Tag Archives: Brian Pomroy

Brian Pomroy, Michael Lewis: Funfair 1950s – 1970s

The fair used to come every year until their lorries got so big that they couldn’t come up by the vet’s where Mr Lewis used to be. When the Harbour Commissioners built the bit down by the new car park they went down there, on that bit of green down there, but everyone remembers it up the Rec.

I remember an old chap, Sid Butler, who lived  in the house next to the Rec.,  Kezzie Butler’s brother. He used to ride these chairplanes all evening, from the time it started at 6 o’clock until 10 when it finished. He used to sit there with his old pipe, and he would sit there for hours.  Brian Pomroy b 1937

Westport,home of Michael Lewis, vet. and family

Westport,home of Michael Lewis, vet. and family; photo M. Scott

 

The lorries and trailers for the fair were so big, they couldn’t turn the corner into the lane by Westport. They had a long heavy crowbar with a hook on the end which they would put under the rear axle and lever the wheels round.

On the last evening they used to say to the children, ‘If you come back tomorrow, we’ll give some money for helping us.’  Of course, they were gone the next morning.
After the fair had left, the children used to go over the field picking up the loose change that had been dropped in the grass. Michael Lewis b 1923 Yarmouth Vet. from 1956

Funfair: Carnival Week, 1930s – 1980s

Funfair on Yarmouth Rec.

Funfair on Yarmouth Rec.

 When the Funfair set up in Yarmouth, it was on the Recreation Ground which was given for the children of Yarmouth. There would be gallopers, chairplanes, dodgems and swing boats; proper coconut shies and all kinds of stalls. It cost 1d in the afternoon, 3d in the evening. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921 photo

 I used to go love to go to the fair with my Gran. I’d save up my pennies for Shove Ha’penny and all the different stalls. Effie Pitman b 1921

Ryall family, funfair behind

Ryall family watching Carnival, funfair behind, with dodgems tent : photo Di Broomfield

 

 

 

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

Brian Pomroy: Harbour, Smith’s boatshed 1940s

Yarmouth harbour Panorama 1950s

Yarmouth harbour Panorama 1950s

The tide used to come up to where Stan Smith used to come out of his yard to launch his boats. Where the old coastguard houses are now, the water used to come up to their back walls.  Jack Harwood had an old RAF boat there that he used to live on. Brian Pomroy b1937

Services: Laundry 1930s ,1940s, 1950s

At the end of Heytesbury Road was the Solent Steam Laundry. A very loud whistle was sounded there to mark the start and end of work shifts at 8.00, 12 noon, 1.00pm and 4.30  Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

There were forty or fifty people who worked there, they were big employers. Alec
Cokes b 1945

My Mum used to send her sheets to the Laundry when she was first married. She didn’t have a washing machine. Ruth Mills nee Kelleway b 1945

My Grandad worked up the Laundry, and wanted me to go and work there but I didn’t fancy it. Brian Pomroy b 1937

Brian Pomroy: Services, Gasworks 1940s, 1950s

I started off life at Gasworks Cottage, down by the Mill.
There was a small gasworks.  There was one small gasometer and one big one and that little one was only a back up. They had the big one alongside of that, but that’s all gone.

Yes, the bridge used to open for the coal barges to go up to the Gasworks, and my dad and his mate had so many hours to unload them so they could go back on the next tide.  I used to go over there sometimes to see him and watch what was happening.  Some of those barges belonged to an Isle of Wight firm, Coles of Cowes.  I think they owned 2 coal barges.  The barges were always coming up the river and getting stuck, never get up there on time to the gas works.  They used to come through the bridge and have to make a sharp turn to the creek to the gasworks but couldn’t get there half the time.  Not very deep there if the tide wasn’t right.

My Dad got electrocuted over there at the Gasworks  across the river.
They was changing the lighting from gas to electric. He went to work one morning, I will always remember, the 6 – 2 shift, and he went in to get the lights on. There was two live  wires in water and he picked it up  thinking it was lights.  After that we moved from Gasworks Cottage because they wanted us out, and then the Council found us a council house in Victoria Road.

Brian Pomroy  b1938

Gasometer behind Sandhouse and Bridge

Gasometer behind Sandhouse and Bridge ; photo Sue Russell

Trains: sugar beet 1950s

Train in station 1950s

Train in station 1950s

We used to watch the trains shunt down the station and we used to watch them load up the sugarbeet from Thorley Manor when Caulcutts had it. Brian Pomroy b 1937
Prisoners of war used to get down the station, loading up the Sugar Beet Train. Nick Chandler b1937
There was little tiny place – you couldn’t call it a siding – where they used to shunt the old truck. That used to get loaded up with sugar beet up there.  When the train came back from Freshwater somebody used to get out there and push the truck on the railway line, and the train would push it through to Yarmouth, and then about four of them would push it up on the railways siding to join all the others. All that trouble for sugar beet.   Alec Cokes 1945.

Train in Yarmouth Station 1950s

Train in Yarmouth Station 1950s Photo Nick Chandler

Brian Pomroy, Shops: High Street, Westons 1950s

After Harwoods you had Pack and Cullifords, then Malcolm Mallett in Ablitts Butchers. Hopkins had a little café, then Whitewoods, then next door was George Weston. George did everything there, bikes, radios, paraffin. On a Friday we used to carry our batteries to George’s shop to get them charged up so we could listen to ‘Dick Barton Special Agent’ on a Saturday.  We didn’t have electricity, only gas.
Brian Pomroy b 1937

Brian Pomroy, Alec Cokes: Shops, Mills, 1940s

Mills yard where slaughterhouse and bakehouse were located

Mills yard where slaughterhouse and bakehouse were located Photo. M. Scott

Sid Kelleway had his slaughterhouse up the back of Mills.   I went once to watch him cut the pigs’ throats but it was a bit too much. He kept chickens in his garden there too. One day one of his chickens had flown over the wall. He was chasing it up the High Street and when he caught it, he said ‘That bloody thing wont go nowhere’, and got it and wrung its neck. 
Brian Pomroy b 1937

Sid was a real old rascal.  My granddad and him were old contemporaries. Grandad used to be out with his poaching a bit, so he used to take stuff in and of course Sid used to filter them into the main stream.  Sid used to say, there you are Jim.
When he was preparing pigeons for people he used to take one breast out.  Of course selling them to the visitors, I don’t suppose they knew anyway. They had one breast and wrapped it up that way round.  Alec Cokes b 1945