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Westbrook
Westbrook maps
Historic maps of Westbrook and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Westbrook maps
Westbrook photos
We have no photos of Westbrook, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Chieveley| Peasemore| Kintbury| Newbury| Hermitage| Eddington| Cold Ash| Chilton| Hungerford| Thatcham| Lambourn| Compton
Westbrook area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Westbrook and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Westbrook
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Berkshire memories
All Good Things Started at Boxford
I have very early memories of Boxford Primary School. The school teachers were Mr and Mrs Alderman, Mr taught the older children and Mrs the young infants. I attended both, I started in the infants and sat next to a Jennifer Fox, then moved on to the juniors, We had good times playing in the play ground. People who I remember are: Gerald and Andrew Schmidt (sadly Gerald was murdered, God bless him, he was a great guy), Raymond Childs, Chris, Treavor and Richard Cannings, Kevin, Chris, Russell, Ashley and Anita Knape, Kevin Tarbox, Fatty Sharp, Robert Kemp, Tim, Anne Blunt, and lots more.
I remember doing country dancing, in a strange way I really enjoyed it.
I also remember leaving school in the afternoon and running like mad down to Mr and Mrs Stancliff's who owned the mill, they used to leave a message to say if we could use their swimming pool, it was fantastic fun in those days. Mrs Stancliff would bring out orange squash for us... Read more
Allen Family at Stockcross
What did they put in the water at Stockcross?
I am just wondering as my great-grandad George Allen was born at Stockcross in 1831. He was a gardener but astonishingly he married three times and even more amazing he celebrated his golden wedding with his third wife.
The family story is that he didn't like children yet he fathered an awful lot! This has been told to me by my aunt Doris Lacey who remembers her own childhood in the First World War and being rather frightened of George. He must have been tough to have worked as a gardener, became a widower twice, married three times, fathered three families and lived to the grand age of 94 !!
I visited Stockcross in the 1980's and wondered as I walked in the churchyard whether great-grandad had tended the gardens there. I picked a sprig from an ancient yew tree there and took it back with me to give to my aunt - being... Read more
Stockcross - The Cricketer's Inn
The Cricketer's Inn, Stockcross
There used to be a pub called the Cricketer's Inn at Stockcross. The publicans were good friends of my father Pat Gallagher (who ran the Clock Tower Inn in the broadway in Newbury).
Harry and Trixie Hewitt ran the Cricketer's at this time and they had 2 daughters Sue and Sally.
I used to love going out there with my father when I was very young. Harry and Trixie were a great, colourful couple and I remember the smell and feel of their home and gardern and pub.
Every year there was a Publican's Ball where everyone would get dressed up and have a really good time. I was 16 when I went to my first and last ball and Trixie and Harry sat at our table with a load of other friends including girls and guys from the Clocky.
Contributed on 10 April 2009 , by Lorraine Kopp
Childhood in Benham Valence
It was in April 1950 that I was born in the Victorian wing of Benham Valence - actually in the flat above the garages - a very primitive dwelling with no bathroom or indoor toilet. Unfortunately the whole wing was found to be in such bad repair that it was demolished completely in the 1980s. The great house of Benham Valence itself lay empty and neglected save for the scant attentions of the then caretakers - either the Mildenhalls or the Husbands. My memory fails me on this.
My father Dick Clark was a forester for Suttons Estates. Whilst my family lived there they made friends with the Pococks - Martha and Ray - who lived in the Mill House in front of the lake. Their house has also been demolished as it began to subside into the mill race which ran beneath the house. The large house presently on this site is the converted mill itself.
In my childhood I always referred to the Pococks as Nan and... Read more
Childhood
After leaving Wield, Hampshire, my mother was the headmistress of St. Andrew's primary school. She raised 4 children alone. My brother Peter G.W. Keen is a highly respected businessman (look him up on the internet). He went to school at Reading and Balliol college Oxford. My elder sister is also a well respected eductator. My twin sister and I both reside in Texas. All my growing years my address was "school house". Always had a house with the job. The house was usually next to the school. Whenever we needed something extra for the kitchen she would send one of us, my 2 sisters lived there too, to the school kitchen to get it. The house had a shed for coal and it was attached to the house. The roof was outside my bedroom window. When the sun shone we could crawl out the window and lay a blanket and catch some sun. When the new... Read more
Ancesters
My great grandmother was born in Kintbury in 1844. Her name was Sarah Holmes she married somone with the surname of Millin. She eventually moved to London and became Sarah Horne. Is there anyone in Kintbury today who recognises these names?
Can a local historian tell me about Kintbury in the 19th century?
Jenni Morris
Pound Street
My first main job on leaving school (Shaw House) was as a tea boy-dogsbody at H C James timber and builders merchants in Pound Street. For quite a while I cycled daily from Highclere Castle, approx 4 miles, it took me just over half an hour to get there and one hour to return! Some hills! My duties included running a mess room, making tea etc twice a day and touring the town for cakes and pasties, some of the men were particular as to which shop sold the best! One in Barthlomew Street near the Regal cinema, on round to Cheap Street to Austins for pasties and Nelsons squares, then to the Empire Cafe for lardy cakes, returning via Market Street and Barts again for fairy cakes near Black Boys bridge. After using a cycle for a while my father bought me an ex post office BSA bantam motor bike, painted green, it was purchased from someone my dad knew who worked at Bleinhem Palace. I rode that... Read more
