The View from Brent Court in the Late 1960's

Martin Woodrow

My girlfriend at the time I took these lived in Silam Road, where Brent Court is located, so it was easy to pop to the top of the flats for these photos. They were taken using my (then) new Nikon F — my pride and joy at the time, which I still have — and developed and printed by me too in the shed at my parents house in Shephall View. I was the Librarian in charge of the Science & Technology Department at Stevenage Library and was later County Information Librarian. I and my family later moved to Bedfordshire, then France and now I’m on my own isolating in Wales.

This page was added on 29/06/2020.

Add your comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.

  • Hello there, so wonderful to see some of the familiar sights I grew up with in Stevenage …. my name is Karon Lydford nee Lancaster, my family resided at 3, Garden Walk from 1960 to Oct 1969 when we finally left to live in Australia.

    What a surprise to zoom in on your Garden Walk photo, Martin, to find my father on our front garden path…( near the crazy paving he created) and our old Anglia car parked out front. I spent many happy years at Broom Barns Primary then moved over to Barclays at 11yrs of age then onto Oz a year later.

    I used to play in the blocks of flats either to annoy residents by knocking on front doors and running like all heck to the stair well before we got caught ahhahhaha … also used to climb out onto the roof of the flats and pretend to do ballet from holding onto the outer fence while looking down over everything … amazed I didn’t ever fall! … nowadays I get dizzy if I climb onto a chair … my sister and our gang of friends used to put on plays (hmm!) and songs, dancing, etc in empty garages, hoping to score a coin donation to spend at the sweet shop afterwards.

    I have never been back to the UK even though I had wished to, so loved Monkswood, the frog ponds and Dells, Duck pond where climbing trees was a favourite pastime for me, swimming at the pool, visiting the youth centre in the holidays, train spotting and riding my bike for hours into the countryside … always lots of kids to play with and never enough daylight hours to be outside with the kids playing British Bulldog, Cricket, etc. Those were the days … 1960’s music and groovy baby flower power! … we were a very lucky generation

    By Karon Lydford (10/01/2023)
  • Great pics Martin. I love seeing the town as I remember it as a child.
    It looks so much better without that awful dueling of St Georges Way and before Manulife House was built, right next to the church.

    By Pete Terry (28/07/2020)