Recent 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.
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Displaying Memories 36801 - 36880 of 36926 in total
I lived in Malton for many years and as a schoolboy sang in the church choir. Services alternated on Sundays between St Leonard's Church (the one with a spire) and the older St Michael's church in the Market Place. St Leonard's was eventually transferred to the Malton catholic following as diminishing membership of the Church of England Church could not support both buildings.
The author of Pembrokeshire book describes this pic as houses on the edge of the cliff. The buildings are actually an ex wartime camp containing a searchlight unit and some coastal guns. Now a caravan park.
The name of the hotel was The Munro Hotel, after the owner who built it. It's now called The Munro Inn.
The river is the Kennet and this view shows the junction of the Kennet river (from low level bridge on the right) and the Kennet and Avon Canal (towards the locks straight ahead). The tributary to the left is towards the West Mills flour mill (water powered). The view is upstream (West).
The mill in the photograph is Low Mill at Grassington. My ancestor William Irving lived here with his family before 1820 until his death in 1843 aged 84. He was a woolcomber. His son James Irving also lived here with his family until his death in 1873 age 93. He was an overlooker. The mill in the photograph has three sections. It is only the centre section which has been demolished. The other two sections ...see more
The buildings from left to right are the Post Office with Drakelow Press printing and bookbinding firm in buildings above and behind it. Established prior to 1827 by a Stephen Dodd, in 1951 it became known as Drakelow Press. The there is the Black Horse pub, a wool/haberdashery shop, a grocery shop, Gibbs and Dandy Ironmongers which was a treasure trove of nails, screws, string, buckets, mops etc. Then on the corner a cafe.
The buildings from left to right are an antique shop, then a sweet shop that was full of the most delightful assortment of sweets all in glass jars and weighed out on brass scales into white paper bags. Then Dudeney and Johnston the grocers - they had a man who went around the villages on his bicycle one day a week taking grocery orders which were then delivered by van to your door. The door with a canopy and ...see more
This is my great grandfather.
The shop next door to The Ampthill News was and still is Cheesman's the chemist and the shop next door to that was Underwood's an electrical appliance shop.
The large building on the left edge of the photograph is Ruswarp Mill. A mill has been here since Saxon times and the first written record of this mill appears in the Domesday book. The name Ruswarp may have originated from the mill. The mill was water powered and the river would have been dammed to make a mill race. Dams in this area are known as 'scarps' and if the dam was made of wood, the brushwood was called ...see more
This is a swing bridge - it swings horizontally. It actually swings out in two halves to rest over the pointed timber structures that can be seen in the river. These timber structures are known locally as 'dolphins' and are sometimes used when maintenance of the bridge arms is required. The large building on the far side of the river at the end of the bridge to the right is the Dolphin Hotel. Presumably it takes its name from the bridge dolphins.
This photo shows my great grandfather's shop, nearly opposite the one owned by Jesse Boot. The shop has (on the left hand side of the photo) the name S. Page (Samuel Page) just above the wooden statue of Jonas Hanway holding an umbrella and the name of the shop was Hanway House; Samuel Page being an Umbrella Manufacturer and Dealer in Ladies and Gentlemen's waterproofs and all kinds of Travelling ...see more
This is my grandfather standing in his whelk house looking at the boats as they unload. He died after a motor car accident on Beach Road in 1934.
No 23 Middle Street, Yeovil was a chemist's, name Francis.
The Smithy was destroyed by fire about 1900. A new Smithy was built in its place.
One of my brothers worked at the fish shop 'Packman's' next to the greengrocers and the lady with the pushchair and small child is my sister-in-law and her children.
This photograph shows my father's car reg EDE 3 at the traffic lights in Castle Square. He was William Gywther Thomas, Divisional Highways Surveyor. The reason the car looks as if it has been abandoned was that the traffic lights had failed and father was investigating the reason at the control box on the corner of the street to the left of the photograph out of shot. The police are there to direct the ...see more
The gentleman in the foreground of the Quadrant in the dark suit is my father Albert (Bert) Brandon a local business man. He opened a fruit and flower shop at 12 Albion Street which was previously his mother's shop and sold haberdashery and household linens. Then, before his retirement, he started The Princes School of Motoring. He is waiting for my mother to come out of the bakers and she is possibly the lady ...see more
This view shows my father's cafe/bakery 'The Dorothy' and other relatives shops were the tea gardens and chocolate shop.
Re Smart's Fish Saloon. My parents Peter and Wyn Pellerade owned this from 1952 to the early 60s when it was demolished to make room for flats. The site never got used but has recently been developed into a doctors surgery. This was in the ancient rights of Bishopstoke, the original post office. It was a beautiful 4 bedroom cottage with the shop space of three rooms on the side.
My family and I are convinced I am the man walking next to the man in the jacket and tie who appears to have his arm around a child. The Austin A40 pick up truck in the foreground behind the telephone box could be the one I owned at about that time.
The premises on the left of the photograph were the house and business of Thomas Langstaff, a rope maker, between c1810 and c1900.
I am the lady at the door with my husband Don Weston. The date is about 1959 because that is the year we had electricity in the village and started to sell ice cream. Hence the Walls sign. My parents Mr and Mrs Caesar Evans started the tearooms here in 1922 and after my mother died in 1952 my husband and I ran this little business together very happily for fifty two years until his sudden death three years ago. ...see more
This view shows my house. It is the one at this end of Springfield Terrace - you can see a number of the terrace chimneys peeping out over the top of the hill to the left. We overlook the River Torridge. You can see the old medieval bridge in the background. Our terrace was built around 1850 for the managers of the railway company (the old Torrington to Barnstaple railway ran just in front of our house until 1965). ...see more
When my parents moved to Wokingham in 1950 I understand that it had a popululation of 5,000 and my memories are of a sleepy market town. I gather the population is now about 60,000 and it certainly shows when I return - it seems very built up and very busy. We lived in Easthampstead Road and I see that this road now has many more houses, with infilling and houses built in back gardens etc. but it is still very recognisable.
The group of three boys on their bicyles reminds me of hot summer days riding back from the Forest school to my home in Wokingham. We would often stop here - outside the hardware shop (Husseys?) and have a last chat before going our separate ways - clearly there was not much traffic about! In fact I could well be the boy on the left but if so I cannot recognise the other two. At this time Wokingham had a Boots ...see more
The Morris car depicted in the photograph was overhauled and bodied by my late father, Arthur Parker, in 1951-2. He had removed the body from a c1937 Morris 8 van, overhauled the mechanics and the chassis, and built from scratch a new shooting brake style body. As a 7-year old I was thrilled to be able to help with the work and immensely proud of the result. Unfortunately, when father came to register the car the ...see more
The buildings featured from left to right - (I do not know the history of the white house), then there are the pillars which are the entrance to the churchyard and mortuary chapel. The church, built in 1865, was used until 1980 for funerals only. It was then declared redundant and turned into a Heritage Centre. In the churchyard, which is still used, are the graves of several Second World War Canadian, Polish and English ...see more
The owner was my grandfather George Rowe. My father, his son, was born in Tenby in 1905 and died in late 1999 aged 93 years. You might be interested to learn that the boat (M26) in the middle of your picture was called ''The Annie'' and was wrecked near Goscar Rock in a severe storm. My grandfather (the skipper) was found half drowned by my grandmother on the beach. I recollect from accounts given by my father that the ...see more
This photograph shows two ladies chatting together in the foreground. On the right in the floral dress is my mother Mrs Beatrice Farnsworth. My family have been farmers in the locality for three generations. My mother's car is parked on the road just behind her. The shop to the side is Perham Cox, which was a family grocer, which also delivered groceries to our house on a weekly basis. The other lady is Mrs Jean ...see more
The white weatherboarded house was the farmhouse of the farm where my mother, Joyce Clark, worked along with another 3 girls in the Land Army during the Second World War. It was called Cogger's Farm. She was there whilst the Battle of Britain was fought overhead. They grew hops, wheat, barley, oats and enough vegetables to supply the local school. The oast houses behind the house belonged to the farm. The ...see more
I worked in the restaurant at Grange Farm until 1957. The West Ham United football team used to come in for a meal after their training session.
A foundation stone laid by Arnold James Burton in 1933 is to be found on the extreme right of this shop, just off the picture. I'm sure this foundation stone used to be at the other end of the building. The possible reason for its move is that a separate small shop unit has been created at this end of the building. The building opposite was the Blue Cap Dog pub and we used to be able to leave cycles in their yard for one ...see more
My late husband's father and uncle owned the grocery shop known as Hook Brothers. This shop was forced to close when Barclays Bank took over the building in the early 1960s. The closure meant that links were severed with noted local residents such as the Mountbatten family at Broadlands.
The furniture van to the left will have been carried to Barnstaple by rail. There were special low 'road vehicle trucks' onto which these vans could be loaded and moved long distances around the country. and it is standing next to the end loading docks at this end of the station.
My father and grandfather both served with Henry Blogg on the 'Louisa Hartwell' and my dad was one of the pallbearers when Henry Blogg died.
This is a photograph of me as a young man operating my passenger carrying narrow boat 'Bellatrix', trading as Midland Navigation Packet Boat Service. 'Bellatrix' is a traditional narrow boat built in 1935 at Yarwoods of Northwich.
The building on the left is a carriage shed, used for holding spare passenger vehicles under cover. It is from the North Devon Railway in the 1850s and still appears to have broad gauge track (7ft gauge - not removed until 1877) laid into it. Access was by means of a small turntable just off the picture to the left. The Ilfracombe Railway is being built - the low embankment can just be seen with what appears to be ...see more
Date of this photograph is c1874/75 as the railway viaduct is complete.
The property on the left of the photograph marked 'Printing Office' is where I grew up and lived until my student days. My parents operated a bakers and confectionery business from the premises. In 1890, when a printing works, it was owned by the Brookes family as can be seen from the sign over the door. Their ownership continued until about 1918, at which time two sisters opened a cafe (Fells Cafe) and ...see more
I was born in Hythe and spent all my childhood there. My brother, sister and I used to walk home from school along the canal bank. In the holidays we would take jam jars and catch tadpoles. In the winter, we would slide on the frozen water.
This is a picture of myself with my sister and brother and my sister's friend. I was 13 years old. My sister Theo is the girl with the handbag, she was 9 years old and my brother John was 3 years old. We had been to the local store Bences and are standing outside the smallest pub in the county, The Chequers Inn. Our family home was at the top of Glovers Lane. The garden with dad's apple and cherry trees can be seen in the photograph running the full length of the lane.
The little girl is my grandmother Jane Peart born 18 September 1884. Her nickname was Ginny. Her daughter, my late Auntie was called Jennie. Beside her is my great uncle, Robert Leadley Peart who drowned at St Petersburg on 19 July 1908 aged 20 years.
My father Oliver Hiinwood was postmaster here from 1903 to 1961. He used to take photographs of the village and send them to Frith's to be developed and then sold the postcards in the shop. The photograph shows the garage where we kept our car and to the side of that was a bakehouse where bread was baked daily. The person walking towards the shop is the Revd Frank Walter Hyne-Davy who was vicar of Nether Wallop.
I was evacuated to Chester during World War II and met Romany and his dog Raq on a number of occasions when he visited our school. He talked to us about the countryside, did beautiful simple charcoal drawings of the creatures he was discussing, told us what to wear to become 'Nature detectives' and even played tunes for us on the piano. He was a lovely man.
The house in the photograph is The Limes and has a family connection. A great uncle on my mother's side purchased this property. He was Alfred William Reynolds, who was an innkeeper in the White Hart pub opposite the house. He combined publican and greyhound coursing trainer for a period in the early 1900s. He is said to have purchased The Limes after training the winner of the Waterloo Cup in 1908. A ...see more
Here we are looking down West Street with the village school visible at the end. On the left is Tetts Farm with the milk churns, while next is Manor Farm, farmed by Reg Newick. The thatched building before the school is Old Farm, farmed by Rhesa Warry, with a little sweet shop next door. All these farms are now private houses. Behind the village cross can be seen the shop window of the Post ...see more
This cottage is in Bedford Lane. I lived in the house called Connemara which is still in Bedford Lane. My father Samuel Frederick Richardson and his brother George were both bricklayers. Both were demolishing the cottage and they were burning the thatch. My brother John was playing dare. He walked through the outer edge of the white ash and dared me to walk through the middle. Unfortunately I did ...see more
The bungalow in the centre of the photograph is called Donkey Halt as when the carts of pilchards were taken up the hill by donkeys they stopped there for a rest before tackling the very steep hill to the main road at the top.
A fine cricket ground was included within the walls where Bracknell CC played each year. There was a concert party formed from among the inmates that used to give performances in the villages around Crowthorne: the party travelled with a strong force of warders. Just after WWII there was an occasion when a notorious murderer managed to escape and the alarm was sounded. It was powerful enough to be ...see more
The house in the middle is where I lived from 1972. The address is 62 Main Street and the house was called Barn Croft. The house on the right was a farm and the house that the middle house was built on was part of the farmyard. When the farm closed, one of the daughters had this built c1930. She lived there until she died c1970. Her name was Olive Clarke and was one of three girls I believe. The house ...see more
The van on the left of the photograph was owned by my great-grandfather Wilfred Redman who had the butcher's shop at 41 The Triangle, Westport from the early 1900's until 1945. He died in that year and his son took over the family business. Wilfred Redman came to Malmesbury in the early 1900s from Nailsworth, Glos where his mother had a stationery shop. The van was registered to Wilfred on 30 June 1936.
The children are twin boys. Matthew Peart on the left and Robert Peart on the right. Robert was drowned at the age of twenty when he was swept overboard near St Petersburg on 19 July 1908.
I was married in this church 40 years ago. It was where the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, worshipped. the buildings on the right have been demolished. There used to be a bank, I think it was Barclays, and a small motor repairers called Davies Bros.
On the left hand side of the photograph next to the zebra crossing is Eastwells, a greengrocers and fruiterers. My father Harold Besent who is in the window in a white coat was a partner and also the managing director from 1940 until he retired in the late 1970s. This photograph was taken before the shop was modernised, and a new door and windows fitted. The back of the premises was very large, there was a very ...see more
The photograph shows a shop and house which my grandmother ran between 1931 and 1952. It was then run by my uncle until it was sold as a house in 1979. My grandmother's name was Colville and she ran the shop as a general stores. Before the building was a shop it was a public house called the Axe and Compass and part of the building was a cobblers shop. The building itself goes back to 1599.
The man standing on the bottom left hand side with the white T-shirt and quiff is my grandad! He is now seventy. The car next to him was his first car and his pride and joy!
I moved into these cottages with my family in 1935 and my parents were there until 1959. Originally it was a barn hence the name 'Barn Row' and was converted into cottages in 1836 as marked in the brickwork on the other side of the cottages. All the time my parents lived there, there was no sewerage and only a stand tap in the middle yard to serve all four cottages. But times have changed and the village has been renovated and one or two new houses have been built.
Mr and Mrs Raines ran an efficient postal service from this humble shed at the bottom of their garden in 1908. There was surely hardly room to swing a mail sack. The slot through which villagers poked their letters is at the left hand corner. The village was of course much smaller then: there were only four large families and no more than a dozen cottages. In the late 1940s the post office moved to a building in ...see more
I noticed with some surprise a photo of myself aged about 12 years. I am the girl on the left with the ponytail the year being about 1960. I don't recall the boys name but it looks as if we are standing by the machine that used to print letters of the alphabet. I think it cost one old penny for 20/25 letters. There was a metal dial with a brass pointer like the hour hand on a clock and when it was pointing to ...see more
Known as the 'John Barley Corn' children because at the Staithe where they all used to play, there is an inlet. In the 1920s, when boats came past, the children would sing 'Old John Barley Corn if you throw us a penny we will sing you a song'. Sometimes handfuls of pennies would be thrown. The people on one boat 'Nelson' were always quite generous. It was quite a scramble to each get a couple of pennies.
This is a view of the top of West Street with the Post Office on the left. The Postmaster then was Mr Herbert Winn. Opposite is Tetts Farm with the milk churns awaiting collection outside. The farmer was Henry Best. The lady coming along the pavement is Mrs Louisa Stoodley. She was widowed in the First World War and herself lost an arm while working at nearby Lopen factory.
This is the Peart family. Amelia the eldest aged 17 holds her baby brother George. Next to her on the rock is Robert Leadley Peart and at her side is Robert's twin Matthew. Next to Matthew is Jane (known as Ginny) and then Tom. Ginny was born 18th September 1884 and was six years old in this photograph. Robert (on the rock) was drowned aged 20 on 19th July 1908 after being swept overboard at St Petersburg. George was ...see more
My late husband was the professional at Royal St Davids for many years and the only golfer so far to have been both Welsh Amateur Champion and Welsh Professional Champion twice. We lived at 'Plas Owain' which is the house just above the Golf Links on the curve of the road up the hill. It was built in 1907.
The wooden boats in the picture belong to the riverside restaurant, out of shot to the right. As a teenager, in 1974, it was my job on a Sunday afternoon to hire these out. We did have a few people fall out of the boats, but no one complained. A warm brew and some towels was all it took to make things right.
Have seen this view many times in my younger days, back in the late 1920s and early 30s, just after crossing the footbridge over the river, when on my way to see my dear old gran at Harnham. I can still remember the smell of the old mill.
The photograph shows my great-aunt's tea room/restaurant. She was Mrs Matilda Howells, known in the family as Aunt Tilly. I can clearly remember visiting the tea room on many occasions as a 9/10 year old child with my mother Adelaide who was Aunt Tilly's sister. Her husband (Uncle Jack) did all his own baking in a huge wood-fired oven at the rear of the premises and meals for the tea room were cooked in an equally large wood-fired range in the kitchen adjoining.
The elderly man on left is my grandfather Mr James Bishop. He had probably popped in to the Post Office to get tobacco for his pipe. He was born in Worcester in 1883, his father was a master builder and from an early age he used to help carry bricks. He then delivered meat on horseback and went on to manage Redditch Meat Company butcher's shop on Church Green. Then he worked at 'Terry Springs' in the warehouse for ...see more
The couple on the right pavement are my grandparents George Gray and his wife Elizabeth (nee Phippen) of Thornford. The photo would have been taken on a Thursday because after his retirement they always travelled to Sherborne on the once a week bus and would have been walking back to Digby Road just before midday for the bus home. Date about right as born 1887. He retired 1954/5.
I was the main weekday driver of the launch photographed during the student holiday periods of 1955-1958. When I drove it, the name was 'Silver Stream'. It was the largest of a set of three electric launches which carried paying passengers for trips of about 40 minutes duration from the steps on the downstream, north side of the town bridge. Typically this launch would carry about 40 passengers maximum. Silver ...see more
My mother ran Burraton Post Office from 1950 to about 1990 and sold Frith postcards. The cows are being driven by Mrs Cook, a farmer's wife, whose farm was about 300 yards behind the photographer in Liskeard Road, Burraton. The farm was called 'The Elms'. The farmhouse is still there, but is now an old peoples' home called The Elms. The farmland has been built on.
My father Mr Jim Rush is at the far right of this photo in a light shirt, looking rather windswept. At this time he was the proprietor of the Pavilion Hotel and also for a short time the owner of the Alexander Hall which he ran as a dance hall.
In my early teens I spent the war years living in this hotel, when my grandfather was the licensee. I believe he held the licence from 1874 to 1943 - a time record I suspect but I cannot confirm this. He was well known in his time for being an alderman for, I gather, some 40 years. He died still Chairman of the Council's Finance Committee. But he was never mayor as he believed that a licensed victualler ...see more
This was my grandfathers favourite inn at the time the photograph was taken. He was coachman at the Manor House at Long Wittenham a short walk along the 'Maddy' (a road from the inn to Long Wittenham following the river and very prone to flooding). Its a family story that he would often spend too long here and Granny would have to prepare the horse and coach and dress up in his clothes to fetch the master ...see more
My great grandfather worked as a lock keeper at Tyrley at the time of my grandmother's birth in 1883. My great grandfather named William Nixon married an Elizabeth Timmis whose father and brothers also worked as lock keepers at Tyrley and lived there. My grandmother Eva Nixon married Henry Thacker and he too lived near Tyrley and worked as a 'lengthsman' on the canal.
The house on the far right of the terrace was no 9 which together with no 8 formed the premises of Brighton Teacher Training College, which I attended in 1956-58. The road on the left hand side of the picture (just visible) is Paston Place. This eastern area of Brighton is known as Kemp Town.
As a former resident of Bath I recall that this building was not particularly liked. In 1959 the hotel was demolished and a block of 33 flats at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor level with shops at the ground floor was built. The quality of building work and the amenities of the building was exceptional and included electric underfloor heating beneath parquet floors in the main living room and an air extractor system to ...see more
The unique and distinctive property of the Promenade is that its roadway is twice as wide at the top end (Queens Hotel) as it is at the bottom end (High Street), while the buildings double in height from the four stories of the Municipal Offices to the two story insurance office at the top. The reduction in height is by a careful and sophisticated series of architectural gradations involving different ...see more
The gentleman laying on the ground in the front is my great grandfather John 'Teapot' West. He was a fisherman and lifeboatman but also well known for being a 'Fisherman Evangelist'. Together with William Craske and William Long he was a Methodist Preacher for over 50 years. They travelled throughout the county preaching and after visitors heard them they appeared at rallies in such places as London, ...see more
The gentleman with the scythe over his shoulder was my grandfather. His name was Joseph Jackson, born in 1849 at Bootle in Cumberland. He spent most of his life as a tenant farmer, first at Canleton Farm near Egremont also in Cumberland. He then moved to Lane Ends Farm at Haverthwaite in what was then Lancashire owing to subsidence of the land due to iron ore mining from the nearby Florence Mine. He retired from farming in 1919 to Penny Bridge where he spent the rest of his life.
