Genealogy Chat

Does anyone on here come fronm the village of Cholsey in Oxfordshire? I am trying to find the old Blacksmith forge in the village. I have been round the village on google street view and tried google.
Reason is my uncle was a evacuee in the village during ww2. He stayed with Mrs Fletcher and her daugher ,but can;t remember the name of the road only that it was near the Blacksmith. He would stop in linger watching the blacksmith at work.

Trying to jog his memory. His brothers one being my dad also evacuated here,but with a different family. He can't remember the Blacksmith either.

Hope someone can point me in the right direction so to speak.
Thanks Donna

you might try asking on Curious Fox its free to place a question.

www.curiousfox.com

Cheers Lindsey. I will take alook

Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers- Historical ...He worked in the forge in Honey Lane next to the ale house which became known as The ... 'Change at Cholsey Again! over a thousand years of village life, ...
www.odg.org.uk/history/onb/more/u584870.html - Cached

I agree with Satnav - try Honey Lane. There are still some old buildings down there which your Uncle might rmember. Opposite the little old white building is one called called Old Forge Barn ( go down to 20 - 15 Honey Lane).

How exciting. Thankyou. Been on google street view again and can't wait to show him later on this afternoon.

What a lovely village Cholsey looks.

Hi
Do you mean the little white cottage with a small front door? Opposite that one?
I have looked to see if I can see the old forge barn, but can't seem to see it. Am I looking in the right place?

I haven't been down there for ages but on Google maps two white cottages come up as No 22 although one is actually 26, one has window boxes. If you turn the little man around you can just see what must be a converted barn which I think is the Old Forge Barn. Either way, your Uncle, hpoefully, will remember the two little cottages.
Yes it is lovely, very strung out as many of the villages in this part of the world are. There is a Steam railway still running to and from Wallingford and the 'interesting' neighbours at Fairmile have now moved on.

Hope your Uncle enjoys the reminiscing.

Hi again.
My uncle came to visit today armed with a sketch he had done of how he remembered where he lived in Cholsey. It matched up with the buildings on Honey lane and the forge. From there he directed me along the streets to the centre of the village and up to the old village school on Church road.
He remembers going out of the back garden and through the wheat field at the back of his house to meet his brother half way in the field where they would swop bits n bobs. His brother my dad lived with a family in Panters road. Checked out this info and all correct according to the map. He left this house at some point and doesn't know why, but ended up in some kind of orphange somewhere nearby. He had happy memories of the village and the Fletcher family.
Fairmile hospital is near to the villiage . Do you know if they took in evacuees during ww2?

Thankyou for your information and help.
Donna

I'm glad you had a good time reminicising. I hope your Uncle wasn't housed in Fairmile - it was actually a Mental Hospital!!!!! You might like to look at this http://www.francisfrith.com/cholsey/memories/dad-evacuated-to-cholsey-ww2_27111/.

I'll go the the Library later in the week to see if they have a history of Cholsey, but might be a little too far away.

Do you remember the Wartime Kitchen on TV with Ruth Watson? She wasn't very far away.

That war time memory of Cholsey on Francis frith is my dad's. I remember adding it a couple of years ago.

He kept in touch with his evacuee family, but never went back to the village. His first billett wasn't a good one and the bad memories of that would have come back.
Sadly the lady who looked after him died at Christmas aged 92, but we are still in touch with her daughter who now lives in Somerset.