Favourite Memories
Reconnecting with our shared local history.
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Tips & Ideas
Not sure what to write? It's easy - just think of a place that brings back a memory for you and write about:
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How the location features in your personal history?
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The memories this place inspires for you?
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Stories about the community, its history and people?
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People who were particularly kind or influenced your time in the community.
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Has it changed over the years?
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How does it feel, seeing these places again, as they used to look?
This week's Places
Here are some of the places people are talking about in our Share Your Memories community this week:
...and hundreds more!
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Displaying Memories 51 - 100 of 2029 in total
The Penton Camp Club started in about 1903. Its members included the Manager of Martin's Bank, London, the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre and many other rich men. They would come by train to Staines, the old station at the entrance to Two Rivers Shopping Centre, walk to the bridge and be taken from there by the owner of the large hotel that stood on the left bank opposite the Swan to the weir - the right ...see more
In the 1950's I used to ride my pony from the Leatherhead Road in Gt. Bookham through Fetcham to Leatherhead to get to the blacksmiths. The blackmsiths was a proper big old forge at Prewetts Dairy off Randals Road. I used to have to lead my pony over this rickety little bridge. It had wobbly planks and there was one missing one time I crossed it. It was probably a 9 mile round trip just to get the pony ...see more
I came to E.H. in 1947 when I was 2 yrs old, and lived in Gallants Lane - opposite Fen Lane. Audrey Hudson used to organize the village children for the St John's Ambulance Brigade practice evenings, when we would practice putting bandages on people in the Quakers room run by Mrs Honeywell. One day I spent several hours pulling weeds out of one of Audrey's fields and got a ten shilling note! At ...see more
Many a day I would walk into into York and would find time enough to walk along the Ouse River. I was approaching the railway bridge and saw four lads playing silly on a swing rope which was hanging but a few feet from the Banking side. Many times I had seen these lads or lads like them swing on the rope and get much pendulum where, when the rope with them on it was far enough high and out towards the center of ...see more
My family and I moved from Elm Park in Essex to Scotland in the last weeks of 1948. My father, Leon A. Lalonde, had accepted a position as Chief Mechanical Engineer with John Cochrane and Sons, a construction company. They had previously been awarded a large contract to build a Hydro Electric Scheme in Glen Affric. Moving to Scotland in the middle of winter was not an ideal time to relocate house ...see more
Ah, The Old Thatch. I remember it well, for this is where I grew up from the early 1940s until 1956. By today's standards it was grim: no heating, no running water, no flush loo - nothing. Yet it was a wonderful place in which to grow up and I will never lose my love for that old cottage. I still visit Nether Wallop whenever I can.
Yes, that is indeed the Rev Hyne-Davy in the picture, as Eileen Wilmott says, ...see more
Walter and Myra Reed were cousins of my Grandfather Munnings. I used to spend my summer holidays with the Reeds and have a lovely photo of them celebrating their golden wedding. Their
children gave them a bathroom to celebrate the occasion. Not sure the gift was appreciated or whether it was used!
Their son, Ron, was in the Indian Army and their daughter, Elsie, married Arthur Smith at Jordans Farm .
I lived in South Harrow from birth in 1945 in 125 Roxeth Green Avenue. I attended Roxeth Hill primary school until failing the eleven plus and then went to Lascelles Secondary Modern. Not the best of pupils although I was in the A stream. Hated school and was caned all the time or was in the corridor for my sins. I just wanted to work and had a few jobs; paper rounds, helping the milkman and working in ...see more
The first time I saw the photo it brought back very old memorys, because when I got up from bed in the mornings and opened my curtains the first thing I saw was the smoke from the Phurnacite Plant, as we lived in Park View Terrace which was not more than a few hundred yards from the site. The pond in the picture was where we used to swim in the summer and also we did some fishing in the same pond. ...see more
I remember well pushing my police bicycle around Kempston, covering Spring Road across to St Johns Avenue and over to the chantry factory estate. I was the last of the resident beat officers living and working my patch from my police house in Chantry Road, then moved to Ash Walk. Great times giving talks to pre school children at the hall near the fire station and visiting Springfield and ...see more
Dad used to take me to help on the market stall he had right outside Woolworth's as he and mom had a Ladies & Children's Wear in Birmingham. His cousin was Mayor at the time - hence the prime spot? I remember the Tilley Lamps, and the stout lady who ran the fruit and veg stall on the visible corner, who used to hitch up her skirt to reveal £1 and ten-bob notes stuffed into her stocking tops! My ...see more
This field was behind our house and is accessed from a path that runs along the churchyard wall. From the age of about 7, I spent many a happy hour with my dog Shep - just wandering around the field looking at the Buttercups, spying rabbit holes and trying to keep the dog out of dried cow pats. The path continued onto the bypass - and it is this route that my errant dog Shep would take, in order to visit ...see more
I lived next door to Davenham Church, and one summer's day, when I was about 7, I went for a walk around the churchyard. Hearing a rustling noise on the ground, I crouched down, parted some long grass, and found a baby hedgehog. Now my sister and I had had a tortoise, and he had died during the winter, so I thought the hedgehog would make a great pet. Running back home, I found a wooden box and my dad's ...see more
My family moved to the post office in Mytchett Road in 1956 when I was six. I used to catch the bus at the bus stop opposite to go to Ash Vale Primary School. Yes, on my own, clutching my penny ha'penny bus fare and reciting in my head 'half to Ash Vale please'. I came home for lunch on the bus too. As I got older my friend and I would save the fare by walking home and spend the money in Mr Hudson's fish and ...see more
Pauline's memories of the market stalls reminded me as well.... swinging on the cross bars especially. I also went to the Saturday matinees. We got a little card stamped each week. Our main amusement was to get cardboard boxes from the shop (usually Vaughans? at the end of Kelly St.) to flatten out and slide down the railway bankings. These were, of course, disused and a great place to play. Often, 'dens' were to ...see more
My early memories are of Waterloo where I used to live at Winchester Avenue until 1958. My father died there in 1989. On College Road there were air raid shelters which me and other kids played in after the war until they were demolished, probably late 1940s. One of the concrete pillars collapsed on me and trapped me against a wall for a little while. I wasn't hurt but it scared the living ...see more
Hi there
I remember the day that this engine arrived in the rec. It was a source of great entertainment for us youngsters particulary, as originally everything was accessible. I remember climbing up on the footplate and seeing a little lad emerging from the firebox. It was rumoured that it was possible to get into the boiler and exit up the funnel but I never saw it done! It was great for playing hide and seek - I ...see more
I went to Oak Bank School for Delicate Children from 1944/1945. My best friends were called Kathleen and Enid. The children there at that time came from all over the United Kingdom. I have many happy memories from this time, collecting vinegar leaves (dandelion leaves) in the school grounds, I think they were used in the school kitchen, I certainly remember eating as many as I collected. I can remember ...see more
Congleton Open Air Baths during the 50/60s. It had the entrance of a theatre, 2 steps up with an overhanging portico and glass doors that opened up to a foyer. It was well painted in the colours of the day, council green and white. You could see the pool from inside the entrance and it looked so nice with the calm water. At the point of payment there was a turnstile that was painted council silver. There was a ...see more
Does anyone have any memories or details of a Douglas Boston of 88 Squadron crashing after attempting a landing returning from a raid in 1943? It would have been around November I think.
My father was navigator and was badly injured in the crash after the aircraft's one remaining engine gave out on final approach and it swung sharply to the left before flying on for a while, 'mushing' ...see more
I was brought up in Pirbright Village and my father was into motorbikes. My brother was older than me and had a motorcycle 1st but when I was old enough I also got a motorcycle. For many years as a family we went to Fox Hills on Boxing Day to watch the big boxing day scramble (now known as motocross). We usually took soup in a flask and bread with us. I cannot remember when, but the misrable war department ...see more
Walking up Vennel Street, Dalry one afternoon I was approached by a pal's dad, Jimmy Morrison. Jimmy, I'd heard, was putting a junior football team together. He crossed the road towards me and said: "Fancy joining my team? We're applying to play in the Ayrshire league."
"Who else have you got?", I asked. "Nobody yet, you'd be the first", he replied.
I signed up as the first player in the new 'Rye Rovers' squad of ...see more
My mother has often said to me "You don't appreciate what you've got until you lose it". She is wrong, for I will never forget the wonderful garden of my childhood and write below the memories that I will hold for all time.
It all began when I was five years old and my parents first drove from where we lived in London southwards to a small village called Shamley Green which is 5 miles outside ...see more
Some months later, how long I cannot remember for the passing of time means little to a child, except that it always seemed so long for things to happen; but I found myself again seated in the back seat of another rented car being driven again by my father with my mother sat beside him smiling and happy. This time the weather had changed and was warm and sunny. It was so warm that the windows of ...see more
For many years morris sides danced in the road in front of the pub garden of the Red Lion. This has been a popular venue to celebrate May Day morning at dawn. Whitethorn Morris and their Whitethorn Band made this a really exciting way to kick off the "dancing season" in the dark pre-dawn, with a slowly growing crowd of sleepy Coleshill villagers emerging from their cottages to ...see more
My gran lived on Harry Street in the 1960's and early 70's. I remember playing near the Trafford swing bridge and the excitement when it was opened. Old terraced houses slums by then. Corner shops and the horrible smell from the canal. When Man Utd were at home people would park all over the place!! Burtons ice cream (tasted like brylcream), going up to the shops on Trafford Rd - busy busy. My dad lived at Sunnyside ...see more
Seeing the photograph of the old Ritz cinema reminded me of the time when I was a member of the Ritz Minors Club from approx. 1947 until 1952. We all paid 6 old pence to have a morning at the "pictures" watching films like Flash Gordon, Tarzan and many others. As time went on and I reached, what I thought was a ripe old age, the building on the other corner the "Coach and Horses" pub was one of the places where on ...see more
My first school was St Michaels and All Angels in Whalley New Road. We all had to have our gas masks over our shoulders and hang them up on our own little peg. I can remember we all had school dinners, I don't think we paid, we had no money. Also all the very young children had a sleep for a couple of hours in canvas beds so we had to creep around. My father Harold buck and his friend Edmund kept ...see more
When my husband and I married in March 1958, he bought the cottage nearest the camera on the left; no electricity, no bathroom......it cost the princely sum of £300!
The building at the end of the street is the pub, and behind the trees on the right is the church and graveyard. The trees have been felled now.
In the other photo showing an oddly painted phonebox, the building just behind it was the shop and post ...see more
My grandfather Bert Hedger managed the garage attached to The Hotel during the late 1920s. It belonged to Phillip West who was a mill owner from Manchester and was managed by his sister-in-law Lillian Harker. It was a five star hotel and all the best people stayed there. A lot of famous racing drivers from the 1920s stayed there for the Shelsby Walsh hill trials, including Wolf Banato of Bentley's and also ...see more
I have very fond memories of Caerau. I was born 1946 and I loved Caerau. We had real fun times in the summer picking whimberries and your mam making delicious tarts, families gathering on the mountain for picnics, spending hours on end in the park and making up our own concerts. Picking flowers from the woods and pushing each other down the slopes in the park and see who rolled down the furthest. We played cricket in ...see more
I was born in 1 Auld Raws, next to the close which was next to Tanny shop and Green Tree Pub. I would be 6 at the time; we used to go to the Fulshie Pit Road and watch for the miners comin home and we would shout, "hey mister, you got any pit pieces?" We would sometimes get a dryed oot piece wi butter and jam - 'bliss'. The mums used to make rag rugs, it was a great past time; they would go to one ...see more
So I see it now again after so many years the shop on the corner with that sign Lofthouse's Newsagents above the entrance I went under many times to collect my comics hot from the presses of D.C.Thomson of Dundee: Beano (Thurs), Dandy (Tues), Beezer (Tues), Topper (Fri), though not The Wizard, that was mostly words not images paid for me by my dear late Grandmother Annie Turnill (nee Flint) of 15,Manvers ...see more
We moved excitedly from London in my dads old Austin 7 to a country village we had never heard haverhill. we couldnt even pronounce it as we found out it still is unpronounceable by many. Arrived at our new house 118 Burton End. a four bedroom HOUSE (not a flat) which is all we had been used to. we had never seen stairs inside a house before and also a front door and a back door which we ran round and round until mum ...see more
My mother-in-law has just passed away and we found this in her papers.
My years at Stanford-le-Hope Laundry.
I lived in a village where my mum and family had lived for generations. A signpost at the top of our lane said '24 miles to London'. Our house was in the last road on one side of the village before farm land, and almost a mile from the River Thames.
It was the last week of our school holidays ...see more
We used to walk down to Red Wharf Bay on the first night at my aunt's who had a house in the village at the bottom of the steep hill called Journeys End. It was wonderful to go to the paddly bridge as we called it and gaze out at the bay, knowing this was the start of our six week holiday. We went here from about 1950 to 1963.
I had my first bike from the bike shop in Byfleet. First I rode around on a second hand bike which was just a bit too big for me and I rode it up and down Rutson Road and Unwin Avenue (I think). Then for my tenth birthday I got a Raleigh bike....red....from this shop. How I loved that bike and rode it for the next ten years literally! It took me to Oakfield school in Pyrford (1957-1963) then Woking Grammar School ...see more
My husband, Roger Watts, and his family lived in Castle St in the 1950's. The picture has a figure standing outside their front door (no.15) which could be his mother or older sister Linda. Can anybody shed some light on this ? The street was always free of cars with only the doctor, who lived a few doors away, owning a vehicle. All the children attended the local school, St Mary's, including a number of ...see more
I remember being taken to Peel Green one Sunday, and witnessed the opening of the new bridge over the canal. On that day, the bridge was closed to all motor traffic, and thousands of people walked across it, quite a unique experience. Try doing it today! There was a carnival atmosphere about the whole day.
For a young bus enthusiast in the 1960s, the bus station on Garth Road was the gateway to Anglesey and many of the country routes behind Bangor. Such exciting places as Gerlan, Bethesda, Tregarth and Rhiwlas could be reached for modest fares using bus services provided by the 'buckingham green' Crosville buses. They also ran along the coast roads to Llandudno and Caernarfon; also on to Anglesey with ...see more
When I left school in 1962 me and my pal Chris Marks used to go to the Lyndale over Burton's tailors. We saw some great acts - Herman and the Hermits, Rockin Berries, loads of local groups that didn't make it, Brian Page and the Chapters..Stylos, and lots of others. Then we graduated to the Jungfrau in Manchester where you could dance the night away without the need for alcohol - it was coffee (frothy) and coca cola ...see more
I lived with my parents and grandparents in an upstairs flat 8 Clutha Place,101 1/2, (yes one hundred and one and a half!!) Old Mill Road, Uddingston until I was about two and a half. I remember watching the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on a black and white TV in the home of one of the downstairs neighbours who I think was called Mrs Brown. The year was 1953 and she was the only person we knew with ...see more
When my father, Cllr John Wood, was Mayor of Ealing in 1976 I enjoyed the treats that I got! Every weekend in the summer we would go to fetes, fayres etc and dad would open the events and my sister and I would be given some cash from him to spend on the stalls to show our support! I used to love, as a 14 year old, riding in the Daimler to and from functions... The driver was a great man and if he saw me waiting ...see more
I used to live in Grove Place which of course is no longer there. I remember Mrs Jones fish and chip shop a couple of doors from me where you could get a bag of crackling (yum). Then round the corner in Western Road was Den the barbers, we used to go in and buy sweets and the men were always in there playing crib with matchsticks. Outside Dens when we go older (albeit only 11) you could buy ten No.6 ...see more
I think it was about 1959 when a new Vicar arrived in the village of Yapton he was the Rev. Nelson. I was 12 at the time, His wife who we only knew as Mrs Nelson decided to start a church choir. So with a few of my cousins and girls I went to school with off we went to see what it was all about. Mrs Nelson had at least two daughters that I remember and we were all welcomed into the Vicarage for choir practice which ...see more
Bomb crater used to be on the left where a row of small shops was. Mum used to play in the crater when they were kids.
I had such wonderful times working as an usherette at the ABC. Saturday nights was best as when everyone was seated and the main feature came on we would change out of our uniform and run upstairs to the dance hall for an hour. We had to keep an eye on the time though as we had to be back to let everyone out and flip the seats. Saturday morning was the ABC minors club - I hated that as at the ...see more
My grandparents come from Elsecar and Wentworth, in Mill Lane, you may have seen the Roundhouse,Can`t miss it really just up from Pondside. When my real grandad died my grandmother remarried a man named Stanley Horn from Harley. Now from the age of 13 he used to walk from Harley through Mill Lane.along Pondside as they called it and go to work in Elsecar Pit. he did this until he got married in 1947 and then only ...see more
Beside the strawberry bed grew a large cooking apple tree that produced enormous green apples. We had a variety of both eating and cooking apple trees in the garden, the fruit from which was harvested and then stored in the autumn. We then enjoyed the fruit well into the winter months cooked or eaten in a variety of ways. My mother could bake an apple pie to die for and this was frequently our ...see more
My grandfather was a dentist in Stourbridge from before WW1 until 1961. He had his surgery and dental workshop in a large house in Worcester Street. In fact the house had two addresses: 64 Worcester Street and 1 Pargeter Street. My father and his three brothers and three sisters all grew up here and with breaks for war service, they mostly spent their lives in this area. The boys all went to King Edward VI ...see more