Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Plus ça change, plus ce n'est point la même chose





















I came across this old photograph of the village primary school I attended between 1941 and 1946.
The by liine accompanying this picture read
Hadley Boys & Girls Junior School - now a mosque.

If it's all right with you guys, I will not be making any nostalgia trips to my natal village.


2 comments:

Biddy said...

OldScrote, I think you will find that it is a Gurdwara, or Sikh temple.
At least it was in 1970 when I took my Australian wife to see my home village. I am still traumatised from that visit.
I agree Hadley is not a place to visit these days. I don't think it was ever an attractive village, but I do have very fond memories of places such as Benbow's farm and Watery Lane and the fields that led to the Chocolates and down to Leegomery.
More traumatically I recently Googled the house that I lived in in Parkdale / Hadley Park Road on Google maps streetview and saw that there was a lady walking past my house in that strange garb of a parka worn over the top of a sari that I noticed being worn by many residents of Wellington and Hadley on my last visit.
How do I explain to my grandchildren?

Jake Allsop said...

We lived at 51 High Street, right opposite Benbow's Farm. In fact Margaret Benbow was the first girl I ever kissed (she didn't like ıt!). The walk into Wellington over the Chocolates (chocklets?) is still vivid ın my memory.
Hadley belongs to other people now, but the memories belong to us,