Tag Archives: Victoria Road

Brian Pomroy: Services, Gasworks 1940s, 1950s

I started off life at Gasworks Cottage, down by the Mill.
There was a small gasworks.  There was one small gasometer and one big one and that little one was only a back up. They had the big one alongside of that, but that’s all gone.

Yes, the bridge used to open for the coal barges to go up to the Gasworks, and my dad and his mate had so many hours to unload them so they could go back on the next tide.  I used to go over there sometimes to see him and watch what was happening.  Some of those barges belonged to an Isle of Wight firm, Coles of Cowes.  I think they owned 2 coal barges.  The barges were always coming up the river and getting stuck, never get up there on time to the gas works.  They used to come through the bridge and have to make a sharp turn to the creek to the gasworks but couldn’t get there half the time.  Not very deep there if the tide wasn’t right.

My Dad got electrocuted over there at the Gasworks  across the river.
They was changing the lighting from gas to electric. He went to work one morning, I will always remember, the 6 – 2 shift, and he went in to get the lights on. There was two live  wires in water and he picked it up  thinking it was lights.  After that we moved from Gasworks Cottage because they wanted us out, and then the Council found us a council house in Victoria Road.

Brian Pomroy  b1938

Gasometer behind Sandhouse and Bridge

Gasometer behind Sandhouse and Bridge ; photo Sue Russell

Jean Maitland, Phil Kelsey: Allotments 1930s

When we were living down the Square my Dad had an allotment up “Pigs Alley”
OOH I mustn’t say “Pigs Alley” because people these days get cross. “Pigs Alley” is the lane behind Victoria Road, that people now call Garage Alley. Yes, its proper name always was “Pigs Alley” because pigs were kept up there, but that was before my time. Jean Maitland nee Levey b 1928

Of course all that was allotments right through there.  Before the war they were all well cultivated too.  I remember like on a Good Friday there would be everybody up there if the weather was right, digging away. When they built the council houses there was a bit left where the flats are now. Dad had that until I took it over after him until they built the council houses.  Phil Kelsey b 1920

Shops: Mr. Urry, the baker 1930s

Yarmouth had 2 bakehouses, Harry Mills and Urry’s.
Mr. Urry’s was right up at the end of the lane off Tennyson Road. His bread was the best brown bread in the West Wight. He used to deliver it himself – walk round with a big basket with a cloth over it. There were cockroaches in the bakehouse, but they were everywhere you had food, in those days. You sprinkled Keatings Powder on the floor every night, and there they were dead, next morning. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

We used to call it ‘beetle bread’.Jack Harwood   b1918

I used to walk up from Mill Terrace past the allotments to Urry’s bakehouse. It was nice bread but Mr. Urry sometimes had a drip on the end of his nose. Effie Pitman b 1921

Mr.Harry Urry, of Belmont, Victoria Rd. baker

Mr.Harry Urry, of Belmont, Victoria Rd. baker. Photo : Patrick Hall, great grandson

He was a nice old chap, Mr Urry. You could always call in for a chat with him. Phil Kelsey b 1920