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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 23, 2017 15:50:23 GMT
Yesterday was our 40th Wedding anniversary. We took a brief trip down memory lane to celebrate. My anniversary present. Our son looked after the dog and the house so we set off soon after breakfast. OH initially drove to the village of Westoning. My family moved there from Leicester when I was 10. The house had only changed a little...most of the properties on the road had built an extension on top of the garage, property in the South of England is very expensive, especially in rural areas (£350,000 plus for this type of semi-detetched property)so it's more practical to 'improve' than move to a bigger property. There had been a lot of building in the village since I last visited years ago (at least 35). New estates filled areas that had previously been fields..large, expensive properties by enlarge. The village hall hadn't changed much I was anxious to visit the church. There were 3 in the village originally, one has been converted into a house but St Mary Magdalene was still the same. I sang in the choir...every child in the village over 9 years old was pretty much press ganged into joining the choir. I was a chorister for a couple of years or three... Inside the only changes I noticed were that the creed was no longer on a huge banner by the altar, the hassocks were new as were the hymn books and a new organ. There were three ladies (of a certain age) in there creating floral arrangements and preparing a display for harvest festival (the produce wasn't arranged just in boxes ready) The lectern, hymn number holder both unchanged List of Vicars from the church dating back to the 13th century The pews have lovely carvings on them... the doorway and porch with arrangements for the harvest festival and a war memorial. We hung around for a while chatting to the ladies working in the church and the groundsman working in the churchyard...none of them had been in the village when I was but they knew people who had lived there when I did. It was really lovely...even this raddled old atheist was moved. tbc
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 23, 2017 16:21:51 GMT
After visiting the church we drove through the next village (Flitwick) on to Ampthill, the site of my secondary school where I met Myrt when we were 11 (she used to post on here) STILL my bosom friend after all these years... it's a massive school covering a very large site but it's well protected from nosey ex-pupils wanting to take snaps, so that's all I got. We drove into Ampthill centre. The shops have changed...now they are high end estate agents, antique dealers, jewellery and knick-knack shops. There are still lots of pubs but they've been refurbished and are all polished wood, chrome and designer beer. We had a pint in the White Hart. (used to have a folk club meet in a large barn every week...the barn has been converted to very expensive hotel rooms) this chap posed nicely so I can't leave him out... lots of lovely buildings designer beer tbc
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 23, 2017 17:07:14 GMT
Oh this is fun -- like rolling through the countryside with you as a guide, Cheery!
Thanks for showing your anniversary present -- exquisite design.
Beautiful pictures and you obviously had a beautiful day for the outing. It must have felt nice to see your childhood home so lovingly kept up. The ancient church is an absolute jewel.
Were you very dismayed by places like Ampthill, or just glad that they're thriving? Ampthill certainly seems to have discovered itself with a vengeance. Is it on a history &/or antiquing route?
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Post by bjd on Sept 23, 2017 17:56:15 GMT
What a nice way to celebrate your 40th anniversary.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 23, 2017 18:05:46 GMT
Most of the villages in that part of Bedfordshire are very old...mentioned in the Doomsday Book etc (some info about Westoning to follow)
Ampthill Park is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of Catherine of Aragon...Ampthill is where she spent her last days after being exiled by her cheating husband Henry VIII.
As a teenager I visited an archaeological dig on the site of three tudor cottages that were being refurbished...they found that the site had been inhabited for centuries before the cottages were built.
Ampthill is a Town as opposed to a village (altho it's a small town) In the fifties and early sixties there was even a small department store there. It had it's own newspaper 'The Ampthill News' which was sold throughout the area...in fact I wish that it was still in print as myself and several chums from school were often featured in the pages when we had charity events.
..."Ampthill is a small town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Luton, with a population of about 7,000. It is administered by Central Bedfordshire Council. A regular market has taken place on Thursdays for centuries..." (Google)
The first day (Friday) was definately the better day weather wise...today we had rain and it was quite overcast.
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Post by mossie on Sept 23, 2017 18:42:12 GMT
Takes me back....... It always seems to be 'ladies of a certain age' who potter about in churches, arranging the flowers etc.. I never made the choir, my voice would drive the congregation away, so I had to carry the cross.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 23, 2017 18:46:20 GMT
I absolutely love reports about "daily life" so I very much like this one, too. There is no better way to get a better idea about where we all come from, both geographically and mentally.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 23, 2017 19:01:12 GMT
After supping a pint of Ampthill Ale we decided to drive back to Westoning as I was keen to visit the recreation ground and a few other places that I remembered. We parked near one of the two remaining pubs in the village. The Bell opposite is the recreation ground....the play area has been modernised and there is a football clubhouse. The village primary school has been extended, probably because of the increase in the village population. I attended the primary school briefly when we first moved to the village when I was 10. outside the school gates is the war memorial... and next to the school is 'the clock tower' close up of the inscriptions and plates On September 11th 1976 a petrol tanker exploded in the centre of the village....it was major news all over the country. Amazingly nobody was killed, but a lot of buildings were badly damaged. bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/CommunityArchives/Westoning/WestoningTankerExplosion.aspxOne of the buildings damaged was Deacons the Butcher...they did however rebuild. I was pleased to see that there were still relatives of Mr Deacon working in the butchers shop in Westoning...I remembered the bike AND the pig... The other public house in the village is The Chequers... tbc
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 23, 2017 19:45:07 GMT
Sorry about the terrible spelling and grammar...dyslexic fingers, a useless keyboard and laziness...I'll try to sort it out tomorrow... x
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 23, 2017 21:02:14 GMT
Wonderful pictures and continuing fascinating trip. It's great to see your old butcher shop is still there with its icons and the same family. Very cool to see the ancient and the new co-existing in Westoning, & that so much history is marked for everyone to see and learn. As a teenager I visited an archaeological dig on the site of three tudor cottages that were being refurbished...they found that the site had been inhabited for centuries before the cottages were built. Again, fascinating. Is there a museum in the town or the county? ... in fact I wish that it was still in print as myself and several chums from school were often featured in the pages when we had charity events. Cheery, you might want to do some googling when you have time. Looking up something in my home town recently, I ound an entire magazine article from 1963, complete with the advertisements. ... opposite is the recreation ground ... Maybe someone will correct me, but I don't think that is a feature of towns in the US. Every town and many neighborhoods have them here.
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Post by htmb on Sept 23, 2017 22:35:39 GMT
Congratulations to you and your husband, Cheery. Thanks for this lovely trip report. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your photos.
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Post by whatagain on Sept 24, 2017 0:22:02 GMT
Yes. Lovely. I like these reports where you feel you are part of the trip and just want to join. That is England the way I picture it. I could live there when I am old(Er).
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 24, 2017 17:20:18 GMT
Thank you for your positive feedback Leaving the relatively affluent rural areas we drove to Luton. Luton is scruffy, busy and loud. The population there is very diverse and muticultural as are most large, vibrant cities. There are several hotels offering reasonably comfortable (if basic) accommodation. We checked into the Premier Inn in the town centre. We had a little wander about town taking snaps of the buildings...most of the shops were closed (a fiendish plot by my OH to stop me spending money) The Town Hall with it's clock tower and the war memorial are splendid..I love the clock tower. We found the place where we got married 40 years previously As you can see the entrance has been updated, weddings no longer take place in the building (it's now just offices) another quite lovely Georgian building is available...I have a fondness for Cresta House tho... We also visited the place we met. It used to be a pub called The Royal where live bands played every Friday night...now it's a hotel Hungry now....spoilt for choice we plumped for an Indian Restaurant...really yummy food... after a nice glass of Kingfisher lager we went back to the hotel after a full day. tbc
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 24, 2017 17:37:22 GMT
That is a superb "blast from the past" wedding photo, but it also makes one realise how little styles have changed in the last 40 years, compared to say, 1920 versus 1960.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 24, 2017 17:54:24 GMT
I also realised that half the people in my wedding photo are no longer with us...
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 24, 2017 18:41:17 GMT
Before I went to bed I took a couple of photos of the view from the hotel room window...a bit blurred (we had a bottle of champagne in the room...hic) On the Saturday after breakfast we had another wander around Luton Town centre...I took a few snaps of interesting places. Flame...a nightclub I think... A hookah lounge? more shops and stuff a mini market...there is a large indoor market in 'The Mall' but that doesn't open until 0900 (which is ridiculous imo) another clock, and a mosaic/pavement maze thing... There is the usual large shopping mall filled with the same shops seen everywhere... when we lived in the area there was a much smaller mall known as The Arndale Centre (there are lots of Arndale Centres around)..a feature was a large fountain topped by a sculpture of flamingoes...some standing some with wings outstretched...it became a Health and Safety problem with people jumping in and climbing about (according to the security guards we spoke to) so it no longer exists...however there are pictures of flamingoes in the new Mall referencing the popular old fountain. Some of the pubs we used to frequent The Crown The Duke of Clarence We then left Luton and headed for Stevenage tbc.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 24, 2017 20:46:37 GMT
Well, humph! You practically forcibly prevented me from going to Luton and it's obviously a wonderful place with pretty much everything that London has. This continues to be a great report. I absolutely love seeing young Mr. & Mrs. Peabrain. The picture must be somewhat bittersweet for you, though.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 24, 2017 22:45:27 GMT
The Romanian shop looks nice.
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Post by questa on Sept 25, 2017 0:19:19 GMT
The list of vicars is beautiful. The ancient spelling and abbreviations for Christian names is fascinating. Do you see how all the vicars (men) had their Christian names listed, then in 1978 only initials were used and the position re-defined as 'priest in charge'. Poor 'M. Hill'served the parish for another term before making a respectable woman of herself by marrying a Mr Bettis. Finally in 1993 she had the right to use her own name of Margaret Hill, but chose to use her husband's surname anyway.
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Post by bjd on Sept 25, 2017 6:28:49 GMT
It doesn't look very lively early in the morning. What time do things open?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 25, 2017 8:15:44 GMT
bjd...my beloved dragged me into town at 0730. Everything started livening up at around 0830 -0900 when most of the shops open in the mall.
Bixa dear it's no London....not even as nice as Balham tbh...I wouldn't say it was a dump but I have been quite selective about the photos I took...
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Post by mossie on Sept 25, 2017 11:03:36 GMT
Luton still looks a bit of a dump, if you don't mind me saying. Perhaps it has improved from the days when i did a few jobs there.
Have I ever related the story of the airline hostess? Perhaps better not.
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Post by htmb on Sept 25, 2017 13:42:25 GMT
Lovely pictures from your tour, cheery, and the wedding photo of you as a beautiful, young couple is priceless.
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Post by mich64 on Sept 25, 2017 14:46:29 GMT
Happy Anniversary to you both! Enjoying following along. Beautiful wedding photo. Did you stop in at any of your old pubs?
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 25, 2017 15:19:51 GMT
Bixa dear it's no London.... I remain unconvinced.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 25, 2017 15:57:15 GMT
We didn't have time to visit the old pubs aside from the White Hart in Ampthill...we were pleased that they were still there tho. H Mossie is probably right. The town centre is restaurants, clubs, phone shops, estate agents, hairdressers, burger bars and one or two eastern european grocers but most of the shops are in the Mall which is basically full of the same shops that you find everywhere else. I know that there is a museum but it isn't in the centre (it's about a mile from the centre in Wardown House) Luton didn't seem to have the small independent shops and little galleries that Leicester has...(and we have three museums and the Richard III centre AND the little cathedral all in the town centre nah-na-nah-na nah nah)
BUT I'm sure that it's a perfectly nice place to live and the people we spoke to were all lovely.
What Luton lacked, Stevenage also failed to deliver.....*sigh* bearing in mind that we were only there for a few hours...
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 25, 2017 17:08:38 GMT
We were living in a rented bedsit in Luton when we married. Jeff started working for Stevenage Glass...at the time the new town of Stevenage was trying to attract skilled workers and their families to set up home there. Cyril (Jeff's boss) could get us a Council House, something that we had no hope of getting in Luton as the waiting list was so long. I didn't want to move away from my chums and Jeff's family...but the opportunity to set up home in a little house with my beloved was just too temptng. This is the little house we moved into.. Whilst we were surreptitiously sneaking a photo of our old house I recognised one of our old neighbours so we went ambling over and chatted to Wendy and Colin for AGES Catching up on lots of gossip, including the news that one of the neighbours had 'done a midnight flit' after getting into financial difficulties and knowing that the bailiffs were calling the next day....very sad. Many of the people we'd known on the street had passed away. That little corner of Stevenage was lovely...there are acres of social housing in the new town...it's one huge council estate...but each estate has a small area of shops and there are many very good primary schools...it was a nice place to live back in the late 70s. Jeff then drove to another of our old houses, the council offered it to us when we went from a family of three to a family of four (we should have stayed where we were happy at the old house). I didn't like living in this one so much, Jeff left Stevenage Glass and got a job in Saudi Arabia so that we could save up to buy our own property...we only stayed here for 18 months. Number 18. I couldn't wait to get away from Stevenage after we moved to the second house. My husband liked Stevenage. I think that he was quite happy until he decided that paying rent was a fools game and looked for work that would pay well. So he buggered off to Saudi Arabia leaving me at home with 2 little boys (ages 4 and 1). Anyway...understandably I have little affection for Stevenage...the Old Town is quite attractive with interesting little shops and pubs, but there is nowhere to park and when we were in town there was a street fair cluttering up the place which I would quite liked to have visited... but I'd had my own way quite a lot the day before!...so I have no pictures of the old town. The New Town is imo a bit of a dump. Sorry. But there it is. There is a lot of building work going on around the centre so maybe it will improve...perhaps I'm being unfair as we only spent a few hours there... I rest my case....the water feature thingy and clock tower in the town centre... bronze sculpture didn't have any eggs on me to chuck... there was a small mall with about 5 shops in it....I liked this lift tho back outside another sculpture outside a tattoo parlour there is a large indoor market as well...nothing exciting inside in a word...DULL It was a lovely weekend...I enjoyed the first day much more than the second
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 25, 2017 18:38:34 GMT
Just realised that I haven't posted a picture of Ampthill's lovely clock ....Will download it next time I'm on Flickr
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Post by mossie on Sept 25, 2017 18:42:50 GMT
Always interesting to go back to where you first set up home, well done Cheery for sharing with us. Having worked in most of the New Towns in southern England, Harlow, Bracknell Basingstoke, Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead,etc., they all have some character but can also be a bit soulless. In addition to overpowering the little places they grew out.
But, after so many houses had been destroyed or badly damaged during the war, plus the fact that many existing houses were not really fit for purpose, new housing was desperately needed, and these towns were a really good way to relieve the pressure. We really need a similar programme of genuine social housing, as this was, today. These were proper family houses, not the badly designed and built, massive blocks of flats which were built in other places. I'm afraid I cannot see our present dire crop of politicians, of any party, producing a similar result now.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 25, 2017 18:50:46 GMT
Your first council house seems all the more attractive for being at the end of the row. Whenever I see British movies or television programmes, the ones in the middle of the row seem so squeezed between all of the others. Of course France has many row houses, too, but they never show up in movies as often as in British movies. I don't think that it is really censorship of living conditions that most people find "unattractive" but simply that fact that nearly all of the French row houses (corons) are in mining and steelworking towns in the northern corner of France, and there have been very few movies set in that area.
It is amusing to note, though, that the highest grossing movie in French history was made precisely in that setting.
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