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Hello Steve, my father Bill Cornick worked at Sterling Cables in the 60s and 70s and I remember the charity matches you refer to. I helped my mother and others make the sandwiches for the day across the road from the cricket pitch in a big house next to the Butt Inn.
I worked at Sterling Cables from 1973 to ’74, after leaving school. I was in the PVC shed taking the bookings around to the other sheds.. I prepared co-axial cables (joining) prior to PVC sheaving. I also worked in the chalk room too, a bottle of orange cordial drink was issued for working in there. 😉 I used the main chipping machine at aged 16, yes, I still have all of my fingers LOL. Sometimes, the diver of the BOSS forklift truck would let ride from the other side of the factory complex back to the PVC shad.
Hi Mike,
Many thanks for pointing this out to us. I have found another, slightly better image and replaced it.
All the soldiers names & stories are already linked to from within the article, although it would be good to get something like a brass rubbing to show the detail on the plaque.
Regards
Chris (editor)
Possibly Park Farm Cottages, to the north of Park Farm and within the area taken by RAF Aldermaston? Described as brick-built and tiled in the 1939 catalogue. It looks like there is a garden building to the right – this might be the well shared by both properties.
I suspect this is Park Farm. This was inside what is now the AWE site, just north of where Winkworth Lane turns off the Reading Road. There aren’t any other farms on the area of the park taken for RAF Aldermaston and the 1900 OS map https://maps.nls.uk/view/104198602 shows it as being the right shape. Not the greatest of evidence though.
That’s the Falcon Pub (see http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/berkshire/tadley_falcon.html), aka The Furze Bush. The photo is taken in a spot where now you have Kestrels Mead on the right and the Falcon Triangle roundabout on the left, looking north-ish
The photo is very poor due to light reflection such that no details are readable. It would be appreciated if the soldiers’ details could be transcribed into the page.
Dr. Middleton, many thanks for your offer to visit and we’d very much like to take you up on it. I’ll email you privately to make arrangements.
Hi Rob, Thanks for your question.
I believe that the company that grows and processes the willow in Aldermaston is Surridge Willow Ltd (surridgewillow.co.uk).
The Surridge brand of cricket bats was sold to Dunlop Slazenger but has been bought by SDL Group Ltd of Burnley (check out Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Surridge), who use The Surridge Sport brand and here is a link to their cricket bat page https://www.surridgesport.com/en/cricket-bats.
I am not qualified to confirm if all bats are made with Aldermaston willow. Hopefully someone will confirm this or you’ll be able to find out.
Chris
Hi there. My name is Dr Glenn Middleton. My father worked at the AEI laboratory in the instrument workshop supporting the Scientists. I vividly remember many visits there as a young lad from about 1953 to its closure in 1963. I have a small archive of some research activities (including photos of the Van De Graaff generator under construction shown on your website, and a photo of HRH Duke of Edinburgh opening the Merlin Reactor) given to me by one of my father’s colleagues, which I would be happy to show you. I can recall several visits there meeting various Scientists, including Jacob Bronowski. I met the Director Dr T E Allibone several times at Christmas parties. Please contact me if you would like me to visit to hear more.
Hi,
I’ve lived in Aldermaston for 20 years and the fields these are grown on back on to mine, I’ve walked past the willows on the walks and wanted to ask if it’s possible to buy a few please
I was just reading the amazing history of this place, this days im working here, we are filming in the grounds of the manor…very beautiful place and very sad to see how abandoned it is….i’ve seen the pet graveyard that Miss Ursula mentions in her lines…amazing to find out that were the Pets of Beautiful Dorothy….As was said in Blade Runner….Our Best & Most Beautiful Moments Will Die in Time…Like Tears in the Rain…
Im working this days at Aldermarston Manor, we are filming, beautiful place and sad to see how is abandoned…beautiful piece of history
I worked in the wages department 1966/1967 with Mr Burgess in charge. Can remember the clock cards and helping make up the wages weekly in cash !
My colleagues at St Albans Signalbox preservation trust have inherited the old railway signal (double armed on a wooden post) that used to sit at the wire works gate wall, they are after any photos or information on how this was worked, any information would be brilliant if anyone has any
I met my wife there in 1957. We both worked there.
I worked at Sterling Cables Aldermaston 1967-1969. Where’s the mention of the part they played in designing the cables for the moonshot and landing on the moon? We worked with people from NASA too.
Love to know if the Boss, Pat was still about. I loved working at Stirling Cables on the reception when I left the Wrens. It was brilliant 😊
For context, it would be nice to see detail of how/when/where Denis found these photos. Other visitors to this page will likely also be interested in the Aldermaston photos available on the official site of the (US) Air Force Historical Research Agency.
https://www.afhra.af.mil/Photos/igsearch/aldermaston/
I believe Surrey County Cricket Club sent players each year (1940s and 1950s, I think) to play on the Sterling Cables ground at Aldermaston. I have various autographs collected at one of these games but I have no idea if the date.
Hi Peter,
Thanks for getting in touch again. You very kindly gave us permission to use the pictures of Major Congreve and of Lady Pepperell-Congreve some time ago. see https://www.aldermastonhistory.uk/catalogue_item/major-william-congreve-lady-pepperell-congreve is this the one you are referring to?
Best regards Chris (Vice-Chair)
I have a painting of Lady Pepperell/Congreve shows the stair landing from before the 1843 fire. It includes carved rail details not seen here and stained glass not seen here, specifically a stained glass of the combined coats of arms.
I can supply photograph of details to researchers.
Catherine,
Thank you for getting in touch and I apologise for such a tardy response!
We are gathering, albeit slowly, lots of photographs and loading them onto the website as a record of Aldermaston’s rich history. We don’t have a schedule for this as it is done by volunteers. I would suggest that you pop back occasionally and use the good search capability on the website which will help you find pictures and stories. You could also join our mailing list where we try to let people know what has been loaded, Mailing List registration found under “Contact Us”.
If you have any photos yourself that you think would add to the story of Aldermaston we’d love to have them on the website.
Thanks again for getting in touch.
Chris Vice-Chair
Per the final paragraph of Ursula Wadham’s article in Parish Magazine, all three of the daughters (Dorothy, Muriel and Sybil) are depicted in this, along with their mother, but she says that Charles Norman Keyser doesn’t appear. It feels unlikely that the latter is the infant (boy or girl) seated at the foot of the (young adult) ladies as he was between Dorothy and Muriel in age. As a guess, L-to-R: Maud, Dorothy, Muriel, with Sybil seated, but I am very far from certain.
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