Tag Archives: 1950s

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

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

Serena Hunt : Swimming 1940s, 1950s

In the summer we could get into a bathing costume at home, and run down the road and down the lane between Len Haward’s fish shop and The Towers and go to Pier Shore to swim.

Yarmouth shores High Tide

Yarmouth shores High Tide

 We would jump off the Royal Solent Yacht Club’s stone jetty, which did not add to our popularity at that time ! Serena Dias de Deus nee Hunt

Carol Corbett : Early Days

The recreation field was where I learnt to ride my first bicycle.  I can remember my dad taking me up there and saying, ‘Right, now go off!’  – and me falling off several times.  It was always full of children playing and Saturday was football matches with lots of people watching and lots of noise.   Carol Corbett nee Cotton b 1946

Football at the Rec.1950s

Football at the Rec.1950s

John Caulcutt: Early Years 1950s

The Towers had no heating – there were those ‘Cozy Stoves’ and it was my job to carry the coal in scuttles to which ever room we were using.

I remember going to buy chews – Black Jack and Fruit salad- from Higginbothams in the High Street.

In the early days I went to Freshwater to school, to Miss Gloyn’s with Graeme Dillon – still my friend.  Beryl Kearns used to drive us. I had to sit in the front with Beryl; she said it was just not possible to drive us if we were sitting together in the back of the car.

 

 

Early Days: John Caulcutt with Charlie Attrill, boatman

Early Days: John Caulcutt with Charlie Attrill, boatman


Do you remember Charlie Attrill, the boatman here at the Yacht Club?

I used to spend all day with him in his launch. He’d normally have a few lobster pots off here so we’d go potting at 6, and I’d spend all day with him, taking people out. He taught me a lot about small boat handling. It was a happy upbringing if you like small boats, which by God, I did. If you get salt water in your veins at an early age it’s a dangerous thing. I loved every minute of it; just couldn’t fault it.
John Caulcutt. b 1947

Janet Hopkins: Early Days

Yarmouth harbour showing old bridge 1930s

Yarmouth harbour showing Bridge House on the old bridge 1930s

Doe family at Bridge House

Doe family at Bridge House

I can remember as a toddler going to visit my grandparents when they were living in Bridge House, and standing on a table to look up the river. The top storey burnt down when someone was doing some decorating and using a blow torch, then it was used as a Customs House, and later still the Sailing Club.

The Harbour Commissioners gave my grandfather, ‘Pop’ a nice present when he retired – a launch. When I was young I used to go out with him over to Key Haven collecting seagulls eggs. We used to bring them back and eat them, they were quite strong, but nice. We used to go out winkling and prawning, and cook and eat those. I used to go with him, pigeon shooting up the railway line.

I had my first dinghy at 8, before that I used to borrow Pop’s. I suppose it was a bit unusual, there were hardly any others moored up the river where I kept mine. I always enjoyed small boats. Janet Hopkins b 1947

Carol Corbett: Early Days

Ommanney Road, looking towards South Street, decorated for Coronation of King George VI in 1937

Ommanney Road, looking towards South Street, decorated for Coronation of King George VI in 1937

Ommanney Road then was permanent housing and everybody knew everybody else.  As a small child, there seemed to me to be a lot of ‘old salts’, who wore sailor type caps, living in the road.  Bern Haward had a huge workshop as a boat store, I guess he repaired boats as well, on one side, and Mr May, the undertaker, was on the other side of the road. Bern was always very nice to me. He had a brother, Gerry, who lived up the road and always wore a sailor’s cap, and there was Nip Chambers, he wore a cap too. There was an elderly gentleman, a small man with a big beard, he wore a flat white cap.   He was Nip’s father, a real old salt who had been a sea captain.
Mr Feaver and Mr Hopkins both had taxi businesses in opposition. Mr Feaver had a garage up the road for his taxis.
We constantly played ball games, in the middle of the road and wore the pavements out roller skating. George Warder, the milkman, delivered the milk with a pull along float up and down the road.  I can remember ‘Johnny Onions’ from Brittany peddling his strings of onions. My dad always bought a string, always invited him in for a cup of tea.  I don’t know how my mother got on because she wasn’t such an adventurous person. We had numerous stews and lots of rabbit stew in those days.
I can remember the man with his barrel organ and a monkey on his shoulder.  Why did he come – was he sharpening knives?
The High Street was busier as all the traffic, buses included, went up the street, and both ways at the top of the High Street.  We used to sit on the wall at Basketts Lane with pen and paper, taking down number plates as a hobby.  Carol Corbett nee Cotton b 1946