Wheaton Aston memories
Here are memories of Wheaton Aston and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Wheaton Aston or a Wheaton Aston photo.
The Wonderfull Wheaton Aston And Its Folks
Hello to all who live in Wheaton Aston and indeed to those that once lived there. I came with my family. rrother, sister and mother in 1954. Over the years and through reading articles on this site. Wheaton Aston seems to have acquired a poor name. This in my case, I could not agree with. Most people older or my own age treated me as one of the locals. As a young boy I played with all at sports and other childrens games, with all the lads and girls. We made friends with other children from the Little Onn camp site. Later the people that worked there when it became part of the egg producing industry. I can very thuthfully say that Wheaton Aston fitted me out to become I hope a responsible person and I will alway look opon the village of Wheaton Aston and its people with great warmth. There are a great number of names that I would like to say hello too. So if... Read more
The Village in The 1960s
I have a picture at home with my great-great-grandmother feeding chickens by the trees on the left taken around 1880. My great-great-grandfather, Joseph Smith, was the village wheelwright. I have relatives who have lived in the village back since 1780. I was best friends with Vincent Small and Clive Curtiss. We used to ask for small cardboard boxes from the Co-op, and then kick them like footballs all the way home. Our heads were full of football from the age of 8. The primary school was half full of Polish kids from the former R A F aerodrome. The teachers were not particularly good. Hatton, the headmaster, told us we were rubbish, and Stan Ratcliffe, who owned a V W beatle, rammed classical music down our throats. He lost his temper a lot and ranted and raved but Vince and I realised that if you talked to him about Stoke City he quickly calmed down. I remember there were no after school clubs, no school teams,... Read more
The Coal Wharf
I Have a picture of my grandfather, Harry Evans, who managed the warehouse building in the background which was known as the coal wharf. He is unloading coal with the father of the schoolteacher, Sue Brereton. He initially lived with his uncle at the pub whose family name was Bowdler after he was orphaned when he was 9/10 years old (they died of TB). His parents came from Albrighton. In those days the Bowdlers also owned the garage. Eventually with my grandmother they bought Mileford Cottage on Wenlocks Bank and she (Gladys) lived there until the mid 1970s.
The Forge
I lived at the Forge, Long Street, Wheaton Aston, between 1955 to 1959 when I moved to Wolverhampton. I would be very interested if anybody has any pictures of the Forge. The house stood opposite Whiteways the butchers and next to the car park for the Coach and Horses pub. There was a slaughter house down Frog Lane then. The side of the house was right onto the road and the blacksmiths was attached to the house. All the tools and bellows were still there then. The forge was demolished and three detached bungalows are on the site now. There was a cobblers down Frog Lane by the church, sometimes the cobbler, an old gentleman, would open the bottom of the stable type door and you could see his wooden leg! (can someone else remember this? or am I getting mixed up.)
Carnival
I lived and went school in wheaton aston, and once a year the village carnival was held. It had several floats that were themed and there was a MAYPOLE dance on the village green. It was also the home of the village bus stop. The building on the right of the picture was the primitive methodist chapel, (The PRIMS) I was a member for some years
Fishing
During the school holidays the canal and it's towpath became a playground for many of the village children. Several of us caught the fishing bug and used the canal many times throughout the holiday. We always looked out for a barge called the MENDIP. The bargee was a gentleman called Charlie Atkins. His route was from the CADBURY factory at Knighton to Bournville in Birmingham. This was the origin of his nickname (Chocolate Charlie). We always asked him for a bit of chocolate but it was the raw chocolate crumb before it had been milled and was all but uneatable. If he was in a good mood we were alowed a ride up the canal for about 2 bridges then it was Get off home to your mother. Can you see that happening today?
Urbanites Invade
Hi Guys and Gals,
We moved to 19, Long Street in about 1967. Being townies from the new estate I suppose we were resented by the original villagers. Being a kid, I don't remember feeling this. We lived opposite the "Fletchers" on Long Street and they sort of took us townies to heart. I think that what a lot of the original villagers didn't realise was that this influx of "rich" people to their village was in reality an influx of working people who had done ok, a bit like them, but with more hassle. A little rough around the edges, but nothing a good village education couldn't sort out!
Having signed up to run the Wheaton Aston 10K a couple of years ago I was shocked and dismayed to find my village had grown yet again! How dare these urbanites invade my fond memories? Just goes to show "time and tide wait for no man". Get over it and enjoy what you have now, try and preserve... Read more
Memories of Staffordshire
Dads House
My dad, Joseph Gornall, was born in the house pictured and just to the left of it was a blacksmith's which was run by my grandad John Gornall. They lived there throughout my dad's childhood but moved to Birmingham for work at Cadbury's. Just further up the road on the right is a chapel where my great-grandparents are buried.
Rounders in The Road
I was brought up in Brewood, in the cottage which is called South View and later next door in what is now 38 Shop Lane. There were four children in our family, I had two older brothers and a younger sister. Our friends came from the cottages (some no longer standing) in Shop Lane, and Horsebrook Lane.
We would gather at the junction of Horsebrook, Shop Lane and Bargate Lane where there was a triangle of grass we knew as The Green Patch. There we would play rounders using the centres of the various roads as our bases. When we tired of this game we would play in the disused chapel that stood where the entrance of Pendryl Close is now. Later we would congregate under the gas lamp which stood at the top of Horsebrook and lit the junction. I can remember many long summer evenings spent laughing, joking, sometimes arguing and at times fighting, until we were called in by our parents.
I can't ever... Read more
Mason''s Lawn
We moved from the hamlet of Moreton/Bromstead to Gnosall, where my Dad worked, (based at the council wharf) in 1958, and Mason's lawn wasn't built then! We used to have our bonfires on the site and, if 1963 was the year it snowed really heavily (and I believe it was) - we were still building snowmen and rolling massive snowballs there!
Norbury Junction!
This is Norbury Junction, not far from but, definitely not Gnosall.
The boys in the woodwork class at school (Gnosall) built a canoe as a project which was afterwards stored in the old Mill on the opposite side of the canal to the Navigation Inn. (The Mill was the first in the area to be steam powered, I think). The canoe could be hired out for 6d, and it was very popular with me amongst others! (in the summer months I virtually 'hogged it'.) I used to paddle up and down the canal, sometimes reaching Norbury junction.
The Boat
The Boat is the name of the Inn on the left of the picture. As children we used to walk across the top of bridge wall and, as a further dare, across the pipes which ran just below the parapet, above the water.
Once, when I was serenely paddling the canoe back from Cowley Tunnel, a loaded barge came up behind me 'out of no-where'. It was MUCH BIGGER than I would have thought a barge could be, even if I had expected one, which I hadn't. I don't know who was the more horrified: me or the bargee!!!!
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