Tag Archives: Tennyson Road

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

Eileen Smith: Harbour, Storm 1930s

There was that September, a terrific gale. There was water over the Quay and almost up to the Square.  Boats in the harbour were sending out distress calls and drifting their moorings. It was so rough, Walt Cotton wouldn’t let them launch the boarding boat to go across. There was water over Bridge Road so they floated her round, put her over the rails. Three men went out with ropes attached and brought the Lifeboat alongside.
There was one man drowned that night, in the harbour. That was a night!
Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne  b 1921

Funeral of storm victim,September 1935

Funeral of storm victim,September 1935

Revd. Stanley Woodin leading the procession, followed by Robert May, verger and undertaker. Lifeboat crew members Charlie Lansdowne front right in cap, Walter Cotton cox following

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

Pat Burt: Free Time and Leisure

Aerial showing Yarmouth 1923

Aerial showing Yarmouth 1923 with  tennis courts and green spaces

There were tennis courts where the 8 council houses are that were built in 1949.  Before they were built, it was allotments during the war.  I remember Mick’s aunt used to play.  We used to play tennis didn’t we, on Mrs Hamilton’s courts where the Glen is, next to the Sports Club? The tennis court was Tennyson Road end and opposite her place, ( The Wight House) so she had to cross the road. Annette Haynes and Pat Burt b 1929

Rodney Corbett: Early days

Before the new road was built, Tennyson Road,led to 'back lane' not a thoroughfare.

Before the new road was built, Tennyson Road, led to ‘Back Lane’ which was not a thoroughfare.

War brought my father here, Royal Corps of Signal.  My grandfather came here as a Royal Engineer in the first war – so I’ve got some fresh blood.  At the end of WWI he married my grandmother. She was a soldier – I’ve got a picture of her in uniform – I think she was quite a radical actually, a typical Methodist radical.  They then moved away from Yarmouth because he was in the Army and my mother, being the eldest, was sent back to live with her grandmother, my great grandmother. My great grandma to me was like my grandma, and she was born in 1866. I called her ‘Gran’.
My father was away at war, so we all lived with, ‘Gran’ in Field Cottages on Tennyson Road. They were pretty cramped and small – two up, two down, with no hot and cold running water. The toilets were at the end of the garden. Of course the road didn’t go anywhere then, just up to Back Lane so it was much quieter, we could play in the road. Rod Corbett b 1943