Basingstoke, Market Place c.1955

Photo ref: B31008

I started at Fairfield's Infant School as a 5 year old in 1958. I think my teacher was a Mrs Spicer, and I was always thankful it wasn't Miss Mole, who was a 'terror'. My name than was Janice Catherine Brown, and my Mum June Brown was a dinner lady at the school. Mr Thomas I seem to remember was the Headmaster of both Infant and junior schools, strict but fair! I later attended the junior ...see more

Further to my previous memory of Basingstoke,and a reader mentioning Odys groceries shop, I too remember it well, also Yerburys hairdressers in Winton Sq and Giffords store.As well as that there was a tea shop on London Rd, The Good Hostess and on Hackwood Rd I remember Nancy Noyes bookshop. My grandparents had their golden wedding at the Venture in 1961.I also have fond memories of mapledurwell where a friend of my ...see more

My parents lived at 233 Winchester Rd but moved to Wilmslow in 1948. My grandparents (Herbert and Mabel Higgs) lived at 4 Fairfields Rd (now a private hotel) having previously lived at Red Gables,Crossborough Hill. I have many happy memories of the old town,Wote St (griffins Butchers shop) Nutts news agency and the old Wilts and Dorset busdepot where I used to look at the buses parked there. Richard Higgs,Brisbane, Australia

I was born in Basingstoke in 1942 at 17 Mortimer Lane, pulled down during the town redevelopment. I remember playing on the bomb site opposite St Michaels Church, now a remembrance garden. We also used to go into the meadow at the back of Mortimer Lane at mid-day on Sunday, sit in a tin bath in the stream and wait for the torrent of water from Thornycrofts swimming pool to propel us down the ...see more