Author Archives: Jill Cowley

Mary Henderson, Margery Henderson: Thorley 1940s

Yarmouth Common

Margery Henderson, my Aunt Marge, Dad’s sister, has lived in Canada since she married a Canadian soldier in WWII and went out as a War Bride. She’s in her nineties now and has children and grandchildren there.

Recently she told me she wished she’d never gone out. She can remember going across the Common in an Army wagon with her husband and couple more of the Canadian soldiers who were over here, and thinking, ‘What have I done?’ But she said in those days, you didn’t admit it. Her mum would have been horrified.
Her father, Vic Henderson, my grandfather, came off his bike through Wilmingham one frosty morning, coming back from coastguard duties. They thought he’d cracked his ribs, had this terrible pain, and Marge was sent for in Canada. Her husband worked for Canadian Pacific, up in the logging camps right up north. It took her two days to get to a train to take her to get a boat and they were becalmed coming across. It took her two or three weeks to get home. When her mum met her at Liverpool she thought, ‘Why’s Mum meeting me?’ By that time he’d died, but her mum, my Gran Henderson, didn’t tell her till they’d travelled back to the Island.
Mary Henderson b 1954

Mary Henderson: Thorley, 1930s, 1940s

My mum lived all her life here, going to school in Thorley. She took the Scholarship, but didn’t hear anything and went to West Wight Secondary School. After she’d been there about 3 months, a man turned up in the classroom and asked what she was doing there:
getting on with her work she said. Apparently, she’d passed the Scholarship but no one had told her, so then her parents had to find the money to pay for her uniform and she had to travel to Newport to school on her own, leaving all her friends.

Sue Henderson nee Hillier

One day when she was at home ill with tonsillitis, Mr. Biddlecombe from Wellow appeared on a ladder painting her bedroom window frame. She politely asked him how he was and was surprised when he told her that he’d had a chill. His wife hadn’t aired the waistband of his underpants properly, he told her.

In WWII, Kath and Marge, my mum’s older sisters both joined up, the WAAFs I think. Because Marge wasn’t very old, they had to share a billet. Mum was only 10. Dad was 9 years older and went straight into the R.A.F. when he left school, ending up in Singapore.
Mary Henderson b 1954

Cyril Henderson in RAF uniform

Mary Henderson, Sue Henderson nee Hillier, Thorley

My Mum, Sue Henderson nee Hillier, was born in Blacksmiths Cottage in 1929 but moved to Newclose Cottages, the east side, when she was one. She was christened ‘Eileen Amy’ but her grandmother said she was such a little dumpling, a ‘suet dumpling’ that she was nicknamed ‘Sue’ and known by that name from childhood!

Newclose Cottages 2013

My Grandad, Frederick, was known as ‘Shep’ Hillier, – he was shepherd for Newclose Farm. We think his prize sheep were Dorset Horns ; he certainly showed them in Dorset. Although ‘Shep’ followed his father, who was also a shepherd, he had served as a police constable in the Plymouth dockyards, at a time when policemen always went out in twos. He was a Special Constable in WWII
(Yarmouth School Log book 1944 Sept.8^th : Police Reserve Hillier gave children a ‘Safety First’ talk this afternoon)

Shep Hillier earthing up potataotes 1940s photo Jean Storie

My grandmother Amy Rose nee Barton had originally come from Shalfleet but was working in service in Dorset when she met and married my granddad.
She was wife of a shepherd so she had ‘cade’ or orphan lambs to look after in her kitchen at lambing time, masses of washing to do with only a boiler but I remember how it was always neat and tidy. Mary Henderson b 1954

Eileen and Peter Smith: Thorley, Blacksmith’s cottages

When Ralph came back from the war, he didn’t want an indoor job so he went to work at Wellow Farm, and we lived in one half of Blacksmith’s Cottages. That didn’t last long. Ralph had arranged to play cricket one Saturday when they’d been told they would have the afternoon off. The foreman changed his mind and told him he’d have to stay on, haymaking. Ralph told him the hay wasn’t fit, and he’d committed to play in the team. The foreman told him to collect his cards, and we had to move out of the tied cottage. We moved back to stay with my parents in Yarmouth, and applied for a Council House. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Ralph Smith as a boy, with Mr. Kingswell of Wellow Farm in the rickyard with lurchers ready for hare coursing, 1920s

My earliest memory of Thorley is from when we lived at Blacksmiths Cottages, the one nearest the church. We didn’t have an inside toilet there, only an Elsan chemical toilet in the shed. As I write this I can smell it even though 63 years have gone by since I last used it!

Blacksmith’s cottages 2013

Peter Smith b 1946

Eileen Smith, Mike Smith: Thorley, Blacksmith’s Lane

Blacksmith’s Lane, that was the original bridle path, went right through the copse down by the side of the two cottages, across the stream. Hec Stone’s – it must have been his grandfather – said he used to drive a coach and horses up through the copse. The bridlepath was still up through the copse… you’ve still got the dip. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921
The bridleway went up through the copse and over across the railway line and right through to the other road. Even when we were kids where they used to go across the stream, it was all hard gravel there. You could always get across there because it was shallower. Mike Smith b 1951

Mary Henderson: Thorley, Blacksmith’s Lane 1940s

Blacksmiths Lane

Cottage in Blacksmith’s Lane, Thorley

My Great Gran Henderson lived in the cottage by the stream, on the corner of Blacksmith’s Lane, the one up the village side. So you had Hec Stone, whose father had been Blacksmith in the forge opposite, his family lived one side, then Great Gran Henderson came to rent hers, when James Enoch died. He’d been Chief Coastguard in Yarmouth. She moved down to Cowes eventually to a daughter, then Gran and Grandad took it on.

Gran Henderson was very strict. The children used to be over the fields playing and she used to blow a whistle to get them back, and everyone said: there’s Henderson’s whistle. She was quite horrible really because she used to put them under the stairs in a dark cupboard. Marge was asthmatic and she said: I’ll never forgive my mum for doing that. Mary Hendersonb 1954

Cowley family: Thorley Church 1980s, 1990s

As a special treat, Grandpa, Bob Cowley, then churchwarden, used to let us ring the bells, ‘donk’ and ‘clunk’. They made a great noise, if not very musically, but as their housing deteriorated, only one was rung, then neither.
When the bell housing became very unsafe and was taken down for renewal, it was found from the bells’ inscription, that Thorley’s two bells were amongst the oldest in England.
A local rhyme says:
‘Shalfleet people, poor and simple
Sold their bells to build a steeple.’
And it appears that the bells were sold to the people of Thorley, even poorer, and in need of second hand bells.

Due to their historic value, they cannot be properly tuned, but once again, ‘donk’ and ‘clunk’ sound out through Thorley on Sunday mornings. S. Cowley and S. McKelvey nee Cowley b 1979

Thorley church entrance and bell tower

Pam Bone: Thorley, St. Swithin’s Church, 1950s, 1960s

Thorley Church, St. Swithin’s 2010s

As a family we would go to the local church regularly and when I was older I was in the Choir. I went to the local Sunday School run by Miss Pearce and I collected the required number of religious stamps until I had enough to get a free bible.

The church was quite a significant focal point of the village. It was also very significant for me when I started school because it was where I knew the conductor rang the bell for us to get off the bus opposite our house when we came home from school. I used to worry that he would forget to do this and I would be carried off to the wrong stop. Pam Bone nee Cotton b 1948

Kitty Pearce: Thorley, St Swithin’s Church, 1920s -1990s

Kitty Pearce with her choir used to and put on nativity plays every year which packed the church out. She played the organ in Thorley for 50 years, right from when my mum was at school. I think she was one of the oldest organists ever; over 90.
Mary Henderson b 1954

Miss Kitty Pearce BEM was organist at St Swithin’s for 50 years. She retired in 1994 at 91, and died in 1998

Eileen Smith: Thorley, St Swithin’s churchyard 1960s

St Swithin’s Church, Thorley

Thorley churchyard spring

When Bert Welstead got too old to be able to look after the churchyard, Ralph took over from him and carried on the good job of looking after the wildflowers that make Thorley special. He was asked by visitors on one occasion why he didn’t keep the grass mown shorter; it looked untidy. He didn’t think much of them; they wanted St Swithin’s churchyard to look like a garden lawn. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921 ( Thorley’s churchyard is recognised for its wealth of wildflowers, and the care that has been taken to conserve these through the years.)

Yarmouth and Thorley Voices

Learn about the history of Yarmouth and Thorley from the people who have lived it