Tag Archives: 1940s

Delia Whitehead: Harvest Festival at St. Swithin’s Thorley

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Thorley St Swithin’s Church

When I was young I lived at the Toll Gate just outside of Yarmouth. My Aunt Alice always took me to St Swithin’s Harvest Festival (now called Harvest Thanksgiving).

On one occasion we were singing a lovely harvest hymn, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement. I looked towards a pile of vegetables and on the top was a marrow. On top of the marrow was a mouse chewing away quite happily and it did so for a long time.

It was only a few years ago I was telling a lady from Thorley about this and she said that the Thorley mice still come to the Harvest Service and their teeth marks were often found on the vegetables and fruit.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

Delia Whitehead : Picking snowdrops at Thorley old church

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The Old Thorley Church in a Field

The old church at Thorley had a church yard full of snowdrops in the spring. In fact there were so many no one seemed to mind if you picked a few. As children we would visit it in the spring and pick just a few snowdrops to take home to our folks.

One day I went with a friend to get some flowers. We had just left the church yard to walk across the field to the road when we heard this sort of snorting noise and there behind us a large ram was heading in our direction very fast. Did we run! We fell over the stile to get into the road. The flowers went all over the place. I might add we never went back to get them.

During the winter, the farmer, Mr Mullet used to let some sheep into the old church yard to keep the grass down. It rather put us off going for flowers again in case we met this hostile ram but we often laughed about it afterwards.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

Delia Whitehead: War years at Yarmouth School

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There was a large brick building across the playground that was used as an air raid shelter. When the siren went off, the drill was to stand up, pick up your gas mask and then a little mat that was hung on a hook. It was sort of felt on one side and rubber stuff on the other. This was to sit on, as the seat in the brick building was very cold. We then marched to the shelter and sang silly songs, said our times-tables and listened to stories until the all-clear.

Another rather frightening thing I remember. One day, a big black van came to the school and we had to go and sit in it, about six children at a time, with our gas masks on. This was for them to test that they were working all right. They did not explain to us that it was nothing that would harm us. One young boy got so frightened that he was sick down his gas mask and had to be taken home.

One bit we did like was every so often, a lady used to arrive dressed in a green dress and a broad-rimmed green hat. I think she was from the Women’s Voluntary Service. We were given a piece of stiff paper that, with help, had to be made into a cone shape. Then the lady filled it with chocolate powder, folded the top over and we were supposed to take it home but the teacher turned a blind eye to the fact that many fingers were licked and poked down into the chocolate powder, to say nothing of the odd tongue. Not a great deal of the powder reached home, I might add!

Then there was the school war effort. One of the things done was that every so often, we were asked to bring a bag or tin dish to school, and we went to an area that is now the old train line path, to pick wild rose hips. These were to be made into rose hip syrup. But I don’t know which was worse, the insects that bit us or the boys! They would break the rose hips open to get the itching powder out and put it down the girls’ backs when the teacher was not looking. But the hips that did not drop on the ground or get put down people’s backs finally were taken back to school and weighed.

A few evacuees came to live in Yarmouth during the war years. I made friends with one little girl the day she arrived and we have been friends to this day.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

Nick Chandler: Carnivals, Circuses and Jazz band 1940s, 1950s

Curly Jupe, Les Jupe’s grandfather used to play his accordion with the Jazz Band. Curly Jupe, blimey he was a character. Carnival night he used to get down the pub with his accordion and get drunk. One carnival night Les’ mum came up the Rec and found me and Les and said,
‘Come down and help. Dad’s collapsed in the hedge down Alma Place.’
There he was, in the hedge with his accordion.

Jazz band 1930s

Jazz band 1930s Curley Jupe with accordion

The other great thing that came off the tow boats was the Circus, and the kids were allowed to go and watch, because of the animals. Yeah, I remember the Circus up here, up the Rec.  Dave Meaning will remember the Circus up there, he got bit by the monkey. Nick Chandler b1937

Susan Hayles, Mary Hayles: Harbour Sports 1940s, 1950s

My father, Harold Hayles was on the Carnival Committee for many years, so my sisters Mary, Chris and Sally and I were always very involved.
We really looked forward to Carnival Week, as we still do now. Squeak and I practised the pair oared rowing for weeks and we entered all the events. All the money we won was spent at the Fair. Sue Russell nee Hayles b 1940

Harbour sports with RASC boats

Harbour sports with RASC boats :photo Effie pitman

 

For passing the 11+ I was bought a dinghy, a proper clinker one. We desperately practised rowing for weeks ready for the harbour sports. The ladies’ race went right out round the buoy off the pier. It was our chance to earn money for when the funfair came. I don’t think I ever tried the greasy pole – it was stuck out from one of the army boats in the harbour and dipped right down at the end. Mary Lord nee Hayles b 1936

Hayles girls

Harold Hayles’ daughters :from left Susan ( Sue) , Mary, Christine, in front Sally. Photo: Mary Lord

Carnivals after WWII 1940s

Peace Celebrations were held in 1946, with harbour sports.

Carnival sports, 1946 programme

Carnival sports, 1946 programme

1948 seems to have been the first full carnival after the end of WWII and demob.

Yarmouth Common Carnival time

Yarmouth Common Carnival time. Fancy Hat Competition led by Ted Lawry

Billy Doe crowns Carnival Queen
Billy Doe crowns Carnival Queen : photo Sue Russell

Raich Doe front left, Bob Cook, and contributors Serena Hunt, Susan Hayles in Brownie uniform, Effie Pitman behind Sue, Derek Pomroy with cub Peter Stallard

In 1949 a Carnival Queen was chosen by votes at the ‘Con Club’ from a bevy of local beauties .

Carnival line-up 1949, at 'Con Club' to choose Carnival Queen

Carnival line-up 1949, at ‘Con Club’ to choose Carnival Queen : photo Pat Burt

From left: Jean Levey, Ella Jackman, Pam Henderson (chosen to be Queen), Mrs Eames, Barbara Holloway, Annette Holloway, Pat Adams, (chosen as attendant) Jessie Attrill, with Newt Kelsey judging or looking on.

Pam Henderson is crowned carnival Queen in 1949, at first carnival after WWII

Pam Henderson is crowned carnival Queen in 1949, at first full  carnival after WWII

At the crowning ceremony are: from left, Robert May, Heather Harris (married Raich Doe), Pat Adams (married Mick Burt), Pam Henderson, Carnival Queen, Miss New Zealand, and Mr J. Flanders who officiated.

The boy peeping between is John Orchard, staying with his Uncle who had a taxi.

Miss New Zealand was persuaded by Mrs Hans Hamilton to put in an appearance, and seemed to enjoy the parade.

Yarmouth Carnival 1948 Miss New Zealand

Yarmouth Carnival 1949 Miss New Zealand joins the parade

 

Colin Smith: Nova Espero, Siani class yacht 1940s

Colin and Stan Smith travelled to Canada in WWII to train as RAF pilots. After the war, they returned, and built the ‘Nova Espero’ ,the forerunner for Siani class, in which they crossed the Atlantic,

After WWII
After the war  I think I got demobbed first actually, or just a little before my brother.
I went back to Saunders Roe for a while and went up in the mould loft in the drawing office for a little bit, and did things of that sort.

Stan, my brother, and I went out to Canada.  We’d done our flying training out there and we didn’t go right inland where we’d done the training, we went over to Nova Scotia where we built the little boat, Nova Espero – Esperanto from New Hope,  and sailed it across.
It was intended to be a two way trip.  Nobody knew us when we went there so we thought we’d make ourselves known a little bit by doing a double crossing, that was the intention.

She was a half decked boat, twenty foot long.  We designed it on the way across on the Aquitania.  We’d get down in our cabin and get the lines out and work on it, the lines were all ready by the time we got to the side.

We took only about three months I think altogether, something like that to build the boat in Nova Scotia.  We went over in March and left in the beginning of July 1949.  I’d been doing design work and all that, drawing work down at Saunders Roe.  Stan had as well.  We both chipped in on this one.  She was quite a tough little boat, clinker built and a hundred weight of cast iron ballast on the keel underneath.

We didn’t know if anyone had done any trips, prepared for it before hand or anything like that, so we adjusted ourselves with what we thought we needed and that was it.  Sponsorship, we’d never heard of that.    We worked it out and had lockers along the side of the boat under the side decks and tried to figure out what we’d need and got loads and loads of ships biscuits, far more than we needed, I suppose, and lots and lots of tinned stuff and that kind of stuff, powdered milk and lots of sugar.  Couldn’t do without that.  For water we had  twenty eight gallons I think. We had one made up, a galvanised tank with a tap in one corner.  We had that stowed up, just after the mast, up forward under the cabin.  We had no bunks.  We just about had sleeping bags, laid those out on the cabin floor, you see.  I’d say we were probably wet most of the time.

It was July through August.  We had some pretty nasty weather at times too of course. We had a little portable radio we hoped to get the time checks or weather checks or something like that.  Didn’t get a peep out of it from the time we left so we dropped it over the side and that was that.  We had a sextant, not an aircraft sextant, a proper little sextant, yacht sextant, and an aircraft compass which wasn’t actually mounted in the boat at all.  We used to carry it around with us you know and that was what we used.  We were concerned when the weather got really nasty and it did at times too.  We had a little primus stove, a little loose primus stove we used to hold between our knees, and a little pressure cooker.  We used that a lot.  We didn’t do too bad you know.

Smith brothers arrive in Yarmouth, 1949,

Smith brothers arrive in Yarmouth, 1949,after crossing the atlantic in 43 days in their 20ft boat.

Afterwards, mostly it was going up to this do up in London, and this do and all that sort of thing, which we just hadn’t expected of course, and all that sort of nonsense.  But there was one firm that wanted to turn the boat into production or something, but we didn’t go along with it, we were too busy.

We were going back to Canada and set up in business over there but it didn’t come off.  I came back to this country, met my wife and got married and that was that.

Siani class yacht

Siani class yacht: photo Colin Smith

Brian Pomroy: Yarmouth School, 1940s

School was good. Yarmouth School was a beautiful school, well built, one door at the back and one at the front, steps up the front with 2 classrooms.
Mrs Barton was in the front one. Mrs Barton, she always used to have me sat at the front of the class.  There was her desk and there was me, and I always remember, she used to have this ruler. If I used to turn round to say,
“Alright mate?”
Bang!  She was a lovely teacher though, used to bring in an apple for me.
There was another teacher, lived up round the corner, Miss Chambers, had the baby class, ‘Polly Chambers’ we used to call her.

The sea used to come over the wall sometimes and anybody trying to skive off school got wet.

They were some good days in Yarmouth.   I loved it there.
Brian Pomroy  b 1937

Joan Kelsey: WWII Land Army 1940s

Joan was down here on the Island because of the Land Army.   I met Joan through her coming into the shop, that was the only way. We used to get talking.Phil Kelsey

I was working out at Wellow on the Chessell estate for Sir Hampton Rowbottom  up in the dairy.  A typical day would be going up Cowleaze to fetch the cows when the mail train came through to Yarmouth. We milked 120, then we went home for breakfast. Afterwards we came back and washed up all the milking things, and they were all sterilised. We had to scrub the milking parlour down ,and then out on the yard where they came in.  The cows were turned out back again till teatime, then we started again, twice a day.  We met and got married in 1950. Joan Kelsey

Joan Kelsey, Land Army 1940s

Joan Kelsey, Land Army 1940s