Tag Archives: Mick Morton

Nick Chandler: Yarmouth School 1940s

I remember Miss Chambers who lived down by the Mill. If you swore she used to wash your mouth with soap and water.  She used to grab hold of you with a cup of soap and water, and put it in your mouth. She kept her handkerchief tucked in her knickers, the old long bloomers.   She was a good old gal though.  She made sure that what she taught, you knew; taught you to read.
Then there was Mrs Barton, she could be a bit severe at times. I remember once Mick and Barry got the cane , which they didn’t  like. Come lunchtime, in the classroom was this fish tank that had tadpoles and stuff in it. What did they do? They both peed in it and killed all the tadpoles, we saw them do it. Nick Chandler b 1937

Miss Chambers retires from Yarmouth School after 26 years service

Miss Chambers retires from Yarmouth School after 26 years service

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

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