Purley, St Mary's Church Gates c.1950

Photo ref: P373004

I was born in Purley in 1953, at No 3 The Short -- off Colyton Way 13 Colyton Way was my grandparents' address, changed at some point to No 15, The grocery store was next door. My grandfather introduced me to fishing and I spent my very young years fishing along the stretch from Mapledurham Lock going back to Riverside Gardens. Fantastic to see these old photos -- it's still very clear in my memory.

A friend of the family introduced us to Purley. My father John Dighton, took over management of the grocery shop at 19 Colyton Way in 1952. I remember the water was from an outside type pump in the kitchen, and electicity from a huge noisy generator in a large shed at the back, and the floods every winter. My two brothers and I learnt to swim in the river. The house on stilts was freezing in winter and ...see more

I have so many happy memories of Purley on Thames. My older sister lived at No 1 River Gardens in the latter part of the 1960s until the middle of the 1970s. As kids, my brother and I spent many, many happy days playing in the large garden there and along the river bank from the stile right up to Mapledurham Lock. I also remember swimming in the Thames there, and the night we swam across to the island ...see more

As a young child, these were good days, we had very little but so did everybody else, Mum had a few chickens, and we lived in a little house on stilts, brick piers, my Dad was working for the Thames Valley, and when the floods came, he had to row the first few hunred yards to get to the hill, which would carry him over the railway and up to the main road to catch the bus in Reading. Joyous days by the ...see more