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of Faringdon. It can be for any era It could be about: Schools, Youth Club, memorable people, police, shops, pubs, bailey bridge, during the war, Colespits, the Folly, Whitsun confetti battle, Corn Exchange cinema, train station, church choir, Radcot river, the Coronation, town councillors, the villages around |
send your memories Remembering Faringdonians |
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| College at Barcote Manor
1970-71 I attended Anglo-American college at Barcote manor in 1970-71. Anyone remember it? I seem to remember we caused quite a splash in the area. I fondly remember the tea house in central Farindon. Alan Elliott |
| 17th Century House I would love to know more about our home- 30 London Street. We bought it from Roger Clarke -it was then an antique shop.Up and down stairs there were 2 42' long rooms. It had been an inn called 'The Star'. A front window has the outline of an arch and there are stables at the back.1749 is carved over a fireplace. All three floors have enormous fireplaces. A first floor back room - created by dividing the original long room - which I believe was used by Roger's mother for making curtains - looks much older than the front rooms - and the ceiling and walls are all over the place. The name Charles is scratched on an Elizabethan style window. I guess the back survived the Civil War but the front had to be rebuilt. It's a fascinating house. And what was 30A -which we changed back to a separate house? Margaret Barker |
| Faringdon Grammar School for Girls
- 1950s When I joined the school, Miss Moore, the head mistress had been replaced by Miss Towns. There were still remnants of Miss Moores time though - in needlework I had to knit socks - on 4 needles(my mum did them), but making the bloomers to match the summer dresses had been dropped!! The school was ruled by Miss Bell(PE) and Miss Moore(English)- stern women who stood for no nonsense. The uniform was a grey bibbed skirt, a blue check blouse, and socks - long ones if it was after 1/10 and short if after 1/4 - no matter what the weather. The grey felt hat was mandatory. Some girls tried wearing it at a jaunty angle or modifying it by creasing it - but didn't often get passed Miss Bell - who stood at the school gate, and inspected us as we left for the day. The rumour was that if you walked out of school with nothing on, Miss Bell would say 'and where is your hat?' I remember we were all told one day in assembly that we should not talk to children from the secondary modern school - of whom my brother was one! Assembly was every morning - the whole school gathered together for a hymn, a prayer and the giving out of notices. One of the schools musicians would play the piano as we were marched in and out. The majority of the girls sat cross legged on the floor - only the 6th formers and teachers sat on chairs. An academic school - we had school exams twice yearly, so by the time we got to GCE age, we were well practised in sitting formal exams. The teachers liked the clever girls who were destined for University(the name boards are still on the walls of what is now the Junior School dining room). The rest of us who wanted to be civil servants, bank clerks, secretaries, nurses were not valued in the same way. Everyone had homework - increasing in amount as you got older- my memory is about 10-12 hours a week at age 15. Woe betide anyone who was late handing it in. We were allocated text books, in which we wrote our name while it was ours to use. At the end of the school year these were handed in and it was checked that everyone had handed hers in. Subsequently books lasted for years and years. A school typical of its time- focusing on exam results rather than the broader, more informal style of education that we have today. It had its merits Gene Webb |
| 1950s/1960s hi,faringdon.found your site today. i was brought up in faringdon during the fiftees,and early sixties.my mother,kathleen,was the lollypop lady by, i think,levertons shop.this would be about 1960. i remember saturday morning pictures,scrumping apples from tuckers orchard,keeping out of sargeant readers way if we had been up to mischief. mayor bill white...the barber...mrs b.in the cafe in the square...mrs allnatt.....just some of the names that come to mind. marlborough gardens where i grew up....what great days. thankyou faringdon for many happy childhood memories..... michael macey. |
| 1970s Mr Robert-Heber Percy used to let the town use the grounds of Faringdon House for a summer fete, as well as open the gardens at Easter Time. When he died in 1983 this stopped almost completely. I think the only remnant of Faringdon House welcoming the community is through the Firework display run by the Rotary every November. It is a shame that the now owner lives abroad and the property is let to people who appear to take little or no interest in Faringdon. Faringdon has lost access to an important part of it's history Name Supplied |
| World War II Extract from The Peoples War http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/ The only other person I remember in Faringdon was the headmaster of the school I attended. Although I never fell foul of him, I shared the common dread of him. He was old (to me), short, and his remaining hair was light brown. He had a violent temper and struck terror in our hearts by his shouting. He often used the cane and I remember on one occasion he caned a girl in front of the class after pulling down her knickers. Although I was only seven, I thought this was very wrong but never said anything about it in case I got the same. I was not sorry to leave Faringdon. The full story was donated to the People’s War website by M. R. Spurgeon, |
| World War
II RECOLLECTIONS OF FARINGDON John R. Copland The Peoples war on BBC website |
| c1960s My family lived in Gloucester Street in the house that had a cottage in the garden. I think in the 1960s. Does anyone remember? Ive heard that it is now a nursery or private school.My family have memories to add to the social history of the place. There were connections to a pub there and someone called- we think Richard- who was a lodger. A family member would love to visit the family home and show us around and tell us their memoirs -which could link with yours. There were international connections. I would love to hear from anyone that remembers. The cottage in the garden as far as we know now has a garage door in it! Sad but true. Any info my family would love as we are researching our history. I hope I have got the right area. The cottage had been turned into a garage!!!! and I think the pub was called the Bell. The family had connections with Canada. The house - my mum remembers had three floors and a basement. One of the staircases she remembers as being spiral- or curved. It was a terraced house. It did not have a number but a name begining with M. Does this help? I think an aunts surname was Fickle but if she was married that would be her maiden name. Is there any way of searching any records to find who lived there? My mum tells me they used to visit the Folly. Rossalyn Emmett emmerossal@btinternt.com |
| c1970s I have so many memories of Faringdon as i grew up here, now living in Canada, i often visit this website, I went to the infants school on canada lane, then the school near the railway lines, then of course off to Tollington, and i finished 6th form at the elms.... then my first job from finishing school was Ross Foods on Park Rd Industrial estate, right besides Splash, i guess those are no longer there, i also did a paper round for the Busby;s then taken over by the miserable Marments!!! i used to love getting sweets at Mrs Alnutts ...and going to the Bargain Centre to see what good cheap stuff i could buy, and i bought my very first record at the electronics shop Larkins ...oooh the memories, walking the dog across to tuckers park, i could go on and on.... but well i miss my old homestead, you never appreciate it til its gone.... so be proud you Faringdonians.... Beverly Morrison (nee Shepherd) |
| 1940s/1950s I recall the day in the late forties/fifty when there was great excitement in Canada Lane Junior School. Workers from Bakers the Builders had been erecting two-inch, galvanised pipe in the infants/girls playground at the front of the school. The day came when the embedded pipe had become set and the swing/climbing bars were ready for the horde of eager children, wanting to engage with this adventure equipment. In today’s society, it would seem primitive and tame. To the children in that time it was marvellous. There were so many children just hanging from it by their arms and even just touching the pipe was a thrill in itself. Not one child could actually do any form of exercise, what with the crush of small bodies around the new equipment, and the shrill cries of delight from the throng. There was “Old Tidy” and his minions attempting to gain some semblance of order, I believe they gave up after a while. I have wondered if there were any photographs of the day, it would be of interest. On two occasions’ the memory of the day has come to the fore. Once when resting in a clearing, with my back to a tree, glancing up, there above on a branch were a troop of Spider Monkeys, hanging and standing gazing at me. The other was in the film 2001, A Space Odyssey; when the ape creatures gather around, and one touches the black obelisk. I am no way implying we were monkeys or apes; they are the things that triggered the memory of the exercise bars in the old school. Around that time, the allotments at the back of the school became a school playing field. Richard Giles, Christchurch, New Zealand. |
| 1970s I moved to Faringdon in 1969, not long after the demolition of the workhouse (the Spike) in Ferndale Street, formerly Back Street. In those days the cinema was still in Gloucester Street, but had ceased to be a cinema, and as far as I can remember it was a Bingo Hall. There were around 20 pubs in the town, and the nearest one to us was the Folly Inn, with its famously grumpy landlord, David Avenell, (although I think his mum, Stella, was still the licensee in those days). His taciturn temperament did not deter, however, and the pub was often serving drinks well after closing time with lock-ins going on until the small hours. The police were regular visitors, and I don't mean in their official capacity... The Police station still flourished in Coach Lane, as did the magistrate's court, and the Rural District Council was housed in Camden House, in the Market Place. The town Council was still a Parish council, then (I think) but I don't remember exactly when this changed. In the early seventies it was certainly a Town Council, and councillors I remember were Bill White, Cecil Blisset, Stanley *****?, Richard Custance, Colin Dyer, Frank Van Tinteren, Evelyn Stoodley (of Amateur Dramatics fame) The Pines was just being built, and Sands Hill (Now Town End Road/Marines Drive estate) was still a caravan site. There was a handy fish'n'chip shop half way up London Street, Moreton's was still a department store cornucopia of toys, ladies and gents clothing; There was a very good shoe shop, with Woods/Smiths bookshop next door. A little further up the road was Mrs Allnatt's sweetie shop, where children were treated with the same courtesy as adults, were never hurried and where they could still buy such treats as sherbet dabs, liquorice wheels and bootlaces, sweet cigarettes (my favourites) and a host of other children-of-all-ages' delights. The Folly Tower was closed to the public, and two friends and I climbed it one night with the aid of climbing equipment, to wait at the top for the dawn to break, when I took a complete panorama of town photographs (black and white) from its then forbidden heights. Hilary Taylor |
| 1970s Until the mid 70s The Elms in Gloucester Street, which has now been turned into apartments, was the Faringdon Grammar School for Girls. Under the comprehensive school system it combined with Tollington School and my son, Steven, was one of the first dozen or so boys allowed into the previously ‘boy free zone’. He was very good about it, as were the other boys, and didn’t complain but in order to ensure a certain amount of privacy when the occasion arose he carved a very smart wooden sign saying “Working Men’s Club’ and suspended it over the door of the boys’ toilet. The Headmaster, was not amused and suspended Steven for a day. Word spread about my son’s wickedness and he was approached by the Bourton Working Men’s Club offering to buy the offending sign if he would carve a matching sign saying “Bourton”. For many years Bourton Working Men’s Club graced the club’s entrance as a reminder of my son’s sense of humour and the Headmaster’s lack of it. Name Supplied |
| 1950s Being a child at this time, my memories are largely about school and sweet shops and later Youth Club! The headmaster of Faringdon Primary school(where the Infant school is now) was a Mr Tidyman - a man to be wary of!. He was at the school for many years- certainly since WWII and maybe before. I was fortunate that he retired in the early 1950s and a much nicer and more tolerant Mr Harding became head. Lots of things spring to mind- being wrongly accused of writing on a wall (of a stinky outside WC block) and being made to scrub it clean - I was 5 (and scarred for life you may say), learning to play the recorder, being made to stay in at playtime(age 6) to do some knitting - I still can't knit. Netball matches, sports days, PE in your knickers(navy!) regular tests- and having to sit in sequence from top to bottom of the class, needlework classes (much good they did me). Last 2 years of primary school - more than 40 children in the class. Teachers- Mr Gregson (there forever I think), Miss Phillips, Miss Spinage, Mr Mohan( a man!!), Miss Wickham(friend of Mr Mohan!!), Miss Tibbetts(frightening). Home at this time was in Marlborough St- Malvern house was below the empty shop next to the now Chinese fish and chips. At that time the house had pretty bay window and a small front garden with railings(sad to see it now). I remember standing at this window to watch the Coronation procession go by (I had measles!) Opposite was Paddons sweet shop(later to become Manners), further down was Miss Fletchers sweet shop, Drew's butcher, Golding Goddards(now White Horse bookshop), a laundrette, as well as cottages- a pretty street! 3d bought packet of spangles - normal amount to spend, while 6d was riches and I could buy a Mars bar. Russell Spinage (brother of the teacher), ran a number of youth clubs- held in the Old Boys School on the Stanford Road(now dwellings). Ar first I was in the junior girls section. All I can remember we did was to learn country dancing- Virginia Reel, Dashing White Sergeant, Bonnie Breastnot). Russell used to take us to village fetes where we would perform our dances as a fete attraction. We loved it An innocent age - one single man and 8-10 little girls under the age of 12. Some names I remember- Sheila and Ann Bowls, Ann Goodenough, Gill Purbrick, Jean Allnatt, Mary Buchanan Russell worked tirelessly for the youth of the town. It was through Russell's Youth Club that we could go dancing (rocknroll, old time, ballroom), play table tennis and snooker, and generally get together.(important for someone who went to a single sex school!) He took us on outings - I remember kayaking on the river at Abingdon and sleeping in a hammock on a boat, walking in the Lake District and a seaside holiday at Teignmouth. Without Russell we baby boomers would have been lost. After my time, the Youth Club had to vacate the Old School House(sold for development I believe), and it moved to the Secondary School premises, where it didn't flourish. However sometime in the 60s early 70s, Russell married and I think had 2 sons, so he had other priorities. Sadly Russell died relatively young (in his early 60s) Thankyou Russell Gene Webb |
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