| Ruth Wright (nee Douglas) |
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I have only really just found this site - I think I had seen the Stamford East Station section before - which is really great - but not the entirety! Its brilliant, brings back so many memories and names.
When we were kids (1950s) we used to play for hours in Back Lane - go-carting was a favourite - bumping over the cobbles! We weren't allowed to go further than the Cox's (?) back door in one direction or the back entrance to the Priory (?) school (in the Terrace) in the other.
My mother had an allotment down past Bowman's - about where the electric pylon station is now I think - there was a pig there too (though not our's). In those times you could, too, just wander down to the meadows below Adelaide Street - mind you, the river did flood quite high every now and then!
We also used to go to the 'sewage works meadows' for picnics - may sound unlikely but it was wonderful. As long as the cows didn't get too interested!
Kate: Thanks for that contribution Ruth. Glad you like the Forum. Keep
checking back as additions made on regular basis.
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| syd |
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Welcome Ruth, did your brother attend St Augustine's catholic school and was dad a teacher?
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| dan entwisle |
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So, what was it like down there before Grays was built, and that kind of wasteland where the pylons are?
Grass I take it.
Would Adelaide Street have had a river view?
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| Ruth Wright |
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Hi - yes, we all attended St Augustine's! (Francis, me, Josie, Rachel, Mark) I have just sent Kate a photo of the class of around 1957 to post up. I can remember names and faces but not (mostly) put the two together!
Kate: Thanks for the photo Ruth - great photo - will be adding.
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| Ruth Wright |
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PS - and yes, our father (Walter Douglas) was a teacher at Stamford School. Art. Our mother used sometimes to teach e.g. Maypole dancing at St Augustine's. She also ran a Girl Guide 'pack'.
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| Ruth Wright |
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Hi - yes - meadowland. Cowslips and other wild flowers we rarely see now. I think the allotments were about where the pylon sub-station is now. As far as I can recall it was all meadows below Adelaide Street - when the river flooded (before the river management works were done) the water occasionally came right up the road to not far below Bowman's yard.
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| Keith hansell |
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Hi Ruth, I remember you and your family very well. Plus of corse Albert the car. I also remember your grandmother living at 15 Adelaide Street, which your family entered from the Back Lane. I had a photo given to me a year or two ago showing myself, John Story and your sister Josie.
Dan, It was possible to see the green from the bedroom windows at Adelaide St. Where both industrial sites are now was once orchards. Where Luckins/Amtech is now was a grass field where Dr Parry kept his horse. The pigs that Ruth refers to were first owned by Stan Bradshaw and then Frank Sawyer who bought Stan's house. The site was then purchased by the Smiths for their permanent gypsy site.
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| dan entwisle |
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Hi Keith, I seem to remember my relatives on Adelaide Street had some sort of mooriing rights on the Welland down there. Never exercised rights.
I know it brought jobs, but such a shame that area was built on. Was it in the 1960s.
I used to enjoy pushing my luck as a kid riding my bike round Grey's yard if they left the gates open at night. Not doing any harm, just rding my bike but it would wind up the security guy.
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| Ruth |
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Hi - yes, my Gran (my mother's mother) lived at 15 Adelaide Street (Rose Cottage) from the mid 1950s until the early 70s. It had a big garden and she even grew grapes in the greenhouse! She was really a total Londoner but had moved to Ramsden Bellhouse (Essex) in the spring of 1941 - having stayed in London through much of the London Blitz. She had a few chickens in London but in Essex she expanded - more chickens, fruit trees, vegetables and so on. Its amazing the skills people developed to survive rationing and other shortages - it must have been hard work, too. So she wanted a big garden in Stamford even though in her 70s by then! Miss Butler - who taught Biology at the High school - bought Rose Cottage because she also loved the garden. Her mother, Dr Butler, also lived in Adelaide Street.
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| dan entwisle |
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Wasn't there some sort of telephone place down that way?
Also, my parents came close to buying a house on St Leaonard's Street in about 1978/9. It was the end house at the Cherryholt Lane end. and backed onto Adelaide Street. I notice from Google street view there are now modern houses on the junction there. Were they built in the garden of what could have become my home?
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| Keith hansell |
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The telephone exchange was built on one of the orchards. Are you referring to a house or bungalow on the corner. The bungalow is still there and the only residence that I know to be demolished for development was Mr Dean's cottage opposite 15 Adelaide Street. Strangely enough I have just come back from a pint and lunch with two old friends that lived on Adelaide Street and St Leonard's Street and one of the conversations today was regarding Mr Dean and the cottage.
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| John Story |
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Thank you Keith for introducing this forum. Ruth, I have some great photos of me, Keith and Josie in the garden of number 29 St Leonard St. I was born there in 1951 and the garden was a perfect playground. Where is Josie now? I too have fond memories of Back Lane and the meadows. I can still recall playing on the meadows as a 5 year old on a Summers evening and hearing the peal of the great bells of St Mary's wafting over on a balmy breeze. Keith, David Wade and I occasionally meet up for a few beers at The Crown and other inns. What happened to Geoff Chambers and Andy Flack? I worked for a while at the greengrocers building as a trainee accountant with Jackson and Grimes (hey does that sound like something out of Dickens........). Is there a way to post photos on the forum, I'm not great on the computer?
Kate: Hi John. To post photos to the forum send as a JPEG to my email
address that is, kate@stamfordtown.com I will then upoad to the website. Hope you manage this.
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| Dan Entwisle |
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No it was a big house. End of a terrace I guess. If you come down Brazenose Lane it faces you at the junction.
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| keith hansell |
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In that case, the house in question is the one referred to by John Story.
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| Cathy Johns |
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Hello Ruth, I wonder if you're still on this forum, I discovered it as for some reason a flashback to your kitchen at St Leonards Street c. 1962 came into my head and I thought I would have another go at seeing what you Douglases were up to these days. Rachel was my first best friend, and my mum (Mavis Johns) was a very close friend of your mum's when we were all at St Augustine's. My Dad (Paul) taught at Blackfriars school and my mum taught in primary schools, in between having us five children! I've often wondered if I would ever be in touch with Rachel again. My mum is hale and hearty (ish) and will be 93 next month! My elder daughter is called Josie. I would love to give my mum news of you all if you could spare the time to connect.What precious times those Stamford days were. (We moved to Coventry in 1966)
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