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Post by André on Jan 7, 2024 15:03:07 GMT
Only 200 year old where i was brought up. Oldest photos i have of the olden days are 1898. My mothers house was built then
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Post by Westie on Jan 7, 2024 19:28:59 GMT
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Post by André on Jan 7, 2024 20:12:25 GMT
Looks a nice place that. You near Durham then
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Post by Westie on Jan 7, 2024 20:43:55 GMT
I’m in County Durham, but quite a way away from Durham City. I’m right on the border of Northumberland. I’m 16 or 17 miles away from either Durham or Newcastle.
It’s funny when you look back at old pics. Everything seems so tiny, and yet it seemed huge back when I was a kid. I remember that Junior school seeming really big lol.
The actual school only consisted of the two main buildings. The big house on the front right was outside the school grounds. The building on the top right was the headmasters house (the deputy head lived there) and the one top left was the caretakers house. The dark but in the middle was the bike sheds.
When I was there. The first two years were in the lower building and the other two were in the higher one. Originally they were separate bits and girls schools dating to 1902 and 1903.
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Post by André on Jan 7, 2024 20:54:23 GMT
I was brought up in Rowlands Gill, which is about 7 miles or so down the road. I found some old pics. Station Road hasn’t changed much. My mother’s last bungalow was in that road and my sister still lives there today, Thats a Nigel Gresley designed 'J39' class Its got a British Rail Re Number on it 64853 so that picture is after 1948, the Previous LNER number would have been 4853 & before that 1488 allocated to Ferryhill (Co. Durham)14th December1934.. Withdrawn 3rd December 1962. There is none of these left for preservation. Has the old station been demolished or does someone live in it?
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Post by Westie on Jan 8, 2024 4:55:25 GMT
The station house is still there and is now a house. The railway line was converted into nature trail called The Derwent Walk.
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Post by Westie on Jan 8, 2024 5:11:46 GMT
You’ve really set me off looking at old pics and it’s been great fun. My last house but one was right beside where there used to be an old station on the line that’s now The Derwent Walk. I never saw the old railway line or station there, but I’ve just found a pic showing a view of the railway with my old street in the background! I’ve pasted a pic from Google Earth to show it today. My house was the 5th one up so you can’t quite see it in the old pic. And here’s the station itself. You can just see my old street in the background! There’s absolutely nothing left of the old staton today. You’d never know it had existed.
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Post by André on Jan 8, 2024 9:57:36 GMT
Thats the exact same train as pictured further up. According to data that station was opened 2nd December 1867, Closed to passenger duty 1st Feb 1954, Completely closed 11th November 1963. So the above two train pictures are dated between 1948 & 1954. Im going more with early 1950s because that train would have had to go off for its old L.N.E.R livery painted over with new British Rail livery disused-stations.org.uk/r/rowlands_gill/index.shtml
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Post by Westie on Jan 8, 2024 10:09:12 GMT
Cool! I’d never have dreamed you could find info like that thanks!
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Post by dsjr on Jan 8, 2024 13:59:45 GMT
Where I entered the world and had two operations on my eye when small. The out-patients round the back was demolished as Stole Mandeville took over... Aylesbury's changed out of all recognition since the 70's with ring roads and one way systems built over once snug little streets. Not been there since late 2001 to register my Dad's death.
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Post by Westie on Jan 8, 2024 15:33:46 GMT
I had an uncle who lived in Aylesbury and I still vaguely remember us going down to stay with him and his family around 1970. I really don’t remember much about it apart from finding the place very “urban”, compared to where we lived. Everything is strange to a 5 year-old though.
Soon after we visited, they went to live in Jamaica because his wife was from there, She was a fashion and interior designer and they lived a luxury lifestyle there. He always said he regretted leaving Britain though and he was a pretty sad, heavy drinker to his dying day.
He, his wife and their son all passed away within weeks of each other. Their son had only recently married the current Miss Miami (I kid you not) and she inherited the lot! Sorry for the digression but the memories seem to come flooding at times.
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Post by André on Jan 8, 2024 16:19:34 GMT
Because of the widening of the road around 1966 (You can see all the original walls taken away), because of this virtually everything was chopped up, more so at the top of the hill (High Street) Also because of that the row of Stone terrace you see with the kids & pram outside had to be demolished because they were too far out in the old width road
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Post by André on Jan 8, 2024 16:39:32 GMT
Our old Train Station opened 1st May 1853 but was originally named RAWMARSH, Renamed RAWMARSH & PARK GATE 1st November 1869, renamed again 1st December 1869 as PARK GATE AND RAWMARSH, Then 3rd May 1894 to PARKGATE AND RAWMARSH (Parkgate as one word). Closed 1st January 1968. as were the one up & the one down the line about a mile away from there. Picture here around September 1968 but i think that maybe slightly later going by the overgrowth & general condition of the platform There was also a train crash at this station 19th November 1926. www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventimages.php?eventID=1108&imageID=259www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=2094
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Post by dsjr on Jan 8, 2024 17:40:23 GMT
Wow - how places go for many years and BAM, there's a massive change and not always for the better. I'm not known as 'The Thing from Tring' for nothing, but my home-town has been a dormitory for London workers for a VERY long time. property prices are daft now (over half a million for a mid-wars semi!) and our road had many bungalows with deep gardens allowing for massive rear 'open plan style' extensions that don't remove the green out back. Other houses in reasonable plots have been demolished and a pair of detached have been built, each one worth the thick end of a million each (grabbing b******s). In fairness, the bypassed high street became a little more how it was in the past with some of it cobbled, but all these SUV's the well off residents seem to drive around in has spoiled it again. I last returned to my paternal home in 2016 but the dear friend who lived there has moved now and I doubt I'll ever return. My paternal ancestors in the Baptist chapel graveyard had their headstones unceremoniously dug up and piled, some cracked, on top of each other in a corner as that cemetery was overgrown and desperate for cleaning up - a far cry from my Welsh ancestors where the cemetery (where I'd like to end up if possible) is well kept and accessible.
The parish church where I was confirmed (I'm rather lapsed now and with hippy vibes, but I can't take the original feelings away)
I walked that path four times a day when at high school and the clock had a Westminster Chime melody - on quiet days, we could hear the hour strike from our house - too much damned noise now I think.
This is where my innermost soul belongs though and I shed tears when relatives in a farm near there post landscape pics.. "One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back..." The town in the distance is Ruthin...
Hiraeth is so strong it hurts sometimes, yet I never lived there, only my maternal ancestors going back hundreds of years - it's a healing place for me and when we could, we should have moved here instead of where we are
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Post by Westie on Jan 8, 2024 18:55:29 GMT
Southall, West London. I used to live very close to Southall Park from 1998 - 2014. S. pin.it/7M7ZwzV
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