War Savings plaque in Town Hall
I remember the Navy used to take their boats to Yarmouth on a courtesy call. It was good. You could go out and visit the ships, – there was one called ‘Yarmouth’. During the war if you paid to go the ship, you were paid back in savings stamps. All sorts of things you could go on, but you were paid back in savings stamps. Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1930
War Savings plaque for RAF
Evacuee figures
When the evacuees came, I remember they swarmed into school. My mother had to take 2 or 3 in overnight – head to tail in the bed. One boy called Bernard White, stayed. We didn’t like him, but mother did – he had ginger hair, same as Jack used to. They came from Milton Road, Portsmouth. He was a big daredevil boy who used to go beachcombing, I mean beachcombing in the war time! He used to bring home all sorts of things. Eventually he went back and when we heard from him last he was quite high up in the Navy. He had done well for himself, but we didn’t like him. Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1928
Houseboats moored on the river side of the old bridge
When we got married we couldn’t afford to buy a house. We were lucky because a sleeping sickness specialist chap in Kenya or somewhere – Robin Cox and his wife – he went back, and he said we could have their houseboat.
It was nice, plenty of room. We had a nice little stove, and one night Jack built up the stove so it got so hot we thought it would catch fire.
We wondered why there were so many mugs around and pots. When it rained we realised; rain came in everywhere.
When the tide was wrong and the wind came from the south, she used to come up on her end but we never came adrift from the mooring/gangway. We were on ‘Bluenose’, but it started off as ‘Spinwham’ – same boat.
Stan Smith lived on it for a bit and then Colonel Mitchell. And then Penny and her husband and it ended up at the top of the river. Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1935
old bullnosed quay with crane 1930s
I was left on the Quay with my Grandmother from London, – I wasn’t very old,- in a pram under the Spit and Lean. That was taken down when the coalyard was knocked into the Quay. Blakes Coalyard was handy for the blacksmith’s shop across the road.
Round the corner where the pigsties were and the steps used to go down to the sea my sister Audrey who was 7 years older than me used to take me and John down the steps and anybody dinghy that was there, we used to get in it and row somewhere. We used to do that then.
Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b1930
Mr Higginbotham the draper, he had a wooden leg. If my grandmother was coming to tea, my Mum used to say, ‘I haven’t got a clean tablecloth. Go up Higgies and get one’, because they weren’t much. We used to buy underwear up there and all sorts of things. We used to go in the left to the drapery part, and there would be nobody there. Suddenly you would hear thump, thump, thump as he walked across. Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1930
Advertisement for Higginbothams
It was awful if your radio was packing up. W e used to go to Weston’s and get our accumulator. They didn’t charge much and if you were lucky you had two, so you took one out and put the other in. We used to listen to ‘Take it from Here’ and things like that.
Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1930
When our accumulators were charged up at Weston’s shop, they were put on the shelf waiting to be collected. You had to put your name on them. Palma Ault nee Holloway
Minnie Flint’s – I can remember that as a butcher’s shop. It had great big windows and they used to push them up, and there was the meat on a marble slab. Mr Haward’ s fish shop was next door. When I was about three, I used to go across and ask for ‘dish for dabbing’ instead of ‘fish for crabbing’. For years afterwards whenever I went in for fish, he used to say to me, ‘Do you want some dish for dabbing?’
Pauline Harwood nee Hatch 1930
Pinings Corner, High Street
I called Mr. Haward ‘Uncle Len’. One of my cats used to go down the road every day at noon and sit on the wall opposite his shop and Len would give him a piece of fish. Len said he could set his watch on the cat’s arrival. Serena Dias de Deus nee Hunt b 1939
Square with coaches and Town hall
In the Square, next to the Town Hall and a bit behind it, where Annette’s the hairdresser is now, there was a cobbler’s, Mr. Donovan. He had a wooden leg.
On the other side of the Town Hall, on the side towards the sea, was Kelsey’s, with Jimmy Gobini’s gents hairdressers in one side, and a tobacconist and confectioners on the other. Then there was a ‘bits and pieces’ shop. It was amazing what us children could buy for 2d. Mills Tea Rooms was on the corner. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b1921
I can remember Mr Donovan with a wooden leg, the shoemender. He used to swear like a trooper and I think he used to drink a bit. We used to have to take our shoes down there and he used to put great big thick rubber bits on to make them last. He had a very nice wife and a son called John who became a policeman. He was a fierce old man and it was a grotty old place tacked on to the Town Hall. Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1930
Ox being roasted for celebrations of Coronation of George VI, 1937
For the coronation of King George VI there was a whole oxen spit- roasted on the Recreation Ground. My dad was involved with that. It was started one day and went on being cooked all night ready for when everyone came. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921
The ox roast was at the back of the Rec. We were given a slab of meat between two slices of bread. It wasn’t a dainty sandwich but it tasted all right. Pat Burt and Annette Haynes b 1929
Ugh, the smell was terrible! The whole town stank of burning fat for days. No, I didn’t have any! Pauline Hatch b 1930
I can remember teaching myself to swim at Love Shore with one hand on the wall until I let go.
Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1928