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Reconnecting with our shared local history.
Enjoy these selected memories that have amused or fascinated our team - we think you will enjoy them!
In the early 50's many streets in Uxbridge were still lit by gas. So "lighting up time" had a whole different meaning. The iron lampposts were much lower than the lighting masts of today and were more widely placed along the streets. Street lighting then had a different function because the lights were to illuminate the pavement, not so much the roadway. I lived in Frays Waye which was entirely lit by gas and there ...see more
The building in this view with the clock was, in the 1960's, a bank, I don't recall which one but maybe Barclays. I do recall on entering it, the main service counter ran parallel to the High Street and behind it under the windows facing the Whitgift alms houses on the opposite corner was another counter about 20ft [6m] long and 2ft 6" [0,75m] wide completely covered in bundles of notes. 5 Pound, 1 Pound and 10/- notes. ...see more
In 1961, I became an apprentice furrier to Brainin Bothers of New Bond Street. Brainin's owned a large store (I was told it was as big as Harrods) in Russia.They escaped the Communists and moved to Vienna, only to escape Hitler in 1938. Max and Leo were the brothers and Nat Saunders was the Master Furrier. Every monday we would fill a taxi with Squirrel, Ermine and Mink coats and stoles, and deliver them to Harrods ...see more
The Broadway Wimbledon was brought to a near halt in December 1952 for four days. The Gaumont cinema in the back of this photo had to close on the third day because of the smog in the auditorium. I lived in Craven Gardens and the smog was down to less of a metre in front of your face and you could not see your feet.
I lived at 14 The Homing, Meadowlands, Cambridge which was close to the airport. I was 8 years old in 1955. Often on sunny weekends, my Mum would takes us on a walk over to the airport. It was a quiet relaxed place in those days. There was no kind of airport security, and you could stroll through the gate and sit down on benches to watch the odd Tiger Moth taxi over to the runway and take off. The pilots would ...see more
I was five years old in 1953 and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was the first vivid memory I have of my childhood.
We lived at Midway, Cold Ash Hill, the major road through the village. Dressed as a pirate with silver buckles on my shoes, an eye patch and a wooden cutlass painted silver, with my childhood friend, Keith Stroud, we joined the throng of people making their way up the hill to the recreation ground. ...see more
'Cash on the Nail' the man said. . . and a century or so ago in Bristol he really meant it. For the deal would have been clinched on one of Bristol's four famous nails standing outside the Corn Exchange on Corn Street or, from the late 1550s to 1771, under a covered walk outside All Saints Church before they were moved to today's well-known site.
The brass nails with their flat tops and raised edges to prevent ...see more
The Transport Department at Southmead Hospital when I joined them consisted of an officer, foreman, and four porter drivers, with two buses, three vans, and two cars. We were responsible for supplying the group hospitals with staff, goods, and laundry. The group was comprised of nine hospitals, Southmead itself, Almondsbury, Thornbury, Berkeley, Ham Green, Clevedon, and the Clifton ...see more
As a child and adult, I remember the bridge and how long it was closed for boats coming up to the BOCM and Ranks flour mill. It had to opened in sync with the railway bridge and the trains. I remember the barges with big red sails towing more barges, and the year of a severe freeze when the river froze solid and looked like the Baltic with huge ice floes; people thought it might destroy the bridge ...see more
This once sleepy hamlet was first home to me,
a better place for childhood there could not be.
Little Drayton church and it`s `olde` Sunday school.
fishing excursions with Uncle to Buntingsdale pool,
Dalelands West; lucky dipbags, Reardon`s supplies,
Monday morning washdays, roller skates, blue skies.
With my `Dan Dare interplanetary telecommunications set,
boyhood dreams of space missions were ...see more
I am not sure which grandfather it was (how many greats do you want?) but the old part of my family, the Strevens, have lived in Broadstairs for the last five hundred years, and have the honour of having erected the post in the middle of the bay. This was one of five snubbing posts that allowed the barges to warp right up to the pier where they loaded tar and coke from the gas works at the top ...see more
The Fish Meadow is just North and East of the river bridge, and in my youth, (as now) was prone to flooding. I remember a year when the still water, stretching across the meadow (as opposed to the main river flow) froze over. Then, while the temperature remained below freezing, the water subsided, allowing the ice sheet to settle back on to the surface of the meadow and actually bend to the shape of the field ...see more
In 1932 my father Len James was moved to Brockenhurst as the 'village bobby'. I was born in 1931 and my brother in 1929. We lived in the Police house (now a renovated private home) and eventually both us boys went to the C of E Primary School. Dad had a standard issue police bicycle, on which he would ride to Lyndhurst and submit his report to the Station Sergeant there. In 1934 we bought a 1928 Morris Minor car ...see more
A large wooden hall was built on land behind Mr and Mrs Chrime's house in Milton Road and we had a street party for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. I remember seeing bits of the ceremony on someone's TV (we didn't own one) and it being very grainy, and all the 'old' women (probably in their 20s!) ooing and ahing! I would have been 10 years old and I got 2nd prize in the fancy dress ...see more
I can remember waiting at Ashley Down Station for the steam train; towels,swim suits and picnic in big beach bags. The journey was an adventure every time, the smell of the smoke and the old carriages. Pushing your head out of the window with a a leather strap to keep it open. Feeling the wind in your hair, mum nagging about getting things in your eyes! The excitement as the train pulls into the station the ...see more
I was born on the 24th of July 1929 above a shop next to a pub called the Rose of Denmark, in Hotwells, Bristol, very convenient for Father to wet his whistle and my head at the same time. Father was born in 1893, Mother in 1895. They were married on the 9th August 1924. My older brother John was born in 1927. Two months after I was born the New York stock market crashed, but I don’t think that was anything to do with ...see more
Summer time, I had gone fishing on Royston Canal. The local fishing club had replenished the canal with fresh water trout for the anglers. These fish were so tame that all you need do was to hold out your hand with a few maggots and they'd come and feed from you; they were farmed trout. They knew nothing of predators and would calmly swim alongside Pike. Pike were soon to get so fat from feeding off the trout ...see more
Memories of getting the tube from Arnos Grove to Rayners Lane and then the long walk up Imperial Drive - until reaching the driving centre.
The set up included traffic lights, zebra crossings, roundabouts, parking spaces, parked cars and a class room. Inside, a cut in half mini - showing you all the workings of the engine and steering - looks like someone had cut it open in length - ...see more
So! Back to 11 Woburn Place, back to school on Hope Chapel Hill back to Hotwells golden mile with its 15 pubs.
The War was still going on but there was only limited bombing and some daylight raids, the city was in a dreadful state of ruined factories and bomb damaged houses and dockyards. While we had been away, our older brother John had joined the 92nd Sea Scout Troop, so I went along with him and joined up as ...see more
I lived in Medway Road from 1934-1956. I also remember the doodle bugs (as did Gordon Savage, I remember him), the dockyard heavy guns, and school. I was due to start school on the day war started and finally went to Richmond Road Infants two years later. All the teachers were evacuated with the local area evacuees so there was no one to teach us. I went for 1 hour, then 2 hours, an afternoon, and ...see more
I loved to play on the swings, roundabouts and giant slide at Eastleigh recreation ground.
The long polished brass slide was fun to try to walk up, slide down roll things down or pee down.
I overheard a friend of mums who was expecting a baby – she said
“It is wonderful now they can tell if you are pregnant by just peeing on a slide”.
This amazed me that our humble recreation ground had such a magical slide! (This is a true tale!)
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
My grandfather, A J Hurd, was, for a time, Rudyard Kipling's head gardener at Batemans. He, my grandmother and my mother (now Joyce Richardson) and her sister (now Barbara Wainwright) lived in one of the cottages (which still exists) near the mill adjacent to Batemans. In addition to his responsibilities in the gardens, Grandpa also worked with the private hydro-electric turbine generator (which also still ...see more
I first lived in a little cottage in Jolly Sailors Yard, around 1944. When I was about 3 years old my parents, Fred and Connie Smith, my brother Derek and me, Norman (Bim) Smith moved to Standard House. We had a great lIfe living there when we were older, just walking round the corner and diving off the quay wall when the tide was up. My grandfather Frank (Tender) Smith was Harbour Master and pilot ...see more
I remember when The Beatles came to The Wood in 1963 to record the Morecambe & Wise show at the ATV Studios off Eldon Avenue. Me & a couple of mates from school (Holmshill) played truant to wait at the back of Studio Gates off Shenley Road to try and catch a glimpse. After waiting a few hours it got to lunch time so we wandered up to Shenley Road for a bite, and there was John & Paul just walking along by ...see more
I 'lived' in Clarence Park for years when I was a kid. It became my magic Kingdom! I knew every bush and tree and secret trail through the bushes. I would lurk in the bushes and spy on people walking past. I had a favourite tree - a huge beech next to the bowling green. I would climb high in it and sit quietly watching them bowl, hidden by dense leaves. I'd whistle and call to them and put them off bowling, ...see more
Towards the end of WW2, I was evacuated to Bodmin. On arrival, we were taken by coach to a large hall. I suppose there must have been more than a hundred of us. At first, we noisily filled the hall, each with a single suitcase. At the far end, a number of posh looking ladies sat at a long trestle table. Then the locals came in through a side door and surveyed us before picking out someone to take home with them. My two ...see more
The Seagoing Years.
I must have left the Army sometime in August or September of 1949, and went back to C.J.King & son, tug owners, to carry on with my job as deck boy. This was not to my liking, as I was now twenty, and scrubbing floors for 3 quid a week all hours of the day and night was beneath my dignity, even though I was only getting 26 Shillings in the Army, but that was ...see more
As you look at this picture, the hedgerow and trees on the right hid an old spring water bottling plant. It was all very basic. We discovered it one day on a trip to One Tree Hill. As a 'gang' of boys from Goldsmiths Avenue, we used to wander all over the place exploring and tree climbing. We had a tree along the Corringham Road, before The Manorway was built, that had the top cut off leaving a large flat area that ...see more
My twin sister and I were recalling the day of the Coronation all those years ago. Jane and I were 8 years old. That morning we walked to Diggle's gargage next to the Co-operative on Hough Lane.
We were' allowed' to watch the Coronation through a big window at the front of the house/building. It was raining all the time while we watched. We have often wondered why we weren't allowed ...see more
I and my family stayed at the Ferry House, next to the Boat House from 1965 to 1973. The house was then owned by the wife of my dad's boss and we used to be able to go for a fortnight each summer. We used to park our car, with permission, on the drive of a big house opposite Dylan Thomas's writing shed, and then everything - bedding, food and personal belongings - had to be carried along the cliff walk and ...see more
The actual day of the Coronation it rained, not only in London but also at the village of Cresswell, home of my mother's family for several Centuries. The rain didn't bother us as we spent most of the day in the house of my Great Aunt watching the ceremony on her 9in TV, the only set in the row of fishermen's cottages once known as Fisher Row but now gentrified into South Side.The fact that every house ...see more
I have the fondest memories of Caister on Sea. We used to have a week there every year and my sister and I were the only kids in our street that had a holiday every year. Like most people in the East End of London, we had very little money, but my dad worked on the railway and got travel concessions as part of his employment package. This enabled us to travel by train to Yarmouth Vauxhall and then ...see more
I remember Mr. Beecham, a lovely teacher who took us for science - but look out if you misbehaved. I would watch fearfully as he dished out punishment. He would take you into a little side room he called his 'cupboard' and tan your behind with a big white plimsole. One day I was caught messing around and it was my turn for the big white plimsole, I was mortified. I was marched into the cupboard with the sound of the class ...see more
I n 1965 my parents retired to Saltash and my father built himself a small boat. As it was moored off the end of the garden. He looked around for a dingy to get to and fro and eventually found one in Gunnislake. Guess who got the task of rowing it down to Saltash. What a journey for a towney that had hardly been in a boat before. Fortunately the dingy was small and light [fibre glass] and the weather good also ...see more
Light-years before the introduction of the mobile phone, Welling in the 1950's had mobile networks of its own. These were weekly delivery services to households in and around local streets. As a young child I was always excited by the Saturday arrival of the R. White soft drinks lorry and our usual order of lemonade, cream soda and Tizer. I remember well the familiar clinking of glass bottles in wooden ...see more
I Join the Railway
In the summer of 1953, my Aunt and Uncle were staying with us for their holiday. It must have been my Uncle who first spotted the advertisement in the Dartmouth Chronicle for a Junior Booking Clerk at Kingswear Station.
Everyone knew I was not fond of school, so it seemed natural that I should apply for the job. With some help from my Uncle, I sent off ...see more
We were raised in a pit house on Springfield (sometimes 'Avenue') near the far end of Ings Lane, in the fifties. It was a small street, only 6 houses. 2 or 3 keys would open both front and back doors (and the coal-house) of the whole street; but you hardly ever locked the door anyway. Often our small 'gang' walked over the lane towards Broomhill where there was a small wood. We would pinch a ...see more
I was raised in Mountsorrel in the Soar valley near Leicester. It was a Norman village that lay alongside the river Soar under Castle Hill. The hill got its name from the mote and bailey type 12c castle built by the Beaumonts – Earls of Leicester who were given land by William the Conqueror. It is first mentioned in 1150 when its strategic position for a castle was first noticed. Some say the name of the village ...see more
I was born in 1938 and my maternal grandparents lived in a tiny shop on Havant Road, Cosham. I remember I used to write to them occasionally which is how I remember the address. I can't ,though, recall the number. Their name was Owen. I know that when my mother and I travelled on the No. 31 bus from Fishbourne to visit them my mother always gave the destination as "The Red Lion" and I do recall that the shop ...see more
I think it must have been 1952 or 3 when I went to live on Kingwood Common with my parents in the old nissen huts left by the German POWs, and afterwards by Polish refugees. We knew the place as Kingdom Camp, or just 'The Camp'. There were a good few families living there that I remember and they formed a friendly community of people that were waiting for council houses in some of the nearby villages. My ...see more
We moved in to our new house in Rosemary Avenue in 1938. We had a Triumph car and my father built a garage of timber and asbestos sheets and laid concrete runways for it (they're still there). I started school in 1939 at the infant school in Down Street. One of our neighbours had a daughter Shirley, the same age as me and we went to school together. When the Blitz first started in 1940 we couldn't get ...see more
When I was around 11 years old in the early '60s we used to go to Chapel every year and stayed in Standish Bungalow. It was owned by my mother's employer who allowed us to go there as a reward for her devoted service. Lovely bungalow and so full of character and very secluded. I recall one year my father found a large box kite in the bungalow and suggested that we fly it on the beach, ...see more
When I lived in Wokingham in the 1950s, I remember a double fronted cycle shop on Denmark Street (next door to the entrance to some sort of meeting hall?) - you can just see part of the hanging sign for the shop in picture number W123016. To me then the shop seemed quite large and was certainly stuffed full of bikes and accessories that I coveted. I can still remember the wood flooring and smell of ...see more
I moved from Blyth to Seaton Sluice into a newly built house in Cresswell Avenue in 1957. Life as a child in the village was exciting; most days we would either play on the beach and harbour or the new building development behind Parkfield in Easedale. We made camps in the former garden of the demolished Jacobean house at Seaton Lodge and used Starlight Castle in the dene as our own.
At ...see more
My parents often told me this story.
My Great Grandfather was John Roberts. His son, my father, Thomas Glyndwr Roberts and my mother Myra Roberts (Evans) as young children were playing on the swings in Blaen Park.
My father was pushing Myra on the swings and she asked him to stop as he was pushing her too high. He said I'll only stop if you say you'll marry me.
She finally agreed ...see more
I was fascinated when I saw the new development of Garndiffaith photo. This photo is of Lasgarn View, Varteg, which is just above the Garn.
I was born in Primrose Cottage in 1951 with my brother as we were twins. My name was Marilyn Jenkins, my twin was Mervyn.
We had so much fun in those days, when we moved to Lasgarn View. Wow, the back of the house lead onto Lasgarn Wood an imaginary world of climbing trees, ...see more
Our family moved to Friars Road in the summer of 66, from a damp house in Boothen Green, which looked over toward the Michelin Factory. I was 5 years old. My father Graham was a former art student at Burslem College of Art under the painter, poet and playwrite Arthur Berry, and by the 70’s became a tv engineer. Mother Kathleen was a Nurse. I remember the World Cup was on at the time of the move.
Our back garden ...see more
I was 17 years old and lived at no 7 Tivoli Road, and when Father Christmas arrived at the front door with 4 cwt of coal my mum put newspaper down the hall and throughout the house so that the coal man could dump the coal in the shed. So Christmas Day we all sat around the fire to keep warm - and cold at our backs. We cooked chestnuts on a shovel and played cards, and my dad played the piano and we all sang carols. No ...see more
I lived as a child at number 110 henwood lane Catherine de barnes or better known as catney.The house we lived in was the lodge to the hospital. I lived with mother and father,4 sisters and 3 brothers. We spent 3 years there from 1962 untill1965.in 1962 I remember my dad and I going into the woods and looking for some where to dig an hole I was only 5 at the time and did not understand what was going on, ...see more