46 Bridge Road, Cove

A Memory of Cove.

46 Bridge Road at Cove is very significant to me because I was born in Bridge Road, no 46, on 29th June 1943, in the photo of Bridge Road it is the second house on the left, opposite Cove Supply Stores, so I'm sure my mother would have gone in there. What I can remember is a wooden rocking horse which was behind the front door, my sister Kathleen and myself used to ride the hell out of it, also in the back shed was a flat table and I can remember banging nails in it, my mum and dad said there was no space on it for anything else after I had finished. Also I can remember the strawberrieys in the back garden, my mum always said if I was missing, look out of the back and there would be a small bottom sticking up out of the strawberry patch. The only neighbour I can remember is a Mrs Ellis.
My father was in the army then (1939-45), 7th Armoured Division. Whether I was born when he did the following I don't know, but my mum reminded my dad about the time he parked a Churchill tank outside no 46 Bridge Road, he was on leave in Aldershot, and he showed my mum over it.
At the top of Bridge Road was a small shop, and I can remember dreading going up there, because the lady always came out to see me, unfortunately she had Parkinson's Disease, and because she shook it scared us. As for Cove Green it was always a favourite with the children, it had swings etc, also I think in the war there used to be an air raid shelter oppptsite our house on the ground in frount of the Cove Supply Stores.
Can anyone remember the train that used to go along the steet from Farnborough station to the RAE airfield?
In the war the Germans shot at the Farnborugh clock tower, I was a baby at the time, but my mother was there and a man got my mother and myself in the shop across the road (chemist I think), my mother said.
After the war our family moved back to the village where we came from (Marcham, near Abingdon). There wasn't a lot of work around then, but my father knew a Mr Hall (or it could have been a Mr Woods, I can't remember) who had a breeze blocks company on the Minley Road (I think my dad knew him in the army) and he wanted my dad to be foreman for him. So, in 1953 we moved back to Farnbough, and he worked there quite a few years. I can also remember my parents telling me that after the war on moving back to Marcham, in front of the breeze block company there used to be some old wooden front garages, and in the rush to move he left his car there, I can't remember what car it was. a big one I know, I wonder what happened to it! Also when we came up to Farnborough in the early 1950s for dad to see about the job at Mr Hall/Woods he had some petrol pumps there and he was quite a generous man and filled dad's car up with petrol and gave my sister and myself 2 shillings each(10p), and being children of 9 and 10 thought we were rich. I still here the noise in my head of Mum and Dad singing all the way home (56 miles) in a Morris 8! It was a dear old car, when it rained my mum used to have a piece of canvas on the floor and she would put it on her lap and when it was full of water she would throw the water out of the window, happy days. And my sister has just reminded me its nick-name was 'Cho Cho' (the car, not my mum) ha ha. When earler I said breeze block company, Minley Road, I mean the middle road going to St John's church, under the bridge from Farnborough, left Fleet Road, middle road Minley Road, and if you did a right that would take you to Cove Junior School. If it's wrong I'm sure somebody will correct me (I don't mind). Anyway, that's my memory of Bridge Road, Cove, happy days, happy memories.
Graham Davis