Hello everyone,
Newbie to the site, and loving all the old pics of yesteryear. Born in `62, grew up and lived in Newbury until about `96 when I moved to Cornwall. I`m trying to get some of my old `photos together and post them for the record. I had an idyllic childhood in Newbury and feel very nostalgic when I trawl this site, BUT will never return permanently. When I left, the abiding memory was TRAFFIC, I`d just had enough of it. Much preferred the days of early closing on Wednesday afternoons, nothing happening on Sundays, and mooching about all day on the K & A canal. Happy times for me.
Keep up the good work, and keep on posting those old pics!
Minky xx

Looking forward to your photos!

Any pictures you have of Newbury would be more than welcome, we can't have too many. It is my hope to get an internet Historic Newbury or Vrtual Museum site going as the Newbury museum seem as if they are going to be helpful in that direction. There is some work to be done up front but it should be interesting.
What part of Newbury did you live in and what schools did you attend.

Hi Brian,
Primary School was Winchcombe, then St. Barts when it was a Grammar School. Lived at Cromwell Rd (too young to remember), Cresswell Rd (do remember), Gaywood Drive, Craven Rd, London Rd opposite Wheelers, Kimbers Close, bought a house in St Johns Rd, then off to The Sunny Southwest.
Lived in Newbury when it was Good. Planning on coming back later this year just to see family and spend a day or two walking the streets, see what`s happened to me old home town.
Minky xx

Quoted from MinkyMoo

Hi Brian,
Primary School was Winchcombe, then St. Barts when it was a Grammar School. Lived at Cromwell Rd (too young to remember), Cresswell Rd (do remember), Gaywood Drive, Craven Rd, London Rd opposite Wheelers, Kimbers Close, bought a house in St Johns Rd, then off to The Sunny Southwest.
Lived in Newbury when it was Good. Planning on coming back later this year just to see family and spend a day or two walking the streets, see what`s happened to me old home town.
Minky xx

I am sorry to say, you will not like what you see..
it has been destroyed!
I have lived here since 1949(Year I was born) and seen many changes..None to the good unfortunately.

Quoted from MinkyMoo

Hi Brian,
Primary School was Winchcombe, then St. Barts when it was a Grammar School. Lived at Cromwell Rd (too young to remember), Cresswell Rd (do remember), Gaywood Drive, Craven Rd, London Rd opposite Wheelers, Kimbers Close, bought a house in St Johns Rd, then off to The Sunny Southwest.
Lived in Newbury when it was Good. Planning on coming back later this year just to see family and spend a day or two walking the streets, see what`s happened to me old home town.
Minky xx

I think you will see some difference by the end of the year with the St Bart's complex. The old girls grammar and the boys grammar heve been put together as a rather disconnected Co-ed secondary school. Both of these old buildings will close for redevelopment and the whole lot will move into a new school on the greenfield between the schools at the end of the Autumn term. This rather unusual building is almost complete and to my mind has to be one of the worst buildings I have ever seen. But I suppose it will be considered as modern and functional. I'll see if I can get a picture on so that you can brace yourself for your visit of discovery.

Parkway is running late by the way so you may be in time for the grand opening if they can find more than four tenants. (Oh hang on a minute that's 2011 so all you will see is a huge building site with great lumps of concrete and steel pointing skywards).

Quoted from brian

This rather unusual building is almost complete and to my mind has to be one of the worst buildings I have ever seen. But I suppose it will be considered as modern and functional. I'll see if I can get a picture on so that you can brace yourself for your visit of discovery.

This was the original "artists impression"

Quoted from noobree

And you both think the new building is worse than the attached, do you? Nurse! The Brians aren't taking their pills again!

Quoted from noobree

Let's focus in on one of the buildings our unmedicated Brians would, no doubt, love to see preserved.  Here's the existing science block.  (Thank goodness, you may well think, that neither of them has any influence on anything that happens out in the real world and that they can blabber harmlessly away here.)  

Well my own view is they all look shite, so what?

The new building is pretty horrible looking. The two main buildings of the existing school are very attractive buildings and for that reason are being conserved. Furthermore, the new school was an example of the gross financial negligence of the previous government for which we are all now having to pay.

And after all this waste, the Schools rebuilding programme has been cancelled, so the schools in the district that really do need new premises can go swing!  I just hope those responsible for maintaining and operating this building aren't going to be the same as the ones that let the previous premises fall into such disrepair.

Quoted from Administrator

This was the original "artists impression"

That bears very little resemblance to what is actually there as far as I can see. The artist's impression does not show the mass of coloured panels on the sides and there are two inverted funnels that have been hauled up a couple of poles. Perhaps they are just temporary.

Noobree, what happened to your pictures. I didn't say that the existing schools were anything to shout about but what actually makes them so naff is that the core buildings as originally built have had an assortment of junk buildings tacked on. That sort of piecemeal development and the lack of investment is why the whole school needed replacing. Great stuff but I'm afraid I don't need any pills to know that visually the replacement is not going to go the hundred years that the other buildings did.

Brian - I deleted the original posts because I took another look at the new building yesterday and decided that I had to agree with you.  The new building a. is ugly and b. is nothing like the artist's impressions.  It's worth mentioning that there was a change in the planning permission related to the two-pole roof (which is probably the best feature of the scheme in my view), but the various-tones-of beige panels are nothing like the artist's impressions.  My apologies.

It's worth nothing that artist's impressions of new buildings are never like the actual thing and also that it's 10/1 on (based on experience of new buildings in Newbury (Vodafone and Newbury College) that the roof will leak.

Let's see what it actually looks like when the hoardings etc. are removed.  My overall feeling is that the new St Bart's is a good thing and will benefit the children who go to school there enormously.  Overall, it's a tremendous asset for the town.

Re. Niceguyeddie's point: I'd like to see the full cost benefit analysis before jumping to any conclusions.  I'm sure he has and can fill us in on the details.

As a former governor, I'm surprised that you haven't.

But anyway, these things are normally put togethert by those seeking the money for the project and are unreliable.

Leaving that aside, I might be able to show a cost benefit to installing solar panels, but if I haven't got the cash for the panels it's pretty academic.

There was much celebration at the time that it wasn't costing locals any money at all. Well hello! This scheme and all the others have cost us all a great deal.

Quoted from 26

There was much celebration at the time that it wasn't costing locals any money at all. Well hello! This scheme and all the others have cost us all a great deal.

I have to say that I was amazed that they chose to build a school that would cost so much more than the money allocated from central government (£35 million?).  Which resulted in the ill feeling over the proposed demolition of Luker as well as the development of the Wormstall site.

There's lovely then.....