Anonymous
My feedback
4 results found
-
3,212 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment -
1,282 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Anonymous
commented
I stumbled across your site and it brought back happy childhood memories. Like you I also lived in Hertford Road Barking up until the summer of 1970 when we moved to Fairlop. Our homes were compulsory purchased by the Department of Transport for the development of the A406. My parents moved in to Hertford Road in 1953, but my memories are only from the mid 1960’s. We lived towards the end of the road, as Hertford Road merged into Watson Avenue. I remember one of my brother's friend’s parents owned May's Cafe at the bottom of the road. Our houses backed on to allotments where the back gate in our garden opened up on to my dad’s allotment where he grew champagne rhubarb. My dad was a keen gardener and I remember our garden really clearly, beautiful roses and dahlias. It’s strange how fashion has changed in the gardening world, everyone had low level fences then with very little privacy from one garden to the next. At the top of the road there were old fashion petrol pumps where my friends and I used to roam the block on our bikes. My older brother would often have to call me by whistling from half way up the road to come in for dinner. My Dad played tennis nearby at the gas board sports club and I would watch him play through the wire fence sitting on my bike in Watson Road, but I wasn't allowed to call out to him especially if a match was in progress ! What a great shame with the exception of the gasometer it’s now all over-grown, the tennis courts, and bowling green are long gone its looks very eerie. I remember as a short cut we used to drive under the arches along Stevenage Road to my grandparents who lived in Manor Park, but when I went there recently it had been blocked up with access to bikes only. My grandfather’s friend took the roof off his new van as he misjudged the height of the under pass he forgot his new van was slightly taller !! If we weren’t lucky enough to be in the car with dad, my mum and I used to catch the 147 bus and walk over the iron bridge near Gladstone Avenue or walk down Burgess Road from East Ham Station. I walked that route every day to school and it seemed to take forever thank goodness there was a sweet shop on the way home. For whatever reason no-one in our family seems to have taken a photo from the front of our house in Hertford Road and I’m having difficulty in sourcing a photograph of these houses before they were demolished. If anyone has a photo they could share I would love to see it. Happy childhood memories.
Anonymous
supported this idea
·
-
1,308 votesAnonymous
supported this idea
·
-
9,321 votes
Dear Readers
We are sourcing what we can from the Library’s holdings and have added 1940-1941, 1943-1950 in the last 24 hours.
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/id/staffordshire-sentinel
Thank you all for your continued interest in this title, and Happy Reading!
Regards
Team BNA
Anonymous
supported this idea
·
An error occurred while saving the comment Anonymous
commented
I grew up on the Weston Park Estate and my close friends were Ann Parker and Linda Jay, as we all lived a few doors away. We used to go to Riverside disco approximate 1970 and the Young Farmers disco on Friday nights at the County Showground. Also the Yeoman, the rugby club on the Newport Rd I think, the Top of the World, The Place and The Placemate in Stoke and do you remember the Alpine Lodge pub at Rickerscote. When we were younger we went to the Saturday club at the Odeon cinema. We used to go for lunch at Jenks cafe in town and felt very grown up! There was a Debenhams too then. We frequented the park in our early teens and the station cafe before we graduated to the Swan bar when we were at stafford college. I haven't lived there since I got married but often go on a nostalgic shopping trip with my friend Ann. It would be lovely to hear if anyone else remembers any of my old haunts. We were soul mad so there was quite a following and still is. So share your memories too.
In the early 1950s I worked at the Central Library, Lewisham near St Mary's Church. My most vivid memories are the long working hours (difficult for the social life of a young girl) and having to manually count the 'issue' before we could go home. We were quite a happy group of young people but I do not know how many went on to become fully fledged librarians. After several years I left to pursue a successful career in children's publishing and my best friend Gerry became a probate clerk. Gerry and I once played a prank which caused quite a stir. The old library building (demolished now I suppose) had a barrel shaped roof in the main area which was glass and very dark. During a tea break in the attic staff room we discovered a door into a crawl space above this roof and went in for a look - no rules on health and safety in those days- and discovered that the glass was in fact a mosaic of coloured glass and absolutely filthy with the dust of many years. We cleaned one of the panels which I think was about 6 inches square and yellow. When we arrived the following morning Mr Smith the deputy librarian and Mr Parris (I've forgotten what his function was) were staring up and pointing at the dazzling square. No questions were asked but pretty soon the whole roof was cleaned and very handsome it looked. I wonder if there is anybody left who remembers this roof. Sadly Gerry died in 2010 and we completely lost touch with our other best friend Lionel, who I believe returned to his home in Cape Town. Another memory is Blenkharns the bakery in the row of shops beside the library and the delicious pastries we bought for tea. I also remember Mrs Fox a very old lady who was usually first in the door when the library opened in the morning, and probably came in for a nice warm place to read the paper.
I worked for a time in the Record Library which had many old shellac records and people had to carry out a big heavy pile it they borrowed a whole opera.