Memories
| There are also personal memories about specific places or events on other
pages, including:
Half Moon Street |
This page is a collection of memories of Bagshot in the past contributed by visitors to the web site.
I also have a separate page about changes that have occured in the village.and another for questions and answers.
Regular correspondent and expat Robert Allen writing from Canada : When I was 15 my sister Gillian and I use to work in the flower gardens in Bagshot Park, run by a Mr Matcham. My mother, Elizabeth, use to work for the Little Chef so we use to stop for a pop before going to work across the road at the park. It seemed a long walk up the drive but it was realy quite a beautifull - walk both sides of the road were like a archway of trees. We felt quite proud walking through those large iron gates with gold flake leaves painted on them. Every time I write I still feel that I'm back home with you all - I will be one day. Many thanks, Robert. 604.606
I remember one of the village Bobbies, Jock Reaper, who always use to stop in at Christmas when my grandfather had his removal and green grocery business. Dick Powell was the station master . I can go on and on .... 604.406
Does anyone remember our secondary school song writen by Miss Welton? I think it was "the torch of learning bright, hand it on, hand it on" I cannot quite remember it all. Are there any pictures of. the school at the top of Manor Way? I remember when we moved into the school, walking down School Lane and under the railway to the new building carrying all our books etc. Has any one pictures of this move? 604.1007
Dave writes : My father was in service to the Duke of Connaught at Bagshot Park for many years. I lived in Coachmans House in the Park for some 25 years. The "Big House" where Prince Edward now resides is very well known to me as is the surrounding parkland. 458.404
From Yvonne : during the time I lived in Bagshot, 1947 - l960 I remember that we used to shop at a Grocers in the High St, called Burrows, it had board floors, chairs to sit on, and the provisions were weighed up freshly i.e.sugar in blue cones, and rice in bags etc., There was always a lovely smell, from all the varied ingredients and to a child seemed the source of great delights. No shrink wrapped, packaged to death items then.
I also remember, two members of the Berry family. Peter who was a mechanic and Wally who worked for Morris Bros (an old Bagshot firm) I also worked for Morris Bros. in Camberley, as did my friend Mary Sanders, and her father Gilbert. They lived in a house called Waverley. Mary married one of her neighbour's sons, they were the Beck family, wonder if anybody out there has information on any of them. Would love to hear. 555.505 7020.307
Roger Craven writes: I remember with fond memories going to Saturday morning Princes Cinema (Hopalong Cassidy a favourite) and the Saturday evening British Legion film nights (including Calamity Jane with Doris Day), and the Fish and Chip Shop. 6145.1206
I enjoyed the 50s in Bagshot as a Cub Scout, Boxing/Youth Club member and a choir boy/alter server at St. Anne's Church together with my time at Bagshot Primary and Secondary Schools. I always enjoyed the summer holidays when I help the farmer near my home in Park View to gather in the harvest and pulling out the "chickweed" in the fields (especially as I got paid!). There always seemed plenty to do in those days with friends i.e. biking, fishing, shooting, playing war games and cowboys and indians - and we usually managed to "keep out of trouble!"
Liz Schultz (nee Berry) writes from Australia:
Does anyone remember Papworths electrical shop? I recall as a 5 year old going to their place with my Mum to watch the Queen's Coronation in 1953.I also have happy memories of going with my Dad to St Anne's church when he did gardening there and to the church hall (I think) to get Ration Coupons with my Mum, then calling into Fortuna's Cafe for an ice cream - a rare treat.
Then there was the Ross's paper shop - I stayed with them when my Mum had to go into hospital - Wyn (?) Ross - a big lady with an even bigger heart. I recall they left and took over a pub - had two sons John and Richard and a daughter Sue(?). John was a good friend of my brother Malcolm and both joined the Navy on leaving school.
Does anyone also remember fetes being held in Bagshot Park and is the A30 still lined with a mass of colour from the blooming rhododendrons each year?
I used to live across the railway line and A30 from the the Cricketers Hotel (at Grove End Cottage where I was born). My best friends were Peter Knight from Lutine Farm and Sue Vince from Bagshot Green. Spud picking each year at either the Wooldridge's or Lutine Farms meant more of Fortuna's ice creams...ah such sweet memories!
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Cows in the High Street
From Ann Roberson (nee Kircher) : I remember cows being herded through the High Street twice a day to be milked, the little traffic there was stopped and respected this twice daily activity. There used to be three fields opposite the Fighting Cocks pub where the Cedar Close estate is now, the cows went from these to the Dairy which was situated off Park Street at the back of Chapmans shoe shop, where I believe there are now toilets and a Fish and Chip shop. On route to milking and back to the fields the cows would drink from the stone trough then placed at the top of the High Street (relocated in 1956 to the bottom of Church Road). 6118.906
Another contributor was able to provide even more detail : The cows that went up and down Bagshot High Street used to belong to my Grandfather, Mr.Edward Wallis, and they were kept in cowsheds at the rear of the family butchers shop (Wallis and Hammond) which was next door to Burrows grocers shop. On the other side of the butchers the family also had a fresh fish shop. This was before electric refridgeration and when I was a child I can remember the ice lorry delivering huge blocks of ice for the ice box which was a large walk in store that stored the meat etc. At the rear of the property was an alley and across this alley the cows were kept along with pigs and chickens, etc . There was also a slaughter house where the animals were slaughtered. I believe that before the war my mother's family used to deliver the milk around the area by horse and cart and the milk was served up by jug - this was before bottles. I know when I was a child the milk used to be put through a cooler then put into churns and rolled up the alley for collection by Jobs Dairies. Down this alley there was a small wooden shed in which Mr.Stan Burrows used to sit I think in his wheel chair, and he used to charge the accumulators which in those days provided the power the radios etc. You used to take one or two in for recharge and bring replacements out. 6130.11.06
On the subject of the cows in the High Street, Marilyn came across this delightful poem which turns out to have been written by another of this site's readers! . 6124.1106 6128.207
"Yesterdays village".The cows came down the street for tea
past the giant cedar tree.
Hurst's horse and cart brought milk by can,
Godwins and Bushes our paper man,
Burrows for our daily needs,
Underwoods hardware and for seeds.
Albie and Edna serve our meat,
pluck the chickens nice and neat.
Chapman's shoes for healthy feet,
riding the rocking horse was a treat.
Johnsons for our soles and heels,
Dollery's for fish and chip meals.
Robinsons they cleaned our clothes,
go to Nashes if Underwoods closed.
Morris and Kemps coal we won't be cold,
Parkers piles of wood to be sold.
Princess House our cinema,
'Blue Lamp', 'King Kong', and tales from afar.
The Pantiles pool what fun we had,
a simple treat for lass and lad,
the Mission Hall for one and all,
the message then, still is, God welcomes all.
Ann Roberson continues: On the Festival of Britain, 1951, a huge party with dancing and all sorts of fun was held in the High Street, traffic was stopped and hundreds of people laughed and socialised. 6118.906
I was married on the 29th March 1958 by the Rev Meluish, the vicar of that time. As a child my father always said that his grandfather helped to build the spire of Bagshot church, I am trying to verify this with an Aunt, the last member of the original Kircher family. My grandmother and grandfather lived on Jenkins Hill in the small terraced house which lay between the public house and Yaverland house, almost opposite the old nursing home where I was born. Due to my grandfather sustaining severe spinal injuries, gran Mrs. Ellen Philbrook Kircher opened up her front room as a general little shop, she made and sold homemade ice cream and supported eleven children, in case anyone should remember the names of the children from eldest down was Herbert, killed in action in France at the age of 19, buried in Bethune cemetry. Gilbert, Tom, Glady, Gertie, Winifred, Nellie, Jim (my dad) and Frank.
There were also two little girls who sadly died from measles when an epidemic swept the village, my grandmother said that many children died within weeks. We do not know the names of these little girls but think they must have been buried in Bagshot cemetary. 6118.906
Higgs Lane
One of my readers has provided this description of Higgs Lane in the 1960's before the development of the Yaverland estate. 6140.1206
I walked to school along Higgs Lane (we always referred to it as Higges Lane)in the 1960's. Starting from College Ride then on down Higges Lane. I recall properties being built on the top left hand corner of Higges Lane. One was owned by the Parnells. There was an entrance to Penny Hill Park and the football pitch on the right hand corner.
Once we past the edge of Penny Hill Park the land on the right hand side as we went down the hill was all field where Waterers Nursery grew azalea. When in flower these were glorious blocks of colour, yellow, pink, orange, purple and the smell was unforgetable. Opposite was a bungalow and then the entrance to a largish detatched house set well back from the road. The gardens of this property were bounded by the lane all the way to the bottom of the hill.
At the bottom of the hill the road turned sharply left and to the right was a muddy lane (I only remember it being muddy) which cut through to almost opposite Waterers Nursery on the A30. Bamboo grew in the ditches on this corner. Higges Lane had a property on this corner on the right hand side and from there until it reached the A30 there were no further houses that I can recall. Then just one detached house on the left hand corner as we joined the main road. Waterers produced plants/shrubs on the remaining land along the lane, as best I can remember, but as there were hedges along the lane I have no strong memory of what they might have been.
Mission Hall
Another reader wrote fondly of her memories of the Mission Hall: I
attended Sunday School there as did my cousins and friends. Along with the
teaching of the Bible we enjoyed trips out to Burnham Beeches - we all piled
in Morris's removal lorry and went our for the day which included sports
and a picnic. Mr Saunders took Sunday School which was broken into groups
according to age. We had our own choir and went out and sang in various
competitions. We had prize giving once a year, and a savings club for Christmas.
Mrs Morris played the piano for us - she always wore the most wonderful hats.
On Wednesdays they had Womens Own, my mother often sang the solo that day.
Simple things but happy memories. 6128.207
The Gospel Mission was founded in 1925 on the site it still occupies off
The Square. It changed its name to Bagshot Evangelical Church 50 years later,
and then more recently to The Brook Church.
Miss Monger's School
David Waskett writes : I went to Miss Monger's School on Church Rd in the 1950s. The only was to describe this is a a Dames School. The class room was a room at the back of the house which was on the top right a bit before the church, it was called Hope Cottage and I still have some of my old school reports. There were two Miss Mongers, Birdie and Mabel but I cannot be sure which one taught us, I think it was Birdie. I was told by her that in the Cemetary the good people who went to heaven had humps on their graves. As my way home to the top of Jenkins Hill was often via the cemetary I used to look at the graves and admire the humps. However, some graves were sunken so I was left to wonder their occupants fate!! The Miss Monger who was a teacher died in her 80's in a nursing home about 1971.
I went to Christ the King Church and was an altar server when Father Arthur Porter was there. He was the finest most down to earth priest I have ever met, ex navy chaplain.
I lived at The Spinney, Jenkins Hill opposite the Bird in Hand, my parents Joan and Arthur. My grandfather, Julian Leathart, lived next door at The Cottage. He had agreement with Waterers Nurseries to walk their land and I spent a lot of my childhhod roaming all over the nurseries. There was Black Pond too which is now under the M3. Progress? 7056.707
Book recommendation
Brian Marlow has written recommending the book 'Wopses in the Laylocks' written by Richard Lucock WILSON and published by Surrey Heath Museum in 2006. This is described as Memories of Bagshot and West End 1849-1929. Brian says he found it of interest especially as his mother Annie was a LUCOCK born in Chobham (1897-1965). 7051.607
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