Featured Memories

Reconnecting with our shared local history.

Enjoy these selected memories that have amused or fascinated our team - we think you will enjoy them! if you want to add your own memory and join in, it's easy - just search for your favourite places and look for the 'Add Your Memory' buttons to begin.

I played in the standing corn stooks behind our house, had my first pony/horse ride at Dixon's farm where my horse went berserk in a potato field, so I was put onto and stayed on a horse lead. I flew my kites on Penn Common, I skated on frozen ponds (No skates - I couldn't afford them) in the distant fields, built snowmen on the green spaces on our estate, fished for minnows in West Park, ...see more
This 1904 photo shows both the main line through Box but also the entry to a huge underground military store and factory. When I worked at the MoD in the 1960's I recall that there were 2 lines at one end of the tunnel and 4 at the other. The plans of the extent of the underground works and stores were not fully shown on the plans held at the office; much of it was still classified as "secret" and ...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
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
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
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
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
My wife was living in Northhumberland Avenue when a V1 doodlebug passed by very low, to land unexploded at the top end of the avenue. She lived at number 208. The house number it landed at was about 220 to 230. It was on a Sunday afternoon. The man living there was in the kitchen having his lunch, and walked along the V1 to turn off his gas and water! My wife remembers quite clearly the V1 coming up the street, ...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
It was about 1953 when we discovered pluffers and ca caws. The pluffer was a device we used for a pea-shooter. This was a straight stem from a weed and it was about an inch or so in diameter, hollow through the centre and collected from Millfield tip where they grew in abundance. We would cut a length measuring about a foot and load our mouths up with the ammo, i.e. the ca caws. These were the berries from the ...see more