Tag Archives: South Street

Eileen Smith, Charlie Lansdowne: 1920s, 1930s

My parents lived briefly in a house in Alma Place that I dont remember, and then they moved to South Street, to a tall cottage with an attic. Originally that cottage was called ‘Rose Cottage’ but mother changed it to ‘Halfway’ because it was halfway between Sandhard and where my aunts lived.

My father, Charlie Lansdowne, was one of the first crew members of the Lifeboat, the B.A.S.P. powered by a petrol engine and a sail.
I can just remember her being christened by the Prince of Wales. She was tied up on the pontoon the shoreside of the pier. Someone trod on HRH’s toe ‘Somebody’s treading on my bloody foot!’ he was heard to say.

Lifeboat crew 1920s

Lifeboat crew 1920s . Charlie Lansdowne, back row, third from left. Walter Cotton, second from right, front row.

My father was signalman on the lifeboat – there was no radio, they had to rely on signals, semaphore and morse. His boots were kept just inside the door so if the maroon went he could be gone straight away. On one occasion when the lifeboat went out, I can remember my mother asking Mrs Cotton, the Coxswain’s wife where they’d gone, but they never knew, of course, when they’d be back. Walter Cotton, the Coxswain had come from Brighstone. My father said if Walter was moved, he’d go with him, he was such a good coxswain

Eileen Smith: Shops 1920s, 1930s

In the town there were 27 shops, 1 fish and chip shop on the corner of South Street and Tennyson Road, 1 garage in Quay Street ( now the Pharmacy),  4 pubs and hotels and 2 chimney sweeps, Mr. Chambers and Mr. Holloway. There were 4 grocers shops – one in Station Road, Mr. Cook’s – later Mr. Burt’s -, one now called Sixpenny Corner owned by Mr. Barnett, Harry Mills in the Square, and Higginbothams. There were coupons given with Bourneville Cocoa and such like. My mother collected enough to get me a wooden pencil box at the Sixpenny Corner shop.
If you took an egg with you when you went to Batchelor’s for chips, they’d cook that for you too. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Shops: Square 1930s with Harwoods van

Shops: Square 1930s with Harwoods van

Peter Smith: Thorley North View, 1950s

Thorley houses EAST

Thorley houses  with North View


We moved from my Gran’s in South Street, Yarmouth into a new council house at North View, Thorley in 1952. It had two inside flush toilets and a bathroom…. very impressive for me as I’d been used to using a cold, dark outside toilet and no bathroom in my 6 previous years of childhood.

Moving to the new council houses also meant new neighbours with children and new friends to play and argue with. Mostly we got on well with each other and invented our own entertainment in the open air.

Jean Tiffin: Shops, Glasspool’s High Street, 1960s

 

My first job when I left school was at the Chemist (now Black Rock Insurance ) on the corner of South Street and the High Street.  In the morning the first thing I had to do was to clean the brass – brass door handles and brass scales.

On the wall were big sliding cupboards with alphabetical drawers –  A for Aspirin and R for Rennies. There were lovely glass display cupboards with glass tops, doors to the window displays and two big shaped bottles with green and red liquid in them. The door to the Dispensary was a glass- etched saloon type.

There was a nearly life- size cardboard cut out Kodak girl – we had a new one each year.

Glasspool's photo envelope

Glasspool’s photo envelope

Effie and I served in the shop wearing white ‘Alexandra’ overalls, and Mr Glasspool had a grey coat. We made tea in the dispensary and took it in turn to buy the biscuits.

The medicine bottles were kept in the air raid shelter in the garden and if it rained, water dripped off the light. We had a choice of colours to put with the bath crystals.

We sold Scholl sandals and shoe dye so I used to dye my sandals different colours to make them special. Jean Tiffin nee Ault b 1948

Eileen Smith: Shops in Yarmouth 1930s, 1940s

In the town there were 27 shops, 1 fish and chip shop on the corner of South Street and Tennyson Road, 1 garage in Quay Street ( now the Pharmacy),  4 pubs and hotels and 2 chimney sweeps, Mr. Chambers and Mr. Holloway. There were 4 grocers shops – one in Station Road, Mr. Cook’s – later Mr. Burt’s -, one now called Sixpenny Corner owned by Mr. Barnett, Harry Mills in the Square, and Higginbothams. There were coupons given with Bourneville Cocoa and such like. My mother collected enough to get me a wooden pencil box at the Sixpenny Corner shop.
If you took an egg with you when you went to Batchelor’s for chips, they’d cook that for you too. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Eileen Smith: Events, Coronation Elizabeth II

2, Mill Terrace decorated for coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953

2, Mill Terrace decorated for coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953

Coronation Day June 3rd 1953 The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

My grandad  Robert  May hired in a television,  a little 12 inch one. Everyone in the family came to his house in Ommanney Road, with piles of sandwiches, and we watched the television all day. It’s what the children remember most – watching the little black and white television. They had a ticket for a free packet of chips from the little fish and chip shop in the bungalow on the corner of South Street opposite Sixpenny Corner. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Serena Dias de Deus: Early Years

I was born in South Street in 1939 in an old house, Grove Cottage, next to Grove House. We had no bathroom so it was washing in a bowl daily and a bath in a large tin bath dragged into the warm kitchen on Saturday night.

Those were the days when we knew all our neighbours and helped each other out in hard times.  I remember many a delicious chocolate cake being passed over the wall of Grove House by Mrs Ablitt, –  the Ablitts owned the butchers shop in the High Street and were Mollie Mallett’s parents.

One of my very early memories was of Mrs Lansdowne on the other side making me a cardboard Snowman covered in cotton wool full of tiny little gifts all individually wrapped.

Serena nee Hunt b 1939

South St. 2013

South St. 2013

Pat Burt :Early Days living in ‘Kevack’

When we lived in Kevack in the High Street, we had an outdoor loo.  You went across a small yard, and there were 2 loos side by side. One belonged to our next door neighbour, Mr King, the head gardener at The Mount, and he had to walk through the bottom of our yard to get to his loo. They could be sat in theirs, right next to us,  –  but they were flush, those loos.

My mother was cook to the Hamiltons in the Wight/White House for some years until she was taken very ill.  When I was very small, I used to have to go with my mother when she went to work while she was cooking in the kitchen. I always remember the smell of the lovely rubbery green staircase they had.  Instead of carpet the stairs were covered in this lovely pale green rubber and it smelt beautiful.

I was knocked down by a car, when I was 7 and there were very few cars about. I was running home from school for lunch. It was a very rough day and I could see the sea  blowing up at the end of Pier Shore Lane  down between the Yacht Club and The Towers. I was coming along South Street and I ran straight across the High Street. Of course the High Street was a main road then, and there was a car coming, driven by one of the Miss Creagh Osbornes and it hit me. Luckily it didn’t hurt me much, just my ankle. It was my own fault , I was so excited, I wanted to see the rough sea.  I didn’t go back to school that day, and later Miss Creagh Osborne knocked on the door and brought me a black and white china dog as a present. Pat Burt nee Adams b 1929

Annette Haynes: Early Days 1930s

 

Alma Place 2013

Alma Place 2013

Pat and I both started off in Alma Place . We’ve known each other since we were three.  My parents brought me to the Island because my brother and I were both so poorly the doctor said we had to live by the sea. For a year or so my dad used to cycle to Havenstreet to visit my brother in the hospital, but then my mother said, ‘If he’s going to die, bring him home’. He’s still going strong, nearly 90.

From Alma Place we moved to Coastguard Cottages. I remember we had an outside pump for water there.  We moved once from Coastguard Cottages to a bigger house in South Street. We moved in one day and moved out the next because my mother saw mice and she wouldn’t stay there, so we moved back to our old house. Annette Haynes nee Holloway b 1929

Coastguard cottages 2013

Coastguard cottages 2013