Thread for the Oldies (9 Viewers)

thekidfromstrettoncamp

Well-Known Member
Kneeza Memory has gone looked it up and Heinz Kittendotf was a POW but he was interned at Bourton and Frankton Great guy.Talking of Stretton picniced on the steps of the War Memorial ( see how we lived it up) on the A45 single carriage then. Never saw a car from start to finish.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Taking your empty glass bottles back to the Corona delivery van and getting a couple of pennies back.
Playing kerby in the street before cars completely took over.
Putting a couple of pegs and playing cards on the rear forks of your bike which caught on the spokes to make a very loud noise.
How bloody exciting 😁

I was born in ‘81 and did two out of those three!
 

Kneeza

Well-Known Member
Corner of Plott Lane and School Lane.Housing estate there now.From memory think it was used as a POW just before we squatted,again not certain but i think our milkman at the time (Heinz) my have been 1 of the last residents before us.Time plays tricks with the brain.
Ah, ok. Cheers. Didn't realise there was one there too. My dad was at Birdingbury Camp not far away for a while just post-war. Heinz Kittendorf was our milkman too!
Oh, and my grandmother was born on School Lane in 1901 and lived there until she married.
 

Kneeza

Well-Known Member
Kneeza Memory has gone looked it up and Heinz Kittendotf was a POW but he was interned at Bourton and Frankton Great guy.Talking of Stretton picniced on the steps of the War Memorial ( see how we lived it up) on the A45 single carriage then. Never saw a car from start to finish.
Yes, Heinz was at Birdingbury Camp (called Birdingbury for some strange reason, but was in Frankton parish on the edge of Dunsmore going down from Frankton village towards Birdingbury Station - which was ALSO in Frankton parish. Bonkers). It was, as you say, a POW camp during the war, and then a displaced persons camp after it, before becoming general temporary accomodation and then closing in the sixties.
Heinz set up the dairy business in Stretton, and a couple of my mates (one Stretton, one Bourton) worked for him in the early seventies on the deliveries.
He was a good man, and highly respected locally.
I was born in Frankton, but we moved to Cov when I was three, and I moved back there at 20, so know the area pretty well.
 

skyblueinBaku

Well-Known Member
No, you're mistaken Houch. Far Gosford Street begins where the river passes under the road where a gate in the city wall used to be. Gosford Street ends where Astley's warehouse begins. :)
Obviously, I make the same mistake as Houch. As far as I knew, if you turned left out of Vecqueray St, it was Gosford St, turn right out of Vecqueray St it was Far Gosford St. My first school was on the corner (All Saints) with Brandishes car showroom opposite.
 

Jagmannn

Well-Known Member
With the unison of - Have you got any crabs on you cock 🤣 - To the man selling his cockles & muscles in the workingman clubs
 

Macca1987

Well-Known Member
Taking your empty glass bottles back to the Corona delivery van and getting a couple of pennies back.
Playing kerby in the street before cars completely took over.
Putting a couple of pegs and playing cards on the rear forks of your bike which caught on the spokes to make a very loud noise.
How bloody exciting 😁
Ours was to the Alpine man, but the others remember just as well. Plus playing marbles in the drain covers
 

dutchman

Well-Known Member
My first school was on the corner (All Saints) with Brandishes car showroom opposite.

That showroom belonged to the Aston brothers, they built it with their bare hands with rubble salvaged from the Blitz. They later owned showrooms on both sides of Lower Ford Street, the bottom of Hearsall Lane and this one opposite Astley's:

xZKnffV.jpg


Brandish was in Whitefriars Street. :)
 

thekidfromstrettoncamp

Well-Known Member
Kneeza Never found any official records of our camp You mentioned Frankton used to picnic in Frankton lane too.Told you we lived the high life.We left for Wolston in 1952 . As they say the rest is history.
 

Houchens Head

Fairly well known member from Malvern
Remember doing all the overtime available in "bull week"? 😂
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
Corner of Plott Lane and School Lane.Housing estate there now.From memory think it was used as a POW just before we squatted,again not certain but i think our milkman at the time (Heinz) my have been 1 of the last residents before us.Time plays tricks with the brain.
So I consulted my copy of the Stretton Millenium History book (as you do!) and you're in it, indirectly!

In 1941 a chicken farm belonging to Mr Stone was requisitioned for 'military purposes' for the princely sum of £12 a year for loss of income. A camp of Nissen huts was duly built in the field where Hill Crescent and Knightlow School are now located. This was originally intended for the Warwickshire regiment but when the British soldiers went abroad, the camp was occupied by the Royal Pioneer Corp and American soldiers.

...

When the last of the Americans left, the huts were empty for a while and at first some were occupied by squatters. Rugby Council took responsibility for the huts and let the rest out for failies who had lost their homes during the war... With poor heating and only one toilet block at the top end of the camp conditions were not comfortable.

...

These were supposed to be temporary arrangements, for approximately six months, until better housing became available. The families actually remained in the camp for seven years, only moving out in August 1954.

There's also an anecdote about an ambulance getting stuck, and having to be pulled out by the farmer's tractor!

@Kneeza do you still live in Frankton?
 

Kneeza

Well-Known Member
Kneeza Never found any official records of our camp You mentioned Frankton used to picnic in Frankton lane too.Told you we lived the high life.We left for Wolston in 1952 . As they say the rest is history.
Used to ride my motorcycle down Frankton Lane morning and night on my commute, then over Knob Hill, picking up my Motorcycle News at the newsagents in the centre of Stretton on a Wednesday morning.
One of my uncles and his new wife moved to Wolston in the fifties (Warwick Rd). Their daughter, my cousin, now lives in what was the bakery and post office, opposite the War Memorial. They bought it from the estate of my grandmother's cousins.
We get everywhere round there! 😉😂
 

Kneeza

Well-Known Member
So I consulted my copy of the Stretton Millenium History book (as you do!) and you're in it, indirectly!



There's also an anecdote about an ambulance getting stuck, and having to be pulled out by the farmer's tractor!

@Kneeza do you still live in Frankton?
No, left in the late seventies when I got wed to my first dragon, and bought a house in Southam.
Still have lots of relatives there though, if you count St Nicholas churchyard.
 

thekidfromstrettoncamp

Well-Known Member
NORTHERN WISDOM You jogged my memory with Mr Stone he kept geese and they used to wander the camp and being 4 or 5 y/o many time tried to feed them the bas..... bit the hands and legs( short trousers then).We moved in in 1946 that winter was probably one of the coldest in recent history.Only heating old round stove to heat the big hut no walls plenty of army blankets To say it was cold was an understatment eggs would freeze solid when the stove went out at night,the said stove we sat as close as we could to.My dad had to walk to Wolston in the morning to get the bus to work .One morning he had to make his way round a bus that spun in the lane.Great days for all that.
 

Kneeza

Well-Known Member
NORTHERN WISDOM You jogged my memory with Mr Stone he kept geese and they used to wander the camp and being 4 or 5 y/o many time tried to feed them the bas..... bit the hands and legs( short trousers then).We moved in in 1946 that winter was probably one of the coldest in recent history.Only heating old round stove to heat the big hut no walls plenty of army blankets To say it was cold was an understatment eggs would freeze solid when the stove went out at night,the said stove we sat as close as we could to.My dad had to walk to Wolston in the morning to get the bus to work .One morning he had to make his way round a bus that spun in the lane.Great days for all that.
He could've ski'd down there past the old quarry. That hill was a bstrd to cycle up though. Did it thousands of times.
 

Sbarcher

Well-Known Member
When we moved down from Co Durham to Warwick we lived in Lakin House,the old workhouse. By then it was an old people’s home and my parents ran it. It was an amazing old building with a massive ballroom where I played football. There was a full size snooker table too, I had hours of fun. To the side of the main building there was housing for “distressed families”. Demolished many years ago to make way for nurse accommodation.
 

thekidfromstrettoncamp

Well-Known Member
He could've ski'd down there past the old quarry. That hill was a bstrd to cycle up though. Did it thousands of times.
Back again He probably went on his arse a few time in the snow.We used to bike up that hill to have a drink at the Dun Cow.How we never done ourselves a serious injury coming home the number of tlmes we didn't stay on the tarmac .Same lane on the 584 one Saturday when we lived at Wolston with my Grandmother (she was 85 at the time ) it went in the ditch on the flat after the hill tree saved us from rolling into a field.Got us all out the emerency door.Still see my grandmother laughting her head off as they streched up to lift her down
 
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Kneeza

Well-Known Member
Back again He probably went on his arse a few time in the snow.We used to bike up that hill to have a drink at the Dun Cow.How we never done ourselves a serious injury coming home the number of tlmes we didn't stay on the tarmac .Same lane on the 584 one Saturday when we lived at Wolston with my Grandmother (she was 85 at the time ) it went in the ditch on the flat after the hill tree saved us from rolling into a field.Got us all out the emerency door.Still see my grandmother laughting her head off as they streched up to lift her down
Remember when Rootes used to dump loads of stuff in the quarry? Some of the kit that me and my cousin retrieved was beyond belief.
 

thekidfromstrettoncamp

Well-Known Member
Back again. Kings Cup Air races at Bagington 50's and 60's handicap race where Tiger Moths and their like would fiy against jets having 3 laps + start in 4 lap races.Standing on bridge in Brandon Lane had a great view as the race unfolded many a tight finish we witnessed.
 

Kneeza

Well-Known Member
Back again. Kings Cup Air races at Bagington 50's and 60's handicap race where Tiger Moths and their like would fiy against jets having 3 laps + start in 4 lap races.Standing on bridge in Brandon Lane had a great view as the race unfolded many a tight finish we witnessed.
Yes. Used to watch them fly over Frankton. Loved it.
 

Adge

Well-Known Member
“I won’t be there when you cross the road-so always use the green cross code”



Also-egg rounds (just eggs) a geezer at the top of our street in the 80’s used to deliver eggs every week.
 

Sbarcher

Well-Known Member
“I won’t be there when you cross the road-so always use the green cross code”



Also-egg rounds (just eggs) a geezer at the top of our street in the 80’s used to deliver eggs every week.

There’s still a lady who delivers eggs to the narrow boats where I fish at Thrupp on the Oxford canal.
 

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