The top one is the old hospital, the other is bit before my time! Would it be the old St John's church?
Top marks but the hospital in this photo is only single storey so was probably taken before WW1. You may remember, but I don't have a photo showing it that it had a second floor added above. Yes that is St John's (c 1905) before it was bombed to a pile of rubble. In that same picture to the left is the London Apprentice. That pub closed before WW2 and was boarded up for the duration and demolished post war.
Yes, I remember the 2nd floor. I had my appendix taken out in that place. The second one, the tower gave me a clue (they reproduced the bell towers), as well as the orientation of the roads. I understand the area to the left was nick-named The City.
I have only ever known the play area just up from The Red House as The City Playground...It used to be St Nicholas' school Footy pitch where I scored my first ever goal for a school team in around 6 inches of mud..Oh happy days... There I go again... Dr Joyce took out my appendix, and I happened to go to school with his son at the Grubbery..probably boring stuff to you all but great to relive some of these memories...
Early 70s. I had stomach pains, but the local surgeon was on holiday, so I was admitted to the hospital and put on a 'water only' diet for a week. Then the surgeon, name I cannot remember, came back and whipped it out...so to speak.
I remember The City Playground had a summer activities thingy. There were two pitches, one full size and one of around a 6 a side like size. The changing rooms were in a then disused building at the north-end entrance.
The City Playground was a popular area for a lunch-time 'Oily' and would be patrolled on occasion by members of staff from St Barts.
The City which includes the park area or City Playground as it has always been known was designated as such by the poor people of the area to protect their rights. I can't be sure when but probably late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It had an elected but unofficial mayor and he was in fact the chairman of the City club to which the members of the City subscribed a small amount each year. The practice continued up till the early 1900s.
Here is another lost building which was on the fork of Oxford St. In the area where the job centre is or whatever posh name they've given it now. In those days, it was a bakery. The second picture is a view up Oxford Street and that building can just be seen further up.
This is the Council School, but I think it might also have been called the National School, which was opened in 1909 and stood parallel to the railway where St Nicolas primary school has a ball court now. It caught the third bomb dropped in the pattern over Newbury which destroyed the church, the almshouses and the school in February 1943. Fortunately the school was almost empty as lessons had finished so casualties were light. If it had been any earlier, we would have lost a high proportion of Newbury's 10 to 14 year olds. This picture was taken some time around the first world war I believe.
Fortunately the school was almost empty as lessons had finished so casualties were light. If it had been any earlier, we would have lost a high proportion of Newbury's 10 to 14 year olds.
Three children were killed, Sylvia Bishop (13), Joyce Petrony (14) and Herbert Purdy (12). Two adults died in the school, Leslie Brown (36) probably a caretaker and Mildred Reid (46) who was probably a teacher.
They are all commemorated on a memorial in Shaw Cemetery along with the three persons from 46 and 48 Newtown Rd and the seven pensioners from the almshouses.
Three firemen died fighting fires during an air raid at the Royal Naval dockyard at Portsmouth on 14th March 1941. They were buried in the graveyard of the Newbury Parish church after a ceremonial march by the firecrews through the town. One was Leslie Wyatt Ford but I am unsure of the names of the other two.
Re the Names of Firemen: One of the Firemen killed on active duty in Portsmouth during the bombing was Charlie Rawlings of Gloucester Road. His mother Beryl was related to me, by marriage.
At least one of the children who died were not killed by the bombs, but by machine gun fire from the plane. Owen Roberts was sat on the wall at the school next to one of the children that died.
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Would it be the old St John's church?
