Tag Archives: Rec.

Carol Corbett: The Fair, 1950s

Each year the Fair would come to the Rec. Very exciting. Half a crown went a long way. I can remember watching, not riding, the Wall of Death. There was a man jumping through a hoop of fire into a water tank and my favourite was the flea circus – little fleas in a glass case with pink skirts on pushing prams and wheelbarrows along. No, I hadn’t been drinking! I thought it was wonderful – we had to pay extra to go in to watch it but I remember going in with my mother, and then I think my grandmother took me as well. Carol Corbett nee Cotton b 19

Fun Fair on the Rec. 1950s:In photo, Jean Maitland, Fay (Faith) Hopkins, photo: Janet Hopkins

Brian Pomroy, Michael Lewis: Funfair 1950s – 1970s

The fair used to come every year until their lorries got so big that they couldn’t come up by the vet’s where Mr Lewis used to be. When the Harbour Commissioners built the bit down by the new car park they went down there, on that bit of green down there, but everyone remembers it up the Rec.

I remember an old chap, Sid Butler, who lived in the house next to the Rec., Kezzie Butler’s brother. He used to ride these chairplanes all evening, from the time it started at 6 o’clock until 10 when it finished. He used to sit there with his old pipe, and he would sit there for hours. Brian Pomroy b 1937

Westport,home of Michael Lewis, vet. and family; photo M. Scott

The lorries and trailers for the fair were so big, they couldn’t turn the corner into the lane by Westport. They had a long heavy crowbar with a hook on the end which they would put under the rear axle and lever the wheels round.

On the last evening they used to say to the children, ‘If you come back tomorrow, we’ll give some money for helping us.’ Of course, they were gone the next morning.
After the fair had left, the children used to go over the field picking up the loose change that had been dropped in the grass. Michael Lewis b 1923 Yarmouth Vet. from 1956

Funfair: Carnival Week, 1930s – 1980s

Funfair on Yarmouth Rec.

When the Funfair set up in Yarmouth, it was on the Recreation Ground which was given for the children of Yarmouth. There would be gallopers, chairplanes, dodgems and swing boats; proper coconut shies and all kinds of stalls. It cost 1d in the afternoon, 3d in the evening. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921 photo

I used to go love to go to the fair with my Gran. I’d save up my pennies for Shove Ha’penny and all the different stalls. Effie Pitman b 1921

Ryall family watching Carnival, funfair behind, with dodgems tent : photo Di Broomfield

Phil Kelsey: Free Time, Yarmouth Football

When Yarmouth played West Wight they used to have a couple of hundred, they come down from Freshwater. They used to have to pay to go in then if it was a cup tie. I can remember Dad was always on the gate. He was on the committee. When he finished work he used to go up there marking it out. But oh yes, there used to be some grand scraps between Yarmouth and West Wight.

Football at the Rec pre WWII

The older school kids used to go up there during the winter once a week. We just used the whole pitch, plodding up and down. Anybody who had a football was well in. You’d see two or three go up after school kicking about, shooting in goal, you know, one in goal, and having a tussle. I mean you never see them now. These days, of course there’s not so many children of that age in the town as there used to be.
Phil Kelsey b 1920

Brian Pomroy: Free Time, Yarmouth Football 1930s – 1950s

:Yarmouth Football Team, with Bill Pomroy in goal 1936

The best team Yarmouth had was in 1947 when they played in the final of the Hampshire Cup over at Fratton Park. They had George Cleary from the pub, George Kelsey, two masters from the school at Eastmore and two lads from there. One of them, Charlesworth, he was really good, he went on to play for Wolverhampton. Mr. Holding from the shop, he was Chairman, and helped with money. You might get two or three hundred watching.

You should have seen Bun Cotton! He would really get stuck in. The ball would be at the other end and you’d look round and there was Bun, having a real go at someone. Yes, he used to get sent off.

Ted Levey used to referee, but every time he refereed when Yarmouth was playing he got into trouble. He’d be blowing the whistle and getting really queer with people.

My family played; Dad played in goal for Yarmouth and my brothers Derek and Peter. Derek was the best player of the family. I went with him when he had a trial for Southampton when he was 18 or 19, but when he came on the pitch at The Dell and saw the crowd, it was just too much for him. When I was 14, I had to go and see the Headmaster at Freshwater to get permission to play for Yarmouth First Team. My Mum used to have to do all that washing, kit for 3 of us, heavy shirts and all. Brian Pomroy b 1937

Eileen Smith, Pat Burt, Annette Haynes: Events, Coronation George VI

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

Alec Cokes: Free Time 1950s 1960s

One time there was a big classic football match going on up the Rec. Jim Ryall then was the Fire Chief – and he was up there watching the football .

All of a sudden two figures came up across the back of the Rec, right across the middle of the playing field and disappeared. It was Dicky Hatch and Dook Henderson. They’d only managed to set fire to the rushes down the marsh. There was a big cloud of smoke.
Somebody said, Jim, Jim, the marsh is burning. He said, let it burn. No point in getting down there with the fire engine, what was the point of that, it wouldn’t do any harm.

I can remember Rodney with his touchwood tin – he used to have a Golden Syrup tin, punched some holes in it with a bit of wire for a handle, get the old rotten wood out the middle of the trees and put something in to start it burning and of course you had a flame and if you wanted to light the marshes or something you just let go! Nothing ever blew up.

Mick, he was a bugger, he’s a bit older than us – and he was very good with these bows and arrow he used to make. We used to get in the middle of the Rec. a whole gang of us, about twenty of us, and he would fire this thing up in the air. He’d have reeds for arrows with a bit of elder for the tip and a feather and a nail stuck in it, and he’d fire it straight up in the air – a game of chicken, watching this thing to see which way it was going to go. Alec Cokes b 1945

Rod Corbett: Free Time 1950s

An old lady called Kizzy Butler, who lived at the house that juts out into the Rec. had died, and the Jackman family bought it. She didn’t seem to have had any family so all her stuff was turned out. She had a big collection of stuffed birds all under glass Victorian domes. Nobody wanted things like that then, they were too unfashionable, so they were just thrown out. A group of us boys, aged about 8 or 9 went and rescued these birds – there were lots of penguins and Arctic birds, and we put them up in the trees in the lane, which must have made people look twice. Eventually when we got bored, we shot the old birds down.

Rod Corbett b 1943

Phil Kelsey: Free Time and Leisure

Stone Pier with Bun Cotton, Eric Doe, Jim Ryall, George Kelsey and Jack Noyce

Before the Rec. was done, we used to go down and kick about in what now is all brambles, down the Mill. Old Harry Jackman had cows down there then , and he also used to have them out around the copse. Providing they weren’t there for milking, we used to go down there and kick about. It was cut a bit like a field, it was nothing much, it was very rough.
Other than that we used to get messing about in Mill Copse and Thorley Copse, we were always out there.
In those days you couldn’t go over the bridge because you had to pay so we always went towards Bouldnor. We used to try and scrabble along the front – Nicholson’s path – down by what is now Port La Salle. It’s still there now. To save having to come up and go right round there, we used to try and scrabble along there and keep out of sight of the gamekeeper with his dogs. It wasn’t too bad if the tide was out, we used to get by. We used to go right along then as far as the old Stone Pier usually. Of course that’s mostly disappeared, during the war most of it. It’s a pity really that went. Phil Kelsey b1920

Carol Corbett : Early Days

The recreation field was where I learnt to ride my first bicycle. I can remember my dad taking me up there and saying, ‘Right, now go off!’ – and me falling off several times. It was always full of children playing and Saturday was football matches with lots of people watching and lots of noise. Carol Corbett nee Cotton b 1946

Football at the Rec.1950s

Yarmouth and Thorley Voices

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