Oral history audio recordings with residents who moved into Bletchley as part of the London overspill scheme from the 1950s.
Aerial view of Mellish Court and West Bletchley. Illustrative photograph supplied by kind permission of Bletchley Community History Initiative (Accession Ref: BLE/P/3885).
This selection of twenty-two oral history interviews were recorded between 1995 and 1996 with residents who were allocated housing in Bletchley, together with employment, as part of the London overspill scheme. The interviews cover the newcomers’ initial impressions of Bletchley and reminiscences about the development of the town.
Creator
Living Archive
Extent
22 audio tape cassettes
Reference number
BBB/002
Records in this Group
Marjorie Clark and her husband bought a house on Bletchley’s Castle Estate in Shenley Road in 1954, moving from Wembley when her husband, a railwayman, was promoted. She joined the Mothers club to make friends, and volunteered at the Welfare Clinic. She remembers mixed feelings among locals about the influx of Londoners, but overall she ...
Ronald Flinn, born in 1923 in Hampstead, London, recalls his early life in a family with ten children. Leaving school at fourteen, he worked for the Express Dairy until the outbreak of war, when he joined the Navy.
After the war he married, had children and first lived in a shared ‘halfway house’ in ...
Wendy Marshall and her family talk about moving from London to new houses in Bletchley in the 1950s (on Whaddon Way and the Saints Estate). Gordon Ridgeway was born in Great Horwood, later moving to Bletchley, and recalls the building of the new houses in Bletchley, and working as a milkman.
The interviewees discuss ...
Interviewees recall that Bletchley Gazette was where you looked for information. Everyone bought it. They remember local MPs: Frank Markham the Tory in 1964, ‘then along comes Robert Maxwell, ‘Captain Bob’, in a uniform.’ They recall Maxwell’s difficulties with members of the local Labour Party, but they found him helpful with ...
Patricia Flinn moved from London to Bletchley in the 1950s, and has lived in Wolverton since 1985. She and her husband had five children, and were living in one room in a halfway house in Neasden, so they applied for London overspill housing. Her husband took a job as a railway signalman when ...
Patricia Flinn describes life with her husband and children in a halfway house in Neasden.They moved to Bletchley in 1953 on the London overspill scheme. The Royal Naval Association paid for the relocation to St.John’s Road. She recalls their early days in Bletchley when she was a housewife and her husband worked as a ...
Patricia Flinn remembers an incident involving Robert Maxwell and his henchman at the Conservative Club; in her opinion, Maxwell was ‘not a very nice person’. She recalls going to Christmas ‘do’s with her husband’s firm, High Precision, at Wilton Hall, the raffle and a good meal. She recalls Mr Hapgood and Basil Rose, the ...
Betty and Alexander Clifford married in 1951 and lived in rooms in Willesden. They chose Bletchley when offered council housing in a ‘satellite town’. A.C. took a job at Marston Vale Brickworks and they moved to the Saints Estate with their young son. Alexandr Clifford changed job several times, because of low wages; eventually he ...
Stephen Flinn moved as a young child from a ‘halfway house’ in Stanmore, Middlesex to St Johns Road, Bletchley. He recalls playing out with friends with few restrictions; and ‘mass football games’ locally. There were local ‘battles’ between schools, and between locals and incomers. His dad worked on the railways and his mum at various ...
Stephen Flinn remembers the smell from brickworks in Newton Road, which made him wheezy. He never smoked, because it was too expensive. Discos were held at pubs like the Crown or the North Western, but he never drank, although ‘there was a lot of drink about’. He remembers a few scraps between people but little ...
Michael Brace was born in Southend in 1941. He recounts his early life during the blitz and the family moving back to the London docks area, living with his mothers’ parents. His father worked at a gasworks and was offered a move to Bletchley, where they arrived in 1956. He discusses conditions in their shared ...
Michael Brace describes his final year at Bletchley Grammar School and leaving to become a tradesman apprentice at Wolverton Works. He describes the apprenticeship programme and talks of the dangerous aspects; he calls the Works ‘a dump’. But it was difficult to progress in a career there. Socially, the Freeman Memorial Youth Club and ...
Laura Owen moved to Bletchley from London in the early 1950s, aged two or three, to the Saints estate. Family life in the 1950s and 1960s was hard, both her parents worked. Her education was at Castles Infants and Saints school. Playing truant was not unusual. She recalls schoolfriends and playground games. At Wilton School ...
Daisy Doreen Brace moved to Bletchley in 1956 to the Rivers Estate, with two teenage sons and daughter. She talks of her parents and her childhood, then about her working life until her children were born, one with a hole in the heart. Her husband worked for the gas company; patrolling the gasometers at night ...
Daisy Doreen Brace recalls in more detail her family life in London, the period before moving to Bletchley from her mother’s house, moving day, and the difficulties involved. She remembers how thrilled she was to have a house of her own and how she enjoyed domestic life and housework: ‘I was so pleased, singing ...
Bob Bunn talks of his early life and family; living in bed and breakfast places in London with his wife. He and his brother came to Robert Shaw of Bletchley as metal polishers, living in lodgings initially. He was then allocated a re-let council house on the Saints. He later took a job on night ...
Bob Bunn describes his past jobs – doing up and hiring out washing machines to wives on the Saints estate, window cleaning and a mobile shop. He and his brother first came to Bletchley as metal polishers for Robert Shaw; he ignored any nasty remarks made about London incomers. First he lived in lodgings, visiting ...
Bob Bunn says he has thrived in Bletchley: playing golf, going to all the Balls, these are things he would never have done in London. The surroundings, like Brickhill Woods, are ideal for taking the kids for walks. When he and his wife first moved to Bletchley they had only suitcases, and bought a ...
Wendy Checkley was born in London, and adopted into the Brace family. They moved to Bletchley when she was three; she has early memories of being pushed to Bletchley in the pram for shopping.She talks of family life, her Mum, visits from her Nan and the routines of family Christmases. She didn’t notice any resentment ...
Barry Brace remembers the early days of his life in Bletchley; few completed houses, and cows wandering about. He was excited about moving from London: ‘to me I was moving out to the country … that appealed to me’. He recalls the new Wilton Road School: standards, the teachers, strictness and punishment with the ...
Vera Barrow and Iris Whitcomb talk of their early lives and the struggle to find accommodation in London. They both heard about Bletchley and London overspill; their husbands got jobs on the railway. Iris and her husband were the first London overspill people to move on to the Saints Estate, in 1952. Harold Macmillan came ...
Joan Burchell and her family moved from Hornsey in 1953 to Arundel Grove, Bletchley; her husband was a bricklayer, tempted by a job with Drabble’s plus a house. They talk of their early impressions of Bletchley, the schools and her husband’s later work as a self-employed builder. She recalls her near neighbours and tells anecdotes ...
Comments about this page
I lived in Bletchley for a few years from the 60s to the 70s. I went to school at castles, saints ( we then moved away) then later to wilton, Bletchley grammar then Lord greys. My dad worked at Bletchley Park.
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