Mitcheldean, The Courtyard, Lion House Youth Hostel c.1955

Photo ref: M246005

I met my first wife - she was from Mitcheldesn - she also worked for Ranks in the office, her name was June Cowmeadow. Her Father was a polisher at the same factory - Bert Cowmeadow - during the early 60s. I have such a lot of happy memories of the area trips to Cinderford and all through the Forest of Dean. I was living in Pontshill at the time and rode my Lambretta scooter to see my girlfriend. We both are now remarried and live in Perth, Western Australia.

As a 16-year-old, I started work in the wages office of Rank Xerox. There were 6 of us in the office, the boss being Fred Pearce. The other colleagues were Roger Dymond, Mary Evans, Connie Waits, Jean Short and myself. The company used to make cine cameras and projectors and was just begininig to make photocopiers. We used the Kalamazoo system for the doing the wages (no computors in those days), ...see more

I stayed one night at this hostel in early April 1957. A friend and I had set out from our home town of Reading on a 5 night circular cycle trip - our first such trip. Mitcheldean was our second night's stop, the first being at the then Inglesham hostel north of Swindon. We then went on to hostels at Clifton-on-Teme near Worcester, Broome, Warwickshire and Charlbury, Oxfordshire before returning to ...see more