The Parish Magazine October 2022

feature — 1
Further tales of
By Ian Clarke
For the many readers who told us they enjoyed Ian's
memoirs published last month, here's a few more . . .
Sonning was such a different place in
the 60's. None of the traffic that we
see queuing in Thames Street today.
It was a quiet, the peace was only
disturbed by the Thames Valley buses
which plied their trade through the
village and would take me, and my
brother, to school in Wargrave.
TRANSPORT HOBBIES
Can you believe that at 8.30am three
double deckers would trundle through
the village as most people went to
work by bus.
We thought the buses were
pretty special and we collected their
numbers, an obsession shared with
collecting railway engine numbers,
mainly at the Duffield Road Bridge
in Woodley. I think we used to collect
the numbers of almost anything that
moved, including registration plates
on cars and the lorries that came
through the village from the gravel
pits by the river.
Train spotting, however, was the
main obsession and we would spend
many a happy hour collecting their
numbers and, in quieter moments,
putting pennies on the railway track
so that the trains would squash
them out of shape, with some very
interesting results. Great fun but
highly dangerous and illegal!
Another risky business was leaning
over the side of the bridge when a
steam engine came along. When it
reached the bridge we would run to the
Ian Clarke aged 12 years
other side to see if we could get there
before the smoke rose up. How we were
not hit by a car, I'll never know!
I remember going up to London
with my friend David for a serious
day's train spotting. However, due to
catching the wrong trains in London
we eventually arrived back in Sonning
at 11.30pm. Being both only 11 years
old, waiting at the bus stop at the top
of Pound Lane was my mother who
went absolutely mad because we were
so very late. We weren't allowed to go
to London again in a hurry!
FIRE ENGINES
Sonning had two fire engines at
the fire station at the bottom of Pound
Lane, it is now a private house. It was
great fun watching the part-time
firemen racing to the station when the
extremely loud siren sent its wailings
across the village. It meant Roly, Ken,
or one of the other part-time firemen
had to quickly down their pints in the
Sonning Working Men's Club and run
up to the fire station in order to catch
the engine before it left.
We were all very excited if we
managed to see the fire engine as it
came out of the station and would
wondered where it was going.
Sonning had a unique fire engine
that had been designed by Tommy
Edwards — it was the first to be fully
enclosed and it's now in a museum.
Every time we walked past the fire
station we would look at the top of the
pole where the siren was, hoping that
it would go off. I still imagine that I
can hear that siren whenever I'm in
Sonning.
We were sometimes lucky enough
to see the firemen demonstrating their
skills at an annual event in the 'rec'.
Sadly so many of these part-time fire
stations have disappeared into history.
BONFIRE NIGHT
One of the most exciting days of
the year in the 60's was Bonfire Night.
This was in the days when Halloween
was hardly celebrated.
The Parish Magazine - October 2022 17
a Sonning lad
There was always a big bonfire at
the top of the recreation ground where
Ali's pond is now situated and we were
always very excited as we made our
way to see it.
After it had finished burning we
made our way over to the Berkshire
County Sports Ground where there
was an even bigger bonfire, and a
spectacular display of fireworks. They
always had the most enormous rockets
we had ever seen. The display was truly
spectacular and afterwards, and also
on the next day, we would go round
trying to find the large sticks that had
been attached to the rockets.
They even had an enormous bonfire
at the old Adwest ground at the top of
Sonning Lane where they burnt large
parts of old aircraft from the former
Woodley Aerodrome. I can still vividly
see it now. It was like an air crash!
Nowadays you would struggle to
find a proper bonfire and the fireworks
are far too sophisticated. We were
happy with Catherine wheels, jumping
jacks, rockets and bangers. We even
had small bonfires and some of those
simple fireworks in our gardens. It
certainly wouldn't be allowed now.
CELEBRITIES
In my last article I wrote about
what we got up to down by the river,
however the most exciting event was
the making of the film Alfie in 1966
starring Michael Caine. We were really
excited as we watched scenes being
filmed at the White Hart (now the
Great House) and also on the lawn at
the French Horn.
Hollywood had come to Sonning,
well not quite! Alfie and his lady friend
took a boat trip and stopped on the
riverbank to take part in activities not
suitable for this magazine! Not that
we actually saw anything, much to our
disappointment!
Over the years I think Sonning has
featured more than once on TV, in film
and in the media.
It has always been popular with
celebrities such as Jimmy Page, Robert
Beatty, Uri Geller, George Clooney and
it is even rumoured that, in the past,
John Lennon and Taylor Swift wanted
to buy houses here.
turn to page 19