Tag Archives: Peter Smith

Pete Smith: Thorley, Broad Lane 1950s

Broad Lane above Thorley

Broad Lane above Thorley, looking towards Yarmouth and the Solent

Broad Lane

The fields at the top of our garden at North View were owned by Wellow Farm and although they were large, they still had hedges. Sheep or beef cattle were often grazing the fields and I remember going with my Dad ( Ralph Smith) to visit a shepherd up Broad Lane who was living in a field in his shepherd’s hut. This was a wooden hut on wheels that had steps up into it at the back. It had a primus stove for cooking, an old table and chair, and a makeshift bed. It was all very basic but the shepherd seemed happy enough to live there.

 A few years later all this changed when the hedges were grubbed out by a crawler tractor to create huge fields. It was the first time I had seen a crawler tractor and I remember being impressed by the sheer strength of the machine as it grubbed the hedges out. The technique used was fairly brutal: an assistant would wrap a length of chain around the trunk of the bush to be removed and the driver would haul it out, roots and all. Later all the hedging was burnt. The crawler used was not a nice shiny new one, it looked dirty and well used.  It was something of a mystery to me about how the steering worked as it had no steering wheel.

From time to time, and especially noticeable during school holidays because we were always around, were sudden loud explosions. Mum used to say “That’ll be Uncle Joe again,” meaning that Uncle Joe (who was the last Newbridge Blacksmith) had gone to work at the Quarry at the top of Broad Lane. There they used explosives to blast out the chalk so that it could be dug up and crushed for roads and other uses. The explosions varied from a dull thud to a loud window rattling noise even though we were over a mile away as the crow flies.

Peter Smith b 1946

Peter Smith, Ted Lawry : Services, Builders,1960s

If you wanted the best roof in the West Wight you needed Ted Lawry to build it for you. I was apprenticed as a carpenter to Cronins and chosen to work with Ted. It was a real honour but a bit daunting. He was a hard master because his standards were so high. He  was a good teacher, didn’t mind keep explaining how to do things but expected you to listen and get it right in the end. I learnt a lot from him.  Peter Smith b 1946

 

Peter Smith, Robert May: Services, Undertaker, 1950s

Robert May, carpenter, joiner and undertaker outside his workshop in Ommanney Road.

Robert May, carpenter, joiner and undertaker outside his workshop in Ommanney Road.

My great granddad Robert (Bob) May ran a carpenter’s and undertaker’s business from his large workshop alongside Fernside in Ommanney Road. His son-in-law, my uncle Ted, also worked there. In the school holidays my cousin David and I would be encouraged to make things in the workshop, and as there were always lots of off-cuts we invented all sorts of things. Mostly though we used some very nicely shaped triangular pieces about 18”long and 6”wide to make boats and built upper decks and funnels and gun turrets etc. It was some time before we realised where the triangular pieces had come from; they were off-cuts from the coffins that granddad and Uncle Ted made!

I’ve seen Uncle Ted on many occasions finishing off a coffin by heating a saucepan of pitch on the tortoise stove in the workshop and running the molten pitch all round the coffin corners by standing it up and moving it around to ensure all the joints were sealed.  Peter Smith b 1946

Pete Smith: Yarmouth School 1950s

Mr Hector was a mixed bag.  He was a real scary teacher because he would throw a slipper across the classroom at you.  I can see him pick up Roger Sheldon and Nibbo Kellaway by their ears.  He was a really strange bloke.  But do you know, he was sort of fiery but he had a lot of interesting things to say.  If you tuned in to what was going on in the lesson he was fine but soon as you drifted off, well, look out or he’d throw the chalk at you or the blackboard rubber. You had to really watch out for him. You didn’t quite know when he was going to go over the edge.

Mr. Hector's class, Yarmouth Primary School, 1950s

Mr. Hector’s class, Yarmouth Primary School, 1950s

  PeterSmith b 1946