Tag Archives: Charlie Bryne

Eileen and Peter Smith: Thorley foraging 1950s, 1960s

Living off the land

Joy Cotton used to come out from Yarmouth with me. There was a sort of a pond at the edge of Thorley Brook where we picked watercress.
One day when we’d just moved in here, I found some wild gooseberries in the hedge at the end of the houses. They weren’t very big but they tasted lovely. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

With a bit of effort it was possible to scramble up to pigeons’ nests and get their eggs, which were good to eat when boiled up in a tin can with potatoes on a campfire.
Near the old Wellow Brickyard (if you were lucky you could find some bricks with Wellow stamped on them) were some ponds where moorhens nested. They laid lots of eggs and were also good to eat. The secret was not to take all of the eggs, but take less than half, so that the moorhen would lay some more, and you could come back again in a few days time for a few more!

There were other good things to eat around Thorley if you knew where to look. Plenty of mushrooms in the autumn, masses of blackberries there for the picking, and delicious apples from Charlie Bryne’s garden just across the road from our house. It was always tricky getting these, as the tree was in full view of his house. You had to try and work out if he was in or not before you sneaked in. If he was in he’d come hollering and shouting at you, and he had a very loud voice so it was all a bit scary! Peter Smith b 1946

Ron Wallis: Thorley 1940s, 1950s

Wellow Institute Darts Champions 1971 - 72

Wellow Institute Darts Champions 1971 – 72 From left: Geoff Bishop, Charlie Courtney, Mike Smith, Ralph Smith – all Thorley men with Archie Pocock, Glad and Vic Whittingham from Wellow

We used to go up to the Wellow Institute playing billiards or cards or whatever, the lads and myself, and I came down one night back with my bike, I must have been fifteen, and it was a dark night, just gone ten o’clock, just a little bit of light. I had my head down looking at the ground, and all of a sudden, there was this shape in front of me and ‘bang’. The front wheel went straight between Charlie Bryne’s legs, Ron Hillier was helping him home.  Yes, they’d had a couple, or several, and I went over the top of Charlie Bryne – didn’t do the bike a lot of good, but it did me a lot more harm, it really hurt.  Charlie got up, the air was somewhat blue.  Apart from bruises up his back he had nothing wrong with him.  I got home and put my bike away and I’d taken the top off one of my ankle bones.
And I thought: ‘I’ve hurt my head’.  There was all blood and went to see Dad, who was listening to the radio and he come and had a look.  He said, ‘Mother, I think you’d better come and have a look at this.’ So mum came out in the kitchen – ‘ Oh, I don’t like the look of that’.
Poor old Gran, who was staying with us at the time, she came out and she put it right. She got the scissors out and then cut my hair away and put a plaster on it.    The damage to my ankle made me limp for a while.  Charlie Bryne, he was fine.
Ron Wallis b 1935

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

Whitewalls and Woodmans

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