We used to have Squad Drill in the Square, although there weren’t many of us. Sergeant Harris – a marine, used to keep us drilling on a Saturday when we had the afternoon off, and the bus went at 10 to 1. Lots of people wanted to go to the Pictures, I wanted to go to visit my parents.
He used to say, ‘Dism……..’ and someone would move a foot, and he’d say, ’Attention!’ And keep us there till 5 minutes before the bus went from outside the Town Hall.
Yarmouth Square
b 1922
Of course when war broke out Mr. Gobini had to go because he was Italian.
I was with the A.R.P. in the evenings in the Town Hall, taking telephone messages with Eileen Smith. We had to phone in to Newport when there was an air raid.
It was so dark at night with no lights, I hated it.
Then in the morning the bus came for us at a quarter to 7 so we didn’t always get much sleep.
I was sent to Cowes to work in the shipyard, riveting. It was horrible! My face used to be black when I got home. Some of the other girls weren’t very nice, their language….
Once I was put with a man who was on piece work. We had to work so fast! Another time a man came to see us to ask us to rivet a flag pole. We said ‘We cant do it!’ but we did, over 700 rivets , and you had to be so careful otherwise it bent.
My aunt had some evacuees to stay with her. Poor little mites. They must have been so unhappy away from home. Effie Pitman b 1920
‘Unofficial’ and ‘Official’ Evacuee numbers at Yarmouth School
WWII
In 1938, for Yarmouth, like other communities, life changed; we were preparing for war. Everyone was fitted with gas masks and volunteers were called for A.R.P. duties (Air Raid Precautions) and for the L.D.V. (Local Defence Volunteers), later known as the Home Guard. Conscription for the forces began with what were known as the “Militia Boys” and they all did us proud. Yarmouth at that time was a very close community, families and their forbears having lived here for a very long time. Our young men found it hard being taken from working as butchers, bakers etc. to, after a short training, becoming a fighting force.
Town Hall sandbagged 1939 photo: Eileen Smith
The A.R.P. had their headquarters at the well- sandbagged Town Hall to begin with, but moved later to the Royal Solent Yacht Club where frequent blood-doning sessions were held. The A.R.P. consisted of telephonists, wardens, First Aid and ambulance drivers. The ambulance was a laundry van, from the laundry in Heytesbury Road which was the main employer of women in Yarmouth, with some male drivers. Rescue practices were held at the Mill.
Some men and women went to work in Aircraft factories at Freshwater and Cowes. Several girls joined the forces, and women took over from the men by driving delivery vans.
from an article by Joy Lawry nee Cotton b 1922
Square 1950s with bus stop outside Town Hall.
My father used to work for Southern Vectis; he used to drive the school bus sometimes.
If he drove my school bus home would drop me off by Basketts Lane. I’d get off and make a cup of tea because they always stopped in Yarmouth for half an hour or more. The bus was always parked by the side of the church where that tree is in St James Street, and Dad would bring his conductress up with him for tea. I would have it ready by the time he got up there. Pat Burt nee Adams b1929
I went by bus to work at Whites in Cowes and caught the bus in the Square, outside Jireh House, and the bus went up the High Street. It cost 7/9 ( 7 shillings and 9 pence) for a weekly ticket which was a lot out of your pay when you were only on £2 or £3 a week. I was there from 1953 to 59. Nick Chandler b 1937
The bus stop was outside the Town Hall, and it cost me 2/6 to go to see my parents in Ryde. Blanche Kennard nee Dore b 1923
Holdings sweet shop, the Square.
My first job when I left school was working in the sweet shop, which Mr. Holding bought in 1952. It had been Kelseys but he modernised it. He owned the whole block at that time. There was still a barber’s shop in a room at the back of the Town Hall, and a toy and souvenirs shop next to the sweet shop. It’s been a cafe, gift shop, ice cream shop and now it’s a Delicatessen. Betty Lock
Queen Elizabeth II unveils plaque on Town Hall 1965. .Kelseys confectioners seen in background: photo Terry Henderson
Square with coaches and Town hall
In the Square, next to the Town Hall and a bit behind it, where Annette’s the hairdresser is now, there was a cobbler’s, Mr. Donovan. He had a wooden leg.
On the other side of the Town Hall, on the side towards the sea, was Kelsey’s, with Jimmy Gobini’s gents hairdressers in one side, and a tobacconist and confectioners on the other. Then there was a ‘bits and pieces’ shop. It was amazing what us children could buy for 2d. Mills Tea Rooms was on the corner. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b1921
I can remember Mr Donovan with a wooden leg, the shoemender. He used to swear like a trooper and I think he used to drink a bit. We used to have to take our shoes down there and he used to put great big thick rubber bits on to make them last. He had a very nice wife and a son called John who became a policeman. He was a fierce old man and it was a grotty old place tacked on to the Town Hall. Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1930
Simmonds built boats up Ommanney Road. They built a boat that was too big to get out. Bloody hell it came down that ramp, it was going! I thought it was going in the old funeral parlour, but Jim managed to hold it and Ray, John and Harry put blocks of wood under the wheels to stop it. They went down the High Street with it, and couldn’t turn at the Town Hall. Brian Pomroy b 1937
High Street to Town Hall