West Drayton memories
Here are memories of West Drayton and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of West Drayton or a West Drayton photo.
The Guy Outside The Post Office
Opposite the post office at the end of the parade of shops was a dry cleaners owned by what I thought was a rather posh lady who would call me Poppet. My mother cleaned house for them and sometimes I would be taken along to keep me out of mischief. They had two boys that went to private school and were only home for school holidays. Though they were older than me I found they acted a bit young. Her husband was a short stout man dressed in a pin striped suit. He worked in the city and took the train up to London every day. On my birthday the lady said “Poppet I’ve made you a chocolate cake”. I don’t know if eggs were still in short supply but my mother said it was very rich and had five eggs in it. All I can say is that it tasted good.
In the photo there is a service road and shops on the right, back in 1953 this... Read more
Making Our Own Entertainment
Across from The Angler Retreat in Cricket field Lane is the river Coln. Down the lane on your left you pass the West Drayton Cricket Club with the river on your right. Next to the cricket field is The Coln Park Caravan Site where I lived in 1952. After the war accommodation was scarce and many people lived in caravans, these were spread throughout the district on many small privately owned sites where amenities where few or non existent. The council closed these small sites and moved us all to the council owned Coln Park site. This was a great improvement with concrete slabs to park the caravan on. The road was a hard surface and once a year they sprayed tar down and covered it with shingle. To this day if I smell tar I'm mentally transported back to my childhood. We got our water from stand pipes around the site and sewage was collected once a week.
We had come from a site in Longford. Speachley's... Read more
The Railway Bridge
In this picture I can remember that on the left was W H Smith's, a bicycle shop and an Options on the corner of Colham Road. To the right between the two pubs many years earlier was Pat's Garage. In the picture we have the new railway bridge which was a great improvement from the old one. The old bridge was lower, narrower and only had one narrow foot path on the left. The vehicles came so close to you and made so much noise it was scary. The double decker buses could not get under the bridge so would turn round in the station yard and return to Uxbridge. Once a driver forgot what route he was on and got the double decker stuck under the bridge. It was there for ages until someone suggested letting the tyres down a bit and it reversed back out.
Shopping With my Nan And Other Fun Things
When I was a little girl, sometimes I used to stay with my nan in West Drayton on Church Road by the green, and while we went shopping around that quaint little village with about a dozen little stores, I also accompanied nan up to Station Road to the post office (ah, that wonderful post office, there it is on the left of the picture.)
I remember it was a lovely walk up Swan road. (I wonder why they called it Swan road? Is it because there were many swans further down in that little river by the Angler's Retreat?). I used to paddle in the little river across from "the Angler's Retreat" and under that cute little bridge with my brother Bryan and our little friend Barry. The water was so fresh and clear.
It somehow always seemed like a summer's day, is that the way it is when you're little? Always sunny?
Anyway those days were the fifties. Quiet and peaceful (especially after what people put up... Read more
Memories of Middlesex
We All Bumped Our Heads
At sixteen I owned a three wheeler convertible that with a bit of bending of the law sixteen year olds were allowed to drive. Plus the fact that the coppers didn't know how the law stood exactly. The car was a Powerdrive, coming towards you it looked like a sports car, going away it looked and sounded like a motor boat. It had a twin two stroke engine, chain driven and was too heavy. It should have been called the Under Powerdrive, but it looked good for a sixteen year old to be driving anyway. To make it legal for me to drive it, the car had to weigh under 8 cwt. I took every thing I could of the car, like the spare wheel, bumpers and the bench seat. I drove onto the weigh bridge at Brentford with an empty petrol tank, but it was still over 8 cwt. I explained my predicament to the young feller operating the weigh bridge whose boss was at lunch. No problem he... Read more
St Lawrence Cowley
We went to church here, until we moved to Cornwall, Jen and Rob were christened by lovely Norman Chalk and Peter Grimes ran the Sunday School. The kids bought me a watercolour of the church by Emilia Saunders, it hangs in our bedroom.
Notes From The Frith Files.
The lady walking down the right hand side of the street is Mrs Rose Allcock who lived in Uxbridge nearly all her life.
Windsor Street
We lived in Uxbridge from 1968 when we married to 1993, we still have the book and remember Mrs Peddles shop on LHS, would you believe the old Police Station is now a bar?
The Long Walk Home
I remember going to the Savoy Cinema that you can see on the corner of the High Street and Vine Street. This was about 1953, I was seven and went with my brother who was twelve. I had never been to the pictures without an adult before. I can’t remember the title of the film, but I know it had millions of ants on the move and eating everything in their path. There is a lock keeper who was supposed to open the lock gates to flood the area, but he’s fallen asleep so the ants eat him too... In the fifties this must have been a theme for films like this, for next week we saw the same story but with thousands of elephants on the march.
At this time my family had only recently moved to West Drayton, so the area was new to us. This day my brother and I had come to Uxbridge on the 223 bus which takes you up Falling Lane past the... Read more
Memorybank total
We're very pleased and excited by your response so far to our "Share your Memories" community.
You've shared 28,906 memories of 5,955 towns & villages across the UK - keep them coming!
Find Memories
Simply search for your favourite places to read others' memories and share your own.
Tips & Ideas
Not sure what to write?
It's easy - just think of an important place in your life and ask yourself:
How does it feature in your personal history?
What are your best memories of this place?
How has it changed over the years?
How does it feel, seeing these old photos of your favourite place?
Do you remember stories about the local community, its history and people?
Start now!
It's easy to add your own memories and reconnect with your shared local history. Search for your favourite places and look for the orange "Add your Memory" icon to begin.
Places this week
Here are some of the places you've shared memories of this week:
- Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire
- Irby, Merseyside
- Heywood, Lancashire
- Oswestry, Shropshire
- Weaverham, Cheshire
- Knaphill, Surrey
- Stanhope, County Durham
- Collyhurst, Lancashire
- Fleetwood, Lancashire
- Blaenllechau, Mid Glamorgan
- Bexley, Kent
- Bath, Avon
- Worplesdon, Surrey
- Duloe, Cornwall
- New Brighton, Merseyside
- Old Coulsdon, Greater London
- Oadby, Leicestershire
- Bootle, Merseyside
- Ryhill, West Yorkshire
- Knockentiber, Ayrshire
- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
Your memories
To jump straight to the memories you have added already to the Community, click here
I Remember When...
This stunning compilation highlights some of the best stories selected from the thousands contributed here on the
Frith website. The result is an absorbing chronicle of British life from the Second World War to the mid 1960s.
A colourful treasure trove of memories, "I Remember When" is an
irresistible mix of personal stories and recollections that affectionately reveal the detail of everyday life in Britain.
