The road to 2013 part 8

Shortly after the fire in Kidderminster, we moved again (in May 1971), this time to Stroud in Gloucestershire.

The house we lived in was right next to the Salvation Army hall.  The hall was originally a Countess of Huntingdon's Connection chapel and is octagonal in shape. 

At the bottom of Acre Street there was a corner shop (and indeed it seems to be still there) where would get our Saturday treats from.

I have a school photograph of me taken in 1971.  I was probably at this school for a very short time indeed, from May until the end of the school year in July.  In September we moved to another school which from memory was called "Spire High". 

In Summer 1971 we went to Somerset and stayed at Oldways End.  The house was actually two houses adjoined by a passage way.  Mrs Fanthorpe, the owner, lived in one house, and let out the second house for visitors.  Mrs Fanthorpe also ran the hamlet's petrol station.  We had a number of excursions and I remember visiting Dunster Castle (I still have my parent's copy of the souvenir brochure for Dunster Castle) and Tarr Steps.  I wonder if the beach we went could have been Minehead, but I think it was at Blue Anchor.

Dunster

 Tarr Steps

The road to 2013 part 7

May 1969 brought another move, this time to Kidderminster in Worcestershire.  We lived in the Greenhill area of the town at 102 Highfield Road.

My parents were in charge of the Salvation Army corps in the town.  I have a picture of my dad leading an open-air service in Stourport-on-Severn, just down the road from Kidderminster.  He is wearing his red tunic, which was meant to be cooler to wear in summer months that the traditional navy blue worn by members of the Salvation Army.

The hall was in a former Methodist chapel, but is not there now. The side hall was used for a time as a youth club upstairs.  In May 1971 there was a fire in the youth club, which gutted the building, and although the corps continued for a little while they left the premises in search of another.  The picture shows my dad surveying the wreckage of the youth club.

I first started piano lessons when we were at Kidderminster - my teacher was a kindly patient man who I through was quite elderly (but may have been in his 50s).  I enquired of the Kidderminster Historical Society and they suggested my teacher may have been Harry Morris.  He lived in Bewdley Street on the left going out of town just past the Grammar School.  The picture below was sent to me by Bob Millward of the Historical Society, and shows his house.

Our holiday in Summer 1969 was to Hafod in Mid Wales.  From there we visited Devil's Bridge.
The house was located right next to a stream which we as boys used to paddle in.  I remember my Dad fishing in it, and at least one night we had a fish supper.

In Summer 1970 we returned to Hafod.

Not directly linked to my story, but a picture of Kidderminster on August Bank Holiday Monday in 1969.  Who knows I may be in that picture somewhere, we were certainly living in Kidderminster at the time.