Tag Archives: 1950s

Peter Smith: Thorley North View, 1950s

Thorley houses with North View

We moved from my Gran’s in South Street, Yarmouth into a new council house at North View, Thorley in 1952. It had two inside flush toilets and a bathroom…. very impressive for me as I’d been used to using a cold, dark outside toilet and no bathroom in my 6 previous years of childhood.

Moving to the new council houses also meant new neighbours with children and new friends to play and argue with. Mostly we got on well with each other and invented our own entertainment in the open air.

Eileen Smith: Thorley, North View 1950s

Thorley from Broad Lane

The Smith family

Ralph and I had applied for a house in Yarmouth, but with no success. Then one of the chaps who was offered a house at Thorley, turned it down because it was too far from the shops. We didn’t mind!

The women in the cottages opposite North View, Elsie Squibb and Miss Drake, came out and said they didn’t want Council Houses in the village. We said, ‘Dont you think that people who have done their bit in the War, deserve somewhere decent to live?’
Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Pam Bone: Thorley 1950s

Charlie Courtney lived in the cottage next door to the Hilliers. He worked at Newclose. Charlie Bryne, the man who lived in Whitewalls Cottage, the next house down, had an orchard and I remember getting told off a few times, along with other local children, for scrumping apples.

On the other side of the barn in Whitewalls lived Mr and Mrs Frank Squibb and next to them in Woodmans, lived Miss Drake. Further up the road, past the field next to Hilly’s house, in Upper Place, lived the man you would take your tom cat to if you wanted it to be neutered. Pam Bone nee Cotton b 1948

Whitewalls and Woodmans

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

Pam Bone, Peter Smith: Thorley, trains 1950s

I can remember being able to see the train go by in the distance from my bedroom window and sometimes we would walk down Hill Place Lane to see it go past.
Pam Bone nee Cotton b 1948

In September 1953 Mum, Dad, Mike and I walked over the fields at about tea time to wave to the last train from Yarmouth to Newport as it came past, being pulled as usual by a steam engine. A few years later the track was ripped up by contractors and it was interesting to go and watch them removing the various parts: long lengths of metal railway line, heavy metal chairs, fishplates, bolts and sleepers, all of which were taken away, until all that was left was a shingle track where the railway line had once been. Peter Smith b 1946

Pam Cotton: Thorley 1950s

Primrose bank, Thorley

As children we played outside most of the time in the surrounding fields and in the stream across the road behind the barn where we would catch minnows and sticklebacks. Sadly I can also remember sitting in the field near this stream decorating the cow pats with buttercups and daisies! I liked collecting wild flowers and my dad made me a press so that I could put my collection in books. Sometimes we would go over to what was called the Rew, a small copse at the cross roads. It was a bit dark there so I didn’t go alone! Pam Bone nee Cotton b 1948

Peter Smith: Thorley 1950s

Thorley from above

Thorley in the 1950’s had many things of interest for me. The small stream at the end of our houses contained hundreds of sand shrimps under the stones, and caddis fly larvae were quite often found. The bigger stream over the fields, Thorley Brook, held other delights such as sticklebacks, minnows, tadpoles and water beetles, all of which we used to catch and bring home in jam jars. One day I brought home a jar with some tadpoles and a water beetle, hoping eventually to see the tadpoles turn into frogs. The next morning I found, to my amazement, all the tadpoles had disappeared. Had they changed into frogs already and jumped out? The water beetle, which was about 2” long, had made the most of a ready meal and eaten the tadpoles. Peter Smith b 1946

Peter Smith: Thorley, Newclose Farm horses 1950s

Horse drawn binder 1913

Heal’s Farm (Newclose) cart horses Cornel and Warwick used to be kept in the field behind the Church. They were huge shire horses and would often come and look over the hedge at us as we went down Blacksmith’s Lane. The field there was several feet higher than the Lane so it made the horses seem even bigger. The horses were used for pulling carts around the farm and could often be seen with a two wheeled cart full of mangels that were being dropped in the fields for the cattle to eat. Peter Smith b 1946

Mary Henderson: Thorley, Newclose Farm horses, 1950s, 1940s

Picking up sheaves with working horses

They had horses down at Newclose – Ernest Heal was the last one to have working horses.

They kept them next to the church and you’d walk up by, and they’d come thundering up. My Gran Hillier said when she lived at Newclose Cottages, she used to go with a bucket and dig up the old mole hill earth for the garden. She was down across by the stream, before the bungalows were built.

You never rattled the bucket, but this time she tripped and the bucket rattled, and these two cart horses came charging up because they thought she had the feed bucket. Instead of leaving the bucket, she just managed to dive over the stile into her garden and these two great heads appeared looking for food. Mary Henderson b 1954

Yarmouth and Thorley Voices

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