Images of Clevedon
A brief background.
We, that is my grandmother, father (Cliff Hale), mother (Olive Hale) and sister (Cathleen Hale) came to Clevedon in March 1947.
We lived in Herbert Road and later at 'Springfield,' Elton Road. My father worked at the Antibiotics Research Station in Elton Road, mum worked for Alonzo Dawes Son and Hoddell and I went to school at St Andrew's Junior School and the Secondary Modern School.
My father and I took most of these pictures in 1961, just before we moved from the town. A few of the pictures were taken by a friend - Hrolf Trump - in 1946 and others come from the Rita Gregory Collection featured on the Clevedon Civic Society web site.
I have recently revisited all the locations and have retaken the pictures as near as possible from the same positions.
What struck me when I started to look at these pictures again, was that very little has drastically changed about the town. OK, the Co-op is no longer there, neither is the Salthouse Pavilion nor the Railway Station, but the Curzon Cinema is still going, and my old school is still a school even if the age group is younger. Hill Road looks much as it did 40 years ago; there are just a lot more cars parking there now. Herbert Gardens is now open to the public, and the swimming pool and boating lake no longer operate, but the Herbert Road Salerooms still do, albeit from a building out on the road to Yatton.
By the way, the picture is of me and my first motor-bike (a 198cc two-stroke Frances Barnett), taken by my friend Paul Kite in Six Ways in the late 1950's.
Geoff Hale - 2005
