Sandhard with huts and Bridge House
It was wonderful living in the High Street, just opposite the lane down to Love Shore. On a hot day, you’d change, then run over the road and down to Love Shore. If we went for a picnic tho’, we’d go over the bridge to Sandhard.
Pat Burt nee Adams 1929
Although there was a war on, we used to get about all over the place. Out Bouldnor, there were troops out there. We used to go over Thorley Copse a lot, play down the marsh and up the Rec, on the beaches, anywhere; it was amazing really.
I remember towards the end of the war we went over Sandhard and found an airman’s glove on the beach. We picked it up and 2 fingers fell out of it. I remember that ever so well.
One day 2 or 3 of us older boys went up Red Lake where the old sewer pipe was and were walking along it. We got machine gunned by a Messerschmidt and we all leapt off it. We reckoned at the time they thought it was part of Pluto. Nick Chandler b 1937
Jim Cooper coming in to wooden stage at Sandhard to avoid toll
It was a basic dinghy shape. They called it a ‘lanch’ the old boys, so that differentiated it from a rowing boat. It was bigger and it had a net board in the back. In the transom, six inches below, there was a net board about two foot wide which we used to lay the net on when we were shooting nets out the back of the transom. It was a very wide boat and the oars he used were about ten foot long, huge big ash oars, they weighed a ton, I couldn’t lift them.
In those days he made a little bit of a living on pout which these days is much maligned. ‘Sweet little pout’; my mum still says now, ‘Why can’t you get me a sweet little pout?’
It’s like a mini cod, the same flesh, same family. He used to catch those.
When we used to go out we used to row down to Fort Vic., go out in the tide. You remember those old iron wheelbarrow wheels with a spike in the middle? He used to have one of those, that was his anchor and a big bit of grass rope and he used to chuck that over and he used to have the oars ready. They’d get to where they wanted to go and drift back, and let a bit more rope out; so they stopped and then they fished, and all they used was line, about three or four hooks on the bottom and garden worms. They’d catch a few pout and then they’d run out, or they hadn’t caught one, then they’d trip the killock [small anchor]. Pull the anchor up a little bit, let it go, give it a shear with the oar now and again, and drift in the right direction to another bit of ground. And they’d do that all the way to Bouldnor. There was about three or four places where they stopped. And of course by the time you got to Bouldnor inshore, the ebb was down again, so you had the tide back the other way. Alec Cokes b 1945
Yarmouth harbour from Sandhard, old bridge with toll house
Bridge Tolls originally displayed by Toll House on bridge
When we were kids, we would be met at church by our parents and then go to Sandhard for our Sunday Lunch, us and all of the Gatrells. Of course there was a toll on the bridge in them days so our dad and the Gatrells used to borrow a boat and row us over. We used to stay over there until about half past six. Jean Maitland nee Levey b 1928
Coming in to wooden stage at Sandhard to avoid toll
Bridge Tolls originally displayed by Toll House on bridge
We used to go to Sandhard to swim, rowing across like most families, because there was a toll to pay on the bridge. Joan Cokes nee Cooper b 1918
Sandhard
One of our trips was to go to Sandhard with my mother and the rest of the family. We used to get in the boat down by the Mill.
Sometimes mother got in if it was reasonable but she didn’t often. George and perhaps the rest of the kids rowed over to Sandhard, dumped them off, then rowed back to the bridge. There used to be a landing stage right in the corner there and we used to get Mother in there and take her across. We used to drop her off there because, probably by the time we were coming back, the tide would be gone out. It was awkward to get out down the Mill so we used to drop her off there, and one or two of us used to come and scrabble up over the wall down the bottom. Phil Kelsey b 1920
When I was young, Dad had his boat down the Mill and when I was about ten I used to take it out all day long in the summer. I was up and down the river, I reckon I’d propelled the boat in every little inlet. Once when I was quite small, Dad had taken us over to Sandhard. Coming back, we got alongside to get out and I was just getting out. George was supposed to be helping Dad get me out and there was some swans there suddenly started fighting. They let go of me and dropped me down into the water! Didn’t Mother create when I got home! Phil Kelsey b 1920
Sandhard 1950s
Swimming at school?
I bloody hated it. We went to Sandhard twice. The wind was blowing, the waves were full of sand. You got sand in your eyes, sand in your mouth.
I worked on the harbour for all those years but I never learned to swim.
LesTurner b 1944
The lane leading to Loveshore
Our headteacher, Miss Martin she was then, would take us swimming at Love shore, the whole class. She had a roller towel to help you to learn to swim. You lay in the water through the towel, with it round your middle and she held you up while you paddled. It was a good method!
It was wonderful living in the High Street, just opposite the lane down to Loveshore. On a hot day, you’d change, then run over the road and down to Love Shore. If we went for a picnic tho’, we’d go over the bridge to Sandhard.
Pat Burt nee Adams 1929 Photo