Thanks Admin!!

This particular road brings loads of memories flooding back. My best friend lived here and I spent so much time going back and forth from the Broadway.............

Do you remember the old house (at the fork in the road) that was left standing empty for many years and the local kids used to think it was haunted?

It even had a secret (or not so secret) but slightly hidden stair case and the local tramps would sleep there.

Quoted from Lorraine

Thanks Admin!!

Do you remember the old house (at the fork in the road) that was left standing empty for many years and the local kids used to think it was haunted?

It even had a secret (or not so secret) but slightly hidden stair case and the local tramps would sleep there.

It was originally a Toll house but eventually became the Wells' bakery and was demolished in about 1950

Thanks for the post Brian...........if we're talking about the same house at the fork in the road, (if my memory serves me correctly) speen would be on the left and the andover rd. would be on the right?

Anyway, the house stood vacant in my time which would have between the mid 50's and late 60's. I don't remember it being used at all. Perhaps it was a bakery before my time?

Did I get the roads right re: the fork in the road? Speen on the left (leading up to the Public footpath and then down to Northcroft) and the Oxford Rd. leading up to the roundabout near Newbury College and the Andover Rd.?

I can still see these places in my mind but my memory is a bit fuzzy on their names and locations.

I love the feedback!! Thank you and very much appreciated.

Quoted from Lorraine

Did I get the roads right re: the fork in the road? Speen on the left (leading up to the Public footpath and then down to Northcroft) and the Oxford Rd. leading up to the roundabout near Newbury College and the Andover Rd.?

The Andover Road is on the other side of town (where the hospital used to be)

In the fifties the left fork was the Bath Road (Now called the old Bath Road) and the right hand fork was/is the Oxford Road.

That's it! The old Bath Road (going to Speen) and the Oxford Rd going up to the roundabout nr. the college.

I went to Speenhamland school and shopped for sweets at Penny's on the corner.

Quoted from brian

It was originally a Toll house but eventually became the Wells' bakery and was demolished in about 1950

Thanx B.

So that's what the old house looked like before it became vacant. I appreciate the picture because I only saw this building empty when I was growing up.

Dear All, I am not sure if anyone can help me here but I will explain and then you will be able to see why I am on this board, I have been tracing my family tree and have found out that in the mid 1800's my grt grt grandfather was a famous Pedestrian called John Mountjoy, I have been able to find out trough old articles and books that he often carried out walks (for wagers) around the area of Speen, I have found out in one book called The Bath Road by Charles Harper (1890's) and this was what was in it, The road ascends to Speen, or, as it is often called, "church Speen".  the present writer was climbing an old Toll-house between Newbury and Hungerford when he overtook a countryman in a smock-frock, to whom the steep gradient was evidently anthing but welcome.  "You're a regular Mountjoy, a' b'lieve" said the countryman, puffing and blowing.  "A regular What?..."A Mountjoy - a walker, but there you hain't Newbury?...I told him I certainly was not a native of that town "Well" said he, "You won't never have head of iin, p'raps"...It seem, then, that about fifty years ago (1840's) Newbury boasted a pedestrian of that name, who obtained such a great local reputation that he has become proverbial with the country people, so that a "regular Mountjoy" is any one who possesses good walking powers.  

Also I found another article about him, again in the same area and it reads "The accomplishments of the pedestrian Mountjoy in 1851, when he walked from the Angel at Andover to the Bacon Armns in Speenhamland and back again twice a day for a week, caused great excitement at the finish, as he entered the Angel gateway at the last lap on Saturday as the church clock was striking midnight.....Can anyone please tell me if the Bacon Arms is still there and if so does it have any old memories on the walls, I am desperate to find a picture of my Pedestrian so am probably clutching at straws....I would really apprecaite if anyone could help me that lives in the area ...thanks Gina

Lorraine, the house you are thinking of was called "The Chestnuts", you can just see it in the first picture, behind The Toll House. It is still there, it was refurbished and is now offices.