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The 'old' Wardens' Lodge Nursing Home, now a new-improved version, was opposite this old Post Office then? Thanks BobB, you've solved the puzzle. There used to be a shop along there, just past the rec. entrance, where, as children, we would take our accumulator, which powered our radio, when it had 'run out', taking a re-charged one back to Church Terrace......I remember the daughter of the shop-owner was at The County Girls' School, but can't remember her name. It may have been 'Tomlin'. We did take a long look from the window of Wardens' Lodge on one visit before my Mother-in-Law died there and could see how busy Dedworth Road had become. I'm sure there's still a shop where the 'accumulator' shop was.

The newsagent's was 'Clifton's'.

Cliftons, the newsagents, 'Dorothy', the wool shop, the chemist, and a couple of other shops at Vale road when I used them would be from around the 50's to when I left Windsor in 1961 - ish. The shops at the Three Elms/The Bell p.h.: Post Office, another wool shop, then a hairdressers later on, Dadley/Dudley, the butchers, then Ben King, greengrocer on the corner, opposite the pub.

When I lived in Church Terrace, Dedworth, we had at number 20, Mrs. White's little grocery shop. Just a small end-of-terrace shop selling butter, cheese, biscuits and anything my Mother could lay her hands on just after the war......there were square biscuit tins then, balanced at the front of the counter, on the tilt, and we'd get a bag of broken biscuits more cheaply than if they were 'whole'....also 2ozs.(ounces), of cheese, a couple of rashers of streaky bacon, IF any had 'come in'. These, of course, were only obtainable on production of Ration Books, no coupons, no food.....that was just part of life then, accepted by all.

My job was to wait at the top of Church Terrace and look out for 1). Mr. Green, with horse and cart - he had a farm quite near Rogers' and took all the 'pig bins'. These he'd empty into even bigger bins on the back of his big cart. Oh, the smell, I can't explain - so very awful, that when poor Mr. Green was around, wearing a brown overall coat, huge gumboots and his cap, everyone ran for it.......my next 'lookout' was for 2) The Bread Man, again, with a little boxy van thing pulled by a horse. He was nice and not smelly either. I think the van was green with 'HOVIS' painted on the sides. 3). Was the milkman, yet another horse and cart. This cart had big metal milk churns on it and we had to provide either jugs or empty bottles for the milk. The milkman came to each house in the terrace, took the 'empties' off the back window-sill and with a metal measure, poured either a quart, (2 pints), 1 pint, or a half-pint into the empties. My Mother used mainly glass milk bottles and just kept washing them when the milk had gone. She also had a terracotta bottle cover, which was quite 'posh' in the terrace then. Probably given to her by Mrs. Rogers.

There was another 'shop', well not exactly a shop.....Mr. and Mrs. French had a yard around the corner from Church Terrace. He had a coal-yard there and delivered to most people in Dedworth. He had a big carthorse and the horse would drag this cart, loaded with sacks of coal, around the roads of Dedworth. The aroma from the coal was lovely, well, I liked it. Mrs. French served inside the yard in a wooden, hut-type shop. Concrete floor and boxes of veg. all over the place. Brick walls, covered in cobwebs, which I've never forgotten. Mr. French was always 'black' from the coaldust, so when he spoke to me in the shop one time and asked how my Dad was, well, I didn't even know him.....he was 'clean'. This era was from when I was born, in 1941, so that's going back a very long time.

Beacons was another shop, right next to the end of Church Terrace. Mr. Beacon sold sweets mostly. He always had big jars of boiled sweets and toffees in trays with a little metal hammer to break the toffee. If and when we had sweet coupons and money, my brother and I would go into Beacons and ask for 2ozs. of sweets. I can't remember the names now, but, when it came to wrapping the sweets, there were no paper bags around then, so, Mr. Beacon always had sheets of newspaper on a string, tied to a hook on the counter. He'd whip off a sheet of newspaper, place it round his hand, twist it into a cone and pour the sweets from the scales bowl into the paper cone. He'd then twist the top into a knot and the sweets never ever fell out. I used to practice that at home and still couldn't manage to make a sweet bag.....we bought chewey wood sticks too made of liquorice and loved 'bullseyes'...White and black boiled sweets.....whenever we had sweets, we had friends -

Another shop along that parade was 'Vandies', the owner's name was Van des Lewis, or something similar. They sold 'ladies requirements', as my Granny used to call them....plus underwear for male and female.....stockings, when they were lucky to have any. and handkies. It was a strange shop really and I very rarely went in there.

The last shop on that row was a grocers. I remember it opening and I was sent, as per usual, to stand and listen to what they were telling new customers......'did they deliver, free, and, did they take money weekly, all that sort of thing, which now doesn't exist. I remember the lady who served there because she played darts at the Wolf with my Dad in his team, but I can't recall the name of the shop. Next to that, just around the little corner where 'The Playhouse' advertising board was, (It showed what films were on at The Playhouse Cinema), was Vetisse, the ice cream shop, we kids called it 'Teezies'.....I absolutely loved that shop and even when I didn't have a penny for a cornet, I'd just sit on my three-wheeler and look at the whole place. I could smell the ice cream, the vanilla aroma to a four-year-old was overpoweringly lovely. There was a big 'Askeys' cornet, with white ice cream painted on the top, in their front garden. This never failed to fascinate me.....I think I imagined it to be real....Old Granny Vetisse cycled everywhere in Dedworth on a three-wheeled tricycle with a big box on the front, this was full of ice cream....she rang her bell all the time, so attracting the children......1d, (one old penny), got you a small cornet, but if you had 3d, (three old pennies or a threepenny bit), she'd put each cornet into the next, so making a three-tier icecream.....absolute heaven, and to this day, nothing has ever equalled that feeling of sheer happiness when walking back up the terrace with three cornets......Mrs. Vettise must have had a very hard time of it, peddling her tricyle. It wasn't small and she was out in all weathers.

That's it Bob, it was 'Shaw's' grocery shop, right next to 'Vandies'...well done and thanks very much because I've trundled through the alphabet so many times, even during the night when I woke up because of the heat and lightning....The lady who helped Mr. Shaw was Mrs. Turner. Once I read your post saying 'Shaw', it all came back. Tiny shop with a counter for sweets on the left going in, then past that, the main gap for customers, where Mrs. Turner, (who always chewed gum), served, looking smart and always wearing her white coat. I liked her and she was always very polite and nice too. Her hair was longish and black and she wore a bright red lipstick, which I thought was exactly like the film stars at the pictures!! She, I think, lived across the road in the semis opposite Church Terrace. There was a Thames Valley bus stop almost outside her house and her son's name was Brian. So many names and faces come to mind, especially on a b&w photo of The Wolf's Darts Team on a 'jolly boys outing'......all the Wolf patrons are standing infront of a coach, with my Dad and Uncle Frank right in the middle of the gang. It's another photo I've got to copy for thamesweb..I can name a few men, but you have to bear in mind that I was a child when I knew all these people. Sam Turner, Andy Bachelor, 'Digger', (didn't know his real name), Pat Morgan, who I believe went on to take over the 'Bexley Arms', in Bexley Street, Windsor. There was an 'old chap' who they all called 'Waggie', his name was 'Wag' Harding. Again, I don't know his Christian name. It was mostly nick-names then, as you might remember. Oh, there was also a chap called 'Chunky', his surname may have been Martin., he was called this as he drove the marmalade lorry with 'Chunky' on the side - a bit obvious, but true!! There was 'Admiral Carney', I think he'd been in the navy during the war. When we sat outside The Wolf during Summer nights, my Dad knew everyone who drank there - so, gradually, I learned their names.

You say that furs were sold at Vandies, well, yes, I can see them in my mind's eye - fur stoles propped up on metal stands. I could never quite get to grips with Vandies as they seemed never to have any customers, unlike Beacon's and Shaw's. I do remember both Mr and Mrs Van des Lewis though. Very quiet, polite people. That's why I suppose their shop was always quiet when I 'had' to go in there. I'd walk in, pass a note with money inside to Mrs. 'Vandie', wait for whatever it was, she'd pass this 'parcel' to me, and I'd walk out. I also had to run across the Dedworth Road to Steve Duffield's house, next to Mrs. Turner I think. My Mother especially, loved to bet on the horses and she'd sit and pick out a horse or two, write it on a scrap of paper, put the money inside the paper then write her 'code name' on the outside of the little parcel, put the whole thing into the palm of my hand and say 'go to Steve's, knock on the door, and only give this to him - and watch the road because of the bus stop'.......I was a busy child as you can tell, but I loved it all.

Going back to the Dedworth shops, there was a gap between Beacon's and the next shop and I remember 'Darvilles' being moved into that first shop after the gap. I don't know why, but I didn't like it at all, I suppose I was used to the shops as they were, then this 'new' shop suddenly appeared....child's logic. Do you remember 'The Dust Destructor' at all? There was such a noise and then so much mess when the doodlebug hit that chimney. Our roof slates ended up at the front of the terrace.....Not knowing what it was all about, my friend and I just heard a very loud bang and then were grabbed by her dad and raced to the top of the terrace......frightening now, but we really didn't make much of it...I suppose being born into a war, it's something natural in a grotesque kind of way. We were used to planes flying over us all the time. The drone of the propellers was something we'd get to know and just stand and look up at....my brother was 6 years older than me, so he and his mate Billy Clark, knew every make of plane, how many props it had, all the shapes and sizes. To girls, planes were planes.

You see, you've come up with another name from the past Bob......I was at school with Charlie Hargrave, (that's what I called him, but I'm probably wrong), and he did have difficulty in speaking clearly, but, he was a lovely young lad...slightly older than me by say two years, maybe.....I can remember walking home with Charlie once....all the other kids had gone and, as usual, I didn't want to go home 'just yet', so hung around talking to any teacher available.....I caught Charlie up just after Moore's corner and walked as far as the top of Kenton's Lane, then he walked down the hill....I didn't have a clue that he lived at the shop we used.....I really didn't know where he lived....I can now remember the cycle repair shop too, so that's another 'ta' to you.....I still cycle, but along the 'black path' along the East end of Eastbourne....the newly-built Harbour has provided us/we residents with a great cycle path, and this is so much safer than cycling along the road along the seafront....Today it's chaotic as we've got the last day of the Eastbourne Airbourne Show........plenty of noisy planes, both jet and prop, but marvellous to see. The Red Arrows yesterday were their usual amazing 'selves'.....(if that's grammar)...makes us so proud to be 'British', although I consider myself as being 'English', and one day soon I'll get my DNA sorted, then I'll know for sure!!

Back to Dedworth, Bob,....Did you go to a local school, maybe you were at Clewer Green? then Grammar or Trevelyan? (or, as I knew it 'The Modern School'). My sister-in-law went to the Catholic junior school then to Princess Margaret Rose, (PMR), we had a good selection of schools to choose from then, even more now.

At Vale Road, opposite 'Clifton's', there used to be a fish and chip shop......I used to beg my Mother to let me cycle down there to get some chips.....I still love F and C today and make sure I get my week's ration...The counter at the chip shop was so high and hot too, and on a Summer's evening while queueing right outside the door, the heat would waft out through the open door and the aroma of the food cooking was like heaven and torture at the same time.......it seemed like we queued for hours, but it was probably only minutes, then when it was 'our' turn, (my brother and I), he'd have to stand on tiptoe to even answer the lady who always asked 'yes - what would you like then?', she didn't ever see me at all I don't think....well visits to the Vale Road chip shop ended when my Aunty got a job with the 'mobile fish and chip van'.....this white van would drive and park by the kerbside opposite All Saints' Church and next to the Wolf pub......the side flap would be opened up and hooked to the top of the van and my Aunty would appear, wearing her white hair net, (or turban), and white coat and she'd put the salt and vinegar and pickled eggs, in a big jar, on the counter. We would always try to be first in the queue and she'd usually slip us some spare 'crackling' ontop of our bag of chips.....we very rarely had fish, although our parents did. We also looked forward, mainly on a Saturday evening, or a Sunday lunchtime, (always at the Wolf my family!), to the 'winkle man'....he had a small, dark-coloured van and would open his little double doors at the back and serve up the plates of winkles, shrimps, cockles, whelks and jellied eels........I only liked winkles and shrimps, but a friend of my parents' always had two or three small dishes of jellied eel.....uggggg, he used to open his mouth and literally tip the whole dish of eels into it......we would stand and look and probably pulled a few faces too. IF the van did turn up on Sunday, my parents would always have ready a pint basin in the car, and the winkle man filled this basin up with winkles which we'd have with bread and butter and loads of vinegar and pepper for our Sunday tea.......we had to have a darning needle each and sheets of old newspaper to put the 'black eyes' from the winkles on to. We would count the 'eyes' at the end of the meal and usually my brother had managed to eat more than the rest of us.....very quick he was in those days!!! There might be one winkle left in the basin and I'd think that if I hurried up and ate my last winkle, I'd get that one, but, I never calculated on my brother's swift hand action, as he always 'had the last one'.....whelks I never ate, ugggg, too chewy for me, but cockles were tasty and sometimes a bit gritty too.....when we moved to the coast years ago, we collected our own winkles and rinsed them thoroughly then boiled them...but, they just didn't have that flavour, I think that flavours stay in the memory along with pictures of the past, and can't be re-lived, so-to-speak.....

Must go Bob, it's 5 past 1 and The Red Arrows are dead on time today, and I want to watch from the upstairs window, I can usually glimpse one or two who break away, then scream over our house doing goodness knows what speed. The house shakes, but keeps standing...marvellous!!

thom, I've just read your posting about Mr. Shaw and the phone box....as I read it, I suddenly had the thought that Mrs. Shaw was a foreign lady....do you remember her at all? Why I've suddenly brought that back into my mind, I don't know. I do remember that the lady next door to my Aunt's house in Stuart Way, was from Holland and she really fascinated me whenever she talked to my Aunt or me.....perhaps I'm mixing the two ladies up.....so many memories of 'old' Dedworth and so nice to have someone, I would imagine, of my age-group, to discuss them with.

thom, I've just found your posting and I'm glad there's someone else in the forum who experienced living in a prefab and a 'real house' too.

When we first saw our prefab, 29 Hilltop, we gasped. The house we'd left in Mansell Close was bigger, yes, but it was left decorated, clean and ready to live in. This 'place', which totally shattered me on first sight, needed so much doing to it.......but, we had our first fridge, and that helped save the disappointment of the whole place's condition........ but, oooooo, when I opened the little fridge door.....well, you'd have had to have been there. That was the first job on a very long list of 'things that needed to be done' (and quickly). We hadn't ever had a fridge before and my parents thought, like my brother and I, that all fridges were electric. NO....this was gas, well, that baffled all four of us, (and a couple of relatives who were helping us to move furniture in as well). I knelt down to look through to the bottom of the grill and saw a metal knob-thing. I turned it and nothing happened. My Dad got down on all fours and he had a good look too, then, with the main gas turned on, he 'flicked' the knob and a tiny pilot light, right at the very back of the fridge, popped into action.......with the sizes of fridges now, that one must have held very little, but to us it was really something else. Once the label on the inside of the thick, square door had been soaked with soapy water and scraped off, and my Mother washed the inside with bicarbonate of soda, it worked very well.

Cupboards, both in the kitchen and 'lounge', both bedrooms and the airing cupboard in the hall, were all rusty inside. How can cupboards 'go rusty'? well, they can if they're made of metal. So Dad had this big metal larder, just inside the back door, to literally get into and treat with some rust remover. That took him ages. After though, the cupboards through the prefab, looked and smelt a lot nicer. The fireplace was tiny really in that it had a two-door fire, with a damper, which when working, was excellent. The shelf above was long and Dad made two lights, one for each end, out of empty, brass gun shells. They were quite posh really....Mum did moan a bit when she had to polish them though. One thing I didn't like at all was SPIDERS....so many and so very big. They'd crawl out of the heating vents in the bedrooms and hall and I'd scream for my Dad...he'd have to get a jam jar and a piece of paper and try to trap them..he wouldn't kill them, not because he was being 'kind', he just didn't want to mark his wallpaper!! But he always came and rescued me when 'they' crawled out of the heating vents....uggg. He finally gave up chasing these huge creatures and papered right over the vents...that actually solved the whole problem of spiders.....(except when they crawled from the garden, up the waste-pipe and into the sink and bath........).
I loved the view from no. 29. We could see right across to The Bath Road and at night it twinkled and showed us just how high up we were. Someone also told us that we could see the trees in High Wycombe from there too, which is quite a co-incidence to me now, as my Granddaughter is at the Bucks New Uni in High Wycombe. We're driving up there quite frequently now she's there and although I'm not an admirer of the town, she's happy there. The England Rugby Team practise on a ground in the town and when we saw them playing on t.v. a while back, we could read on the back of their shirts 'Bucks New Uni', which for us was smashing.

I haven't been up to the old 'Hilltop' area since my late Parents moved to Hanover Way years ago, but I know that it's all changed....I paid a visit via 'Google' recently and saw new street names and new homes too. I could though, still see Church Terrace and Mansell Close and Stuart Way, so at least I know where I am when I see those buildings. Not much else remains the way I remember it. Well, Kenton's Lane's still there and the Sebastopol too I think, so I mustn't grumble..

thamesweb wonders how we'll all fill the Winter evenings now that Summer's gone, (I think I can remember it, slightly!), well, I'll still be racking my brain for more 'Dedworth' and 'Windsor' memories. It's a great site and well worth the joining.....thankyou. And thom, wasn't it great to whizz down to the shops on your bike, but, wasn't it agony trying to conquer Hilltop Road on the return journey with all the shopping hanging on the handlebars?. (perhaps you lived down the hill a bit, which was a doddle ride).

That was a good posting Bob. I laughed when reading your piece about the lack of oxygen and the altitude affecting the residents' eating habits......no, no children were captured and eaten, well, not when I lived there!!

Weren't those prefab alleyways great? I found a really good one just at the top, right-hand-side of Foster Avenue. It took me to the side of the Sebastopol ph. so cutting off a great chunk of the avenue and Clewer Hill Road. That made my day and I told everyone I knew who lived on Hilltop....needless-to-say, they already knew. I used to cycle down to Duncroft, Perrycroft and all around that estate too. Coming out of the Duncroft area, I'd be back at Moore's corner then down Hatch Lane, passing my old school. The round trip didn't take that long and I loved every minute. I'd stop opposite the Vale Road Rec., just to see if my friend Pat was in there really. On to Kenton's Lane, where they'd just built a row of 'Police Houses', next to our Doctor's house and surgery, (he had his garage re-made into the surgery). These houses were opposite where our vicar lived, just before Jutland Place. Great cycle routes in those days and hardly any traffic barring the Thames Valley double-decker, going to and from Maidenhead - Windsor, and my Dad's car..well, that's if you didn't count old Granny Vettise on her ice-cream tricycle.