FROM OUR MAILBOX...

.. can you help? ..

On occasion, we receive emails via our 'contact box' from folk asking if we can help with information regarding - for example - family histories, or with contacting long lost Moordown friends.

We'll publish the requests here, and if you can help, just drop us a line - (via the 'contact us' button on the top left of this page) - and we'll pass on your details on to the senders, so that they can make contact with you....  

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Sara Tucker has sent in this photo ........

with these notes attached...

"I would dearly like to get in touch with anybody who recognises this chap, and who could tell me a little about him and his family background.

Even if just so much as his parents or birth year - anything to kick start my digging further into his ancestry would be wonderful.

His surname is KENDALL and that this photo was taken circa 1895. I have an idea of his first name (or, more likely, a derivation of it) but I'd prefer not to include it here for fear it might inadvertently bias somebody's thoughts!

This is entirely conjecture but, based on the relevant branch of my own family tree, I am assuming he would have lived somewhere around the Holdenhurst / Moordown / Ensbury / Redhill / Winton area.

The young lady standing with him is Lily Rose Steele, and she is aged 14-15 in this photo. Lily Rose was the daughter of Charlotte STEELE, who in turn was the daughter of Edward 'Ned' STEELE and Ellen BARTLETT. Lily Rose was born in 1880, and in 1886 her mother married William HAMBLEN - in some documents Lily Rose is named as Lily Rose HAMBLEN. In 1899 Lily Rose married William James HAYWARD. Between them and over the years, they lived at numbers 8, 9, 10, and 19 (and possibly others?!) Nursery Road.

 

Big, hopeful thanks!"

 

Can you help identifying this chap?... do let us know.. 

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Chris Lafferty is looking for information about the gas explosion in Castle Rd ...does anyone have any details on that event?....

 

 "I am looking for information about a gas explosion that demolished a line of shops in Castle Road near the old laundry - it happened some 60 or so years ago. As a young boy at the time, I was standing outside the shop nearest the corner of Muscliffe Road watching workmen laying new concrete ring sewers under the road. 
I witnessed the events leading up to the tragic gas explosion (& how /why it was caused) BUT, as a young boy of only 5 or 6 -  although the incident itself is very vivid in my memory - the date /year it happened 
was not important to me at the time but is very much so now. 
Therefore, I would be very grateful if any of your members could enlighten me with the date it happened & any further information about the incident.  
Did any local paper cover the event in which a number of people were killed? 
I - luckily - was only cut by flying glass fragments from the shattered shop window - as was my young playmate, who was with me watching the exciting  diggers & other machinery  at the time."
 
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John Pudney writes looking for information on the Palmer family from Hillcrest Rd ...can you help?..

 

"Does anyone remember the Palmer family, who lived in Hillcrest Road, Moordown in
the 1950's and 1960's. I went to school with Graeme Palmer in the 1960's going to
Winton School for Boys in Coronation Avenue. The family lived in the big house at
the far end of the road, it was set back off the road. I'm sure the father was a
local builder and I think there were at least 5 children in the family, names I
remember were Malcolm, Donald and Maureen. Does anybody recall this family?"

 

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David Bowler has emailed looking for some very specific details about the Bournemouth trolley bus system....As you will read, it's not really a specific 'Moordown' request, but I know some of you are interested in the old transport systems, and may be able to offer some relevant details? ...If you can help, do let us know.

David writes.... 

 

"Acknowledging that my current enquiry does not refer strictly to Moordown, could I please approach you and your members with my current and final list of uncertainties in respect of Bournemouth's trolleybus overhead wiring and the layout and date of installation? In each case, I will tell you the status of my research. 




	1. Winton Banks loop around Crimea Road, Waterloo Road and Alma Road (a clockwise loop) - Assumed to have been installed by April 1938 to provide depot access from Moordown Depot for trolleybuses entering service on the Talbot Road, Wallisdown Road route to Columbia Road, possibly even installed when the Wimborne Road tram route was converted to trolleybus operation in 1935. Known to have been definitely in place during World War 2. I'm looking for any photograph take in this area between 1935 and 1938.



	

	



	2. Bournemouth Square northwest side between the entrance to the Central Pleasure Gardens across the junction with Bourne Avenue to the bottom of Richmond Hill - All Richmond Hill services started here before the Square roundabout was built in 1947. It is known that a single line loop existed here until at least 1938, but perhaps a passing loop or loops were installed at the stop outside the central Pleasure Garden or Henlys showroom from 1938 onwards. Thus I seek any photograph of this area taken between 1938 and 1946."

	



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	Martyn McCauley has written to tell us about the Cottage Loaf Bakery on the corner of Ensbury Park Rd re-opening...



	Martyn writes...



	"Corner of Ensbury Park Road and Wimborne Road was a bakery years ago. 

	



	It was Gerald's in the 70s and then my father took it over and named it the Cottage Loaf Bakery. ..Mid 90s it closed down and now I believe its a art/framing studio.



	However I would appreciate any memories people have of the bakery. ..I grew up in the trade and then changed career. 



	January 2017 will see the return of the Cottage Loaf Bakery to Wimborne Road. My mother, myself and my family will be running it. I will be bringing the traditional bakery back to Moordown.... Thanks"



	So if you do have any memories of the bakery, just drop us a line and we'll pass them onto Martyn...



	 



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	Mike Fuller has written in about one of the church sites in Nursery Rd ... not the original Congregational Church site (now no.41) or the Evangelical Chapel at the top of the road, but a corrugated bulding on the site of what is now no.45, right next to the alleyway. 



	Mike writes...



	"In your section of Odds and ends you refer to a church in Nursery road. Up to the



	late 50s there was a corrugated church on the site of number 45. This is adjacent



	to the alleyway through to red breast road. I seem to recall it was painted a



	maroon colour."

	



	Can anyone add any more information on this building?...



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	An email from John Harris about making contact with Paul Shering or his family:



	"While working in our Community Centre today I received a phone call from a Mr Eric Painter who is 88 years young and living in St Austell but used to live in Malvern(?) Road and had a childhood friend Paul Shering who lived in one of the "Royals"

	



	Eric is really interested in finding Paul, his family or anyone who knows or knew of him. 



	It would appear that Paul was evacuated during WW2 by boat to Canada but 300 miles from the IK the boat was torpedoed and he returned to Bournemouth...."



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	An email from Wendy Harvey about Kingswood School in Barrie Rd:



	"I'd be interested to know if anybody remembers Kingswood School in Barrie Road,


Moordown.   I went there in the mid 50's."

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	An email from Karen Gillis about the St John's graves of babies who died in 1913. Does anyone have any information on that:



	"Hello - I am hoping you will be able to help me.



	I am the assistant warden at Moordown St John's church and we are hoping to create a wildlife meadow in the church yard in memory of some babies buried in the corner of Vicarage Rd and Wimborne Rd. We think it happened around 1913 and they died of TB or diptheria. 



	I need to discover more information about them, we are hoping the school childrenwill help us to sow the seed and be involved in this project



	If you could shed any light on this event or give me any other leads to follow I would be very grateful.



	 



	Many thanks and fingers crossed"



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	An email from Len Sellward, asking if anyone can help with information about the children of Alice Franklin, who live in one of thatched cottages at Redhill in 1950:



	 



	"I had an Aunt who lived in the thatched cottage you show on your 'Then and Now' page. I visited her only once about 1950, to my memory it was only one cottage, and her name was Alice Franklin. 



	She was the sister of my father's first wife. She had two offspring Dennis and Pat(rica)?, Dennis had just served his National Service and was a fireman on the railways, he was involved in a railway crash sometime in the 50's.



	If anyone knows more about them I would love to know, I now live overseas and have little connection with the UK and would love to find any offspring of Dennis or Pat (as she was Known)"



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	An email from Brian Evans in Portugal:



	"Hi - I'm an English football fan living in Portugal. I'm attempting to write a book about British managers in Portugal. One them was Reg (Reginald Frederick) Trim. He went to Winton and Moordown school 1925/28, he captained England schoolboys in 1928. He then apparently played for Bournemouth (postal?)... before signing for Bournemouth.  



	I wondered if any of your members were football fans and have come across Reg?..."



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	This one was received from Annelie Mesher...Annelie writes:



	 



	"Hi, I am currently looking into my family history of which a part comes from Moordown and Parley Road in particular. 

	



	My dad John Mesher was born at number 2 Parley Road to Richard Mesher (Billy) and Lily-May in 1930, then lived at number 10 next door to his mothers family - the Blakes - who lived in the cottage named 'Emery Down' which my 2nd Gt Grandad, Charles Blake, and his wife Ellen Blake moved to, and where my gt grandma Edith lived with her family. 

	



	The property stayed in the family with my gt aunty Bet Smith living there until she passed away in 2007.



	I was wondering if anyone knew of the family at all or if anyone may be able to share any memories of them?  



	If anyone could assist or point me in the right direction I would be grateful..." 



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	...And these notes are from Betty Owens (née Sauvarin):



	 



	"I attended Winton and Moordown from 1940 to 1950, and wonder if any of the old girls are still around?.......



	 My friends were Mary Tate, Shirley Holmes,Valerie Pomeroy, Maureen Hurst, Beryl Cutler, who is probably my oldest friend. However because they all married don't know their current surnames.



	I also knew Mrs White, Miss Oldfield, Miss Watton, Miss McCauley and Miss Dibden (teachers)



	I would be glad to hear from any of the old girls, if they are still around. 



	I also went to Victoria Park Methodist Church and the Congregational Church on Peter's Hill."

	



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