Recent 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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Not sure what to write? It's easy - just think of a place that brings back a memory for you and write about:

  • How the location features in your personal history?
  • The memories this place inspires for you?
  • Stories about the community, its history and people?
  • People who were particularly kind or influenced your time in the community.
  • Has it changed over the years?
  • 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 32161 - 32240 of 36829 in total

I was married at Blindley Heath Church in June 1961, it was a lovely warm sunny day. We had our reception at the Red Barn, it was superb and it only cost 7 shillings and sixpence a head. Those were the days.
We were very lucky to grow up in Stone at a time when we could hang out all day with our friends enjoying the joys of the river at Eythrope, sipping cool water from the Egyptian Springs, or swinging on a rope over the dip in Bluebell Woods, there was always someone to play with and just chat about nothing. Idyllic days!  
The church was the Presbyterian and the fruit and veg shop also sold fish (Tommy Jones, fish).  There was a  furniture shop (Flackets)  On the corner of Ledsham was Miss (although a Mrs.) Locket’s.  Over Ledsham past the bank I remember a real estate agent and of course Williams the Carlton with their wonderful cakes.  There was something before Finefare but I don’t remember what (furniture?). Tommy Hind ...see more
Oct.1968 - April 1969 I remember stepping off the Ferry in Belfast from England and meeting my father with my luggage at hand.  After loading my suitcases in his car. He treated me to my first Belfast breakfast and I must say it was the best I have ever tasted. We then headed out of Belfast to the coast to the final destination. In the village I was introduced to the Palmers at their boatyard.  We ...see more
I remember walking during the 1950s, from where I used to live in Goldthorpe, up the hill to Hickleton, as far as the church to view the three skulls within the wall of the lych-gate... "Today for me, tomorrow for thee" was the chilling message around the window where they were set.  Unfortunately they were stolen some years ago.  I am not sure if they have now been replaced; I think there was problem in obtaining ...see more
This house I lived in when I was young, from 1933 untill 1954, but I now live in Devon near Exeter. I went to Rettendon School, and then to Wickford Senior School. Everybody knew me as Jerry Smith, it was a nickname, I used to go about with a local agricultural contractor, Mr Ranson who lives at Hillberry, in the village of East Hanningfield, he had bulldozers and tractors and did a lot of work for farmers.
My father used to be the Officer in Charge here when it was an old people's home - we used to live in the cottage just before the dovecote. When we lived there Kath and Ian used to live in the Upper Lodge which was directly on the entrance to the road to Breakspear House. I have very few 'photos of Breakspear House as I lived here from the ages of 7 to 13. I have very happy memories of my time there.
My father was policeman in Grindleford from 1952 to 1956, I was almost 5 years old when we moved there and my sister was 10 years old. We lived in the first red brick house on the hill going out of the village to Eyam.  I went to the village school and was in the G.F.S., I can't remember the lady who was our leader but I remember how kind she was.  My mother received a commendation for manning the ...see more
My great-grandfather was the bootmaker who worked from the shop in Moulsham Street in the late 1890s. His name was Leonard Orrin and he married Annie Caple in 1901. I believe the shop was owned by his father and mother, Thomas and Eliza. They lived at 123 Moulsham Street, Chelmsford. He and Annie went on to have 11 children, one of whom was my grandmother.
I was born in Station Rd, went to school there, went to Empire picture house Sat mat.
My father was employed as the farm foreman at Park Farm, Kettlethorpe for several years up until his death in 1960. We lived in the farmhouse down a lane about half a mile from the A57 main road. I went to school at Saxilby, my younger sisters to Newton on Trent. I must have been about 12 years old when we moved there and left at 18 when we had to leave our tied cottage on Dad's death and we moved to ...see more
My Great Great Grandfather David was Gamekeeper/River Bailiff (to the Duke of Devonshire) during the above years. He and his wife Sarah Wiseman and their children lived in Lath Kiln Cottage for many years.
This picture of High Street is very dear to me because it is how I remembered it when I was a boy in the 1940s & 50s. In 1955 I was called up to do my national sevice and was posted abroard, when I returned, to my horror, the church in the foreground had been demolished.  
When I was a child my friend and I used to go and stay with a cousin of my mother's and I'm quite sure this was at Little Billing. The name of the people was Gray and the lady's name was Gladys, (called Glad) and I have a photograph of her wedding. The man's may have been Bill, but I'm not sure.They lived on a farm that was near the Sewage Works and just down the road from a canal. I remember that there ...see more
I atended primary school in Walsham from 1953 to 1955, my father was stationed at Shepards Grove. We lived in West House about a mile out of town toward Bury St Edmonds. I enjoyed my time in school there. My wife and I made a trip back to places I lived at and we went through Walsham and I remembered most of the places. I remember catching sticklebacks in the stream by the school. Going to the crash ...see more
I was born in at 72 Bowes Rd on 7th Jan 1940, after being bombed out we moved to 72 Bowes Rd and then to 62 Ulleswater Rd and then to 14 Eaton Park Road. My earliest memories start from when I was on the pot - not the smoking kind, that came later - and when I could not reach the door handles. My brother, who could, had great fun annoying me and then running out the door and shutting it knowing I couldn't follow.  In ...see more
I was born in Palmers Green in Jan 1940 and lived at 18 Farndale Ave. from 1948-1960. I went to Winchmore Hill Secondary Modern from 1951-1953.  I remember the Capitol Cinema and the Saturday morning film club which was a part of most kids' lives at the time. It was either the Capitol or the Palmadium depending what was on.  Sometimes there would be the usual Cowboy and Indian stuff or films about German spies, which ...see more
The old photographs helped me remember some lovely memories of when I was a very young child, when it was a daily routine walking past the old brick works to go to Eye school,  I believe that just past the brick works  (obviously depending on which way you were walking) there was a bridge that went over the old railway. My father Sid Earnshaw knew Bill Oliver who worked at the site and his brother Ray, sadly my father ...see more
I was a 16 year old boy and lived with my family on a hillside opposite Tunstead quarry known as The Lees. Every Sunday morning I would pick up the papers (News of the World , People etc) on my bicycle from the post office in Peak Dale, sort them out into household lots and then ride the path through to the bottom of Wormhill and deliver them to the individual houses and farms finishing at a Mansion type house with a ...see more
My great grandfather, George Jarvis, served on HMS Impregnable in Devonport according to the 1891 census at the age of 16. He went on to become a petty officer in the Navy.
I went to the St Vincent's Convent as a boarder for a couple of years. Some of the photos I have seen I do recall. I now live in Australia and wonder what happen to the school and the convent. The School was St Francis of Xavier.
I remember going to Bell Street around 1967/8 to see Michael Aspel open "Key Markets" which was a supermarket of sorts, and would be on the left-hand-side of this picture (I think either next door to the Co-op, or may have occupied the same space for a while until it closed down. Also Foryan's (not sure of the spelling) bicycle and toy shop on the other side of the road (now the cancer charity shop). The old chap who ...see more
I lived in Kingskerswell from August 1963 to July 1974, first in Lyndhurst Avenue and then in Weavers Way.
It was either 1939 or 1940 when we moved into Holly Cottage, I was two years old, there was a  thatched roof and it had been two houses semi det, very primitive, dirt flooring, with a huge stone and I really mean big -  THE STONE COULD NOT BE MOVED we were told, as many people had tried in the past. As the house was over 400 years old we decided to live with it, and my Dad [Erny Burton] tiled around ...see more
My father was born in Swanley, in 1917, he was one of 5 boys & 3 girls. Sadly there is only Aunty Jean left, but she and her husband still live in Swanley. Their father, Alf, was doorman at the Swanley Working Mens Club for 50 years. My father married a girl from Birmingham, my mother, and it was in B'ham that I & my siblings grew up. I remember trips to Swanley as a young lad, which during the war years was ...see more
My nan and grandfathey lived in the house directly opposite the Town hall. There was just two houses there, one of which become Lee's Hairdressers in the later years.
My mother Alice Harpham & family lived here. She was born 1904 at Dunham, along with John Thomas, Rose, Herbert, Edith, Margaret, & Sydney John. When I searched my family tree, I had been told by my cousin Evelyn in 1980 that my grandma Eliza [nee Todd, originally from Ripon] was found dead in the attic with her throat cut. Eventually I found it was in 1927. Thomas Harpham, their grandad, was the ...see more
For many years, Colwyn Bay U.D.C. ran a bus service along the promenade from Old Colwyn to just beyond the former pier at Rhos on Sea. Commencing in 1926, a small fleet of 5 'Guy' BB type vehicles with covered top 'toastrack' bodies ran in service during the late spring to early autumn tourist season. While the normal requirement was for two vehicles to maintain a half-hourly service, when the ...see more
My aunt Jessie (King) lived in the house on the left of the picture from around 1920 to 1954. In 1954 she moved out and my uncle Sidney (Edwards) ( her brother) moved into the house and turned it into a little tea room come snack bar. It was very popular with the kids at that time who could spend a few pence on a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps. The house next to the tea room was a bakers, owned by Mr Stow.
I wonder if anyone can tell me if the tall black object in the distance in this photo is the coastguard watch tower which was at the top of Sea Lane throught the war and into the sixties or seventies. My grandfather was an auxiliary coastguard at Saltfleet during the war before moving to Donna Nook. My sister and I spent many holidays with my grandparents in South Somercotes and for some reason the ...see more
I lived in Barbaraville (Alder Cottage) from roughly 1982-1987 with my parents before I moved away to work. I loved this village and had many, many memories but one which is a big achievement for me was when ... Two young guys from the village had made a 'homemade' raft and ventured out into the shallows of the bay but as any of you familiar with the bay will know ...see more
Back in the 1960s there was a beautiful Magnolia tree oposite the church in front of a solicitor's office in St. Lawrence Street. Forty years have passed and I live the other side of the world. I wonder if that tree is still there.
Memories of walking to school, which was then West End Junior School, sited above the west end of Abercarn. Walking from Mount Pleasant, through Richard Thomas & Baldwin's Office yard, past Williams's stores, under the railway bridge, over the River Ebbw bridge and past the Fire Station brought me into the West End. There I passed The Crown Hotel, The Railway Station and into the shopping area. The ...see more
I have very vivid memories of the war years as it was coming to an end. I was born in Cambridge Street in The Sportdman's public house, which up to the present time is the only pub left on Cambridge Street. Where the John Lewis store now stands on the corner of Barkers Pool/ Cambridge St there was a firm called, The Steel City Works, that got bombed, oh don't I remember the sounds around that night!!!. I remember ...see more
Does anybody remember the big house on the corner of Derby Road, it was at the junction of a main road, the name of which I cannot remember now. We used to call it 'The House Beautiful' whether that was the proper name for it I never knew. This house was where children used to go to for a holiday, my holiday there was arranged by our church at that time (we lived in London), my parents could not afford ...see more
I was at Kingsmead boarding school in the early 50s and we used to walk to this church (crocodile style) on Sundays.  After church (we were usually taken out before communion), we would walk back to school where the smell of our Sunday dinner filled the air.  I can still smell it.  The best meal of the week.  Kingsmead was later turned into offices (I think in the late 60s) but don't know what it is now.
Despite the cement dust from West Thurrock, if the wind was in the wrong direction, Grays had everything available, from a baking tin to a new car, such a variety of shops. Good bus service, Eastern National, London Transport, Greenline and including "Our Bus" which is pictured. Regular train service to London or Southend, which ran on time, three cinemas, library, a beach with boating pond that used ...see more
Though I have no personal memories of the Victoria Works I would be interested to hear of any recollections of the ROC based there.  The Observation Post can still be seen abve the roof and its survival is probably unique in Fife. Steve,   stephen.liscoe@fife.gov.uk
I remember growing up in the village of Tongham, met my husband and still going strong. Prepared for many years of memories from school to moving, still visit occasionally, hasn't changed too much except for new builds. The cardinals remains virtually untouched. 1974-1988
My first born was christened here 1992 and my second child 1995.
My first full time job, Woolworths, Union Road, what a job that was.
Don't remember too much but I was born here 07/1968, now forty years on I still talk about where I was born. Jacki
Hi, my name is Brian Nicoll. My mother, father and I lived in 10 Frankland Rd from 25/9/35 when I was born until 1956 when I got married. As a small boy I used to have a friend called Roger Gosney who lived over the Croxley station, his father was the station master. It was a great place for him and I to play in and around, the living area ran right across the top of the station with windows ...see more
I'm American and live in Northern California. This is my first trip to England and I'm hoping to visit Bicknor. My great-great-grandfather was the Vicar of Bicknor. His last name was Seager; I never knew his first name. I have a watercolor of the vicarage where he and his family lived. The Vicar and his wife had 4 sons - Robert, Charles, Edward and Edmund Seager. All were graduates of Oxford University. The two ...see more
My grandparents, Reginald and Elizabeth Smith, lived at #3 Old Chapel Lane, the second house from the right in the photo. What a shock to see it! It brings back wonderful memories of them and my childhood.
I believe that my great grandfather Robert Landeman Jones owned Brockley Hall but I am unsure of the date, I am guessing it was the 1870s.  I think that he later moved to Weston-super-Mare.  My brother and I have a photo of the old house.  I also have a diary that my great grandfather kept for the years 1896 and 1905 which has fascinating detail about  his accounts.
My mother asked me to go to the shops and get some bread at Barton's the bakers. I was just ten years old. 'But' she said, 'if a raid starts, don't hang about but run straight back home'. I often had to go to the shops, it was never a lot I had to get - mainly just one or two things, and if a raid did start, providing it was relatively quiet, I would always try to get these things. So this day saw me ...see more
My family came from Wellbank and every summer we would go there from Durham to help my Uncle Jim at Buckleshead, to pick stawberries and raspberries ready to go from there in wooden barrels to the jam factory at Dundee. My memories are good ones from these days and I will visit again to have a look round and do a bit of family history. My father also played football for Dundee United. My grandfather I think used to haul jute in Dundee to the mills with horse/cart. Dave
The man on the step here is a distant relative of mine, possibly my great-great grandfather. Another picture that I have known of for ages but never known its origins.
I've known of this photo for a long while. The man in the middle of the photo is my great-grandfather who as well as being a Lifeboatman, won many sailing trophies.
This is the first time I have ever seen such a wonderful photo of Tilgate Mansion, other than bits of it in the backgound of faded family snaps. It means a lot to me because my father, Peter, spent part of his youth living there sometime in the late 1950s with his family (Tayman of the Crawley area) and when he was courting my mother, Elizabeth Robinson, they spent many happy hours walking ...see more
My parents bought an old railway carriage bungalow at 66 East Front Rd, on Pagham Beach in the early 1990's.  The place was a total dump, so they burned it down on the beach and built a brand new four bed home on the site. I built a retaining wall there in the rear garden - I hope it's still holding back the pebbles!
I can see the roof of my parents' old house in the background on this pic.  I used the be a Receptionist at Church Farm Holiday Park, just behind the old Clubhouse from 1983 - 1987. I worked with Joyce Aldridge in the beginning, Alan & Nancy & their daughter Julie, Bill, Cocker, Buster & old Tom the drunken gas man. I was the tall blonde girl in the office. I lived on site with my husband in ...see more
I went to school here from about 1971 when I had just turned 6 until the age of 11 when I was sent off to the Amery Hill Secondary, in nearby Alton.
I think the year was 1976, can't remember exactly but does anybody remember when Penponds woods caught fire. Penponds general stores was still open at the time and can remember a friend buying Spangles from there before we all went to see what was going on with all the fire engines. I think it was a Sunday afternoon during the August holidays when this happened. Would love to hear from anybody who ...see more
I was stationed at RAF South Cerney from approx. early 1956 until late 1958. I was just a lowly SAC working in the pay accounting department, but everyone on base thought that a special job! When we could afford to go out on our 5 shillings a day, we usually went into Cirencester by bus, where we were welcome in the pubs and that is about all, they were not ready for rowdy 18 year olds from all over the ...see more
I was born in 1944 in my grandmother's house named 'Bloemfontein' at Higher Fraddon. She named the house after the capital of the Orange Free State of South Africa where she was born. Her father, my great-grandfather Parkyn, was a miner and made his wealth? and each of his children were able to have a start in life. 'Bloemfontein' was my grandmother's start and my birth in that house was mine. Within a short ...see more
There's a small collection of memories and information included in my web site at www.an-alien-affair.com I reckon it's worth a visit as I've included several bits of info' that most people are quite unaware of. Then there's me, of course. Kennoway is unique and steeped in history that goes back as far as the dawn of christianity, and much, much further. The evidence is in the Den and the surrounding ...see more
My father had an accordion band and would play at dances at the CHEAM HALLS in the years leading up to the start of WW2. They were called The Ron Young Accordion Band and I am desperate to hear if anyone can recall such a band. I now live in the Northeast of England. I expect the 'Halls' are now a supermarket?
What an interesting photograph of a grey painted tram heading for the 'Queens Hotel' terminus which was just over half of a mile away. It would take just over five minutes and three tramstops to reach the terminus where, the brakes would be wound on full to counteract the falling gradient there. The conductor would hold on to the trolley pole rope, pull it down and tie it down to ...see more
I lived in Urmston between 1951 and 1974 with my parents and twin brother, Michael. We knew most of these shops and business premises very well indeed. On the left side the premises were as follows, The corner shop was Burgons (grocers), then Cuthberts Chemists, a butchers, the Conservative Club, The Bon Bon Sweetshop (run by Mr Evans - a very kindly old gentleman), a building society, Gafans ...see more
I am at present looking into my family history and have discovered today that my maternal grandmother Mrs Beatrice Maud White was married in this church on the 3rd July 1920. I have not been to the church before but on my next visit to Newton Abbot I shall certainly give it a visit. Elizabeth Brown Plymouth.
Wythenshawe may seem an uninspiring large urban sprawl but to this 20 year old in 1966 it was rather special as I met a lovely girl called Anne Senyszyn there. I had just started work for a bank in Manchester and she was in a local sixth form finishing her A Levels before going off to college for teacher training. We explored local countryside together, went to dances and the cinema and ...see more
Brown Edge was a brillant place to live, and I have fond memories of the village. Perhaps in my youth I did not really appreciate what I had, the village store (Keiths), the butchers, Harrisons and Sammy Bratts., cake shop, Mountfords chip shop., the working mens club, the Holy Bush, the Lump of Coal and the Roebuck, what a selection and all thriving businesses, together with Turners ...see more
I am looking for my birth father but unfortunately have very little information and am hoping that someone who was at the college in 1959, or who have relatives that attended the college, may be able to help. I was born in April 1960. My mother was trainee nurse at a nearby college and attended student dances where she met my father, a Ugandan mining student at Camborne mining college. ...see more
My Mother, Alice Rae Gibson Clark Mackay was born in Loch Eriboll in 1902. Ive visited the wee hamlet many times, and met the Clarke family, currently the land owners, who have a home at the crook of the road, amidst an array on old war memorabelia, such as tanks. My Mum lived in a wee house down the lane that goes to the sea. where we, a family of 5 were evacuated from London in 1940. The croft is still ...see more
I moved away from Woodford Green many years ago and have lived in various places since, but I still recognise Woodford Green as my home town. I have 3 vivid memories of my time living with my gran just off the green in Fairlite Avenue. The first being the trips to the book shop on the corner of Woodford Green, High Road with my gran who at the time was head cook at the Sunset Road Junior School, ...see more
East Runton was my home until I reached the age of 11 when my family emigrated to Australia in 1966. What wonderful memories I have of Runton, the annual fete held on the road leading down to the beach, walking the dogs through the woods and up Inkaborough Hill. I attended Cromer Primary school and can remember standing outside the village hall waiting for the bus and the joy when it couldn't reach us ...see more
The best of my childhood memories are of Highfield House and Highfield Cottage in the late part of the 60s and early 70s. The summers always seemed hot and the days were long and happy. I come from a large family and we always had so much fun in the fields at the back of the house, rolling from the top of the hill almost down to the train tracks at the bottom, sunbathing or anything that ...see more
Last week we had a really lovely day out with our granddaughter Anna Norfolk. It was a beautiful sunny July day and far too hot for staying at home so my wife and I went in search of a beach and a cooling sea breeze. We drove to Exmouth and when we arrived at the seafront we noticed that the Exmouth cricket grounds were open - a friendly gatekeeper invited us to drive in and park on their outfield ...see more
I remember when there were two fishmongers in Earlestown, Lyons's fishmongers in Bridge St. and one whose name I can't remember in Legh St., now we have none.  We also had two picture places, the Rink where the Police Station is, and the Curson near the station, now we have none of those either.  My interest is fishing, we used to go to the "Private", a small pond off Vista Road, also Berrys pit near the ...see more
Hello, I have written some memories about my childhood in Renton. It's amazing how many people you meet in the world.. I loved the Renton and Bonhill, places that I remember well, and some of the people that shaped my life.. My Mom's name is Helen Gray, her name was Helen Thomson she has three brothers, Robin, Jim, Alex and a sister Marion. She might know some of the names that I've seen, I had a note from Senga ...see more
Hi This is not my memory but my mother's. My mother was stationed at Elmdon during the war. She joined the Women's Mechanized Transport Corp (Army) at age 17. She came from a rather influential family Dick and Jeanne Robinson. She was eager to join and serve. She has told me numerous tales of how she would get rides in the airplanes from guys in the airforce and how her and one ...see more
I was born in Earith High St. at a place called 'The Laurels', long gone I think. I went to school at Earith VC and the head teacher was Mr. Harrison (Pip). My mother kept the Crown pub for a long time and before that the George and Dragon. I would like to hear if anyone is running a web site as I have lots of old pictures I would like to share.
I have never heard of this person, although he makes reference to some people, and places in Colden Common I knew. So if anyone who knows him ever comes across this then I have been some help! COLDEN COMMON? Oh, yes - I remember it well! As we get older I guess we must all suffer from nostalgic mental trips - I know I do. At least twice a year I find myself staring at your map of Colden Common ...see more
I only found out today that my Grt:Grt:Grandfather,Owen Lloyd, lived in one or indeed both of these places. The house was called Ty-mawr. (The Big House). Does anyone have any information about these places? My Grt: Grt: Grandfather I believe was born in 1793 in Llanrhaiadr. Are any more of his descendants out there please?
My grandparents, Ben & Polly Thomas, ran the pub opposite the Miners Welfare. I was evacuated there and I can remember on Saturday night, the US Servicemen would come along with their band and play in the pub. My grandparents had a white haired terrier called "Tim". Tim would come into the bar, the bottom bar where the widows of miners were allowed in on Saturday nights. Tim would go into the ...see more
My grandparents (now deceased) owned the first show house on the Clifton Estate. They had a picture with the mayor at the time which we have somewhere. The house was on Farnborough Road. I think it was 1951 or thereabouts. I lived at Southchurch Court in the early 1970s then Conifer Crescent for a year before moving to West Bridgford in 1975. Clifton is ok! J
My name was Liz Shepherd and we were new arrivals. I remember Dick Broom in the village shop that sold everything from Brussell sprouts to Royal Doulton and was also the Post Office. The butcher would leave his straw hat hanging outside his shop when he wasn't there so you didn't waste time walking up the yard. The amazement when one of the thatched cottages on the main street I think was sold for £1500. ...see more
I think the landlord's name was George.  Can't remember his wife's name.  The food was marvellous, the atmosphere and friendliness second to none.  The Vista Golf was installed during 1969