I left Dursley in 1975. Went to Dursley Grammar School, worked in the foundry at Lister's.

Parents still live in Cam

Hi Andy, brilliant site. I was born and brought up in Dursley living in Broadwell by the church steps. I went to C of E Primary, then Dursley Grammar and then an apprenticeship at Lister's. I must admit my main ambition in life at that time was to leave Dursley as soon as I could which I did in 1967. I have lived in New Zealand for the last 40 years and am now enjoying retirement and grand children. Dursley has certainly changed, I'm not sure for the better but I think most places are like that. I must be getting old. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who remembers me from many years ago. Thanks again for a great site, Chris.

I left Dursley in 1951, however I have returned to the UK and to Dursley many times since. None of my return visits have given me such a clear perspective as has this magnificant web site. Each section is so well illustrated and the old photos are a stark reminder of the mess that modern development is making of the town.
Congratulations to you and your team for developing this very classy site and exposure of the town

I have an old 27 KVA Mawdsley alternator still giving me cheap electricity after 30 years.

Have been doing a lot of research on the Wichards. My grandfather's stepfather was a Mark Wichard. Many Wichards called Dursley home. My grandfather George Joseph Dance lived and died in Worcester, Worcs. (England). After living all over the world I settled in Canton, Georgia, USA, but I was born in the city of Worcester.

Grew up in Cam & Dursley in 50's and 60's - family move took me away aged 14 but I felt a lifelong affinity with the area & came back for an 8 year stay in Bristol in the late 70's. Lived on Fairmead Estate in a wooden prefab called 'sherika bungalow' and then in 7, Delkin Rd Summerhayes. Went to school at Cam Hopton (Frank 'Boss' Parsons) and Dursley Grammar ('The Rum' was headmaster, forgotten his real name!). Now live in retirement as a Swiss citizen in Basel but make occasional trips back to Cam just to walk around - the magic from childhood is still there!!

What a wonderful set of pages!
We are thinking of buying a house in Dursley & the Virtual Tour gives a great insight into the town...both good and not so good! When were the photos actually taken?
Anyway ...great website ...as soon as the weather improves we'll be over to walk round Dursley...& maybe a pint in the Old Spot !!!
Happy New Year !!!
Jon

Don't know Dursley. Feel I do now -Very nice.

Thank you for a very interesting site.

Thank you so much, especially all the old photographs.

I have looked through the guestbook and couldn't find anyone from my schooldays.

Dursley was a picturesque town years ago, what a pity it is now being spoilt by that new Sainsbury supermarket.

During the war I lived in No.1 The Knapp, next door to the Grammar School. My sister, Marian, went to this school, whilst I walked to the C of E School at the other end of the road. Would be interested if there is anyone who remembers us.

At the end of 1959 to about 1962 worked in R.A.Lister cylinder head shop, doing c-bores for frost plugs,and bore out and reaming ,and fin milling of cylinder heads. Made many friends in Dursley and learned much. Those were simpler days for all of us, and it is sad to see these times vanish. Thanks for your history, and it brings back fond memories. David

Does anyone have any info or knowledge on the names Nethercott or Flight - my Great Great Grandparents with connections to Dursley Mills, Stroud and Painswick. Also were committed Quakers. Would appreciate any information.

I am the grandson of Alice Perkins nee Workman formerly of Elmfield, Everlands Cam. Any relative who has information please contact. I am also researching Stanley Albert Jarvis who was KIA on 10th August 1918

Thank you for a wonderful and informative site - I have never been to Dursley or Cam but now want to: I have recently discovered I have ancestors who came from Dursley and (especially) Cam. I have traced some back to the 15th century. The family names are OLPIN, PURNELL, PACKER, SOMERS, TROTMAN AND HARDING, with the odd Smith, Wilkins, Archard, Heyward and Oswald too. If these names ring a bell with anyone I would love to hear about it. Thanks again, best wishes all.

My family came from the Dursley area, and I still have cousins there...Plillip Bees, June Walker, etc.

Hi there! Thank you so much for your website! It's a gem filled with historical data, well done!

Jan & Agnes

I remember there being a large green-space behind the (current?) police station, where fairs and the like would be held - it was a plateau of sorts, up-slope from St. George's Rd, with a stand of fairly widely-spaced trees between the open field and the back of St. George's. (This area may have been an old orchard; I have a vague recollection of there being apples about the place...) Anyway, there was a little stream that ran along the back fence of the St. George's houses, all the way down into Cam - or at least, into the pastures down the slope, where there was a water-trough for the cows.

There was another little stream that ran down through that old grove of trees, originating at a very old and cracked stone trough part-way up the hill towards the green-space above.

I'm not quite sure exactly what was being done, but I remember sometime in the late 60's - early 70's that whopping great cement pipes were stockpiled in the pasture closest to the cricket (or playing field, anyway) down in Cam. 'Course, all of this pasture-land has long since vanished beneath housing estates.

It's funny - while the land generally sloped away down from Kingsway/St. George's to Cam quite gently, there were points where it seemed almost terraced; for instance, at the bottom of what we all called "the field," there was a long row of old, tall trees that lined the edge of one of these drop-offs. The foot of this steep slope backed onto the houses on that road paralleling the train track across Quag Bridge and into Listers / Dursley Station.

There was a footpath from our field down between the houses which came out onto the road right across from the old steel railroad foot-bridge; we'd roam down the field and footpath and over the bridge into another field, which led us to the River Cam - at that point, about a foot deep and maybe 6 - 10 feet wide. We'd go down there and stomp about in the stream in our Wellies, never once stopping to think about the possibility of drowning.

School lunches! From the canteen at Dursley Infants' to the one at the National Schools site behind St. James's to the one at Berkeley to the one at Highfields, the menu seemed to be unchanging - chicken fricassee and Hungarian goulash were particular favorites, as was the toilet-roll-shaped cylinder of vanilla ice cream drenched in chocolate sauce.

Stump's Coaches! For a time, I was shuttled out to Berkeley (the teacher was a Mrs Streak, and the headmaster a Mr Heaven / Haven). There were about a half-dozen kids from Dursley who'd get picked up in front of the Kingshill Inn by a great big Stump's Coaches day-tour coach (and dropped back after school), and we'd drive up past the Yew Tree Inn and down to the A38 and on into Berkeley. I learned how to swim at the Berkeley school.

My Dad was a Dursley native - born and bred. (I think my grandparents - Olive, a Uley girl, and Bert, from Cheltenham - were living in Highfields when Dad was born in '39; they moved shortly thereafter to 19 Kingsway, Kingshill, and lived there until their deaths in '77 and '79). Dad joined the Worcestershire Regiment in the late 1950's and was stationed in the West Indies, which is where he met our Mum - while stationed here in Nassau, Bahamas. (Mum descended from succeeding waves of UK emigrants).

While I and my sister were born here in Nassau in '62 and '64 respectively, we moved to Dursley in '65 and so spent our formative childhood years there (we returned to Nassau in '72). We both started school at the now-demolished Dursley Infants' School; while I spent time at the old school behind St. James's before heading over to Berkeley and then on to Highfields, my sister went on to the Boulton Lane school until our departure for Nassau.

We lived for a time at 19 Kingsway with my grandparents until 40, at the bottom of the road, became available. Back then, the tract of land now occupied by housing estates was a cow pasture stretching from the orchard parallel to St. George's Road all the way across to Kingshill Lane and down the slope into Cam. Provided you timed it right - and the air was still and cold enough - you could lean out of my bedroom window and catch a glimpse of the freight trains rolling into and out of Lister's rail sidings.

That pasture was the neighbourhood playground and as our yard sided onto the pasture, we'd hop the fence back and forth almost daily.

Of course, back then the old Council Park behind the manor-house / Council office offered more dignified surroundings with see-saws and a swing set, along with the perimeter walking path through shady cedars (I think?) and past the old ornamental rose gardens. We preferred the Rec with its "witches' hat," massive climbing frame, and that wonderful horizontal swinging plank "rowboat" thing, whatever it was called, but the Council Park was more convenient for Mum and Granny.

We shopped at the Kingshill COOP, where Mrs. Reading presided, and took advantage of "Fishy Fortey" (the fish n' chip shop on the corner nearest the Kingshill Inn) whenever discretionary income allowed. We saw our first Disney films at the Regal - Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Robin Hood, etc.

To this day, my idea of what Christmas should look like is coloured by that Dursley childhood - night falling by the time we were home from school, snow on the ground if we were lucky, paper streamers and bells dangling from ceilings everywhere, and everything lit with that warm yellow glow from incandescent bulbs.

Your photo of snow-covered Dursley and the half-demolished Victoria Memorial Day School is bittersweet indeed. I loved my time at that old school - loved running break-neck down the Knapp, giggling the whole way, and slogging back up it after school.

The Cookshop on Long Street - didn't that used to be Bloodworth's back in the 60's and 70's? We would haunt their small toy shop whenever possible. In later years, when we'd return to Dursley on vacation, F. Bailey & Sons took over in that regard - I remember them having a second floor devoted to Airfix model kits.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. Just wanted to say hello, and *thankyou* for putting the time and effort into your wonderful Dursley website!

All the best,

Bert Hayling

VERY INTERESTING SITE