Brandon Heritage

Category: Memories of Brandon

  • Settling in Brandon – Bob Jones

    Brandon resident, Bob Jones, recalls memories of how he moved to the area almost sixty years ago, and settled in the town … “It was 1959 and we were looking for a property to purchase or rent in Thetford (preferred) or Brandon would do.  The London overspill development was progressing at this time but there…

  • “Bloody sorft thing to do”

    Cherry Rogers relives the time her world changed with the introduction of a modern toilet, something we take for granted today… “We lived at 50 Thetford Road and like a lot of people had an outside privy, with a visit from Jack Ollie with his honeycart for toilet emptying.  I nearly said every day, but thinking about…

  • Rowdiness at The Avenue cinema

    Cherry Rogers recalls going to The Avenue cinema … “The Avenue Cinema, was the main entertainment for most people in Brandon when I was growing up.  There were of course dances and socials, and church fetes which were all popular.  People went out and had fun, no entertainment was brought to the home apart from…

  • The evacuee boarding above the ironmonger shop …

    An idyllic childhood Peter Woods recalls his time as an evacuee, staying in a flat above Woodrow’s ironmonger, overlooking Market Hill, in the 1940s … “Our ‘front room’ looked out onto the market square and in one corner of this room stood a Morrison shelter.  This had a flat top with a cage like construction underneath.  When the…

  • Bee keeping in Brandon

    Cherry Rogers recalls her memories of growing up in Brandon … “Some of my happiest memories are time spent with my dad Jack Mackender and my maternal grandfather Alec Rolph.   Dad and grandad were both beekeepers and produced prize winning honey.  My Grandad kept his bees on the land behind his house on London Road,…