This week's Pictures from the Past

Corporal Norbert Sandy was obviously posing for the camera in this wartime picture taken at Nedge Hill, Stirchley, but look closely and there are some interesting points.

Is he on a motorcycle – or a bicycle? It's difficult to tell, but it has to be the former (you don't have licence plates on a push bike). Sandy, as he was known, was in charge of the RAF fixer station, a sort of navigation aid for aircraft, at Nedge Hill. The photo was loaned by Mrs Bess Edwards, of Victoria Road, Shifnal, whose parents Sam and Dorothy Harris farmed at Sunnymede Farm, where some wartime airmen based at the nearby fixer station were billeted.

Naturally she remembers Sandy and his bike. "He would go round and round the yard scaring the chickens," she said.

It's enough to break your heart if you used to go to functions at the old GKN Sankey canteen in Hadley. Here it is going up in smoke in an arson attack on June 24, 1989.

The canteen was part of the GKN Sankey Sports and Social Club. The building was derelict and closed at the time of the fire – it had closed towards the end of 1987.

Here's one of Shropshire's grand old houses, as seen in a postcard view which must be from about 100 years ago. This is Boreatton Hall, near Baschurch. Isn't that conservatory (if that is what it is) modern looking? This picture is in an album of photos loaned by Mrs Diana Humphreys, of Maesbrook, near Oswestry.

Shropshire's Patrick Greenhous gives a talk at the Vauxhall dealer executive centre in 1958. We don't know the location. Do you?

The underlying theme, according to the banner above him, is Training For Responsibility, and another notice on the left reveals it is the 1958 DEC graduation programme. DEC seems to stand for Dealer Executive something (according to the partly obscured wording on the podium).

This picture is from the Greenhous archive and was loaned by Shrewsbury transport historian Roy Pilsbury.

Whittington Castle – a place of romance! The original caption to this old postcard says: "Whittington Castle. I am being firmly 'held in' here."

It was franked at Oswestry on June 24, 1911, and really does seem to have had a romantic intent, because the handwritten message on the back reads: "Some where the sun was shining; Some where a little rain; But when the worst was over; We kissed in the ring again."

Unsigned, it was posted to Mr Jack Wilkinson, of Tan House, Sarnua, Llanymynech.

The postcard was loaned to us by Mrs Diana Humphreys, of Maesbrook, near Oswestry.

Who remembers wearing hot pants? We're going back to May 27, 1976, for this picture.

The original caption read: "Lynn Scott (19), of Admaston Road, Wellington, and Tina Nicholls, of Rushmoor, Allscott, who were in the Square at Wellington displaying the new T-shirts as part of the campaign for the Wellington Chamber of Commerce '76 week, from July 11 to 17."