High Street

If you look carefully (especially with a magnifying glass) you can just see a part of the village school - right in the centre of this photograph - built in 1873, with its high windows and decorative brick arches above. It fronted on to the Green. To the left is the Headmaster's house, with decorative tile work on the gable end. The triangle of the Village Green is just below centre and was laid out with plants and trees in 1953, the trees a gift from the Farnborough Scouts, Cubs, Guides and Brownies to commemorate the Coronation.

The first shop with the awning (and sandwich boards outside)was Waller's, the sweet shop, run by sisters Maud and Ivy. We were so happy when rationing came to an end and we could buy sweets, although my Mum would cut a small Crunchie bar up into five equal pieces, one for each of us, so we didn't get much! There was also the Newsagents Hill's, where we bought our comics, and W.Pearce, the Grocers, the last shop on the right with the awning. The butcher's shop referred to belonged to, or was run by, the Smiths, who lived in the last house on the left almost out of the photograph. Douch's was the greengrocer's next to the butchers (out of the photograph). This must have been Tom's shoe repair shop referred to in the previous memory.

The field opposite the shops referred to by Martyn Adshead had the scout hut there, up on the rise, again: just out of the picture. I had school friends in many of the houses in this photograph and I, too, went to the village school for six years. Incidentally, the Head girl at the village school in 1955 (the date of the photograph) was Gaye Adshead...any relation to Martyn? She lived in Gladstone Road, the beginning of which is shown in another Frances Frith postcard/photograph of the centre of the village proper, the turning on the left before the shops, opposite the George & Dragon.

I remember a bit of devilment related to the cottages on the right in this photograph. We used to tie a length of wool to the knocker above the letterbox of one house, then once we'd gone out of the gate we'd pull the wool: "Knock the Door, Ginger", we called it. We thought this hilarious but it wasn't fair on the occupier! We chose someone we didn't know! There are two kids on bikes on the road - I wonder who they were and whether they saw the photographer?

When the Farnborough Hampshire Air Show was held each year the second week of September, if my brother and I happened to be number-plate spotting, and sitting on the Green, occasionally a car would stop on the A21 and ask where the air show was? Biggin Hill had an air show in the first week of September so was sometimes confused with the other Farnborough. There was much consternation when the driver found out he was rather a long way away from Hampshire!

All these photographs of Farnborough in the early 1950s bring everything back so sharply into my mind's eye as if it were yesterday. The more you look, the more you see. Are there two children on the extreme right, outside one of the cottages, one leaning against the gate post, one standing?

Susan Tebby