Author Archives: Jill Cowley

Ron Wallis: 1940s Free Time

My out of school hours were all taken up with helping Dad with the farm, playing around the farm buildings, so I never did mix with those Yarmouth chaps.  I knew them well enough.  I had some very good friends.  The radio specialist down at Yarmouth – Westons – Reggie Weston, the son, was probably my best friend at Yarmouth School, and the other one who was a very good friend is Roger Smith, Bill Smith was his dad and he was a Yarmouth postman and lived in a little cottage just off St James’s Street.

 I was needed  back at home helping with the milking, and in summer I spent quite a lot of hours driving the tractor.  It took me back last weekend when I went to watch the ploughing match.  From the age of nine I was driving a tractor.  To start it, you had to wind it up, make sure you didn’t have your hand round the back.  Ron Wallis b 1935

Nick Chandler: Free Time 1940s,

Work at the Mill by River Board 1950s

Work at the Mill by River Board 1950s

Harry Jackman was my great uncle.  I remember him having 5 or 7 cows.  He rented the Mill off Ball, the builder from Cowes, and also he looked after the Copse for Ball for shooting.  Him and old Angell, who was the game keeper for Ball, hated anybody going over the copse disturbing anything.  To us, it was a game to get over there, but he walked with a terrible limp so he could never catch you, unless he caught you up a tree.  He caught me and Mick Morton up a tree one day and it was about an hour before we could get down.  He could be pretty firey, he was cantankerous. Nick Chandler b 1937

Brian Pomroy: Free Time 1940s

Poor old Harry Jackman! He didn’t like us cutting through his fields. We used to wait for him to milk his cows, and when we knew he was milking, we used to whip through and up to the copse.  One day we came out the copse, all laughing and joking, Mick Morton, Les Jupe, Barry Mcdonald  and  me. We said, he never caught us today. When we got down to the big gate by the railway he was stood just there.
‘Got you!’  he said, ‘got you, all of you.’
‘Hello Mr Jackman,’ I said.
‘You can go home. I know where you live.’  Brian Pomroy b 1938

Colin Smith: Free Time 1930s

Yarmouth marsh panorama

Yarmouth marsh panorama with Mill and stream on right

We lived in the last house down Station Road just before the station, St Kilda it was called then, Mill Stream Cottage it’s called now.  Beautiful views.  I used to spend my time off over the marsh there, into the copses, Thorley Copse or Mill Copse.  I don’t think you can get into Thorley Copse now,  that was the one I particularly liked.  We used to go birds nesting and things like that.  Not that I should be proud of that now. Colin Smith b1921

Pat Burt: Free Time and Leisure

Aerial showing Yarmouth 1923

Aerial showing Yarmouth 1923 with  tennis courts and green spaces

There were tennis courts where the 8 council houses are that were built in 1949.  Before they were built, it was allotments during the war.  I remember Mick’s aunt used to play.  We used to play tennis didn’t we, on Mrs Hamilton’s courts where the Glen is, next to the Sports Club? The tennis court was Tennyson Road end and opposite her place, ( The Wight House) so she had to cross the road. Annette Haynes and Pat Burt b 1929

Annette Haynes: Free Time 1930s and 1940s

Yarmouth Station and marsh

Yarmouth Station, Mill Stream and marsh from platform 2013

When we were kids and the marsh froze over, we used to go skating on it and if any of us fell in and got wet, we would go into the station. They always had a big fire going in the waiting room, so we used to be able to dry off.   The stationmaster was Peter, and didn’t mind us drying off.  I can see his face.
Annette Haynes nee Holloway b 1929

Alec Cokes: Free Time 1950s

Mill Copse beyond marsh

Mill Copse beyond marsh and stream

When they used to dredge the stream they piled it all up with the reed and everything in, that’s why you’ve got high banks.  Just after they dredged it, it was lovely and soft.  You get down there, you dig yourself a hole, you build it all up round, plenty of reeds – you make a roof with the reeds  –  you’ve got a little hide.  It only used to be about so deep, you used to crouch in there.
Nobody used to have candles much or anything but we used to get half an eggshell and a little stump of candle, put it in the eggshell;  it would burn for ever.  You had to keep changing the wicks.  We used to play around like that a lot of the time.  Sometimes other gangs would set the huts alight, they used to burn the roofs off.  It didn’t matter, you just dug another one.  Alec Cokes b 1945

Sue Russell: Free Time

As there were no holiday homes, the houses were all full of local people so we all knew each other, and you knew you could knock at any door if in trouble.

We used to run along the back of the houses in Mill Road to the Dump, which was where the car park is, by the school, then along by the old wall to the Quay trying not to get our feet wet.

Squeak and I spent a lot of time making camps in Mill Copse but regularly the boys used to find them and wreck them. Sue Russell nee Hayles b 1940