Fordingbridge, The Village c.1960

Photo ref: F178034

My family moved to Fordingbridge in 1948 when I was 7. All three boys went to the Primary School and I was the last Head Prefect and House Captain of the Red Team before the older children went to the Burgate school. I have good memories of my first kiss. Monica Kensington and Hazel Oxford pushed me into a hedge a gave me my first smacker. When the snow came we made sleds and went over to the ...see more

A few days after starting school, I paid my first remembered visit to Fordingbridge Fair. A funfair visited Fordingbridge every year during the first week in September. It was situated in Church Square and in the land opposite and a few stalls were placed in the open space at the junction with Back Street, now called West Street. Cars park there now! The fair was already a shadow of its pre-war self in 1955, ...see more

I lived in Ashford Road for the first 20 years of my life and my mother still lives in the same house; she has lived there since 1933. I was born in 1950 in the new cottage hospital at the top of the road. I went to school at Fordingbridge Primary and Burgate Secondary. I remember the snow of Boxing day 1962; we were playing in the field next to the river at Ashford Road when it began in the late afternoon.There ...see more

I grew up in Fordingbridge between 1949 when I was born and 1967 when I left for University. I have so many memories that I couldn't possibly put them all down here, so I am just selecting a few good or striking ones. Anyone who remembers the town will know that it once had two chemist shops, four pubs (or more) four grocers, three butchers, a shoe shop, a gents' tailors and of course a proper ...see more