Happy Days!!

A Memory of Broadstone.

I moved to Broadstone with my parents at the tender age of 2, and we lived in Sidney Road, off York Road. It was 1950, and ,of course there was no Waterloo Estate at that time, so York Road ended when it came to the railway line and the tiny station of Creekmoor Halt. Most of the people using the station worked in the Cordite factory (where Siemens is situated now). It seemed quite a forbiding and secretive place to us as 6 or7 year olds when we cycled down there to watch the trains.
Around 1956, we moved up into Broadstone proper, and lived in Clarendon Road. There were grass verges all the length of the road, I remember---no kerbs!! I think it must have been around 1959, that there was talk of starting the no 30 bus to Poole from the top end of Clarendon Road, so the Council decided to "do up" the road. It was a bit sad to see the grass replaced by concrete kerbs, but will never forget the site of George Maidment's steam,(yes, real steam!), roller in action!!
It was heaven for us lads living in Broadstone in the early 60's, as we were avid train spotters, and the busy 4-platform station always seemed to have comings and goings. On our school holidays, we used to often buy a 10-shilling "runabout" ticket, which enabled us to go virtually anywhere within a 30 odd mile radius of Broadstone. Weymouth, Salisbury,Southampton, even Bath and Bristol were easily accessable from our station! I'm sure our parents worried a little, but they let us enjoy ourselves, knowing we were behaving. Imagine letting 11 or 12 year olds doing that now!!
Of course, there weren't the shops in Broadstone that there are now. The oldest established ones where Watkin's general store, and Yard's paper shop. Mr Yard had a brother I believe who owned the toy shop in Dunyeats Road, opposite the Post Office, but I don't think they had much to do with each other due to some family dispute in the dim and distant past. I also remember going up to Mrs Pipers bakery shop in Station Approach for my mum quite regularly to buy a large loaf for the princely sum of sevenpence-farthing!!
By 1967, the railway had closed for good, and the railway bridge was demolished and replaced by the roundabout that is seen today.
My mum sadly died in 1996, but 'till the end she always referred to Broadstone as "the village".
I have now moved away, but will never forget the Broadstone of the 50s and 60s, and whenever we return to the Poole area, we revisit the village and take another happy trip down memory lane.

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