Forsyth now, but I was a Plumb.
I moved to Halton when I was six and joined Halton 1st School and then Wendover Middle School.
I lived in the big black and white house, which bordered the canal. There was a bridge, which my friends and I used to climb along. I expect it’s not that high, but it felt so daring at the time. We had a long garden at the front that we used to stand in to watch the air displays.
My best friends were a boy who lived opposite me and a girl who lived in the village shop - which was cool!
One day my friend, Amanda from Wendover Middle School, and I decided to run away from home. We arranged to meet at the tower in Wendover. I think we thought we could live there for some time with food we were going to take from home. We were going to meet at midnight. I must have slept really... Read more
Dunsmore People And Happenings Remembered
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
In 1995, when the first edition of this history was published, it seemed incredibly optimistic to have had three hundred copies printed for a market which was likely to be composed in the main of the residents of about forty properties. Ten years later the stock has run out and the opportunity arises to correct some of the errors which have become very obvious and to carry out a modicum of up-dating.
It came as something of a pleasant surprise to receive reactions from different parts of the world, from relatives of people who featured in the booklet and from others. Some of the photographs used in the original book are no longer available and of those informants who provided contributions to the original a number have died, reinforcing the view that the history of the common man must be collected sooner rather than later if it is not to be lost forever.
July 2009
DUNSMORE
PEOPLE AND HAPPENINGS REMEMBERED
AUNTY ELIZA And Her Son ALF
Great Aunty Liza lived in an area called Buckland Wharf in a long, low, white bungalow where time stood still except the Grandfather Clock ticked in her "parlour" to tell us otherwise. The room was very dark because the blinds were drawn "to keep out the sun". There was a heavily framed picture of her husband on the wall- a severe looking man with a handlebar moustache - very much the Victorian gentleman. I cannot remember the furniture but vividly remember the rag rugs on the floor. In her kitchen she cooked over a range, did her washing in an old butler sink and bathed weekly in an old tin bath. She was quite the handywoman and on her 80th birthday very proudly showed off her latest creation - a bright emerald green knitted petticoat (my cousin and I were told off for having a fit of the giggles).
My mother and her cousin would always holiday with Aunty Liza when they were little - one memorable day... Read more
Two Weddings
My parents were married at Great Hampden church in July 1929, they were Neater Ruth Groom of Prestwood, and Harold Aubrey Hall of Beenham in Berkshire. January 4th 1956 Barbara Hall, their only child, was married to Reginald Frank Ridgley, also of Prestwood. My mother died in April 1994, the wild cherry blossom and bluebells were adorning the Glade as we followed her coffin up to the church, we walked that way so often in the years gone by. Dad followed her in Feb 1995, it was cold and grey, but there were a lot of people, sharing the memories of lives spent in this lovely area, and Rev Phillip Hill who conducted our wedding, and the dear old Vicar who was there in my childhood, walking round his Parish, visiting, always happy to talk.
Hester Wheelwrights in Askett
My g grandfather William Hester was born and brought up at Askett. Like his father and grandfather, he was a wheelwright. Fortunately for him there was insufficient work for all the family members to be employed as wheelwrights in the village so he set up practice in Princes Risborough. In this way he escaped the typhus epidemic of 1852-3 that killed the entire family remaining in the village. Those who died, together with my ggrandfather, who died in 1875, are buried in the Baptist burial ground in Princes Risborough. The houses the family lived in are across from the pub and are now joined into one known as Shumac. I have the document showing the house was mortgage in 1853 for fifty pounds! My grandfather showed me the spot on the road where mail and other items would be left while the village was in quaranteen. I have not been able to find out anything about the typhus outbreak and wonder if there is any history of it. Contemporary newspapers... Read more
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