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 1751 - 1800 of 2029 in total
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 we ...see more
I moved to Andover in 1940 with my mum and sister, to live with my grandparents, my dad was all over the place in the RAF. My grandad owned a riding stable in Anton Road, towards the town. The side of the stable building had a huge painted sign 'Reddings Riding Stables' and I spent many happy hours there mucking out and polishing tack. I went to New Street Primary school, then when I was 11 went to the Senior School on ...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 short ...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 until ...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 along ...see more
The young man on the outside of the pavement is me, the group standing in the distance are family members and the two on my right are demanding to know where I am going, as it happened I was going to see my Gran. Did not know who the kids were and still don't but if you look at the picture my fists are clenched I was ready for a fight but they backed off, I still walk with clenched fists to this day! If you ...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, "morning ...see more
My great grandfather Henry Braun owned the Vale of Health Hotel (shown in the right of this photo) overlooking the lake, from 1877 until the early 1900's. The hotel was used as an Anglo German club called the Athenaeum and by 1908 had 1200 members - 500 English, 700 German, including many political radicals. The hotel became a factory during World War I and then remained derelict for some years. The hotel ...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 think ...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 Vauxhall ...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
It is ironic that these massive buildings that dominate the ridge at Ashley Down were known for generations as the Muller Homes. Their founder, German immigrant George Muller, was insistent on the title 'The New Orphan House' as he did not want his name to be prominent, for he considered himself merely an instrument in the venture. In fact, in his youth he must have seemed an unlikely candidate for such benevolent ...see more
The Dutch House - this 17th century building once stood on the corner of Wine Street. It was reduced to a charred skeleton during the Second World War and for safety's sake it had to be pulled down.
The Dutch House was Bristol's best-known landmark before the Blitz. By 1732 it was the house of John Vaughan, a goldsmith, in 1810 it became the Castle Bank, in 1826 the Stuckey's Bank; and by 1855 it was occupied by Mr ...see more
St John's Gate in Broad Street in Bristol is the only surviving medieval city gateway, at one one time there were seven gates into the old city. Fortified gateways pierced the town wall at intervals. St John's Gateway, originally one of these, is the only Bristol one to survive. Portcullis channels are still visible within the arch. Queen Elizabeth I rode through here on entering the city in 1574.
St ...see more
Over a thousand years ago Bristol's harbour developed around the lowest bridging point of the River Avon. The exceptional tidal range of the Severn Estuary and Avon carried laden ships into the city and scoured the river of silt.
Local trade flourished between Bristol, South Wales, the Severn ports and Ireland. During the Middle ages the port grew in prestige, trading with the Atlantic seaboard, Iceland and the ...see more
Pisa has its famous leaning tower - and so does Bristol, with its drunkenly off-vertical tower of Temple Church in Temple Street. The tower isn't on the stupendous scale of its Italian counterpart, it's true. But its prominent position by busy Victoria Street and its proximity to Temple Meads station make it one of the most startling sights to be seen by newly-arrived visitors to Bristol.
Poor ...see more
Our family had returned to England at the very end of 1948 from a short overseas BOAC posting in Montreal. My father, a BOAC pilot, was due to begin training to fly Boeing Stratocruisers at Filton in 1949, and along with other crew families we were placed on a new housing estate in Westbrook Road. Shortly before Christmas 1951 my older brother (8) and I went shopping in the Centre travelling in by bus, I ...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
Goddamn fish and chips!
At the very bottom of the Christmas Steps lies a building thought to date back to the 13th century, which has housed a fish and chip shop for well over 100 years. One of the first ever 'chippies' to open in England, this shop won a Best in Britain award whilst under the management of the inimitable Grace and Robert. After taking over the restaurant in 1964, the couple remained ...see more
The High Street - the scene of many stirring events in Bristol's history and the heart of the city - was destroyed and lost forever during the Second World War.
As a city with docks and industry at its heart, Bristol was a natural target for German bombing during the Second World War. The German Luftwaffe were able to trace a course up river from Avonmouth using reflected moonlight. This path brought them right into ...see more
Arnos Vale Cemetery is the location of the tomb of Raja Ram Mohun Roy - 'The Father of Modern India'. He died when on a visit to Bristol in 1833. This gentleman left home and 'sought knowledge by his extensive travels'. He mastered ten languages, encouraged the study of English in early 19th century India and was a journalistic pioneer in India.
He came to England in 1830 to plead the cause of the ...see more
The large vessel in the foreground is a pleasure steamer belonging to Campbells, the 'Empress Queen', and was the first screw steamer owned by the company. The vessel on the opposite bank was a William Sloan steamer, registered at Leith, although her name, partly obscured, was not one of their regulars and may have been on charter whilst either the 'Annan' or 'Findhorn' was in dry dock. They operated from ...see more
Two of the cranes were purchased by 'City Dock Ventures' and two by the city council. All four were put into the museums care in 1989. Although the electricity supply to them was cut in 1974, one has been restored and another is in the process of being restored by a dedicated team of volunteers, led by Dave 'The Crane' Cole.
One crane is now fully working and sometimes open for the public to go up to the ...see more
The Llandoger Trow - It is rumoured that Daniel DeFoe had met Alexander Selkirk ( shipwrekced sailor who had been rescued by a Bristol ship) in the Llandoger, on whose story he based his book 'Robinson Crusoe'.
The Llandoger is also supposed to be the model for The Admiral Benbow pub in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure book 'Treasure Island'. Blackbeard the pirate, who also came from Bristol, may ...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
Only a handful of people have survived the terrible fall from the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The most celebrated was young lover Sarah Ann Henley.
Sarah was a local girl from St Philip's in Bristol. In 1885 she was 22 and working in a Bristol factory when she was jilted by her boyfriend. The heartbroken girl made her way up from industrial St Philips to Clifton and the bridge and, in despair, she ...see more
It has long been claimed that the lady in black who haunts the beautiful old Theatre Royal in King Street, home of the Bristol Old Vic, is none other than the great actress Sarah Siddons. There are similar tales of Siddons haunting other theatres but why should she haunt the Theatre Royal where she rarely appeared and where nothing momentous happened to her?
The answer is that the Theatre Royal's dark ...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 shop ...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 was ...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 old ...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 kicked ...see more
Having a harbour right in the city centre gave Bristol an unrivalled attraction for visitors who gazed in wonder at the sight of tall masts - 'In the middle of the street, as far as you can see, hundreds of ships, their masts as thick as they can stand by one another, which is the oddest and most surprising sight imaginable', wrote Alexander Pope in 1732.
A long street, full of ships in the middle and ...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 came ...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 statements ...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 was ...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 village ...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 harvest ...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 area ...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 Johnston ...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 left ...see more
Most of the names state the obvious. This is an important crossroad. Turn right to go to Mill Green along Mill Lane. Turn left to go to Vye's Stores (pre-1960) and then to the Church in Church Lane or down Brook Lane, where we assume the Brook never ran dry. We also assume that Eastry was much closer to the sea 1500 years ago. There is a view from the church of a vast flat area which we imagine has seen the sea recede. In ...see more
