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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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:
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Displaying Memories 1751 - 1800 of 2029 in total
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I saw this photo and the year it was taken. I was born in 1960 and my mam already had my two older brothers to look after, one was 3 and the other 1. She took us all to the shops one day, this would have only been a short walk from South Street, which was at the back of the shops, my two brothers had her mithered all round the shops, she says, so she just got a few things ...see more
I was born in a bungalow to the left of this photo; it was my nan and grandad's. In fact the back part of the car that can be seen on the right of this photo could well have been my dad's outside of my nan's bungalow; the bungalow is still there. We lived there for 4 months then we were given a house in Fleet Street, Coryton; my dad worked for Vacuum Oil which then became Mobil.
My first main job on leaving school (Shaw House) was as a tea boy-dogsbody at H C James timber and builders merchants in Pound Street. For quite a while I cycled daily from Highclere Castle, approx 4 miles, it took me just over half an hour to get there and one hour to return! Some hills!
My duties included running a mess room, making tea etc twice a day and touring the town for cakes and pasties, some of the men ...see more
My parents Angela and Leslie Jecks-Wright bought the house in the picture, on the right, and made a successful business called the Moat Tea Room of it! Our house was at 64 Fore Street. We used to get coaches visiting the castle, and we were kept very busy when that happened. We used to let the college boys use the upstairs room as a sort of "clubhouse". A lot of GIs used to visit and eat there.
I currently ...see more
I only have great sunny memories of Halifax as a child.
A lot of these photos in the 1960's show the sunshine... just how I remember it. My granddad worked on the buses and in the photos he may have been on one of those! His mate on the buses was called Arthur Crowther and me and my brothers used to call him "Half A Crown". I went to Trinity School and the teachers were great. Much more humane than the ones I ...see more
When I was a small child in the 1950's my father had a toy stall in Halifax Borough Market. It was a wondrous place for a child in those days, a family, a community, with all the market children growing up together. I remember a cafe run by the Sullivan family that sold the cold fish (Halifax Fish) which I can honestly say was the best I have ever tasted. The market was full of interesting characters ...see more
My Dad was born and lived in Halifax. When he was young a family firm which had a stall in the market hall delivered a fish speciality on bicycles with baskets. We all called it "Halifax Fish" and it was a piece of haddock in a round patty covered in batter. They were sold cold and could be eaten cold or re-heated and eaten hot. As a child I went to the market hall with my Dad to buy Halifax Fish ...see more
I lived in Dunston from 1946-1964. This area of Dunston was a place I knew quite well. The lamp post on the left was almost outside a dental surgery. I well remember the experience of having a tooth extracted here, and the staff's struggle to administer the gas anesthetic to knock me out! I learned to dislike visiting the dentist from here. To the right there were the "bankyfields". There used to be a ...see more
I was born in Barnsley in 1950 and lived in Hemsworth. I use to go to the pictures on a Saturday morning with my pals and ride my pretend horse home afterwards. I don't know the name of our street but you could walk out of the front door, cross over and go down the dirt path to the main road. I think the market was there and on the other side was the picture house with chippy close by. My dad, who was Polish, worked ...see more
I moved to Westward Ho! in 1952 with my parents and two sisters. My parents owned a guest house call Beacon Lights in Nelson Road, sadly it has now been demolished to make way for flats. I remember the floods at Lynmouth in 1953 as a lot of dead animals were washed up on the beach at Westward Ho! I loved the time I spent there, and used to get up early in the summer to walk the beach bringing home ...see more
From my childhood in Welshpool in the 1940s and 50s I have fond memories of the little steam train which crossed over Church Street, originally on a daily basis then later on Mondays only, carrying livestock from farms in the Llanfair Caereinion area to and from the Smithfield Market in Welshpool. My grandfather was one of the engine drivers who drove the train and often when I came out of ...see more
I was with the USAF and had just spent a year in Morocco. We were assigned to RAF Bentwaters but worked at RAF Woodbridge with the 79th. Coming into the country we first stayed at the White Hart Inn in Wickham Market and learned that we spoke American, the English speak English, similar for sure but different. Alhough we finally settled in Felixstowe for our tour, we really enjoyed ...see more
I too, was in Copley House with my sister Sheila. Our surname was Youngs (the sister in charge of the house was Sister Ada Fitzjohn). I was at first, in the nursery school on Chester Road until I was five and went up to the 'big' home. Many happy memories of Sutton Park, the lakes, the trees and the heather. We sometimes played truant from Sunday school, and went to the park ...see more
I can remember a POW camp just inside Boldmere Gates. The Americans used the inmates to destroy lots of things at Jubillee Hill(?) at the sand pits, when war ended. This was material from the Streetly Camp area. Lots of it was parcels from their sorting office of men who couldn't be traced, including bedding. The local women were up in arms, but the G.I's kept them back from the site by rifle point. I was 16 at that time.
My brother Douglas and I were there 1945 to 1953, he was in Beatrice House and I was in Copley House. For the first year I only saw Douglas in chapel on Sundays and on our birthday's when our mother visited. I can remember Ronald and his twin sister loved to talk to our mother as she wore her blonde hair pinned up. I loved sports and animals so I spent a lot of time on the farm we were allowed pet mice which ...see more
Running parallel at the back of this church [St James] runs High street, where I was born as generations of my family were. The two pot banks on the right represent a fraction of the "Belcher's" that existed in Longton in the 30s/4os, they dominated everyone who lived amongst them with their endless stream of black smoke belching six days a week and covering all the buildings with soot and dirt. Night time brought ...see more
I was born in Longton in 1933 at 151 High Street Post Office, Longton. All my childhood was spent there with my grandmother, Sarah Wright and my great aunt Matilda Ward (my grandmother's sister). Between them they ran the Post Office until the middle years of the Second World War.
Before it was a Post Office, my great grandfather William Ward had a tailoring business there, from 1871 ...see more
One of my earliest memories was as a child on a Sunday morning, still in my pyjamas, being driven to Madeley by my Dad to watch the trains go by. Standing on the footbridge, which is still there, and looking along the line in the distance for the appearance of smoke, so you knew a train was coming. Being only little, it was possible (until electrification) to see through the girder bridge quite a way ...see more
I lived in a flat over 12 The Parade (then a Garden Shop) until I was ten years old, from 1944-1954. Our gate was on the alley round the back. At the Hare Lane end of the alley were hung 'pig bags' - sacks where people put scraps to feed pigs (post-war, so still on rationing!). The other end of the alley went through to one of the brickyards that were then still around Claygate. A rag-and-bone man came ...see more
In the mid and late sixties my family would travel from Glasgow to Kent every summer to visit relatives. Our overnight stop was always at the Old England Hotel and I have fond memories of walking round the village and finding it so different to where I lived in Glasgow. My memory is also of Mr Pike bringing a pre breakfast cup of tea in the morning, and greeting me with a very cheerful, ...see more
I bought my favourite car in Hatch End from the Cornwall Garage in 1970. It is on the right of this view beyond the row of shops and the crossroads of Uxbridge Road and Cornwall Road. It was a 1966 Triumph Spitfire, pale blue with two black "racing stripes" up the long bonnet over the hard top and down the boot! It cost me all of £465 in April 1970. I rather ...see more
I lived in Hatch End from 1956 until I went up to Manchester in 1966, so I got to know my local shops both as a helpful schoolboy running errands for my mum to MacPhails the greengrocer and later as a teenager buying my records in Giles and my half pints of Benskins in "The Railway".
This view on the left side shows Payantake Supermarket, Signal Service radio shop, Woolworths and Spurlings ...see more
My parents lived with my grandfather - Harry Fiddleman, at 41 Lower Addiscombe Road. Grandfather was a hairdresser so we lived behind and above the shop. I was born at St Mary's Maternity Home. I cannot find any references to this 'Home' anywhere, although I'd love to know more about it. When I was a baby my 'cot' was a drawer - evidently quite common in the fifties. My father worked for his father in the early days, ...see more
As I look at this picture of the Letchworth swimming pool and notice the date is c1950… it would be only a few years later (mid 60’s) that my friends and I would cycle there with our towels and trunks fastened to the backs of our bikes (no expensive designer sports bags for us!). We’d padlock/chain our bikes outside the pool and hope that the worst that could ...see more
The formative years of my early childhood were spent at No. 39 Bondgate, Pontefract, which was one of a block of four small two-up, two-down houses situated immediately adjacent to the front entrance of Wilkinson's Liquorice Works. Our house was about three steps up from the pavement and enjoyed the luxury of a narrow strip of garden, possibly three yards deep. However, we ...see more
Growing up and the family - Part 1
My grandfather William Morgan Cockram (son of Lewis Cockram) and grandmother (Mary Cockram) (granny and grandpa Cockram) took over the ironmongers after the death of John Richards. They were living behind the shop when I was growing up. I remember the shop very well. It was not a very busy shop – I remember my grandmother in the living room at the back of the ...see more
I am 70 now and since 1950 have visited Teignmouth regularly, what lovely memories this place has for me. My childhood visits with Sunday school coach outings from Norton Fitzwarren in Somerset, I am sure many others reflect on those simpler times when we were happy with little. Many other visits with mum and dad in our 1936 Wolseley, each trip almost an adventure. Then my youth in the 60's camping at Smugglers ...see more
Burley Woodhead. We lived in Shotover from my birth in 1942 until approx 1957. My parents moved into the house and the village 1939. When my brother Roger was born in Bingley in 1946 I remember picking him up, and bringing him home. The house then was up a rough lane, the top one of 2 houses and 3rd one being build around mid 1950s. The school on the edge of Ilkley moor ...see more
My father Robert Williams, owned and ran a hardware shop in St Mildreds Road from 1963 until his death in 1977. His three sons, of which I am the middle, used to help in the shop when we were not at school. We sold a huge range of hardware and ironmongery, as well as fireworks and 'beach toys' in due season. The shop, which is now an undertakers, was fronted by a very ...see more
On 4th March 1946, about fifty children from Dury Falls School, Hornchurch, were taken by coach to Sheephatch School camp. We slept in double bunks in dormitories; did lessons during the day and went for many walks. In the evenings we learned dancing, such as the Gay Gordons; saw films, and even put on a concert. Every evening we had a hot shower in the ablution block. The dormitories held ...see more
I was born at the Congleton War Memorial Hosipital and was christened at St Stephen's Church; just above the wall which borders Hankinson's field to the right of the River Dane in this picture. My Dad played rugby for the Congleton Rugby Union Footall Club which was then based very close to the old Berisfords Mill. Our family attended every Sunday morning rugby match and when the ball was ...see more
Growing up during war years and having to spend many nights in the Anderson shelter at bottom of garden. School was only half days for a while and when my brother started he had to go to neighbouring houses where the teachers came, rather than at Ray Lodge School, Woodford Bridge. Sat my 11+ exam at the High School and we had to take sandwiches in case an air raid interrupted the exam. I passed ...see more
We had some great times in the summer hollidays. A crowd of us would get on our bikes go along to the Strand and then along the sea wall to sharps Green. We passed a boat yard, but I don't remember the name. We were gone all day. We played "bike scrambling" up and down the mounds, the boys were always better at it than us girls. There were always loads of damsons and blackberries that we could pick and eat. We ...see more
Me and my brother went to this home around 1954. I would be 7 and he would be 9; we went on the train from Rochdale. I remember mother giving my older brother 2 half crowns - 5 bob for sweets to last a fortnight. I also remember watching someone peeling tats by putting them in a big drum with sharp edges and turning it like a mangle. Unfortunately, I also remember climbing the steps on the slide in the play area and ...see more
In the 1950's I used to ride my pony from the Leatherhead Road in Gt. Bookham through Fetcham to Leatherhead to get to the blacksmiths. The blackmsiths was a proper big old forge at Prewetts Dairy off Randals Road. I used to have to lead my pony over this rickety little bridge. It had wobbly planks and there was one missing one time I crossed it. It was probably a 9 mile round trip just to get the pony ...see more
I remember the rickety bridge over the River Mole here, when I was very small my mother used to take me over it to eat sandwiches by the 'splash' and go for a paddle. The bridge was really scary with wobbly planks and I was afraid of falling through where the missing one was. When I was old enough to go on my own I learned to swim in the river, hanging on to the water weeds and ...see more
I also remember the 'Splash'. We were told that some time in the past a Queen had crossed here with her ladies-in-waiting and that one of them had fallen in? Well, it's a good story. As a very horrible little boy, we used to catch minows in the pool, and then drag them across from one side of the river to the other, on the way across they would be followed by crayfish that we would shoot with our air ...see more
I spent approximately 2 years as a messenger boy with the then GPO, based in two gracious old homes along Wimbledon Parkside. Their names were Gayton, and Martholme. I seem to remember the address being No's.74 and 76. I understand that one of these homes belonged to one of the Huntley-Palmer families, and the other to members of the Tate and Lyle families. How true these ...see more
I am now 57 years of age, and live in Australia. I was born in Stone, Stafforshire in 1949 and would love to go back and visit.
As a child I remember walking along the canal and standing watching as a blacksmith mended a horse's shoe. I remember hating school but even at that very tender age I was interested in the history of the school that I attended. Every day at home-time I walked on the stone footpath that ...see more
Eastry has a Roman Road through it but was also important as a place where we imagine important people stopped on the drive between Dover and Sandwich, the Cinque Ports. The Bull Pub on the left behind the trees, had a cobbled courtyard to the rear and room for horses and carriages. I assume some of the buildings date back 400 years, and perhaps the house in the distance could have been the toll house - it was ...see more
I believe this is called Lower Street and behind us is Dover Road, and a turn to the east to Northbourne and Deal or a walk to the cricket ground at Updown. Behind, to the left, is Buttsole Pond where some people broke the ice when winter sliding. It is a wetland area and the sort of place where today it would have to be on a preservation list. At 45 degrees to the left and across the ...see more
In 1960 the world's population was probably a mere 5 billion, now it is over 7 billion people. It was a bit of a shock to realise that people actually wanted to come and live in Eastry and presumably prices were slightly less than the big city. Now home owners had to live next to council house estates and this was a test of their pride or humility. A pathway was constructed between the new council house area and the ...see more
Because we were paid we joined the choir. Boys were joined by girls in about 1959. It was a good education learning some beautiful music, reading psalms, plenty of moral direction and people to admire such as the organist, Bill Press, and the notable vicar Fred Cooper. We had choir practice on Friday evenings, and then two services on Sundays. Easter and Harvest festival saw the place festooned with flowers and ...see more
The (Roman) road going down to Buttsole and then to Dover or Deal and Updown Cricket field to the left, was sometimes blocked by farmworkers guiding their sheep from one pasture to another through the village centre. The shop on the right is quite significant because it used to belong to Mr Penn who ran the butcher's. There was a big cold-room at the rear. Mr Penn was the devoted leader of ...see more
This road was one which was mainly used to pass through Eastry. We used to take the 87 to Dover or Ramsgate/Margate, or the 13a bus to Deal or Canterbury. The 76 to Deal and Staple. To the right was the big-time first ever supermarket! Of course, a brand new concept and an open invitation to shoplifters. Where the photographer is standing, was a lane to the left to the Gunpark, which was cleverly turned into a mown ...see more
The quaint older houses on the right now faced new bungalows to our left, and on our left is another walkway to the primary school. Now Jimmy came to live in one of the bungalows and then he came to our school when he was about 10. He was from Burnley, Lancashire, somewhere up north, a long way up north and his accent certainly showed itself to be different from Kentish - very different. Opposite Jimmy's house was Mr ...see more
The area called Mill Green is behind the photgrapher and the village ahead. The Mill was working up until about 1960 or so, as we used to buy corn from there to feed the chickens. To the right of the photo is the church/chapel for Eastry Hospital which catered for all sorts of mental illness or simply for men taken in after the war. The hospital was originally a workhouse and has extensive grounds and ...see more
The 'new' primary school in Cook's Lea (a respected headteacher in Sandwich) was built in the early sixties and is well-located next to the Gunpark to the left. The old C of E Primary School was a solid building and this new school has its modern style architecture. A famous quote is "it may be a marble palace, but as far as I'm concerned it's still a bloody school" despite the propaganda of how marvellous it all is, ...see more
I'm guessing this is looking east from the Lower Street area over meadows and a cornfield with the Children's Homes to the right and the line of trees marking the brow of the hill of the Lynch. There was a pathway across that horizon. The word Lynch may even date back to old English before Anglo-Saxon times. On this chalky soil it can get very dry and the water goes down to the springs that emerge at the foot of ...see more
Eastry has an important history and this is the Roman Road which went to Woodnesborough (after the god 'Woden') and to Sandwich to the right. The village hall to the left, through the open gates was the infants' school with Mrs Pemble and Mrs Capron, not the best of friends. They did a good job of getting us to read with no problems at all. No modern gimmicks, just 'Janet and John'. Because the gates were ...see more
