Tag Archives: Pete Smith

Pete Smith :School, Maypole 1950s

Leave a Reply
Maypole at Yarmouth School 1950s

Maypole at Yarmouth School 1950s

For several years when I was at Yarmouth school in the 1950’s we had a Maypole dancing team that used to practise in the boys’ play ground during school time. There were many combinations of weaving in and out of each other round the Maypole which gave nice patterns to the ribbons. Whilst you were dancing you weren’t  really aware of the pattern forming above you as you were concentrating on the actual dancing in and out, around each other to avoid getting the ribbons tangled up or falling over each other…. all hazards of Maypole dancing! It was only when you stopped dancing that you could see the pattern that you had made. That was the easy bit.

We then had a short break of a few minutes to catch our breath then we had to dance round in the opposite direction to unwind the pattern and eventually end up as we had started, with no pattern and straight ribbons. I’m not entirely sure why we spent so many hours practising as the only public performance that I can recall was either up The Mount in the years when they held a summer garden fete, or over the bridge at a house called, I believe, ‘Cracknells’ when they took over the summer fete after the Mount. In both cases there were dignitaries present such as May O’ Connor who I think was the head of IWCC Education, and the IW Lord Lieutenant, so the dancing had to be spot on or else!

Peter Smith b 1946

Peter Smith: Thorley, Newclose Farm horses 1950s

Horse drawn binder 1913

Horse drawn binder 1913


Heal’s Farm (Newclose) cart horses Cornel and Warwick used to be kept in the field behind the Church. They were huge shire horses and would often come and look over the hedge at us as we went down Blacksmith’s Lane. The field there was several feet higher than the Lane so it made the horses seem even bigger. The horses were used for pulling carts around the farm and could often be seen with a two wheeled cart full of mangels that were being dropped in the fields for the cattle to eat. Peter Smith b 1946

Pete Smith: Funeral 1951

Funeral in snow from Dog Kennel Cottage 1950

Funeral in snow from Dog Kennel Cottage 1950

I remember waiting with my Mum in the snow at the bus stop by Heal’s cart shed (on the corner of Broad Lane opposite Newclose Farm) and being very cold. No bus came along, but while we were waiting, a strange sight came into view; a tractor pulling a trailer with a coffin upon it preceded by my great grandfather Robert (Bob) May the undertaker, with his black funeral great coat and top hat. It was so cold that the tractor, from Tapnell Farm, had an old army coat thrown over the radiator to stop it freezing; a very strange sight indeed for a four year old lad to take in. The bus never did arrive due to the snow.

This was the funeral of Mrs Reader who lived at Dog Kennel Cottage up Broad Lane, on December 16th 1950. Peter Smith b 1946