Tag Archives: Tattels lane

Peter Smith: Thorley 1950s smokers

When we moved into our council houses at Thorley there were only eight houses. There was space further up the road, past number 8 for some more houses to be built, but for a number of years it was just an overgrown plot with long grass. It was here in the long grass that several of us council house children had our first introduction to smoking. Fortunately I can’t recall where the cigarettes came from, but many a ciggy was shared in the secrecy of the long grass!

Andrew Budden and I were exploring the Marsh at the bottom of Tattels Lane, when our co explorer Johnnie Holtom, who was a year or two older than us, pulled out a pipe and amid much coughing and retching, lit it up. Eventually he offered us a go, with the same result. Cigarettes, I had found were much easier to get on with.

Eventually the council started work on new houses so we lost the use of our secret place. Peter Smith b 1946

Mary Greenen: Thorley, Tattels Lane

Tattels Lane

When I first arrived from Surrey, and met my father-in-law, George Greenen, I couldn’t understand his broad, country accent!
His father, Joseph Greenen, was a shepherd living in Thorley.  George, born in 1879, was the youngest of his 10 children.  His first job was as bird scarer in Thorley. George met Elsie Ash from Gunville at the fair in Yarmouth, and married her in 1913.
Her father, George Ash, worked as a Maltster for Mr. Mew at the Brewery in Newport. When he fell ill, George and Elsie moved from Thorley to look after Elsie’s father, and lived next door to the Malthouse in Holyrood Street, Newport.

George Greenen took over his father-in-law’s job and worked for Mews until he retired, other than when serving as a soldier in WWI.

Elsie and George’s son, Stanley, my husband, born 1930, graduated in Architecture and Planning and worked for IW Council as Planner.   Not bad for the son of a bird scarer!
Mary Greenen

Joseph Greenen, shepherd, of Thorley

Joseph Greenen, shepherd, of Thorley

Joseph Greenen, shepherd, b 1831  d 1911 married Merry Gatree ( or Gatrell) b 1834 d 1922,   buried in Thorley Churchyard