Tag Archives: Henderson

Mary Henderson: Thorley, 1930s, 1940s

My mum lived all her life here, going to school in Thorley. She took the Scholarship, but didn’t hear anything and went to West Wight Secondary School. After she’d been there about 3 months, a man turned up in the classroom and asked what she was doing there:
getting on with her work she said. Apparently, she’d passed the Scholarship but no one had told her, so then her parents had to find the money to pay for her uniform and she had to travel to Newport to school on her own, leaving all her friends.

Sue Henderson nee Hillier

Sue Henderson nee Hillier

One day when she was at home ill with tonsillitis, Mr. Biddlecombe from Wellow appeared on a ladder painting her bedroom window frame. She politely asked him how he was and was surprised when he told her that he’d had a chill. His wife hadn’t aired the waistband of his underpants properly, he told her.

In WWII, Kath and Marge, my mum’s older sisters both joined up, the WAAFs I think. Because Marge wasn’t very old, they had to share a billet. Mum was only 10. Dad was 9 years older and went straight into the R.A.F. when he left school, ending up in Singapore.
Mary Henderson b 1954

Cyril Henderson in RAF uniform

Cyril Henderson in RAF uniform

Mary Henderson: Thorley, Blacksmith’s Lane 1940s

Blacksmiths Lane

Cottage in Blacksmith's Lane, Thorley

Cottage in Blacksmith’s Lane, Thorley

My Great Gran Henderson lived in the cottage by the stream, on the corner of Blacksmith’s Lane, the one up the village side.  So you had Hec Stone, whose father had been Blacksmith in the forge opposite, his family lived one side, then Great Gran Henderson came to rent hers, when James Enoch died. He’d been Chief Coastguard in Yarmouth. She moved down to Cowes eventually to a daughter, then Gran and Grandad took it on.

Gran Henderson was very strict. The children used to be over the fields playing and she used to blow a whistle to get them back, and everyone said: there’s Henderson’s whistle.  She was quite horrible really because she used to put them under the stairs in a dark cupboard. Marge was asthmatic and she said: I’ll never forgive my mum for doing that. Mary Hendersonb 1954

 

Alec Cokes: Free Time 1950s 1960s

One time there was a big classic football match going on up the Rec. Jim Ryall then was the Fire Chief – and he was up there watching the football .

All of a sudden two figures came up across the back of the Rec, right across the middle of the playing field and disappeared.  It was Dicky Hatch and Dook Henderson.  They’d only managed to set fire to the rushes down the marsh.  There was a big cloud of smoke.
Somebody said, Jim, Jim, the marsh is burning.  He said, let it burn.  No point in getting down there with the fire engine, what was the point of that, it wouldn’t do any harm.

I can remember Rodney with his touchwood tin – he used to have a Golden Syrup tin, punched some holes in it with a bit of wire for a handle, get the old rotten wood out the middle of the trees and put something in to start it burning and of course you had a flame and if you wanted to light the marshes or something you just let go!  Nothing ever blew up.

Mick, he was a bugger, he’s a bit older than us – and he was very good with these bows and arrow he used to make.  We used to get in the middle of the Rec. a whole gang of us, about twenty of us, and he would fire this thing up in the air.  He’d have reeds for arrows with a bit of elder for the tip and a feather and a nail stuck in it, and he’d fire it straight up in the air – a game of chicken, watching this thing to see which way it was going to go.  Alec Cokes b 1945