Tag Archives: Pier Shore

Carnival week 1949 : Pier Shore

1949 Regatta at Carnival Week

For several years my friend the late Sheila Kennedy (nee Reeves) and I used to take part in the ladies’ rowing race using one oar each. We had this heavy old dinghy that her Uncle Bern used to use to take people out to his launch for fishing trips. It was almost round in shape and the last thing you should use for rowing. However, it was all we had.

Every year to our amazement we came second, and every year we were beaten by Mary Lord (nee Hayles) and her rowing partner. One year Sheila asked her cousin Godfrey if we could use his dinghy. It was longish and light and a green colour, much better for racing. We practised for two days to get used to it.
On the morning of the regatta we went to collect the dinghy but we could not find it. It was not at its mooring. Sheila rushed to her cousin’s who came out to look with us. Then he went to the Police Station to report it missing, so we still had to use the heavy dinghy and we still came second!

Several days later the green dinghy was found tied up quite safe at Lymington. Apparently two St Swithins’ boys had got out of their Home (now Port La Salle) and had escaped to the Mainland in the green dinghy. Well at least no real harm was done, and the boat was safely returned.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

Carnival 1949, trips from Pier Shore. Harold Hayles with daughter Christine. Delia Whitehead centre right looking after Charmaine. Amongst watchers, Serena Hunt, Mrs Ryall with children, Mrs Sloper, Mrs Maitland,
Photo : Delia Whitehead nee Hunt

Joan Cokes: Swimming 1920s, 1930s

Eileen Smith: Swimming at Love Shore 1920s, 1930s

Serena Hunt : Swimming 1940s, 1950s

In the summer we could get into a bathing costume at home, and run down the road and down the lane between Len Haward’s fish shop and The Towers and go to Pier Shore to swim.

Yarmouth shores High Tide

We would jump off the Royal Solent Yacht Club’s stone jetty, which did not add to our popularity at that time ! Serena Dias de Deus nee Hunt

Carol Corbett : Yarmouth shores

Carol Cotton at Love Shore

Love Shore was where we went to swim, Pier Shore was where we went for the rock pools.
I used to go there with my father, Bun Cotton, to collect winkles. He’d bring them home and boil them up and eat them, but not me. I liked collecting them but not eating them.

Your parents would let you go to Love Shore and say, you’re not to swim unless there’s an adult around, and we didn’t, we just played on the beach and in the water.

Carol Corbett b 1946

Eileen Smith: Free Time: swimming

Yarmouth School Mile Swimming Medal, other side engraved with name Eileen Lansdowne 1932

All of us children learnt to swim at Love Shore or Pier Shore, down the lane opposite Basketts Lane. The boys swam off Love Shore; the girls swam nearer the pier.
We went swimming twice a week in the summer, from the end of May, supervised by Mr. Stanway and Miss White ( who was later Mrs. H Hayles). According to tides, we went swimming at 11.30 in the morning or 3.30 in the afternoon. We used to nip back home to change and run down to Love Shore with a towel round us. No one taught us proper strokes, we just learnt to swim. In September we swam for our certificates – 20 yards, 40 yards, and 100 yards. In 1933 some of us swam a mile from Eastmore to the pier for which we received a medal – I’ve still got mine.
I only swam once in the competition against other schools. I hated it. The private schools had all been taught proper strokes – crawl – and we’d just learnt to swim along.

Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Swimming Medal awarded for One Mile

Joan Cokes: Early Days

My father was employed as a gardener and worked in several different places. He worked for The Pier Hotel (now the George Hotel), in the garden opposite the school. In Ommanney Road, there was a garden owned by the Bugle where he also worked. That was next to a vegetable garden for The Towers. He grew the vegetables for his own family in an allotment at the top of Victoria Road.

The bridge was a toll bridge and regular users got a weekly ticket. Dad worked for the Tophams over in Norton as a gardener, and so had a weekly ticket. We children used to sneak behind a charabanc to get over the bridge without paying.

I can remember getting winkles from Pier Shore and the Common up to Bouldnor as far as Stone Pier, and prawning off the Common – I remember seeing seahorses there.
Joan Cokes nee Cooper b1918

Yarmouth and Thorley Voices

Learn about the history of Yarmouth and Thorley from the people who have lived it