Tag Archives: Sue Henderson

Eileen Smith, Mary Henderson: Upper Lee, Thorley

Thorley houses with Upper Lee and Thorley Brook

Thorley houses with Upper Lee and Thorley Brook


Mum said they loved going over to the Coopers at Upper Lee to Sunday School and then go in to the hall in Newport.  It was a treat for them.  They used to go and collect the milk in a jug from them at the farm. Mary Henderson b 1954

May Cooper used to do the dairy work for her brother. She made butter pats in the shape of swans, and cooled them in Thorley Brook, just where a little spring rises. When she made jellies and jams she’d cool them by floating them in the stream. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Mary Henderson: Thorley, 1930s, 1940s

My mum lived all her life here, going to school in Thorley. She took the Scholarship, but didn’t hear anything and went to West Wight Secondary School. After she’d been there about 3 months, a man turned up in the classroom and asked what she was doing there:
getting on with her work she said. Apparently, she’d passed the Scholarship but no one had told her, so then her parents had to find the money to pay for her uniform and she had to travel to Newport to school on her own, leaving all her friends.

Sue Henderson nee Hillier

Sue Henderson nee Hillier

One day when she was at home ill with tonsillitis, Mr. Biddlecombe from Wellow appeared on a ladder painting her bedroom window frame. She politely asked him how he was and was surprised when he told her that he’d had a chill. His wife hadn’t aired the waistband of his underpants properly, he told her.

In WWII, Kath and Marge, my mum’s older sisters both joined up, the WAAFs I think. Because Marge wasn’t very old, they had to share a billet. Mum was only 10. Dad was 9 years older and went straight into the R.A.F. when he left school, ending up in Singapore.
Mary Henderson b 1954

Cyril Henderson in RAF uniform

Cyril Henderson in RAF uniform

Mary and Sue Henderson: Thorley, railway gates 1950s

Thorley Map west from Hill Place Lane

Thorley Map west from Hill Place Lane

Hill Place Lane

Where the railway crossed the road, there was a little cottage where Mr. and Mrs Hoare lived, after Mrs Hoare managed to set fire with an oil lamp to the thatch of their cottage in Wellow. The cottage was completely destroyed and the Bishops, who lived in the other side, had to move out to Thorley.
Mrs Hoare was supposed to open the crossing gates first thing in the morning for the early train, but she wasn’t an early riser. Mum said she remembered hearing the terrific row when the train crashed into the crossing gates on more than one occasion. The sound echoed through the whole village. Mary Henderson b 1954

Mary Henderson, Ruth Mills, Thorley School, Heytesbury Hall, 1950s, 1960s

Thorley School 2013

Thorley School 2013 , after closing it was known as ‘Heytesbury Hall’ . It was sold off in 1970s and is privately owned

I had been a Brownie and was very keen to join the Guides so I kept asking my mum to buy my uniform. She said it was a lot of money and she wouldn’t buy it unless she was sure I’d stick at it. In the end, she gave in and bought the uniform. Then a Youth Club opened in the old school at Thorley, and that was the end of me going to Guides. It was no contest.
A group of us used to walk out from Yarmouth, to play records and do whatever we did at Youth Club. Ruth Mills nee Kelleway b 1945

I used to go with my mum and Elsie Squibb to Beetle Drives at Heytesbury Hall, and at Ningwood WI Hall too. They were always lots of people there. Mary Henderson b 1954