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interesting to see some of the places I grew up amongst, keep up the good work.
77.96.27.226 - - - [10/11/08 19:43:11 UTC]

Hi. Anyone who uses the path called Cycle Route 81 will now that when there is even moderate rain, black oil flows from the field at the side of it. Nobody seems to know why that land is polluted with oil. Some people speculate that it is due to an old storage facility on the site.

Is that possible? Does anyone know where the oil comes from? What was on the field in the past 100 years? Anyone know? Please email me.
http://thewellingtonnews.co.uk
Martin
From: Martin
martin.scholes@wellnews.co.uk - Wellington United Kingdom - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 10:33:08 (UTC) Source IP: 213.208.114.13
I love the site, I lived in Watery Lane during my early boyhood years in the 1930s and have a few old photos of the terrace, and lots of memories of the residents including the Minors.
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norman lewis
From: norman lewis
sextonlinda@blueyonder.co.uk - - Sunday, July 13, 2008 at 15:49:08 (UTC) Source IP: 82.37.229.159

owd bist me owd cock as my grandad use to say excuse spelling.
Always thought the middle pool was brilliant roach,perch,pike and I usually fell in to boot, I just loved growing up and exploring amongst those slag heaps.Enjoy your site good work.
John.
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John Astbury
From: John Astbury
jastbury@supre.com.au - Perth Australia - Friday, June 06, 2008 at 05:54:03 (UTC) Source IP: 121.221.236.53

Paradise Lost,
Derek ‘Gash’ Gambie, Hadley lad, vintage 230742.

I got onto the ‘Trip to Trench’ bit first and immediately wrote my recollections of it. However now that I have visited your CV site I need to do a bit of modifying.
First, I have some good news for you, I’ve seen your paradise muddle, it’s not a dream it is real. I went to Norman Pedley and told him I was 13 when I was only 12. He had a vacancy for a paper boy down the Trench. Towards the end of my first morning I delivered papers at the rather run down Prospect Terrace, then, went through the arch to the first house of Forge Row. I like Victorian architecture but on that wet morning in 1954 it was a dreadful place. The view from the front window was an acre and a half of tangled rusting wire and scrap metal lying on earth that was a mixture of black soil and brown crumbling patches that was nature taking iron back to its roots of ferrous oxide. I pedalled away from that poor area rather faster than I had arrived and a few minutes later I turned under the arch of The Stables and set eyes on the white house for the first time with my mouth wide open. I can see clearly why you thought the area was paradise, it was quite a long way removed from Forge Row. The house was like something out of a Poirot film but it was the colour that startled me as I had never seen a bright white house before and it looked totally out of place. Age plays tricks on your memory but I thought it had a flat roof. Am I right or am I wrong? I delivered a paper to one house to the left of the arch and to the white house which I knew belonged to a family called Schalsha. I believe I knew Michael, I think he was at my school, Hadley County Boys and he may even have been in my class as I have a photograph of the class with what I think is his smiling face right in the middle of the front row. I have a group photo of the 1st Hadley Scouts taken at a ‘bangers and mash’ party and think he is on that one too. Again, I have to say I am not sure as I heard this in a pub, he was drowned off the Welsh coast before reaching his teens. Is that true? There is also a boy called Ron Harris on the photo, I thought he came from the Stables, was he your older brother? If so then your parents are also on the photo. We played a game of cricket in the school yard one day and he bowled some unplayable balls at me. I am no cricketer but I was annoyed at this so stepped forward at the next ball and hit it clean over the railway line into the yard of Bircher’s garage. The teacher, Mr Phillips, declared this as six and out adding further to my irritation.
After I left The Stables I delivered to one of the red brick semis next to the main road where Barry Rickus lived. He was in the same class as me. Then I went through the gates to the posh house that you call The New Orchard, I had never seen anything like this either, you really were a lucky lad. I did not deliver to the main house but to an upstairs flat to the left of the house above what I assumed had been the stable block. Then I carried on through to the back where there was a single story chalet type building that I now assume had once been the summerhouse and this was my last delivery of the day. In years gone by this would have had a nice outlook but now it looked out to the drying up canal which, on the right bank, was lined by factory windows, half of which were smashed.
From your CV you are about 7 or 8 years younger than me so, as a child, this is a huge gap and you may not know the following names. Barry Poole was the four foot six middle son of the proprietor of the Esso garage near you and he had one leg 3” longer than the other. There was a sign on the workshop door that read, ‘the man who lends tools here has left’. There were identical female twins living next to the shop opposite Prospect Terrace the same age as me, also the Broome family lived next to the pub at the start of your lane. Over what I always regarded as the border line between Hadley and Trench, the lock, lived Peter Barclay, in my class, a tough guy, nearly as tough as me. John Leek, whose mother worked at the Regal Cinema in the ticket booth and a guy called Vincent whose surname I forget.
I loved my childhood in Hadley, born Manse Road and wrote about 30 short stories about it which the local newspapers have very kindly published over the last few years. I’ve also written a couple of novels based in and around the area but nobody wants to even read the synopsis never mind become my agent. I was very much a ‘Just William’ character. I have been down every street, road, lane and footpath in Hadley and up every apple tree. Watery Lane was my best bit of paradise and I have wonderful memories of roaming along its hedgerows with my best mate Ben (Cliff Bennett who is still my best mate). My favourite walk was to turn left when you reached the stream and follow it right up to the tunnel under the railway line. I saw a Kingfisher there once but doubt if he stayed as I never saw any fish. I was a total failure as a fisherman in the Trench pool, I swam and nearly drowned in the Valley pool with Ben and was warned off from going anywhere near the middle pool. Did you find the tunnel under the incline?
The top of Blackies Lane near the railway line was another favourite spot and I would sit in the shade of an oak tree and watch the tops of the corn stems swaying in the breeze. I have no idea why Hadley and the surrounding green fields were chosen to be constantly raped and pillaged by the soulless men in black suits so best hold on to your dreams and seek out your new paradise and wide open spaces elsewhere.
I have found mine, I have my spacious house which I have called ‘Nutwood’ (because in my dreams I am living next door to Rupert Bear) and I am surrounded by acres and acres of open unfenced countryside and forests. I even have my three lakes which are my Trench, Middle and Valley pools. I have my Watery Lane and Blackies Lane and there is even a town nearby that could double as Bridgnorth. It’s 800 miles due south of Hadley and they talk funny but one thing is for sure. They will never build a 17 storey tower block in my village or raze to the ground the small medieval chateau.
I have retired now so, yes, I am not putting much back into society, apart from the money I am putting into the local economy buying loads of building materials to modernise and expand my house. But I think I did my bit in days gone by. Nowhere near as many different jobs as you but I did manage 10.
Like you I went to the Walker Tech, first as a full time student at Oakengates and then on day release for 6 years getting City & Guilds, and an ONC both in mechanical engineering at Bennetts Bank. Served my apprenticeship at Audley Eng Newport and became a fitter / machinist. (mainly lathe and miller like yourself)
I’m also a founder member of the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust which has the intention of reopening the line from Norbury junction to Shrewsbury. There are also hopes that some of the route back up towards Trench can be reopened but alas we will never see the Trench lock again.
I’m not going to put you down and I hope you will not begrudge me my current relaxed lifestyle. I wish you good luck and happiness. Keep looking for that soul mate, my aunt did not marry till she was 58!
Cheers
‘ Gash’ Gambie, Dordogne, SW France. Thursday, 17 January, 2008

Footnote.
I was waiting at Bergerac airport to pick up my sister a couple of years ago when a man came up to me and asked if he had just heard a Wellington accent? His name was John Smith and he was born on the Trench side of the lock and went to the John Hunt school. He was about 10 years younger than me so quite close to your age and left home to join the marines when he was just 16 and moved to France about 20 years ago. So now you know there are at least two men from Hadley / Trench who have found a new paradise.

I lived in Hadley in the late 50's early 60's is King Kong still showing at the cinema?
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Ken Podmore
From: Ken Podmore
Ken@podmore.com Wake Forest United States - Monday, July 02, 2007 at 20:38:35 (UTC) Source IP: 71.65.225.63

Ha ha, is Norman Pedley still delivering the papers?

I was born and brought up within 100 yards of Trench Lock. I'm pretty sure I can remember Keith Harris and can remember Vivienne Schalsha being at Wellington High School. I knew the area around Trench Lock well - I think the Orchard was known locally as the 'Jews'! - it was all a bit mysterious. Have memories of people swimming in the Valley pool during hot spells. Walking up past the Middle pool to Oakengates when the Gypsies were camped on waste land - real Gypos with horses and caravans and men with earings! Some local names - the Broomes, Emlyns, Crawleys, Fletchers. I think grandfather Morgan lived at the old Lock cottage and kept pigs there.
The Barley Mow pub, with Horace Bailey as landlord. The Blue Pig which became the Shropshire Arms for a time. Amazing how much of your childhood remains in your memory and how long it seemed to last. Time seems to accelerate as you get older unfortunately.
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Ian J
From: Ian J
Derby United Kingdom - Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 14:54:16 (UTC) Source IP: 204.104.55.242

Ian — please contact the editor of this website. Cheers!

Love looking at your web site, I lived in Summer House Drive in Hadley from 1961 to 1966 and attended Hadley infants school, would love to hear from anyone in that area at that time
Regards
Cheryl
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Cheryl Thomas
From: Cheryl Thomas
cherbrook@aol.com Swansea United Kingdom - Saturday, January 06, 2007 at 11:15:40 (UTC) Source IP: 195.93.21.131

ok me again after seeing some peoples memories i felt that i had to return to pass on mine
my family moved to gladstone street from north road wellington i went to the old school in hadley park road i recall the milk in the morning and the loo which was a stone building in the corner of the yard all it consisted of was a concrete sping fr with a small trough running along the wall the floor got really slippy and yes you guessed it i did manage to slip and side phew !! i can still smell it now, as we got older and into the bigger class we were allowed to play on the grass field with the airraid shelter in it but you would get told off if you ventured on to it and boy was it nice when the tractor mower used to come and cut the grass another smell that i shall never forget, one game which we used to play in the playground was with flattend milk bottle tops which we would flick towards the wall and boy you were someone if you managed to get hold of the green tops or red tops, i remember when the water would flood under the railway bridge outside the school, as kids we would climb over the fence at the motorway tyre place or "the normea" as we called it we would place amongst the vast number of old tyres etc, i recall when we got hold of some cows eyes from the abatoir next to the tyre place and we went over the road to the waste land area between hadley hollow road and church street opposite the bush pub and we had a game of throwing them at each other, i remember the barbers with the small airraid shelter behind it, george masons, and the hardware shop then there was the chemist, a gap for the car park and then the co op and woodfine shoe shop, opposite was the post office and the wool shop next to that was Mr Evans fruit shop a shop with a wonderfull aroma, a little further down the road was the betting shop and the cobblers before getting to the shopping complex of the stars newsagent, the off license and the launderette and the thifty then there was the garage and finally on the corner was kings furniture shop, we would take our bikes over to the banks the piece of land above far vallens here we would also catch fish and newts and take home frog spawn which we found in the various pools up there, sitting and watching the trains pull up at hadley halt, sunday mornings would be spent playing football behind one of the nets when a sunday league match would be taking part and getting a telling off from the goalie wwhen our ball went on to the pitch, time spent in the gym playing soccer and table tennis having a game of golf on the pitch and putt, summers meant being able to get sweets and ice creams from the small shop which opend on the rec, the coldness of the open air swimming pool and the fountain outside by the padling pool, i remember when the big black gates would be locked at the rec and when we got in trying to hide from dave who was the caretaker and lived in the house up by the pavillion also "john inch" ??? he also worked there with his speech inpediment but such a nice man, when blackies lane was lined with trees and when we moved on to the secondary school and they reclaimed the land next to the railway line for football pitches and when punished we would be sent up there to pick stones from the pitch and there would be loads and loads, well i will leave my ramblings there for now but i have so many good memories of places and people that i could share but would like to finish with this,
hadley was a great place to grow up from small child to young adult it was a safe place a place where people knew everybody and people had respect it was clean and i am glad that i did my growing up there looking back at my life i loved it and would not have changed a single thing.
paul hamer
From: paul hamer
hamerpaul@myway.com
wales United Kingdom - Friday, May 19, 2006 at 19:47:36 (UTC) Source IP: 84.67.30.148

Nice one Paul! What a great and enthralling collection of memories and I for one recall John Inch! It must have beena good few pints or there was ib=ce cream in your keyboard Paul — I managed to right many of your typos for the sake of readers but am flummoxed at knowing just what the concrete sping fr in the school toilets might have been - do you mean a concrete “something” floor ? And yes, I recall that place too!
Many thanks for the memories!
Keith

Hi, Nice!

Email: shghd@icjteg.com
Washington NA africa - Sunday, April 09, 2006 at 23:38:39 (UTC) Source IP: 66.246.218.214
Many thanks for taking me back to a very happy childhood. Although a Donnington boy I remember the area so well. I worked for Oakworths at the site on the St Georges road. Ketley Bank my first true love Denise Dean she dumped me after two years when I went for a job interview at London. Gower St youth club The June room Terry Heaths Town House. Telford destroyed years of happy memories. Its many years since I lived there because I joined the Police and served locally and in South Wales then on to London before ill health forced early retirement and a move to Carlisle. Reading your excellent piece just reminded me of happier times the Wrekin Lilleshall monument the Red Lion pub just to many things to bore people with but thanks again for a great trip down memory lane. David.
From: David Jenkins
David Jenkins