Tag Archives: Palma Ault nee Holloway

Phil Kelsey, Palma Ault, Shops: St James Street. 1940s

Mrs  Brown’s was next to the chapel; she was a little old lady. She had this little front room and she sold all sorts of things, from buttons, to needles, to thread, to postcards, a proper little haberdashery turn out.
She used to shuffle through.  You went in, she was never there. Of course, some of them…, one nipper in particular, he used to get in there. He got caught in the end, rifling. She never had much money there ever, but there was always a bit of change in the till. Phil Kelsey b 1920

Mrs  Brown’s shop opposite the Church in St. James Street, sold cotton, tape and dolls with a china head and soft body.  She was always dressed in black and sold apples from her garden in the autumn.  Palma Ault nee Holloway 1927

Palma Ault: Shops, Mills 1930s, 1940s

The main door to Mills, now bricked up, was in the High Street, with a little door on the corner which we use now as the main entrance. The Mills family lived in what is now ‘St James’, next to the Church – the rector lived opposite in what we know as the ‘Old Rectory’. The Mills family owned all of where St James Close is now and it was a market garden, with a tennis court for Nora Mills, daughter of the house.

The wine at Mills was kept in a dark place before you got to the bakehouse.

Old entrance to Mills on High Street

Old entrance to Mills on High Street

Palma Ault nee Holloway b 1927

Palma Ault: Shops, The Square

Mills Tea rooms, corner of the Square and Quay Street.

Mills Tea rooms, corner of the Square and Quay Street.

When I worked in Mills Café we used to have to go across the Square with a big urn,  – it took 2 of us to carry it –  fill it up with boiling water in Mills Bakehouse, carry it back across the Square to the café and put it on the gas stove.  We used to do this 2 or 3 times a day depending on how busy we were. The tea was 1d a mug.  The cake shop was downstairs and tearoom upstairs.   Palma Ault nee Holloway b1927

Palma Ault : 1920s, Mill Terrace

I was born in Cadnam and came to Island in 1933 and lived at No. 1 Fort Victoria Cottages. Then we moved to No 10 Mill Terrace in 1939, – I’ve still got the rent book.
All 3 girls shared the front bedroom, parents were in the middle and Stuart in the back bedroom. We used to have to throw buckets of water down the toilet. There was no electric in Mill Terrace until after the War and then you were allowed 2 lights – we had a light in the two living rooms.
Daisy Pitman used to take in washing and put it out on the marsh. She couldn’t get it in when it was high tide and us children were told to keep away from it.

Washing out behind Mill Terrace, with Daisy Pitman in boat

Washing out behind Mill Terrace, with Daisy Pitman in boat