Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

USED TO AND WOULD

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Used to

and would both refer to habitual actions and events in the past:

Sandra 

used to come down here and watch me bake cakes. And she used to

find it quite fascinating. She wanted to bake them herself but she never really

knew how. And her grandmother always 

used to bake cakes and she would go

and watch you know. 

However, with would, it is necessary to have an already established past time-frame.

The past time-frame is often established by a previous occurrence of used to (as in the

example above) or by time adverbial expressions (e.g. years ago, when I was a child):

When I was a kid

we

’d always go to my aunt’s house in the holidays.

Would

is not used to refer to states in the past which are no longer true:

Our village hall 

used to be a school years ago.

(Our village hall would be a school years ago.)

[pointing to a house]

A: See that cottage on the right?

B: Yeah.

A: I used to live there.

(I would live there.)