Favourite memories
Of the memories recently contributed, these are a few of our favourites. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as
we have.
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We All Bumped Our Heads (Year: 1963)
At sixteen I owned a three wheeler convertible that with a bit of bending of the law sixteen year olds were allowed to drive. Plus the fact that the coppers didn't know how the law stood exactly. The car was a Powerdrive, coming towards you it looked like a sports car, going away it looked and sounded like a motor boat. It had a twin two stroke engine, chain driven and was too heavy. It should have been called the Under Powerdrive, but it looked good for a sixteen year old to be driving anyway. To make it legal for me
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In Line And Two By Two (Year: 1951)
Miss Cary was short and stout with grey hair in a bun. She always wore a cameo brooch on a white silk blouse, grey skirt and sensible shoes. She was kind and patient, she was also my first teacher. One day as the mothers picked up their children she announced, 'Tomorrow my class is going on a day trip, the children will need a packed lunch and two shillings', and that was that.
The next morning we arrived clutching a packed lunch and a two bob bit, if any kid didn't have the money I think she put it in
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The "old" Bridge Over The Allan Water. (Year: 1952)
The bridge from which this photograph was taken was a "humpitty-backed" stone bridge where a large arch spanned the river and a smaller arch crossed the "lade". The bridge was in service from about 1840 until the new bridge was constructed in about 1954. The strange outlook is caused by the semi-damming of the Allan Water to take off water for the "Kork'n'Seal" factory which used the water to drive its machinery. The water which did not roll over the edge was carried and concentrated along the "lade" (which I think means "lead") and finally into a canal which dropped into
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A memory of Bridge Of Allan in Stirlingshire by Alastair Macdonald
Sunday Gardener (Year: 1961)
In 1961 I got my first job after leaving school at S & R Smiths Garage on the Great South West Road. The owners were brothers Sydney and Raymond Smith. We called them Mr Ray and Mr Sid. I started in the stores department. It was a Ford dealers and sometimes I would be sent out on my bicycle to fetch parts from main Ford dealers. This could mean going as far as Staines or Twickenham. The stores manager was Pat, an Irishman with seven children. He would always insist on having St Patrick's Day off. There was also a nice
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The Miller's Van In This Photo. (Year: 1950)
I travelled with Mr Moor, the miller, in this Ford van as he went from house to house selling grain food for chickens etc. I also paid a weekly visit to the mill which charged our accumulator acid battery that powered our wireless (radio). I recently visited the mill and spent an enjoyable hour being shown around and seeing an actual copy of the distress message sent out by the Titanic which Mr Moor picked up, after it struck the iceberg in 1912. My home was in Brynteg Avenue and I now live in Northern Ireland.
A memory of Pontllanfraith in Gwent by Granville Johnson
Cottages In Lower Road (Year: 1962)
My dad used to live in the end cottage up until the early 1950s (the one next to the car). Both my grandparents lived there until about 1965.
The cottage was very small, with no running water and an old earth closet toilet. The water had to be collected in pails from standpipes every day.
These were dotted around the village next to the older cottages that did not have any internal running water, and this was the norm right up untill the late 1960s, when a lot of the houses were modernised. From memory, the water appeared to be
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A memory of Breachwood Green in Hertfordshire by Kevan Peters
As It Was (Year: 1955)
I left Walsall at the age of fifteen, at the time of the date of this picture. I loved the trolley buses and watching the trolley conductor change the rails. I remember the Bridge well, as shown in this picture. It was my task on a Saturday to collect and return my younger nephew every Saturday morning from my older sister, taking him home to Mom for the day so my sister could work in one of the shops on the Bridge. On my return I sometimes waited outside the pictures in Walsall town centre, asking adults if they would take
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A memory of Walsall in West Midlands by Terry King
Acton Bridge Cruising Club (Year: 1957)
My memories of Acton Bridge go back to the mid 1950s and early 1960s. The picture of boats at Acton Bridge Cruising Club takes me back to my teenage days. We had a boat called 'Scampi' which was a 32-foot ex-Norwegian lifeboat. It was our family boat. It was kept initially on the Mersey at Wallasey Dock, then my dad decided to join the then very newly formed Acton Bridge Cruising Club. And so we moved 'Scampi' up the Weaver to Acton Bridge. The boat in the forground on the right is 'Hannah', an ex-fishing boat. 'Hannah' was eventually sabotaged by
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A memory of Acton Bridge in Cheshire by Laurie Hatchard
