Ashbury Living History Project
(You may also find the Archives pages and Historical Background pages of interest)
Background
If you were living in Ashbury or the Parish between 1935 and 1955 and would be interested in sharing your memories and creating a permanent record for generations to come, Ray Gigg (710345) or Marion Turner (710302) would be pleased to hear from you.
Below is a list of topics to start you thinking, but additional ideas are much welcomed, as are old photographs, news cuttings etc. that will help bring the stories to life. Once collated, the information will be archived and also posted on this web page for others to read, enjoy and hopefully add to.
Our first entries were a letter from Cyril Gulland to Ray Gigg setting out his recollections as a WW2 evacuee to Ashbury, a note by Ernest Pound about the water supply and the cress beds, memories by Cherry Sinpson about Ashbury and Kingstone Winslow and memories by Ray Gigg of digging an air raid shelter in Ashbury.
The very latest contribution comprises a written record of an interview conducted with Ray Gigg in March 2012 about his pre-WW2 memories. Similar interviews carried out with other senior Ashbury residents will posted here soon.
| Click on a heading below to be taken to the section of your choice |
| Pre-World War 2 |
| War Time - World War 2 |
| Local Defence Volunteers |
|
School – building, teachers, classrooms, lunchtime, getting to and from school, lessons, playtime games.
|
| Shops – location, name of shop, shopkeeper’s name, what they sold |
| Mobile shops – name of shop, what they sold, how often they came, where they stopped |
| Countryside, farmers, crops, animals, wild flowers, dairies |
| Drilling for water |
|
Ashbury water supply and water cress beds.
|
| Jubilee King George V, and Coronation King George V |
|
Evacuees – who they were, where they lived, where they came from etc
|
|
Air Raid Shelters
|
| Dunkirk troops returning |
| Manoeuvres |
| Practice bombing range |
| Searchlight Battery |
| Aircraft flying target practice |
| Wartime accidents |
|
Aircraft landing strip
|
| Land Army girls |
|
Troops stationed at Ashdown
|
|
Rubbish tip
|
| Troops relationships with villagers |
| Dutch auctions etc to raise investment in National Savings |
| Local engineering works, war time services, employees etc. |
|
Ashbury school in wartime, teacher from East Ham games etc
|
|
Prisoners of War – German and Italian
|
| Rationing etc |
|
Keeping livestock, allotments, trapping
|
| VE and VJ days |
|
Home Guard
|
| Special Constables |
| Air Raid Wardens |
| Auxiliary Fire Wardens |
| Royal Observer Corp R.O.C. |
| Women’s Land Army |
| Other |