Tag Archives: train

Pam Bone, Peter Smith: Thorley, trains 1950s

I can remember being able to see the train go by in the distance from my bedroom window and sometimes we would walk down Hill Place Lane to see it go past.
Pam Bone nee Cotton b 1948

In September 1953 Mum, Dad, Mike and I walked over the fields at about tea time to wave to the last train from Yarmouth to Newport as it came past, being pulled as usual by a steam engine. A few years later the track was ripped up by contractors and it was interesting to go and watch them removing the various parts: long lengths of metal railway line, heavy metal chairs, fishplates, bolts and sleepers, all of which were taken away, until all that was left was a shingle track where the railway line had once been. Peter Smith b 1946

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

Phil Kelsey: Trips and Treats – football matches

The trouble with going to Southampton was, if I remember rightly, the boats packed up early and you couldn’t get out of the ground and catch the train in time to get down for the last boat.
It was quite easy to go to Portsmouth because you could get on the train down here, right through to Ryde, over to Portsmouth and walk up to Fratton Park.  We used to do that nearly always on the Bank Holiday.
One the Bank Holiday it was Grimsby Town and they had Tweedy, I can remember him playing in goal, and Glover, the centre forward.  Of course Pompey in those days had the outside right Harris, the nippy little outside right. Phil Kelsey b 1920

Mary Lord: Free Time 1950s

Bluebells in Mill Copse 2013

Bluebells in Mill Copse 2013

If we went anywhere, we went by bus  –  train was too expensive  –  but we didn’t go far. Yarmouth was our world. I loved Mill Copse and spent hours there. The bluebells, primroses … I hated it when it was all planted up with conifers. I was a great presser of flowers, had a collection of pressed wild flowers. One year in Mill Copse I found butterfly orchids to press for my collection. In later years I went back to look but never found them again!  Mary Lord nee Hayles b 1936

Phil Kelsey: Early Days

When we was kids, we used to go out up the railway line picking blackberries.  We used to wait for the train to go, then nip along the line. You couldn’t get off the track very well, it was a bit more wired up to what it is now.  You used to have to make a good bit of a dash for it from Barnsfield Creek up to where the next lot of trees were – we used to call it Furze Break because it was all brambles on the right hand side.  We used to pick loads of blackberries up there.  I’ve even known my mother walk up there and pick them with us. Phil Kelsey b 1920