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.
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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How does it feel, seeing these places again, as they used to look?
This week's Places
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Displaying Memories 36801 - 36880 of 36925 in total
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.
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.
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 father and grandfather both served with Henry Blogg on the 'Louisa Hartwell' and my dad was one of the pallbearers when Henry Blogg died.
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
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 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.
Date of this photograph is c1874/75 as the railway viaduct is complete.
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
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.
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 boat in the photograph was completed in 1949 by my father George Watson. We lived in Palmers Green, London N13. I am up forward then aged 11. I think the picture was taken in 1949 as I can remember the occasion well.
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 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.
As a boy of 11 or 12, I left school everyday at 3.30pm. I then drove the cows to Mr Goodings Mill about 30 or 40 yards away from Mr Shepherd's shop. After being milked I drove them back again. In wintertime I'd grind up mangolds. I was paid 1/6 for this. Then I worked at Mr Shepherd's shop running errands and did odd jobs etc. I remember very well he had fowl houses under the Bridge road but the Council made ...see more
My parents ran the Central Stores from 1951 to 1955, their names were Tony and Eunice Jeanes. The date of c1955 is about right as this was the year that my father and mother sold the business to Mr Dean, whose sign appears in the photograph. I was two years old when my parents took over the business and my earliest childhood memories are of life in this Dorset village. It was from these premises that at the ...see more
My grandfather bought Smiths Car Showroom after the war when it was the Green Dolphin Cafe. I can remember going to the cafe in the 1950s when I was small. I think it is now a windows showroom.
My father was a greengrocer and his shop appears in this photograph on the left side going into the Rex Cinema arcade, a butchers shop was on the right side. During the war years and into the very early 1950s, he was the largest greengrocer in Bridgwater, having the Eastover shop and one in Taunton Road, my parents looking after one each. They also had a third shop which my sister ran for several years. That ...see more
I understand my great grandfather worked in this forge. He was born Charles Holness around 1830 and married Ann Marsh in the 1850s. My father's mother Agnes Annie Holness was one of their children. She had an older sister Alice, brothers Fred and Bert and William Henry who died of smallpox in May 1902. He worked on boats at Fordwich. My father's father was Charles Albert Tucker who was a blacksmith in ...see more
I started my career in January 1959 as a young bobby at West End Central Police Station Savile Row. The trestles positioned to the east of 'Eros' which cordon off the road suggest the photograph was taken when the Piccadilly one-way system was being introduced. I remember the elegant stonework of the County Fire Office benefited from the recently enacted 'Clean Air Act'. Much of the grimey ...see more
My grandfather, William Simpson Bruchshaw, is the man coming out of the greenhouse with the plant in his hand. He was head gardener to Mr Munro Walker until Mr Walker died. My grandfather's youngest brother, Henry, was farm manager on the estate. While at Pell Wall, my grandfather experimented in growing tomatoes on potatoes in about 1908 I think. We still have the photos in the family. After he left Pell Wall my grandfather lived in Little Drayton. He died aged 91 in 1952.
I was amazed and delighted to see a photograph of my mother and grandmother. Nearest the camera is my grandmother, Mrs Archie Turner (1892-1974) who lived in Whitford Road, Birkenhead. Next to her is her eldest daughter, my mother, Mrs Clifford Bolt (1916-2003) who lived in Arthur Street, Birkenhead. They would both have been tickled pink to see themselves in print and famous!
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.
The roof of the Town Hall was set alight by incendiary bombs in the heavy air-raids on Manchester and surrouding areas in late December 1940. I remember seeing it, being a young boy at the time. Sale is about six miles from Manchester centre.
St John's Hospital is home to 35 elderly people. 24 live in the older part. There are 6 houses each holding 4 flats. House six can be seen in the photo, it stands alongside the hospital chapel. The chapel is used twice a week by the residents. Beyond the chapel and graveyard are two more modern buildings, St John's House is about 40 years old and comprises of 2 flats, one of which is occupied by the ...see more
The children in the boat are Leslie (boy), Harry (his brother), Noel (his sister) Wren. His other sister Millie Wren is sitting on the riverbank. The other child is a neighbour. For many years Millie Wren was a teacher at Lightburn School, Ulverston.
I built the boat shown on the right hand side of the photograph.
Bailey Bridge pontoon MKVI N0.19053 was manufactured by Gee Walker & Slater Ltd, Uttoxeter Road, Derby and sent to Engineers Stores, US Army Depot, Newbury, Berkshire on 29/9/1944. At post-war WD surplus sales, a considerable number of these Bailey Bridge pontoons were bought by Levesley's International and stored at ...see more
I was born and lived the early years of my life in South Molton. My father had his own building firm there. In 1958 we moved to Croyde Bay my father having bought this large house on the cliffs above the bay for £1800. This photo shows it before it became a motel. He put a new roof on the property in tiles rather than the slates which were normally used at that time. He then converted the top floor into our new ...see more
Ormerod House passed out of the Ormerod family when the male line died out and the three daughters of the last Ormerod married. Their husbands were John Hargreaves, a local coal mine owner, the Rev William Thursby who became vicar of the local church and General Scarlett who led the Charge of the Heavy Brigade to retake the field after the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava. The family fortunes ...see more
This building was known to us as Hammett's Farm, properly West Orchard Farm, in the Higher End area of St Athan. Arthur Hammett and his wife ran the farm and I occasionally helped to deliver milk from the farm around the village from a horse and cart. Arthur, who lived to the great age of 92, and continued farming to the last, would bottle his own milk in a tiny parlour. He was a lovely chap and always gave us a ...see more
In the early 1940s the bay window on the first floor over the front door of Rotherham Grammar School was that of my second form classroom. On a rainy day we were 'attacked' by one of the other second forms as a result of which I was pushed through one of the windows. Fortunately the wartime shatterproof gauze in place prevented me and the window from falling to the ground. Several of us received six of the best for that lunchtime episode!
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.
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.
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
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 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.
The lady standing on the bridge is my great grandmother Hannah Elton nee Churchill and the small boy her grandson, Cecil Henry Stickland, my uncle. He became the verger at Christchurch Priory. Hannah lived with her husband Henry, a carpenter, in the cottage to the left of the photograph just out of shot. Hannah was the local midwife and at the time the photograph was taken her daughter Louisa Eliza had returned to her parents home for the birth of my mother, Ivy Emma Stickland.
I lived with my family in St Athan village from the time of my first birthday in 1946 to my marriage in 1970. My wife and I were married at the church shown in the photograph. The church is dedicated to an Irish saint by the name of Tathan. The village was once known as Llandathan, then Saint Tathen and finally St Athan(s). At this church I was a choirboy, Sunday School teacher and bellringer too. There are six ...see more
My mother, Joyce Clark (formerly Smith) born in 1924, recognises this photograph of Quarry Hill. Her father William Smith was the sawyer for Mabledon Estate (on the right) and was responsible for felling the trees on the right of the photograph. Mabledon Estate (the gates are just off the photograph) was owned by the Deacon family who were London bankers. Mum's Uncle Charlie (Charles Eastwood) was the bailiff for ...see more
The house shown immediately in front of the church was a private school run by Miss Margaret and Miss Cecil Cawse. Both my father and I attended this school.
The building on the left became an amusement arcade in the early 1950s and then a dental surgery. Later it was demolished and replaced by a new building of flats and a new HQ related to Cowes week which was opened by Prince Philip in 2005.
This is the Paardeburg Memorial (the Green Howards). Due to the amalgamation of the East and West Yorkshire Regt. our name is now what the regiment has always called itself. The Green Howards Regt Association carry out the service of remembrance on the Saturday before the national day in the area of the Paardeburg Memorial and lay their wreath there.
I attended the local Pelham County Secondary Boys School which was close by. A number of my friends who attended came from outlying districts such as Carshalton, Chessington, Tolworth and Walton on Thames, travelling by Southern Railway services to the main line station further up the Broadway. The photograph must have been taken around 4pm as some of the pedestrians are in school uniform walking towards the ...see more
