Tag Archives: Harry Jackman

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

Phil Kelsey: Free Time and Leisure

Stone Pier with Bun Cotton, Eric Doe, Jim Ryall, George Kelsey and Jack Noyce

Stone Pier with Bun Cotton, Eric Doe, Jim Ryall, George Kelsey and Jack Noyce

Before the Rec. was done, we used to go down and kick about  in what now is all brambles, down the Mill. Old Harry Jackman had cows down there then , and he also used to have them out around the copse.  Providing they weren’t there for milking, we used to go down there and kick about.  It was cut a bit like a field, it was nothing much, it was very rough.
Other than that we used to get messing about in Mill Copse and Thorley Copse, we were always out there.
In those days you couldn’t go over the bridge because you had to pay so we always went towards Bouldnor.  We used to try and scrabble along the front – Nicholson’s path – down by what is now Port La Salle.  It’s still there now.  To save having to come up and go right round there, we used to try and scrabble along there and keep out of sight of the gamekeeper with his dogs.  It wasn’t too bad if the tide was out, we used to get by.  We used to go right along then as far as the old Stone Pier usually. Of course that’s mostly disappeared, during the war most of it.  It’s a pity really that went. Phil Kelsey b1920