Born In Aldershot In 1946

A Memory of Aldershot.

I was born in Aldershot in June 1946. I believe the event was at the General Hospital at the top end of St.Georges Road. For the first year or so I lived with my parents and older brother at the bottom end of Victoria Road. We then moved to Highland Close in North Town end of Aldershot. This area was all single dwelling prefabs as was Bellvue Close nearby. I attended the National School primary at the bottom of Redan Hill. I remember the news of the death of the king as us pupils gathered to walk across the park to East End School where we had our cooked lunch every day. I remember taking my dinner money in to school every monday morning. the amount for five two course lunches was one shilling and eleven pennies. At todays money that is under ten pence.

I remember the queens coronation and the gifts that were given out to every child being a drinking mug,a propelling pencil and a miniature model of the coronation coach and horses. The headmistress of the school then was Miss Wright Jones, a spinster who would take out of her frustration by regular use of the cane on us lads.She also took the final year class. the teacher for the year before was a Mrs.Chapman. The year before was a Mrs.Steadman and the first year infants were taught lovingly by the teacher Miss Perrow. She had taught my mother also in the same classroom back in 1926. When I was seven years old I joined the Cubs,the meetings being held at the hall of St.Augustines Church on North Lane. Later I became a choir singer at the church for a short while.

In 1957 we,as a family moved to the West End area of Aldershot where my parents bought a very small general store in Church Street. It was about this date I also joined St.Michaels Secondary School.

I remained living in Aldershot until 1968 when I married a local lass and on our wedding day we moved over the border into Surrey and lived in the village of Upper Hale,Farnham. We are now retired,live in the West Country and look forward to celebrating our Golden Wedding anniversary next month.


Added 09 January 2018

#474385

Comments & Feedback

I was also born at the Cottage Hospital, hard by the 5-arched railway bridge, in 1942. I grew up in Aldershot (in Lower Farnham Road), attended the Park Primary school, and later Farnborough Grammar School (see the latter's website for some of my memories there). That hospital was demolished some time in the early 1970s, and replaced by a Mormon Church. I believe that now that has also been replaced, but I'm not sure by what! I have been living in the Orkney Islands ever since 1970, and have only made rare visits to Aldershot, but have never forgotten the place, and always have an affection for it. As a teenager I used to go for long walks up through Rowhill Copse and on to the military lands beyond which was a sort of wilderness of heath and sandy stony soil, but a fine place to wander and have discussions with friends. There was also an army water reservoir fed by small artificial canals from the surrounding woodland, and there was a tank testing ground which was a plain of churned-up clay and mud. Walks in the opposite direction would take one through the village of Badshot Lea, across the Hog's Back road and on to Crookesbury Hill. In the same general area was Mother Ludlam's Cave, reached by a long tree-lined track running past Moor Park College. The cave had a stream running out of it, which went into the adjacent marsh. You could continue onwards and end up at the ruinous Waverley Abbey. I remember there was a belligerent farmer who used to shout and complain about people trespassing on "his" farmland! I think his name was North. Another walk was from Runfold along the road to Tongham which ran close by a derelict railway line (which left the present electrified track just where the Hog's Back road ends at a roundabout, and ran through Tongham and Ash Green Halt to join the line that connected Reading with Guildford). As a child I remember lines of wagons were stored on the disused part of the line (between Tongham and Farnham Junction), and also that the other section (Tongham to Ash Junction) was used for sending wagons of coal to the Aldershot gasworks, served by a long siding from Tongham. The line was eventually closed completely on the demise of the gasworks. But I do recall going on a special excursion train which travelled from the junction with the Guildford line via Ash Green Halt to Tongham and back - that was part of my activities as a railway enthusiast.

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