The Square, with Bugle Hotel left.
Go in a pub before you was about 20? Blimey no! If they didn’t like the look of you, especially some of the old ones in the Bugle, they’d say, ‘What you doing in ‘ere?’
I suppose the Bugle was the one that was used most by just the local drinkers.
George Cleary’s father was there since the First World War. I don’t know whether young George was born there or where he was born. The old chap had it for years.
Phil Kelsey b 1920
:Yarmouth Football Team, with Bill Pomroy in goal 1936
The best team Yarmouth had was in 1947 when they played in the final of the Hampshire Cup over at Fratton Park. They had George Cleary from the pub, George Kelsey, two masters from the school at Eastmore and two lads from there. One of them, Charlesworth, he was really good, he went on to play for Wolverhampton. Mr. Holding from the shop, he was Chairman, and helped with money. You might get two or three hundred watching.
You should have seen Bun Cotton! He would really get stuck in. The ball would be at the other end and you’d look round and there was Bun, having a real go at someone. Yes, he used to get sent off.
Ted Levey used to referee, but every time he refereed when Yarmouth was playing he got into trouble. He’d be blowing the whistle and getting really queer with people.
My family played; Dad played in goal for Yarmouth and my brothers Derek and Peter. Derek was the best player of the family. I went with him when he had a trial for Southampton when he was 18 or 19, but when he came on the pitch at The Dell and saw the crowd, it was just too much for him. When I was 14, I had to go and see the Headmaster at Freshwater to get permission to play for Yarmouth First Team. My Mum used to have to do all that washing, kit for 3 of us, heavy shirts and all. Brian Pomroy b 1937
My father was employed as a gardener and worked in several different places. He worked for The Pier Hotel (now the George Hotel), in the garden opposite the school. In Ommanney Road, there was a garden owned by the Bugle where he also worked. That was next to a vegetable garden for The Towers. He grew the vegetables for his own family in an allotment at the top of Victoria Road.
The bridge was a toll bridge and regular users got a weekly ticket. Dad worked for the Tophams over in Norton as a gardener, and so had a weekly ticket. We children used to sneak behind a charabanc to get over the bridge without paying.
I can remember getting winkles from Pier Shore and the Common up to Bouldnor as far as Stone Pier, and prawning off the Common – I remember seeing seahorses there.
Joan Cokes nee Cooper b1918