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Wraysbury
Wraysbury maps
Historic maps of Wraysbury and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Wraysbury maps
Wraysbury area books
Displaying 1 of 11 books about Wraysbury and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Wraysbury
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Wraysbury.
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Wraysbury School.
I went to Wraysbury School and one day came late. Everyone was gathered in the canteen for morning assembly, and when I got there, everyone clapped and I was pushed up to receive a large brown envelope. Going back to my place, I asked the girl next to me what they were clapping about, and she said, "You've passed the scholarship". I was so vague, I don't know how I did it. One day I had walked out of the gate to go home for lunch (about a mile and a half) and a pupil watching me looked very disapproving, but said nothing. When I got home, my grandmother said it was just past 11.00am! I'd gone out in the morning break period. Everyone was looking for me until I brought a note back about 2.00pm, feeling very foolish because everyone was laughing, especially the pupil who had watched me and said nothing! When I was due to leave, Mr Watson, the headmaster (a lovely kindly man with... Read more
Honey Pot Cottage at Wraysbury
My aunt, Beryl Reid, moved into Honey Pot Cottage in Wraysbury in the late 1950s and we spent many happy days visiting her. The river was fascinating and there was a houseboat on the other side of the river that seemed to be there for years and years. She had a lovely curved stone seat at the bottom of the garden where I used to sit and let the water lap my feet and the ducks used to come up into the garden every day to be fed. As time went on Honey Pot Cottage because heavily populated with cats and they had the greatest time running up and down trees and hiding in the thatch. Unfortunately those days are long gone.
Before They Built The Reservoir ...
In the 1950s I used to stay with my grandparents in their bungalow (The Aspens, adjacent to Raynor's Farm) in what is now called Farm Road; it is not even a road now but simply an access gate to the reservoir. Back in the 1950s, before they built the reservoir, it was a track, Coppermill Lane, off Coppermill Road, Wraysbury, but it is now, sadly, under water in Wraysbury Reservoir. They were happy times for me, but as I didn't have a camera at the time I don't have any photos of what the area was like at the time. My grandparents died in 1959 and are buried, so I (much) later discovered in the churchyard of St. Michael's Church, Horton - in unmarked graves which nobody can locate with accuracy, which saddens me considerably, as you can imagine. If anyone remembers them - Henry and Elizabeth BURG - and can provide any information, photos, anything - that would be true magic. ANY help in refreshing my memories would be gratefully and happily received. Ron Burg. ... Read more
Middlesex memories
Holidays at The Lock-Keeper's Cottage
My family and I, Ernest Aspey, regularly holidayed here in the early 1950s as my grandfather, Henry Slaughter, was the Assistant Lock-keeper at the time. This photo is significant to me as I was led to believe that the man in the foreground of the photo was my grandfather and we have a copy of it at home. My most vivid memory is of the time I fell in the lock and was rescued by an employee of the Thames Conservancy, who later received a commendation for this action. Unfortunately, I do not know his name.
Merrimeade
My family lived at 12 Ouselely Road from 1957 5to 1959. It was, repeat WAS, a wonderful home before the current family moved into it. They have destroyed it. I wish I could afford to buy it and refurbish the house. We had a gardener (Mr. Muir), a housekeeper and a nanny (Mrs. Brown of Straight Road). I call England the "Home of my Heart". I miss that house and our times there greatly.
Move to Horton
I think it was about 1986 when I moved to Horton, I was around 7 years old. We only moved from Wraysbury Road near Staines but it may as well have been 500 miles, leaving all my friends that lived all along the road to moving to Horton. There wasn't that many kids in Horton back then. We moved into the house next door to the Five Bells pub, a large detatched 4 bed house, it felt like a mansion house. Darlaron was the name of the house because the owner of the house, Stan Errett's granddaughter, couldnt pronounce the real name...my mum and dad changed it to Forge Cottage. Horton has changed a lot in the years since I left. The pubs have had many different owners! A lot of new houses and apartments have been built. When I moved to Horton the close where my sister lived until 2011, Champney Close, was a paper mill. Me, my brother and our friends would jump the wall on the weekends... Read more
Datchet Under Water 1947
1947 was the year that my parents, my sister and I moved to Datchet and the shops in this photo, taken 2 years before, are so familiar, even now. Not long after having moved here, the snow which had lain thickly on the ground for many weeks, began to thaw. The Thames eventually broke its banks, due to the volume of water now finding its way from further up river and the whole of the village green was under water. Our house, very fortunately, was not flooded but I can remember my parents taking up carpets and moving furniture upstairs (just in case) Also coming down to the water's edge by the International Stores and waiting for punts bringing food etc. across the water and the people trading from their boats. As no buses could get through to take us to school we had to be picked up by lorry and taken to the main road in Langley to pick up a bus for the rest... Read more
