Nine Mile Ride

A Memory of Wokingham.

We were the Clarks who lived at 'Cotswold' Nine Mile Ride, out of Wokingham. I would sit on our front gate with pencil and paper taking number plates of cars going past to California. My mother rode her bicycle to work in Wokingham, sometimes in icy tracks left by the bus which I caught to school. My friends were the Higgins children and the Mephans. I went to Westcott Rd school. I remember one teacher, Mrs Armstrong, and a friend Margaret Kirkpatrick, who lived near the railway bridge. There was a lake, Queensmere/Kingsmere(?) at the end of Nine Mile Ride near the bus stop and when it iced over we would have lots of fun. A friend and I nearly drowned after making a raft one summer. Opposite our house were woods, a great place to play. When sweet rationing ended, my first thrill was to buy a mars bar in a shop at the town hall end of the main street. I have loved them ever since! I have returned to Nine Mile Ride twice while visiting from Australia, and find it hard to find the spots I knew, although the house is still there.