Favourite Memories
Reconnecting with our shared local history.
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Search for your favourite UK places and read memories of the local area in days gone by.
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Tips & Ideas
Not sure what to write? It's easy - just think of a place that brings back a memory for you and write about:
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How the location features in your personal history?
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The memories this place inspires for you?
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Stories about the community, its history and people?
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People who were particularly kind or influenced your time in the community.
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Has it changed over the years?
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How does it feel, seeing these places again, as they used to look?
This week's Places
Here are some of the places people are talking about in our Share Your Memories community this week:
...and hundreds more!
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Displaying Memories 701 - 750 of 2029 in total
I was born at 87 Victoria Street in 1945. My father was a miner and worked all his life in Caerau colliery. My mother came from London with her brothers and sisters, they were evacuated to Caerau after their house in Stepney, London, was bombed in the Second World War. At the age of 3 we moved from Victoria Street to Bryn Terrace with a lovely view of Caerau and the Llynfi valley.
Looking back, my ...see more
When I turned 13 my family moved from Warrington to Hartford, and although I only lived there for a little over four years, these four years provide some of the happiest times of my early life. 13 must be one of the worst times to start a new school in a new town, that I can think of. I attended Hartford Boys School (I believe that the name changed shortly after I left the area) However, I was befriended and ...see more
I can remember walking to a garage down (or up) the street with an accumulator, to get it filled. I knew a girl who lived just passed the garage, and she had a collection of birds eggs. She kept them in the oven of an old unused kitchen cooker which was on the porch. I don't remember her name, but I do remember her collection of eggs. Her dad helped her with the collection, and she even had an ostrich egg. She lived near ...see more
I was born in Pelham Road on August the 18th 1940. We lived with my grandparents. My grandad used to play the piano in the Pelham Arms for free beer and one of my earliest memories is seeing him playing and having three or four pints of beer stacked up on the end of the piano! We lived down on the left hand side with the railway line at the bottom of the garden. I can remember my uncle, who must have been about twelve, ...see more
From being born on Fountain Terrace, Bacup in January 1950, to leaving in the summer of 1957 to go and live up Gladstone Street. I remember myself and my two sisters living in a mid-terrace house with no electricity and no central heating - just a back stove. The house had stone steps that were well-worn, and we used to have a bath once a week in a big zinc tub that hung ...see more
My first job as a Saturday girl (1974) was working at a newsagents called Jarman's on the right of this photo on the corner of the road which led to the police station and infants school Darley Dene. I remember having to weigh snuff and having to use an old-fashioned till where you had to add up the items and press down the correct keys to show the total in the top window. I worked for a lady called Molly - she was still there in the 1980's. I think I earned about 60p for a Saturday afternoon.
I was born in Dowlans Road, opposite to Dawnay Road. The grocers which is referred to was where my mum used to shop. Next to the grocers my best friend Nigel lived, as did Dave Hill before him. The waste ground to the left in the photo was a bit of a dumping ground. We, Dave and me, found some old paint tins one day and we took them into the rec and painted the swings, white. You can imagine our mums and dads when they found out. We were only about 6 years old at the time.
Are there any pupils out there who went to Canada Road Primary School. Walmer, Deal. Kent, U.K. in the War years of 1941 to '45? The Headmaster's name was Mr Morris, and his favourite saying was: 'Open your books to page 43, and I don't want to hear another word out of you'. He then promptly nodded off to sleep, whilst we threw out 'nibbed' pens into the wooden ceiling, or tried dipping the hair of the girl ...see more
I have just discovered this wonderful website today and oh what memories come flooding back. I was born in Lower Shott in 1954 and lived there until I was about 23. I remember these shops so well. Being sent by my mum to get some cheese, I think it was from Mr Absaloms, and bursting into tears because everyone ignored me as they were waiting for my mum to come in and didn't realise that I had been sent ...see more
We arrived from Sorbie on a cold and wet November afternoon in 1937. The house was empty as our furniture had not yet arrived. However within the hour the lorry (truck) that contained our belongings arrived from Sorbie with my brother as well, who had gone along as a helper. My mother was horrified at the condition of the house and was near to tears, but the truck was ...see more
Around about l956/57 we would all go to dances or parties in Southampton and of course, from memory, the last bus home to Hythe/Holbury/Fawley/Calshot was about 10.30p.m. Inevitably we girls missed it so there was a mad dash through Southampton to the docks to get the last ferry home which went about 10.45 p.m. I think. The skipper had always cast off but the harbour police who were nearby used to yell out ...see more
My father believes the man in the carpenter's apron in photographs 60995 and 60995x may be Francis New. The carpentry business he is standing in front of was eventually taken over my grandfather, John Bray, and his brother William. In the directories they were listed as wheelwrights but they undertook a much larger range of buiding work some of which is still on view today, e.g. the lych ...see more
We came to Shaftesbury from Singapore in 1955, when I was 4 and only spoke Malay. We rented part of the then rambling old house called Green Close, at the bottom of a hill. We then moved to 3 Lower Blandford Road and started school at the C of E Primary School, behind Holy Trinity Church. Either trudging past the boys Grammar School or going down Hawksdene Lane and cutting through Boyne's Meade to town; or ...see more
I was born in a house next to the canal at Trench Lock in 1950 and lived for 10 years in the Old Orchard, now long gone but reached up a short lane leading to Somerfeld's steel works. In 1960 my family moved to Hadley. I recall going to the YMCA in Wellington (boy was I a clubber in those days !) and seeing a rock band called The Sabres who came from Wolverhampton way and were good. They played at ...see more
I was born in Covenham in Zeplin Row in 1950. I remember going to bed with candles as that was the only form of lighting we had. If it was cold in the winter I can remember my mum wraping up the warm oven shelfs and putting them in our bed to warm it up for us. There was no water in the house only a pump in the back which if i remember rightly was shared by the whole row. We had to walk to ...see more
73,Birch Road is where I lived from 1960 onwards. My family moved there in 1960 and I went to George Road School in 1962 during the coldest winter ever. The toilets used to freeze which was great as we would get time off as the toilets were outside. In 1964 I went to St Johns School and my teachers were; Mrs Ruddock, Mrs Want and Mr Sharp, the latter was my favourite. I used to go to Saturday morning pictures ...see more
I was in the kindergarten at Carisbrooke Convent when we had a day trip to the zoo. I remember after visiting the animals and eating the peanuts we had bought for the monkeys, we went to a play ground and those of us with a sixpence(2.5p) could buy a ride on the train. It ran on an elevated track pulled by a small black painted tender locomotive, and ran for about 80 yards in a straight line,then reversed ...see more
My great grandfather, Mark MIDGLEY was a member of the First North Yorks Artillery Volunteers. He was in number four battery for 11 years where he rose to the rank of sergeant-major. I have news paper cuttings of him celebrating his 90th birthday (1941) in which he recalls those days. He remembered the visit of the Duke of Connaught when he opened the Albert Park in Middlesbrough 1868. He was a member of ...see more
I must have been one of the first on the training ship because I thought it was 1954 I was there, but if it is recorded as c1955 who am I to argue! I was there training for the merchant navy for about 12 weeks. I was the camp bugler until I was relieved of my post because I was caught sitting down at the back of the church when I should have been standing. My first ship was MV Middlesex with The New Zealand Shipping ...see more
My father Jim Blayney, worked for Sir Lesley Joseph and was general manger of Trecco Bay and also Works Manager of Coney Beach. My brother and I had a very happy childhood playing around the fairground, it was in those days a very safe place to be. We lived in a company house on Rhych Point, our neighbours were the Palmers, Nelly and Noah and their sons and their wives, Basil and Margaret and Noah and ...see more
I was born near Lords Cricket Ground in London in 1933 and came to Hanwell soon after where my family settled in Greenford Avenue. Hobbayne School was a few yards down the road so I started my education there.
In 1939 the Second World War started and we had grandstand seats in our house to observe the German Luftwaffe attacks over London. Northolt wasn't too far away and we often watched as the RAF fighters ...see more
I was born in 1931 at Mount Vernon N.H in nearby East Retford. My father was a charge warder at Rampton State Institution. Woodbeck was the exclusive housing estate for staff working at the State Institution.
We were allocated a Staff House at number 44 Woodbeck.
I remember particularly the war years 1939 -`45 and as I found out later, we were on the direct bombing line for the German Bombers attacking the ...see more
My great uncle may be in this photo. I remember he told me that he and some of his pals walked from West Ham in the early hours of the morning and managed to get a spot on the Lambeth side of the bridge. They were just boys and came from poor backgrounds but had wracked their brains to come up with something that would contribute to the festive spirit of the day. The answer was strips of brown paper tightly rolled ...see more
As a boy of around 10 years old, every Saturday afternoon, my friends and I would go to the Palace Cinema (Farm Side Place, off Stockport Road) for the matinee. It would start around 2pm and it would be 6D to get in, downstairs, or 9D upstairs(now, 2 1/2p and around 4p). Showing on there would be cartoons like Buggs Bunny, Micky Mouse or Tom and Gerry. Then there would be a serial (in black and ...see more
I have very happy memories of my grandparents. My grandad had an enormous beard, and grandma always wore a long flowered apron. Grandad used to sit me on the handle of the lock gate while he slowly opened it to let the water level rise or drop so the water level in the lock was the same as the river and then the barge could go on its way. My mother left New Haw to live in Grimsby, ...see more
Previously I had posted to My Memories, a much longer, "informative" post, but I learned from further research that a lot of what I had previously heard was not accurate in fact. My memories remain unchanged, regardless of the more accurate details so kindly provided to me. It had never before occured to me to go to the best source of more factual information, the Town of Beccles, of which Roos ...see more
During the thirties in Elsham, keeping healthy was very important. Yhe health service didnt exsist, all we had was orange juice and cod liver oil. Our cottage was very damp, one of my sisters died from pneumonia when she was just 4 yrs old. Many old residents also died from pneumonia, it was known as the old mans friend. The Elsham people were extremely poor. Everybody grew their own vegetables, that was the ...see more
I was born in 1941 and as a child, lived at Park Head Row, Birdsedge. There was little traffic then and we used to play hopscotch on the main road. Around the age of three, whilst swinging on our garden gate, I vividly remember the unusual sight of a convoy of khaki army trucks entering the village. I watched in awe as they turned right at the Crown pub and headed up Park Head Row. As they passed our house, one of the ...see more
What a wonderful summer 1953 was, so sunny that I was burned and confined to a darkened room in our hostess, Miss Montador's, terraced house somewhere up the back of the town but easy walking distance to the harbour. I could go down there aged 10, with my younger brother aged 6, unaccompanied, and fish with a hand line off the harbour. Well do I remember a 'big' boy catching a huge conger eel and ...see more
I lived in Torbay Road just off the Willesden Lane and our two parks were Queens Park and Grange Park. The State Cinema seemed very grand, so we all used to go to Saturday morning pictures at the Grange cinema. If you were lucky you could also get in round through the back doors for free, so could watch the same film several times! It all seems a long time ago and though most of us came from ...see more
I was born in 1934 in Southill Rd, Bensham and went to Lady Vernon School, my name in them days was Sheila Lucas. I had a wonderful life in those days. My life revolved round Bensham, the baths in Mulgrave Terrace were freezing cold, the library on Redhaugh Rd and the Saturday cinema at the Bensham. My grandparents lived next door and as I was a only child, I was very spoilt. My grandfather, Arthur Tooth, was ...see more
Born in Kilburn Square in the early 30's we moved to Iverson Road and were there during the war. I used to act as messenger for the ARP who used the DOB club in Maygrove Road as their base and went to Beckford school walking through the Black Path by the LMS station to get there. In January 1945 a V2 exploded over the railway behind Iverson putting my mother and I in hospital for three months and ...see more
I used to work in Thomas's arcade and I lived at old Hunstanton, so I would walk to work. I would always walk along the cliffs to go home, and it was on my way home one night at about 11pm that I noticed that the bell in the gardens had gone; it was there when I went to work that morning. Strange really after all the years it was there, someone waited until the sixties to pinch it. It was a wonder that myself or my ...see more
My father was a great lover of Derbyshire and would take the family at least once a year for a weeks holiday (usually Easter or the autumn). This particular time he booked us into a local B&B near to the pub. If we were out in the evenings and late-ish in getting back we had to feel our way along the village streets as there were no electric lights, but it all added to the mysteriousness of the place. Can ...see more
I was very interested to read Elisabeth's account.I used to teach at Belchamp Walter School and have many happy memories of my time there with Mrs Pearson, she was a remarkable person. Married to a local farmer, she gave birth to a baby girl during my time there and Miss Meadows took over the running of the school for a short time. I can remember many of the children who were there and ...see more
My family moved from Portsmouth to my father's home town of Hebburn in the mid sixties, we lived at No.47 Byron Ave and I have many happy memories of my life in Hebburn. Sadly, my father died in 1968 and my mother and I moved back to Portsmouth. I miss my old home even to this day and always wonder what became of the friends and family I left behind. My greatest wish is to find some old photos of the area as all my ...see more
I remember Fareham very well. I remember my father who was in them days a window cleaner, and everyone seem to know him. He used to start at 5am in the mornings doing the shop fronts, then the houses on until 5pm with an hour for dinner. The field where the swimming pool is and a rather big housing estate, was a great big field and a small deep muddy pool near the side of the road. It had this great big tree in ...see more
I worked as a Saturday boy in Arthur Gardiners in the mid 1970's. Across the road was a dry cleaners run by a guy called Rudi, who employed a beautiful blond girl called Lisa, who also worked Saturday. On the corner between the shop and Woolies was a green grocer who used to spend all day shouting out his prices. There was a cake shop called Garners where we used to get cream cakes to have with our ...see more
I was just putting in "Rogerson Hall" on search and came across this site. Wonderful. I went to Rogerson Hall with my Mum and Dad in 1956 and 1957. In 1956, when I was 6, Dad booked the holiday and within one day of being there I developed chicken pox and we had to come home to London. I was heartbroken but to help console me, my wonderful Mum took my tin bucket on to the beach and brought me ...see more
As a child we owned Rose Cottage and would visit often. Our neighbour was a fisherman, these were fishermen's cottages. Once, as a boy, I was taken to meet the catch as it came in, possibly as early as 5.00 am. Crabs, lobsters, herring, mackerel, cod ... The stench of the harbour mud, the frotting waves against the harbour wall, fishing for minnows and sometime diving from the pier, rock-pooling along the ...see more
This photograph brings back many memories of the Coleford of my childhood. The area round the Town Clock has changed a few times over the years mainly to accomodate the increase in traffic.
The building on the far side of the clock in the High Street was a huge ironmongers called Terrett Taylor & Co. It was owned in the 1950s by Mr H. J. Walker and my father Fred Fowler was the Manager, having worked ...see more
I remember going to the local primary school at the top of Second Avenue from the age of 3. Mrs Dobson was head of the Infants School and Mr Perry was head of the Junior School. We slept in the hall in the early days of our school lives; I had a blanket with a rabbit motif on it. I still slept with my thumb in my mouth. In junior school our playing fields were ploughed up for vegetables because of the war years. ...see more
We hired a riverside chalet called 'La Dak' on the Martham side of the river, there were two families sharing. I remember there was no car access to the chalet so we had to park the cars next to the bridge and carry all our personal items. We soon found out there was no running water so all requirements had to be collected from a tap near the bridge. There was electricity, but rubbish and ...see more
I remember getting stuck up the top of one of these slides when I was about 4 years old! My big brother, who is 16 years my senior, took me out for the day with his girlfriend, to Chessington Zoo.
I went up the steps of one of these slides and found it was so high I was too scared to come down, despite his encouragement from the ground. He had to climb the steps and, as children followed him up, had bring me down ...see more
When I was a young lad my father Gwilym Jones and Joe Collins of Avondale Street (Joe was, during the 1939-45 war, the army lightweight boxing champion of India) My father had been a professional boxer in his earlier years.They opened up a boxing club in the Ynysboeth Hotel, for all the local boys, including boys from the Tynte and Penrhiwceiber. We had a full size boxing ring on the top floor of the Hotel. Many of us lads ...see more
I have hundreds of happy of memories of Penysarn, the village in which I was born and lived until I was 17. My most vivid is during the year of 'The big freeze', with the roads being impassable, all the village children had the finest sledge run imaginable. We would all walk to the top of the hill to the next village (Nebo), and slide all the way to the bottom ending in Penysarn, oh what fun. No-one got hurt and ...see more
I moved to Great Witley in 1954 with my family, we lived at the Engine House, which used to pump the water for Witley Court. I attended Witley school from 1954 to 1960, the headmaster was Mr Wyton, a memorable time for me, living on the farm enjoying the freedom that modern society cannot provide. The winter of 1963 was a long one, and now at the age of 14 I enjoyed sledging and snowball fights with my two ...see more
As a 15-year-old Spaniard boy I came to England thanks to the kindness of Mr and Mrs M.J. Leggett who paid the travel and stay expenses, for a long stay at their Shelley Arms place. I met them in Sitges (Barcelona) while they were on holiday. After all these years I still have vivid memories of my six months stay, making friends with the local people, and the staff who worked at the hotel - they all were so kind to ...see more
Central news recently covered 50 years since the big freeze of 1963; they showed my father driving his old Willys Jeep on the frozen Washing Pool above Witley Court. A local viewer saw that edition of Central news and spotted the jeep that he now owns; yes, it is the actual jeep that is on the dvd I have. I was contacted by the viewer via this site, and I have since been reunited with the jeep, and ...see more
My sister and I were in Myton Hamlet Children's Home which was in Warwick/Warwickshire. We would come by Lloyds Coaches on a Saturday, this was the start of the holiday. It took us all day to get there, no motorways then. We often went on the Dimchurch railway. I also remember the shop on the corner of the holiday camp. We had many nice holidays at the camp. The person in charge of the homes ...see more
