Kings Norton
Kings Norton maps (2 available)
Map of Leicestershire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Kings Norton books (6 available)
Kings Norton memories
Read and share memories of Kings Norton and Leicestershire inspired by Frith photos
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Leicestershire below.
Leicestershire memories
Living at the White Hall, Billesdon (c. 1972 - 1979)
We moved to the White Hall when I was 2, almost 3, and my sister was 5 weeks old! It was a wonderful house to grow up in - lots and lots of space, inside and out, and were were fortunate enough to have ponies and dogs etc. .. an idyllic childhood! I remember the huge walled vegetable garden - and the apple tree at the end where my sister and I used to climb up and hide while we ate peas fresh from their pods!
While we were living there our brother, Mark, was born and died 6 months later - I still feel a very strong tie to the beautiful church in the village, and visited there a ...read more here
A memory of Billesdon contributed by Emma Lack
My Grandparents Kitty & Reg Nichols by Elaine Waterfield nee Merrikin
My Mum Valerie Merrikin, nee Nichols, was born next to the old pub (recently knocked down) in Skeffington. Grandad Nichols worked at the hall and got the sack because he picked up some wood in the ground for a fire. This meant they lost their home and had to go and live somewhere else, 3 Sunrise Cottage, Brook Lane. When they moved they found an old suitcase full of baby's bones which caused a big hoo ha, and apparently a Miss Bents used to live there previously and she worked in the poor house.
Knowing this when I went to stay with my grandparents just after my Dad, Bernard Merrikin, died in 1973, I was rather frightened and made all the ...read more here
A memory of Billesdon contributed by Nigel Waterfield
schooldays
Going to Mr Allens chemist and walking to Sandhurst street School'also going to the public library over the swimming baths
A memory of Oadby contributed by valerie freeman
Swimming Lessons
As a pupil at Launde School it was compulsory that we were taught to swim at Oadby Swimming baths, for those of you who know Oadby today it wasn't the newly built baths on Brabazon Road, the baths were in the centre of the village, it looked like an old theatre or cinema on first glance.
The boys changing rooms were on the side of the baths themselves the girls were upstairs and across a balcony.
The bath was covered in a glass roof, this would get covered in thick black mould and as you swam or doggy paddled it would plop off the roof into the baths and onto us little swimmers below.
Whatever the weather we walked to the ...read more here
A memory of Oadby contributed by Karen Miller
Extracts From Kings Norton & Leicestershire books
A pleasant, traffic-free scene with the horse and cart unattended, patiently waiting for the master’s return from Illsley the
saddlers. The post office is on the left then Corney Manufacturing Jeweller. Amongst other businesses is the chemist beyond
the Crown Hotel and opposite, the family firm of Matkin’s printers, who from 1881 to 1941 published an almanac listing
people and occupations in town and county. Flore’s House protrudes in the distance - one of the oldest houses in Oakham
dating from the 14th century.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".
This classic view has All
Saints’ spire behind the
shops with the famous
Butter Cross (at least 300
years old) in the middle.
Hart and Smith next to each
other seem to sell just about
everything anyone could
want - postcards, wooden
hoops, newspapers, parasols, toys
and groceries. Glaziers, the
well-known family draper,
milliner, outfitter and
clothier is opposite the
Butter Cross selling trilby
hats at 3s 11d, boys suits
from 7s 11d and a galaxy of
other goods.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".
Until 1880 this area was the
butchers’ shambles, then
replaced by the pump (in the
shelter, foreground). There
are milk churns on the cart
outside F W Hart ‘Family
Grocer, Tea and Provision
Merchant’. Note the errand
boy’s bike propped up
against the gas light. There is
a motorbike and sidecar up
in the corner near the Butter
Cross. Could it be the one
bought for the police station
in 1926? A boarding house of
Oakham School is behind the
pump surrounded by railings.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".
On the left are RDC houses
perhaps built in the 1950s.
Further down, a large barn
and an old house beyond. A
local character, Miss Barrow,
lived in Ancaster House
where she was well known
for her vegetable garden.
She kept her Rolls-Royce in
the barn. The house on the
right looks like a former
estate cottage of which there
are many in the village.
Empingham is in the
limestone area and now we
begin to see more stone
walls, as in the photograph.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".
This is Loves Lane
leading off the Main
Street and heading for
Horn Mill. There is a
mixture of housing
from thatched and
tiled to prefabricated
postwar styles. The
post office is also a
‘Savings Bank’ and
‘Money Order Office’.
Bus timetables
announce United
Counties services.
Lyons lollies and
Woodbines are on
sale, no doubt
amongst many other
useful necessities.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".