Hi, I'm Pete Moring (AKA; Fred) and I'm a 'Beenham Lodge Old Boy'.
No, it's not some debility that I'm trying to recover from, just a statement of fact :-)
I got
married in 1970, had eight kids, with seventeen grand-kids, and one
great Grand-kid later I'm now a widower, but still plenty of family around me in Reading, Berks :-)
I arrived on here on 15th November 1964 and left late June 1967 to become an apprentice Chef at 'The Bush' hotel in Wokingham. (No longer there, now a shopping mall ). Didn't last too long there despite picking up everything really fast. I wanted to really be a mechanic so went looking and taking all sorts of jobs while doing so.
After about six months job-hopping I found a garage willing to take me on, but not for a couple of weeks, so in the meantime I went to work with my Mum's partner who was a plasterer as a labourer. Soon found out I was a natural, stayed, set up my own business after six months and never looked back 😏
However, mother nature stepped in a few years ago and I had to change direction. I had to find something I could do at home, non-physical, so I got into the internet-marketing world.
Simply click 'this link', check out the page first, and if it's something you might find interesting, plough though the contents 😎
I set up this blog a few years ago and had several replies from Old-Boys and later Owners of the 'Old Girl' on the top of the hill.
But hosting problems (Hackers!!) forced me to shut down several sites and 'Beenham Lodge Old-Boys' was one of the casualties. Couldn't even back it up because it was so badly infected with Malware - OOPS!! 😒
Whether you are an 'Old Boy' or just have a story to tell about Beenham Lodge, please comment below.
Catch you later ...... Fred 😉
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LOVED IT WEN IT WAS MY TURN TO DO KITCHEN DUTIES. HATED DOING EVERYONE'S SHOES.
ReplyDeleteMy mum Margaret lived in the home from 1944 to 1955 approximately, she appears on some of the photographs, playing her recorder and on the beach at Weymouth. She doesn’t have any photos of when she was a child so they were lovely to see. We visited the home in the early 1980s so she could show us where she grew up. I think it was a private residence then. Does it still exist?
ReplyDeleteHi, Thanks for your response.
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Glad to hear you got some good vibes from the pics :-)
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It's funny, I was only thinking about taking the blog down the other week as it has stagnated somewhat - Glad I didn't now though.
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Yes, It's been a private residence since the mid-seventies after being vandalised by previous 'Old Boys' after it closed as a Children's Home :-(
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It's still there though, and looks just as GRAND as it always did ... I drive past it regularly as I only live a few miles away.
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Good to hear the Pics that were posted by 'another person' with a relative who obviously KNEW Your Mother has re-ignited some memories.
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Good Luck .... Fred ...
Was your mum's name Margaret Hobbs as I was at Weymouth the same time I'm on a few of the photos and have two of them
ReplyDeleteHi Pete Moring I remember you and your sister in Wargrave, I remember your sister having a split tongue because she sucked too many sweets! I used to live behind Wargrave Laundry but left in 1964 and went to the Piggott School, did you have ferrets? Veronica
ReplyDeleteCould never forget the Bonkers Red-Head ;-)
Delete... Jan '64 was when I found myself in places like Beenham lodge ... A good lesson-for-life as it turned out ... (I was a lucky lad) ... No Ferrets, ... Rabbits, budgies, gold-fish & Guinea-pigs though :-)
Hope You're well after all these years ...
Sadly no red hair now but still bonkers!! Loved your road trips that's how I found this website looking for more trips. A bit confused re the road trip around Wargrave (fab though it was) where does Steve Kirby come into it?
ReplyDeleteVeronica
AH! Right! ... yes, I was going to do a series of road-trips here and there in the area, but lost interest, as you do.
DeleteI put Steve Kirby in the subject line after He'd died because I'd misplaced Pat's number (His Wife) I thought someone might pick up on the name and help out .. (Which they did) .. I just never got round to editing it out.
It's funny .. I'd not spoken to Stan Povey for 20+ years now, and HE called Me out of the blue a few weeks ago to have a catch-up .. Coincidence or what? ... Just waiting for a third to pop out of the ether 😀
Veronica - Just to say, I replied to Your last replies, but they've not shown up as delivered - Could you check your spam to see if They are getting delivered? .. Wouldn't want you to think you're being ignored ..
DeleteConfused Myself now (Not Hard) - I assumed that You also got notifications of Your own and anyone else's comments linked to your comments in Your Email box as I do. Obviously not! .. Did you tick the 'Notify me' box in the comment pane?
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