Cove

Addition to Cove in wartime

The two stores at the bridge across from West Heath Farm run by Jim Blunden (who had a daughter Pam Blunden) were stores we frequented every Friday, namely the one next to  the railway track. This was run by Kath Owen. Her husband had been killed during military exercises in Aldershot, but Kath continued to run Owens Sweet Shop. I remember we used to buy bags of sherbert and suck it out with a licorice straw. Does anyone else remember going to Owens Sweet Shop?  My name back then was Anne Ainsley, and I lived at The White House, 16 Minley Rd.
Contributed by Anne Terry

cove, West Heath picture

The picture of Cove, West Heath Corner, is the bottom of Minley Rd. To the right is what was then called Hawley Rd, to the left is what was then called Fleet Rd. The large house between Minley Rd and Hawley Rd belonged to the Arrow fanily, The house on the left side that has two shops . One of those shops was a sweet shop where we used to spend our ration coupons for sweets. I was born in Cove on Hawley Rd in 1934, then moved to The White House, 16 Minley Rd around 1938. Lived there until 1950. Cove was a small wonderful place to live in. We loved the fish and Chip shop and what we ...read more here
Contributed by Anne Terry

Cove-Farnborough, Hants

I was born in Farnborough and lived in Pinehurst Cottages until the age of six. My father, Charles Dunbar was an engineer at The Royal Aircraft Establishment. Later we moved to 166 Keith Lucas Road and later to 16 Fowler Road in Cove. I went to Fernhill school. I remember the air show each September and the crashes that happened when the pilots were testing breaking the sound barrier. Once I was the first person on site when a plane crashed on the White Road that ran along the side of the airfield. My mother worked at Christopher's the paper shop and my first job at fifteen was working part-time there. Mr Hill was the butcher in Cove and my father ...read more here
Contributed by Vyvyan Dunbar-Campbell

Teenage Memories

Cove was a special place, a place where I was born, at 11 Sydney Smith Close...now stands Beverly Crec....

My grandad Matthew Smith lived at 39 Holly Rd, and worked on the railway as a plate layer. Growing up we lived in Hazel Avenue, and I spent all of my childhood on Eelmoor Farm, with Uncle Eddy Arrow. It was a great time for me, he was the local woodman and also kept pigs, we used to do a swill round in RAF Borough. I was also a delivery boy for the local shop, J. E King and Son, also known locally as Cookies because Jim Cook was the father of Joan King.

It was a time when ...read more here
Contributed by peter smith

The Village

Going ‘down the village’ pretty much referred to the stretch of Cove Road, between Hazel Avenue and Marrowbrooke Lane, where most of the shops were. Once upon a time Cove must have been the typical English village: two houses, three pubs and a church. The ‘Tradesman’s Arms’, the ‘Anchor’ and the ‘Alma’ were all together, right beside the vicarage and St Christopher’s church. The two houses must have fallen down in the interval because the pubs and the vicarage looked older that anything else around. The church was odd because it looked very recent and I always wondered if there had once been an older building on the site.

Along one side of the Tradesmans Arms there was a ...read more here
Contributed by Alan Hickman

Busk Crescent

Late in 1945 my parents moved to 25 Busk Crescent, in Cove. The house was on top of a hill and overlooked the Farnborough airfield. From the front bedroom you could see aircraft landing on the runway. The house was one of a string of brand-new red-brick semi’s, built on the crescent and down Fowler Road, bordering an estate which had been constructed in the 1914-18 war. We were one of the earliest tenants on the street and the plaster wasn’t even dry. They said we were not to distemper the walls for at least six months. For some time there were no paths or fences, just mud and a few plans to walk on. Eventually a concrete path was laid ...read more here
Contributed by Alan Hickman